History:Instrument Tree/Requests

Status, (as don would say): AdvancedInstrumentTree is now implemented! Go a head and to discuss instruments and suggest new ones!

Discuss Instrument additions and instrument addition wishes here. please use trac to add the request, (assign it to either luks or ZaphodBeeblebrox) when decided upon.

A new instrument can be added only when it is used on at least 5 regular, proper releases. live or album ok
Please supply as much information about the instrument as possible, mo will probably ask for more information about the instrument if none is given. The best way to get your pet instrument added is by doing some research, give a short concise explanation on what it is, and providing ample links.

Please also do a second search in the Instrument list to make sure it is not already there : )

List

• list begins here
  • Music(al) box - only have one case so far: Steve Thorne's EMO1 - so perhaps we should wait for more occurrences. This is probably something for the "Other instruments" section. -- Shepard 14:31, 25 February 2007 (UTC)
    • I don't know about Music Boxes really, to me it seems like less of an instrument and more like "instrument, composition(melody), medium(fex vinyl) and medium-player all wrapped up in one thing". I am not sure here to be honest. ~mo

• • Bouzoukis:
    • Greek Bouzouki: The "original" bouzouki (tetrachordo being the most common today, but another version, trichordo, was more common 80 years ago).
    • Irish Bouzouki: An adapted form of the above when it was imported into the Irish folk music scene in the 60's. Notable players include Andy Irvine and Dónal Lunny, though many Irish trad./folk players have taken up this instrument and it is often credited specifically (ie. "Irish bouzouki" instead of "bouzouki").

• • Shawm: Medieval woodwind instrument (see link for more historical information). Used in a lot of medieval and rennaissance music as well as occasionally in more modern folk music.
  • Autoharp: Stringed instrument used in a lot of bluegrass and folk music. Artists like The Carter Family and Harvey Reid use it in many recordings. -- StoneyBoh

• Ooh. Marc Gunn of Brobdingnagian Bards use the autoharp as well and has even written a song which indirectly features it. (FTR: The Leprechaun) -- FrederikSOlesen 20:08, 24 June 2007 (UTC)

• • Electric Acoustic Guitar: I'm a bit surprised that this isn't here already, it's not exactly a rare instrument. I came across one release it's used in: Unlimited: Saga (disc 2) - but I have no doubt that it's out there on various other releases as well. -- Kilu Template:DateTime

• From what I can tell, it's just a regular (acoustic) guitar with pick-ups. Do you want "electric-acoustic" bouzoukis, banjos, harps, accordions, violins, guitar basses, double basses, ... etc. as well? -- -- FrederikSOlesen 10:42, 13 July 2007 (UTC)
  • I suppose you have a point there. I personally don't have an electric acoustic anything, so I don't know if the sound is any different from normal acoustic. I do think that it's sort of odd that it's specifically credited as such in the booklet though. KiluTemplate:DateTime
    • Perhaps an "electric" option which could then be applied to any instrument in the list? -- BrianSchweitzer 13:40, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

• • Cümbüş: I am not sure what the English word is, but WikiPedia also list it as Cümbüş and I never heard another saying for it. Many Turkish folk songs includes it. --syserror
  • Davul: WikiPedia explains it clearly and well. It is also popular in Turkish folk songs. --syserror
  • Bass Flute: I'm surprised we don't already have it in the list. It's used on multiple tracks in Secret of the Sahara. -- BrianSchweitzer 02:13, 05 August 2007 (UTC)
  • Tuba: F Bass Tuba and E-Flat Bass Tuba, also used on Secret of the Sahara. -- BrianSchweitzer 02:13, 05 August 2007 (UTC)
  • Boatswain's Pipe / Bosun's Whistle: The old "ship whistle" you hear in all the pirate and ocean movies. Used in the Star Trek sound effect and soundtrack releases, as well as in the main theme "Titoli" in Morricone's "Per un pugno di dollari" score. -- BrianSchweitzer 05:56, 07 August 2007 (UTC)
  • Indian Bamboo Flute: Used in track 1 of each of the three releases for Ennio Morricone Occhio alla penna. (He also performed it on that track). -- BrianSchweitzer 05:13, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

• We already have an Indian Bamboo Flute in the list: Bansuri. However, there seems to be two different kinds of Indian Bamboo flutes, the bansuri and the venu. Perhaps the best approach would be to create a "Indian Bamboo Flute" as a child of "Fipple flutes", move "Bansuri" to become a child of "IBF", and possibly finish off by creating an entry for the venu? -- FrederikSOlesen 13:24, 13 August 2007 (UTC)
  • Makes a lot of sense, I'd support such a change. -- BrianSchweitzer 13:40, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

• • Violone - Adding this one for mll, see ticket 3031. -- BrianSchweitzer 03:09, 02 September 2007 (UTC)

• Thank you Brian. Justification for this instrument add is in the trac link Brian provided. --MLL

• • Kantele: A traditional Finnish string instrument. Ensiferum uses it in several of their songs, and the wikipedia article has some other relevant links as well. There are a few variations of Kantele, but I think just a general Kantele would be enough. -- Kilu Template:DateTime

• I'll second this. Used in a lot of Finnish folk and trad. music. I also agree that a general kantele is enough... for now. (Remember to use SubOptimalCredits to specify which specific kantele is used!) -- FrederikSOlesen 17:37, 19 September 2007 (UTC)
  • I'm all for adding any instruments we don't already have in the list, but I have to wonder about "good enough for now" - if we know about the different types of an instrument, and we can expect that the specific types would be identified on releases needing those specific types, why not just add the sub-class and the instruments of that sub-class all at once, rather than adding Kantele now, and still having to leave SOC for the subtypes, only to then have to later go through and clarify the ARs from those SOC Kantele specific identifications? -- BrianSchweitzer 03:05, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

Discussion

Synths

Why shouldn't particular types of synth be added? They're frequently listed on CDs and some people care what type of synth was played. Why not make them subtypes of 'Synthesizer'. PaulSharpe

• Because it's impossible to keep up with them all, especially considering the protracted process by which new instruments need to go through before they are added. I've said time and time again that this is all NUTS - what we need are a few (50 tops) instrument/role macro-categories, and then a free text field by which users can input qualifiers. Eg: "Synthesizer [[[Mini Moog|MiniMoog]]]". --Gecks
  • Free text fields are not possible in the current AdvancedRelationships implementation. (And also I think a mixture of a list and free text is counter productive, but well..) You guys are just too impatient. :) Let mo finish his job of restructuring the tree and after that he will create a wiki page to make the process of adding instruments much faster. Noone will die inbetween. And it will prevent total chaos to do it structured and in this order. --Shepard

The number of different synths produced numbers in the several hundreds. Roland alone has made well over 100 different synths and tone generators. Do you want to start listing all of those? That's a slipperly slope to be on. Besides, they are just models and brands. In the end the artist is still playing a synthesizer. If we start listing those then to be consistent we'd have to list the brand and model of all of the other instruments. Does it matter that Jaco Pastorius played a Fender Precision Bass on most of his albums or can we be content to know that he played electric bass guitar? Likewise, does it really matter that Lyle Mays played a Korg Triton and a Steinway Grand on the last Pat Metheny album or is knowing that he played synthesizer and piano enough? MattPerry

Dancing

• Dancing - Occasionally, I stumble upon releases and tracks which have someone credited as "dancer" or with "dancing"
  • Stepdancing - I also see step dancing every now and then (actually, probably more often than simply dancing). --FrederikSOlesen 2007-04-17T07:52:33CEST (I will provide links to releases with these credits as soon as I get around making that WikiPage I talked about yesterday in IRC.)
  • maybe Tapdancing, which is apparently a subtype of stepdancing - on Who Used to Dance (actually represented as "percussion instruments performed by Savion Glover"), and probably a lot more releases (Musicals' stuff).

• I'm not really sure there is a point in crediting things that don't have a relation with the recorded sound (eg: "My mother made the cookies"), and possibly we may define this "instrument" only when it actually has a "part"? -- dmppanda 09:09, 17 April 2007 (UTC)
  • Well, all the dancing credits I thought of in my above proposal actually have a "part" in the sound picture. Step dance in particular is used in "Celtic" music for percussion, in line with bodhrán, bones, and spoons. -- FrederikSOlesen 13:02, 17 April 2007 (UTC)

Failed, and why

• Indian Strings NOTE: will not be added as it is to generic - what should we use when it's listed on a CD as an instrument then? -- Then try to find out exactly what kind of Indian stringed instrument it is. See: http://chandrakantha.com/articles/indian_music/instruments.html
• Tabla already here, see Goblet Drum
• Guitar synthesizer This shouldn't be added either. Just because you added a MIDI pickup to your guitar it doesn't change the fact that you're still playing a guitar.
• E-mu synthesizer This is just a brand of synth. It should not be added.
• Yamaha DX7 This is just a brand and model of synth. It should not be added.
• Cymbalum already in here, see list : )

Recently Added

• Piccolo trumpet
• Electronic drum set
• added Basset and Soprano clarinet, as well as Basset-horn

Related Links

• AdvancedInstrumentTree
• SubOptimalCredits