User:Andrewa/Hornbostel

Interesting.... some notes to myself...

I'm tempted to print a T shirt, front

HORNBOSTEL SUCKS ban the concussed ideophone

and rear

castanets are percussion

There seem to be some grand plans, incompletely executed, both within and without Wikipedia. Will they come to anything? See Template talk:HS number.

HS seems to have some serious problems with modern percussion. I've had great trouble finding the HS number of a ride cymbal, List of musical instruments by Hornbostel-Sachs number: 111 gives it as 111.24 but I don't know where that comes from despite downloading several authoritative-looking PDFs, and it still covers an enormous number of other instruments.

And hi-hats... don't ask!

Food for thought, anyway. The more I see of the way music is heading the more conceited I get about playing a drum kit. Classical musos adopted it a little after the synthesiser but far more enthusiastically, and they still have qualms about the electric guitar.

I think that was partly because of the enormous virtuousity and musicianship of unconventional players such as Keith Moon (just look at some of the Youtube clips and then try it at home... everyone remembers he was loud, but his dynamic range is awesome, and he is listening intently to the other three members of the Who), and partly because a whole generation of classical percussionists naturally played kit drums as well (rock may not pay much but it pays more than sitting at home waiting for a call from an orchestra, and jazz pays even less but it's a challenge).

Hmmmm... so how does this help me improve Wikipedia? Just getting my own ideas straight does help. I hope some of the above at least will be sourceable and end up in articles.