Dr. Jug - Posted - 09/24/2011:  06:02:34

The kazoo.

Think about it.

I'll be behind the sandbags.

BANJOJUDY - Posted - 09/24/2011:  06:18:23

You don't need to convince me!  The Kazoo is such a great instrument.  Doesn't need tuning - it is always in whatever key you want to play.

Plus, it is so portable.  I keep one in my purse - even the TSA folks at the airport check don't question its appearance.

steve davis - Posted - 09/24/2011:  06:19:41

What's the Nation got to do with playing music?

roxygrl - Posted - 09/24/2011:  06:31:57

..Behind the sandbags?...With hard hat on!.. all folks just know that America's favorite national instrument is the fiddle!! ..don’t they?..

Klondike Waldo - Posted - 09/24/2011:  09:06:33

quote:

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Originally posted by Dr. Jug

The kazoo.

Think about it.

I'll be behind the sandbags.

 

 

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Is it flood time in Old Blitey then?

I actually made a commercial recording on kazoo and tuba (Thanks to muti-tracking) about 40 years ago.  

 I don't know why you think kazoo is particularly American, though.

Jim Cannon - Posted - 09/24/2011:  09:43:58

Don't forget the triangle....for those of you who may remember kindergarten.

Nick Danger - Posted - 09/24/2011:  10:10:24

quote:

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Originally posted by Jim Cannon

Don't forget the triangle....for those of you who may remember kindergarten.

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 The triangle ROCKS!

banjopogo - Posted - 09/24/2011:  11:11:12

Sorry... I'm a fiddler, and I play banjo too, but a casual look around most music stores (or poking through the music section of Craigslist) will tell you that REALLY, all joking aside, the guitar is #1. Most stores have more *nylon-stringed" guitars than either banjos or fiddles... or triangles. And EITHER the electrics OR the steel string acoustics alone easily outnumber the others.... if you consider the nylon strings, steel strings and electrics as one instrument (since they are usually tuned the same) it's overwhelming. Between the three, you have a wide range of tonal and rhythmic flavors that find their way into nearly every genre of music in the US.

Guitar is the ideal accompaniment instrument for singers... but it's capable of playing lead solos too.
The fact that it's so common makes it a bit boring, but that's what fiddles, banjos, kazoos and triangles are for, to spice things up.
A major plus for guitar is that it has a wide range... you can get some bass tones from the low strings, and you can go up high either with a capo or if you know the fingerboard. So it's a nearly essential core of a band.
If you play fiddle or banjo, it's a great asset to at least know basic "cowboy chords" on a guitar, even if you don't play in public, so you can "read" the chords off a singer/guitarists left hand at a jam.

figmo59 - Posted - 09/24/2011:  11:45:46

quote:

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Originally posted by Dr. Jug

The kazoo.

Think about it.

I'll be behind the sandbags.

 

i

 

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kquote>

Ya spelt banjo wrong...

roxygrl - Posted - 09/24/2011:  11:47:53

Well the thread topic was suggestion about ‘America's national instrument’. ..Saying that Guitar is #1 the most popular over all, is most probably correct, going by sales, but this statement in itself doesn’t necessarily actually mean that Guitar is ‘America's national instrument’ just because it’s most popular does it. Would y’all agree? controversially the Harp in Ireland was adopted as their emblem, but is the Harp most popular over there?..I very much doubt it.

Edited by - roxygrl on 09/24/2011 11:49:25

mainejohn - Posted - 09/24/2011:  16:34:44

Can't play it worth a dang, but I've gotta believe it's the electric rock 'n roll Fender Strat

Kenneth Logsdon - Posted - 09/24/2011:  20:29:21

Drat... I thought it was going to be the Jug (in gallon size)

steve davis - Posted - 09/24/2011:  20:51:29

Gibson Les Paul needs a big mention.

eagle32 - Posted - 09/24/2011:  21:02:01

I'm all for the jug also, and the emptier it gets the better it sounds. At least to me.

KI4PRK - Posted - 09/24/2011:  22:44:39

I'm a little young to know firsthand, but folks tell me that the emptier it gets, the better all the instruments sound.

quote:

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Originally posted by eagle32



I'm all for the jug also, and the emptier it gets the better it sounds. At least to me.

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73,  Brennen

Edited by - KI4PRK on 09/24/2011 22:45:17

Penel - Posted - 09/25/2011:  02:07:07

quote:

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Originally posted by Dr. Jug

The kazoo. 

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Is that what it looks like from where you sit in the United Kingdom? Do you really think all of us in the States sit around (or rather more appropriate, march around backwards) playing the kazoo?

What gives you that impression?

Ian_banjo - Posted - 09/25/2011:  05:27:38

Well the kazoo was invented, patented (US Patent #270,543 issued on January 9, 1883) and manufactured in the USA.  So you can't argue that it isn't American.  I do think that it is debatable though whether or not we can truly call it an instrument.  Perhaps novelty or toy is a better description.



The guitar and fiddle are entirely European in origin and the banjo originates from Africa.



No for me, I always think that America's national instrument simply has to be the sousaphone.

The sousaphone really is a musical instrument and was developed at the request of the great John Phillip Sousa.  Sousa of course wrote many great American patriotic marches such as "Semper Fidelis", the official march of the US Marine Corps and of course "Stars & Stripes Forever", the official march of the USA.  The sousaphone is widely used in American marching bands and of course was the bass voice in many early traditional jazz bands.  What could be more American than that !!! 

Edited by - Ian_banjo on 09/25/2011 06:55:53

minstrelmike - Posted - 09/25/2011:  09:21:25

What is it about the kazoo that makes it American? I don't even know when it was invented or where.

The guitar and the piano are the most popular instruments in the world but neither is uniquely American the way the 5-string banjo is.

The 4-string is NOT uniquely American because the 5th string was removed to make the playing similar to European instruments. The African akonting or other banjo predecessors didn't have the metal pot of American style banjos.

America (,USof), home of the 5-string banjo, the ukulele, the electric guitar, and the dobro

Dr. Jug - Posted - 09/25/2011:  14:42:16

What makes the kazoo American?
Alabama Vest, the American inventor & maker of the kazoo as we know it.
It's only a novelty instrument to people who don't know a lot about early 20th century American music.
The Dobro? OK...
The Sousaphone...yes, but not the main American instrument.
5-string banjo? Well, yes, OK, it's a contender.
The electric guitar? Gotta give ground here. The kazoo is number 2.
?

roxygrl - Posted - 09/25/2011:  16:16:28

There are three states that have declared a cultural state symbol as a musical instrument they are:

Arkansas has the Fiddle as of 1985 see link: statesymbolsusa.org/Arkansas/m...ment.html

Missouri has the Fiddle as of 1987 see link: http://statesymbolsusa.org/Missouri/musicalinstrument.html

Oklahoma has the Fiddle as of 1984 also the Drum see link:  http://statesymbolsusa.org/Oklahoma/Musicalinstrumentfiddle.html

Texas has the Guitar as of 1977 see link: statesymbolsusa.org/Texas/GUITAR.html

There has been suggestion unverified that President Harry S. Truman declared that the Banjo be the National Musical Instrument of the United States in the presidential Proclamation in 1947.. If so, then it’s written somewhere within the White House archives, anyone have a phone number? ....if this can be looked up and clarified, it sure would be good for the Banjo promotion business....who knows, but it would make a good news story, at least....

Edited by - roxygrl on 09/25/2011 16:17:55

banjopogo - Posted - 09/25/2011:  17:01:29

quote:

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Originally posted by mainejohn

Can't play it worth a dang, but I've gotta believe it's the electric rock 'n roll Fender Strat

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You may have a point- I have a couple- good electrics, very versatile, very comfortable.... and an American design, too.

banjopogo - Posted - 09/25/2011:  17:10:35

quote:

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Originally posted by steve davis

Gibson Les Paul needs a big mention.

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IF I had the bucks, I'd prefer a Gibson ES-335- ironically, it's actually much closer to Les Paul's original design for an electric guitar- only the center was solid, the wings were hollow.  It's also very comfortable (the bound edge is in a place where it doesn't dig into my arm) and very versatile.  To me, the semi-hollow body adds something that humbuckers need and the Les Paul lacks.

It's also the basis for the ES-355 model which is the basis for B.B. King's "Lucille"... now THAT's an iconic guitar.

Paul R - Posted - 09/25/2011:  19:15:13

Hmmm. Nobody has mentioned the Appalachian dulcimer. It has antecedents in continental Europe, but not, it seems , direct ones. And the music played on it originated in the British isles - the same stuff that served as the basis for OT music.

Or, how about pedal steel, lap steel, Rickenbacker 12-string, Moog synthesizer, limberjack ... Would the slides for guitars qualify? (As to the ES and LP guitars, I have both and the LP weighs a ton!)

Maybe the kazoo after all.

Penel - Posted - 09/25/2011:  19:38:06

quote:

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Originally posted by Paul R

Hmmm. Nobody has mentioned the Appalachian dulcimer. It has antecedents in continental Europe, but not, it seems , direct ones. 

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The Mountain Dulcimer looks quite a bit like a Scheitholt, no?

 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scheitholt

A lot of Germans settled in Appalachia.

Edited to add; yesterday at the Milwaukee Ukulele Festival we were given a fascinating demo of the steel guitar.  The history lesson that came with it explained that there was a steel guitar craze going on in the USA during the 1930-40s. They were sold door to door.

About the time Rock and Roll became popular the door to door salesmen switched over to selling accordions.

(a side note; my older brother took accordion lessons for several weeks during that time period while my parents debated buying him the accordion he took lessons on.)

Where I've studied fiddle, banjo, mandolin, concertina, hammered dulcimer, and ukulele here in Chicago, with an enrollment of approximately 7,000 students weekly, most of the classes offered are focused on guitar. 

Edited by - Penel on 09/25/2011 19:54:12

Paul R - Posted - 09/25/2011:  23:49:16

quote:

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Originally posted by Penel

The Mountain Dulcimer looks quite a bit like a Scheitholt, no?

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scheitholt

A lot of Germans settled in Appalachia.

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It also looks like the langeleik from Scandinavia and the epinet des Vosges from France. Yet the people who used the dulcimer were descendants of British stock, Irish and Scottish (e.g.: Jean Ritchie), and that was the music they played, too. The dulcimer sound is reminiscent of the bagpipe, with its drone notes. How they came to develop an instrument of that nature has been a mystery, although it's possible someone came in contact with a European version. Nobody knows for sure.