Thread: Do you consider the laptop to be a musical instrument?

Originally Posted by Andante

Here we go again: so a Car, telephone, garden rake, party balloon, farting cow are musical instruments get real they are what they are nothing more nothing less. A musical instrument is that which was made for and intended to make music.

the human voice didn't evolve for the purpose of making music. The saw wasn't invented to make music. If it is used in making music it is a musical instrument.

A computer is more a performer than an instrument; the keyboard can be mapped to act as the keyboard of a piano, albeit in a very limited fashion that is worthless for anything beyond basic testing. It can handle multiple strings of precise instructions at once; including pitch, articulation, dynamics, tempo, time signature and essentially any subdivision imaginable as well as a myriad of parameters not available to the acoustic instrument family, including real time filtering, panning, amplification, distortion, and delay effects such as echo and reverb. A composer with enough patience to learn how to use these parameters effectively will find themselves with an army of dedicated musicians at their fingertips and a limit that far exceeds the sky.

Before any acoustic purists get mad; I greatly value acoustic instruments as well, they will forever possess qualities unattainable by electronic means no matter how advanced the technology becomes. However, I feel that electronics, amplification and other such technologies must be defended against the arguments of those blinded by their own preconceptions.

Originally Posted by BurningDesire

the human voice didn't evolve for the purpose of making music. The saw wasn't invented to make music. If it is used in making music it is a musical instrument.

I really am sorry to persist with this BUT if I must:
Lets take the Musical Saw, which can be purchased in certain musical stores it has no teeth and can get in excess of 2 to 2/12 octaves and is made as a musical instrument compared this to the builders Rip Saw which is available at hardware stores, the difference in price being $200 or more, obviously two different objects one made for a tradesman the other for a musician. So a Rip Saw is a tool.

The Human voice, this evolved over hundreds of thousands of years as a means of audible communication from a mere grunt or two into what is today a sophisticated mean of communication aka language, the average person struggles to get more than half an octave but with training and hard work it can achieve results that can get up to ‘in the case of Yma Sumac’ 4 ½ octaves. You don’t play your voice you sing…. The members of an orchestra play their instruments the members of a choir sing. So a voice is a voice.

I think most people when thinking of a musical instrument envisage something that has been manufactured for that specific purpose.

If we are to say that any thing that can be used to make a noise is a musical instrument then it becomes a name that is so ambiguous that it means very little.

Originally Posted by LordBlackudder

yes because those dubstep people use it.

There you have it, from the Lord.

I consider the laptop to be a portable computer.

Originally Posted by Philip

I consider the laptop to be a portable computer.

Are you insane?? what next?

The laptop is only a musical instrument if your name is John Cage, in which case a pair of scissors is also a musical instrument.

The laptop is also a dance floor

Originally Posted by Andante

If we are to say that any thing that can be used to make a noise is a musical instrument then it becomes a name that is so ambiguous that it means very little.

Not at all. It is something that is utilized to play music. Anything that makes a sound can be that. Thats not ambiguous at all. Certain things are only described as instruments because they were designed for that purpose, but if something that wasn't designed to perform music is used in musical performance, in that context it becomes a musical instrument. Is that really so difficult to grasp?

Originally Posted by CarterJohnsonPiano

The laptop is only a musical instrument if your name is John Cage, in which case a pair of scissors is also a musical instrument.

Or if you're a composer or musician who utilizes it to create music, or a fan of the music that is made using it. Cage is far from the only musician/music lover who was open-minded about all sorts of sounds.

Originally Posted by BurningDesire

Not at all. It is something that is utilized to play music. Anything that makes a sound can be that. Thats not ambiguous at all. Certain things are only described as instruments because they were designed for that purpose, but if something that wasn't designed to perform music is used in musical performance, in that context it becomes a musical instrument. Is that really so difficult to grasp?

I give up ! as the man said "You can lead a Horse to water but you can't make it drink" stumble on my friend

Originally Posted by BurningDesire

Or if you're a composer or musician who utilizes it to create music, or a fan of the music that is made using it. Cage is far from the only musician/music lover who was open-minded about all sorts of sounds.

My comment was highly facetious
Of course the laptop can be considered a musical instrument if it is used to create or play music. But if someone said to me, "What's a laptop?", I would not say, "Oh, it's a musical instrument."
Likewise, if someone tells me to name some instruments, I would not say, "Oh, oboe, flute, piano, cello, laptop." But all of this does not mean that a laptop cannot function as an instrument.

If it is not producing its own sounds, no, and it does not until you load in samples or use it to command another sound module.

At best, it is the keys of a keyboard, but not the instrument, for it has no guts of harp, strings, or anything with which to make sound.

As a midi controller, it is analogous to an old-style player piano roll, all the data, no sound.

It would not even render the glitches and clicks without a sound line out to a speaker....

It is a tool, not an instrument. Big difference.

Originally Posted by PetrB

If it is not producing its own sounds, no, and it does not until you load in samples or use it to command another sound module.

At best, it is the keys of a keyboard, but not the instrument, for it has no guts of harp, strings, or anything with which to make sound.

As a midi controller, it is analogous to an old-style player piano roll, all the data, no sound.

It would not even render the glitches and clicks without a sound line out to a speaker....

It is a tool, not an instrument. Big difference.

I don't know if I totally agree with that definition. What about turntables? Does your definition make them not instruments (in the sense of turntablism)?

Originally Posted by BurningDesire

I don't know if I totally agree with that definition. What about turntables? Does your definition make them not instruments (in the sense of turntablism)?

What! do you blow it, bow it pluck it hit it squeeze it??? welcome to Planet BurningDesire