Violin

The violin is my least favorite of the stringed instruments. Maybe all of the common instruments. The range is set at one of the worst places to set a string. It screeches and it's more annoying than anything in the orchestra. Dare I say more annoying than an oboe. This instrument belongs in the orchestra and nothing else. It goes out of tune to easily and in the high strings, if anyone is slightly out of tune, your ears are pierced.

French Horn

This is another instrument that sounds horrible in the wrong hands. But I've heard horn contertos and they are amazing. There is so much that you can do on horn. I honestly can't play this instrument very well, but I have started to practice. The horn is in the key of F which has really thrown me for a loop but the trigger puts it in the key of Bb which is the same key and octave as my native instrument, the trombone. Although out of tune, this is the only way That I have been able to play with the ten minutes that I have practiced.

Horn is one of the few brass instruments that are in full orchestras because their main genre is classical. Marches are not marches without a nice horn section. Even though they only have the upbeat.

So my choice for the french horns genres are strictly classical. Like all instruments they could play in any genre, but please don't have a french horn in a rock band.

Soprano clarinet

All through middle school and most of high school I thought that the clarniet was the most annoying instrument in the world. Well it is. I mean that in all sincerity. The clariniet is the most annoying instrument on the face of the planet when in the wrong hands. But when in the right hands the soprano clarinet can be one of the most beautiful things that you have ever heard. In the orchestra that I am in, Maestro chose a piece with a solo clarinet. All I could think is that there was going to be a squeaking and gawking clarinet, but when she played it, it completely owned the other people in the orchestra. This type of clarinet is looked over way to much. When I'm Sixty- Four by the beatles has a clariniet choir in it. All of the best old jazz songs has clarinet. The original version of Sing Sing Sing had a clarinet solo in the beggining and in my opinion it was better before they replaced it with soprano sax. Rhapsody in blue starts out with a clarinet solo that if played well sets up the whole piano solo. Obviously the clarniet can't be in rock, but IF IN THE RIGHT HANDS a clarniet can fit into almost any genre of music.

Jazzophone

This is a strange instrument that I just heard about. The jazzophone is essentially a trumpet with an attached harmon mute. The harmon mute is something that a trumpet player or a trombone player puts in their bell to make a different, jazzier sound. The trumpet is a great instrument, but the jazzophone has been created only for jazz.

Cello

Although I am not the biggest fan of the orchestra, I love the sound of the cello. What brought me upon the cello was The Beatles. In almost all of their best songs they had a cellos. The most obvious being Strawberry Fields Forever. Like I said, I'm not an orchestra person, but if an all-state cello were to be preforming a concerto nearby I would be there. Unlike the bass which can't play high and the violin and viola which can't play low, the cello has a range that is probably loved most because of the trombone side of me. Cello fits in the classical genre easily but unless you are playing with the beatles, I don't think that they belong anywhere else.

Trombone

I am a trombone player so my views are going to be a lot more bias than that of other instruments. First of all, trombone is the best instrument in the winds. It's also better than many of the other instruments. Trombone is one of the few instruments that can be used in any genre of music. If you were to look up Christian Lindberg, who is the best classical trombone player, and compare him to a jazz trombonist you would be amazed with both. I'll keep this post short because trombone is the best instrument and I can't talk bad about it. Because there is nothing bad to say.

The saxophone

Obviously the saxophone is a wonderful jazz instrument, but what others genres of music can it be used in. The tenor sax and the alto sax are some of the easiest doubling instruments. If you don't know why. The reed and mouthpiece sizes are the right proportion so that a brass player or woodwind player wouldn't have to change their embrasure and are the same basic fingerings as most woodwinds. Rock, blues and many of the favorite modern songs aren't complete without one or two of these. Jazz usually has a couple of both and usually has a baritone sax, which is an octave lower than alto sax. Another one of the more common saxes is the soprano sax. Soprano sax is usually only used in two genres of music. Oddly enough, they are completely the opposite. Jazz and classical. The instrument is an octave higher than the tenor sax and is used in jazz for the high pitches. Used in classical for one reason. I think that it's only used because it sounds like an oboe. Their are also two more saxophones that aren't specially made. The sopranino saxophone which is an octave higher than alto and is rarely used. And the bass sax which is an octave lower than tenor sax. I believe that the saxophone is primarily a jazz instrument and even though used sometimes in classical, jazz should be the only genre it plays in professionally

Oboe, Bassoon and the double reeds

Which genres can the double reeds play in? Obviously they can't play any form of rock. Could you imagine an English horn belt out a rock ballad? I've heard one jazz bassoon and well, it just took to much time to put together all of the sound equipment. No one can hear them on a marching field and at a metal concert who would notice the shrill of an oboe. The only place that these strange woodwinds belong is the concert hall for an orchestra or symphony. Take the contra bassoon with the notes that are five or more ledger lines below the staff, in a symphony a person could hear the fog horn sound of a b- flat zero. And any double reed that is as piercing as an oboe should never be heard.