RQ009: Your desert island instrument.

[jkn]

Random Question #9

Ok - you're stranded on a desert island and can only bring one instrument.   What would it be?

Please note, the Professor has an electrical generator built from a coconut wheel rotated by a plentiful fresh water stream.   Most of the palm trees are wired for electricity.

[jkn]

Mine would be a piano.   

It's my first love - I started playing when I was five.   No matter how many years I play it (34.5, but who's counting?) I discover new ways to play it.   Playing piano moves me.

Don't get me wrong - I love other instruments nearly as much.  Bass feels so good in my hands - and I love the excitement of patching and tweaking a sound, but if I could have only one instrument - it's piano.

John

[Seren]

I'd make pan pipes or flutes from plant materials.
I'd make bone whistles from the birds I catch for food.
I'd make drumsticks and percussion instruments - including drum.
I'd try and make a stringed instrument - sinews and fashion out from logs....

Practically I'd like to take the recording equipment, would that count?

For having the time to learn an instrument - a cello.

For electronic fun, the biggest modular synth possible......and headphones if no sound system available.

[Paul Vnuk (Ma Ja Le)]

If I can cobble together some electricity, then it would be my Korg Wavedrum...if not my doumbek. Of course if I was stranded on a desert island I would probably have plenty pf time to learn my tablas better.

[mgriffin]

I'm not a great keyboardist but I'd choose a piano.  It's very flexible, fun to goof around with, and infinitely rewarding of practice.  I like the sound of a piano more than any other instrument.

[uhurit]

A tabla or a tambourine, no question...not that I could play them. But I imagine there'd be plenty of time to learn

[SunDummy]

A Fender Telecaster, craploads of effects pedals, and a massive stack of Marshall amps aimed at the mainland.  If no one can hear me, I can at least rattle some coconuts out of the trees...

[LNerell]

 Most of the palm trees are wired for electricity.

Is that so no one will steal any coconuts? If not then I would choose two halves a cconut, that way I could spend the rest of my days recreating my favorite parts of Monty Python and the Holly Grail. 

[jkn]

 Most of the palm trees are wired for electricity.

Is that so no one will steal any coconuts? If not then I would choose two halves a cconut, that way I could spend the rest of my days recreating my favorite parts of Monty Python and the Holly Grail. 

You have sooooo made my day, sir!

[1000snakes]

And my day as well...Thanks!
Oh, and although the instrument that I have usually concentrated on the most over my "musical" years has been the electric bass guitar, if I were on a desert island, I would best be served by a piano. I do pity the non-human inhabitants with the capacity to "hear"!!! 

[sraymar]

My Charvel strat copy, POD, and Fender Frontman 10G, and a case of strings. Naturally I'd bring my laptop which happens to have some softsynths. 

Steve

[ffcal]

A toughie.  For sentimental reasons, I'd have to go with the violin.  My second choice would probably be mandolin.

Forrest

[Wayne Higgins]

Something I've never played before.  I've actually been wanting a small, button accordian lately.  What is it called?  Bandoneon?  That's it.

Actually, I REALLY want a Sarod.

[APK]

Classical guitar (lots of spare strings)
or
a Virus TI keyboard and headphones 

[DeepR]

I'd bring a 200.000 $ something Steinway grand piano and someone who can do the tuning and maintenance (and who can build a concert hall around it).
Also I'd bring with me crates full of sheet music. And I'd ask the local tribesmen to awaken the spirits of Chopin, Liszt, Rachmaninoff, Horowitz and Richter to serve as my teachers.

[hdibrell]

I've been thinking about this ever since the subject was posted. Unfortunately, I keep changing my mind. I want to say my modular. It would give me a great opportunity to really learn the ins and outs of it. But, a more practical choice would be a piano.      Harry

[False Mirror]

Well it IS a tough question, but I think I'll go with the mainstream here and take the grand piano...

A decent computer with development tools (vs, eclipse) to program some synths and effects would be nice, too. And of course internet access, audio-interface, studio monitors, controllers, keyboards...
Of course I'd also bring my microphone and recording equipment in order to record hours of field recordings.

We haven't agreed on the kind of island yet, on the climate zone it lies in and so on. I'd gonna go with something like Bjørnøya (Bear Island):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bear_Island_%28Norway%29

Or maybe Hashima:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hashima_Island

[petekelly]

A classical guitar.

I never learned to play it properly, but I still love its sound.

[hdibrell]

Well it IS a tough question, but I think I'll go with the mainstream here and take the grand piano...

For one thing, you could always throw a tarp over the piano and sleep under it in bad weather.     Harry

[Scott M2]

and don't forget some tuning tools for the piano (and maybe a lesson or two from a good Piano Tuner before you set out).