Strings | Woodwinds | Brass | Percussion
| Vocal | Fretted Instruments | Miscellaneous
| General | Musician's Dictionary | Acknowledgement
These jokes are a continually-growing
collection, and unfortunately, I can no longer remember which jokes I heard
from whom. If you have ever told, emailed, or otherwise communicated to me a
music joke, thank you. If you don't find something right away that insults you
or your instrument, keep scrolling, this is an equal opportunity list.
Strings
Q: What's the
difference between a violin and a viola?
A1: There is no difference. The violin just looks smaller because the
violinist's head is so much bigger.
A2: A viola burns longer.
Q: What's the difference between a
violin and a fiddle?
A: A fiddle is fun to listen to.
Q: Why are viola jokes so short?
Q: How do you tell the difference
between a violinist and a dog?
A: The dog knows when to stop scratching.
Q: What is the range of a violin?
A: About 20 yards if you can kick it hard enough.
Q: How many second violinists does it
take to change a light bulb?
A: None. They can't get up that high!
Q: String players' motto: "It's
better to be sharp than out of tune."
Q: Why is a violinist like a SCUD
missile?
A: Both are offensive and inaccurate.
Q: Why don't viola players suffer from
piles (hemorrhoids)?
A: Because all the assholes are in the first violin
section.
Q: What's the difference between a
fiddle and a violin?
A: No-one minds if you spill beer on a fiddle.
Q: Why do violinists put a cloth
between their chin and their instrument?
A: Violins don't have spit valves.
Q: Why should you never try to drive a
roof nail with a violin?
A: You might bend the nail.
A violinist says to his wife,
"Oh, baby, I can play you just like my violin." His wife replies,
"I'd rather have you play me like a harmonica!"
Jacques Thibault, the violinist, was
once handed an autograph book by a fan while in the greenroom after a concert.
"There's not much room on this page," he said. "What shall I write?"
Another violinist, standing by, offered the following helpful hint: "Write
your repertoire."
"Haven't I seen your face
before?" a judge demanded, looking down at the defendant. "You have,
Your Honor," the man answered hopefully.
"I gave your son violin lessons last winter." "Ah, yes,"
recalled the judge. "Twenty years!"
Three violin manufactures have all
done business for years on the same block in the small town of Cremona, Italy.
A
fter years of a peaceful co-existence, the Amati shop
decided to put a sign in the window saying:
"We make the best violins in Italy." The Guarneri shop soon followed suit, and put a sign in their window proclaiming:
"We make the best violins in the world." Finally, the Stradivarius
family put a sign out at their shop saying:
"We make the best violins on the block."
Once there was a violinist who got a
gig to play a recital at a mental institution.
He played the recital brilliantly, and backstage after the concert, he got a
visit from one of the institutionalized patients.
"Oh, the concert you played was just lovely. The Paganini caprice was
stunning, the counterpoint in the Bach came out so clearly,
and the phrasing in your Debussy was just exquisite!", said the patient.
"Why, thank you," said the musician (thinking this person seemed
pretty normal for a
institutionalized person).
"Are you by chance a musician?" "Oh yes, I was concertmaster of
an orchestra for many years,
I've played all of the major concertos: Tchaikowsky,
Brahms, Mozart, all the major ones."
said the patient. "Wow, that's impressive," said the violinist.
"Did you do recitals as well?"
"Oh yes, I've done all the major sonatas, Bach, Kreisler, Vieuxtemps, all
of the major ones,"
said the patient. "Wow! Did you ever do chamber music?" asked the
violinist.
"Oh yes. Duets, trios, quintets, sextets, all the major repertoire,"
said the patient.
Puzzled, the violinist asked "Did you ever play
string quartets?"
All of the suddenly the patient went berserk and
shouted "String quartets!... String quartets!... String quartets!...
"
Viola
Jokes
Q: What's the
difference between a violin and a viola?
A: The viola burns longer.
Q: What's the range of a viola?
A: Less than a violin. (see violin joke)
Cello
Jokes
Q: How do you
get a 'cellist to play fortissimo?
A: Write pp, espressivo.
Q: How do you make a cello sound
beautiful?
A: Sell it and buy a violin.
Q: What is the difference between a
cello and a coffin.
A: The dead guy is inside the coffin.
Bass
Jokes
Did you hear
about the bassist who was so out of tune his section noticed?
Q: How many string bass players does
it take to change a light bulb?
A: None; the piano player can do that with his left hand.
Q: How do you make a double bass sound
in tune?
A: Chop it up and make it into a xylophone.
Q: How many bass players does it take
to change a light bulb?
A: None. You just get the keyboard player to do it with his left hand.
A double bass player arrived a few
minutes late for the first rehearsal of the local choral society's annual performance
of Handel's Messiah.
He picked up his instrument and bow, and turned his
attention to the conductor. The conductor asked, "Would you like a moment
to tune?"
The bass player replied with some surprise, "Why? Isn't it the same as
last year?"
At a rehearsal, the conductor stops
and shouts to the bass section: "You are out of tune. Check it,
please!"
The first bassist pulls all his strings, says, "Our tuning is correct: all
the strings are equally tight."
The first violist turns around and shouts, "You bloody idiot! It's not the
tension. The pegs have to be parallel!"
Two bass players were engaged for a
run of Carmen. After a couple of weeks,
they agreed each to take an afternoon off in turn to go and watch the matinee
performance from the front of house.
Joe duly took his break; back in the pit that evening, Moe asked how it was.
"Great," says Joe.
"You know that bit where the music goes `BOOM Boom
Boom Boom'--well there are
some guys up top singing a terrific song about a
Toreador at the same time."
There was a certain bartender who was
quite famous for being able to accurately guess people's IQs.
One night a man walked in and talked to him briefly and the bartender said,
"Wow! You must have an IQ of about 140!
You should meet this guy over here." So they
talked for a while about nuclear physics and existential philosophy and had a
great time.
A second man walked in and soon the bartender has guessed about a 90 IQ for
him.
So he sat him down in front of the big-screen TV and
he watched football with the other guys and had a hell of a time.
Then a third man stumbled in and talked to the bartender for a while. The
bartender said to himself, "Jeez! I think this guy's IQ must be about
29!"
He took him over to a man sitting at a little table back in the corner and
said, "You might enjoy talking with this guy for a while."
After the bartender left, the man at the table said, "So do you play
French bow or German bow?"
Harp
Jokes
Q: Why are
harps like elderly parents?
A: Both are unforgiving and hard to get into and out of cars.
Q: How long does a harp stay in tune?
A: About 20 minutes, or until someone opens a door.
Q: What's the definition of a quarter
tone?
A: A harpist tuning unison strings.
Piano
Jokes
Q: What do
you get when you drop a piano down a mine shaft?
A: A flat miner.
Q: What do you get when you drop a
piano on an army base?
A: A flat major.
Q: Why is an 11-foot concert grand
better than a studio upright?
A: Because it makes a much bigger kaboom when dropped over a cliff.
Q: Why was the piano invented?
A: So the musician would have a place to put his beer.
Q: The audience at a piano recital
were appalled when a telephone rang just off stage.
A: Without missing a note the soloist glanced toward the wings and called,
"If that's my agent, tell him I'm working!"
They all laughed when I sat down at
the piano. I forgot to bring the stool.
Organ
Jokes
Q: What does
a German Hammond organist do in his life's most tender moments?
A: He puts his Leslie on "slow".
The organ is the instrument of worship
for in its sounding we sense the Majesty of God and in its ending
we know the Grace of God.
Woodwinds
Q: How do you
get two piccolos to play in unison?
A: Shoot one.
Two musicians are walking down the
street, and one says to the other, "Who was that piccolo I saw you with
last night?"
The other replies, "That was no piccolo, that was my fife."
Double
Reed Jokes
Q: Why is a
bassoon better than an oboe?
A: The bassoon burns longer.
Q: What is a burning oboe good for?
A: Setting a bassoon on fire.
Q: What is the definition of a half
step?
A: Two oboes playing in unison.
Q: What is the definition of a major
second?
A: Two baroque oboes playing in unison.
Q: How do you get an oboist to play A
flat?
A: Take the batteries out of his electric tuner.
Q: Why did the chicken cross the road?
A: To get away from the bassoon recital.
Q: What's the difference between a
SCUD missile and a bad oboist?
A: A bad oboist can kill you.
Clarinet
Jokes
Q: How many
clarinetists does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: Only one, but he'll go through a whole box of bulbs before he finds just the
right one.
Q: What's the definition of
"nerd?"
A: Someone who owns his own alto clarinet.
Q: What do you call a bass clarinetist
with half a brain?
A: Gifted.
Q: Did you hear about the clarinetist
who bragged that he could play 16th notes?
A: The rest of the orchestra didn't believe him so he
proved it by playing one.
Saxophone
Jokes
You might
notice that there are very few jokes about the clarinet. This is out of
sympathy.
The clarinet has already been the butt of so many jokes - the saxophone, for
instance.
Q: How many alto sax players does it
take to change a lightbulb?
A: Five. One to change the bulb and four to contemplate how David Sanborn would
have done it.
Q: What's the difference between a
saxophone and a lawn mower?
Q: What's the difference between a
baritone saxophone and a chain saw?
A: The exhaust.
The soprano, not being smart enough to
use birth control, says to her saxophophonist lover,
"Honey, I think you better pull out now."
He replies, "Why? Am I sharp?"
Small wonder we have so much trouble
with air pollution in the world when so much of it has passed through
saxophones.
Q: What do you call a building full of
saxophonists?
A: Jail
Q: What is the difference between a
saxophone and a urinal?
A: One of them is white.
Before his 2001 inauguration, George
Bush was invited to a get acquainted tour of the White House.
After drinking several glasses of iced tea, he asked Bill Clinton if he could
use his personal bathroom.
When he entered Clinton 's personal bathroom, he was astonished to see that
President Clinton had a solid gold urinal.
That afternoon, George told his wife, Laura, about the urinal. 'Just think,' he
said, 'when I am president, I could have a gold urinal too. But I wouldn't do
something that self-indulgent!'
Later when Laura had lunch with
Hillary at her tour of the White House, she told Hillary how impressed George
had been at his discovery of the fact that, in the President's private
bathroom, the President had a gold urinal.
That evening, when Bill and Hillary
were getting ready for bed, Hillary smiled, and said to Bill . . . "I
found out who pissed in your Saxophone."
...top of page
Brass
Q: How many
trumpet players does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: Five. One to handle the bulb and four to tell him how much better they could
have done it.
Q: What's the difference between a
Trumpet player and the rear end of a horse?
A: I don't know either.
Q: Why is the trumpet an instrument of
worship?
A: Because a man blows in it, but God only knows what comes out.
Q: What's the difference between
trumpet players and government bonds?
A: Government bonds eventually mature and earn money.
Q: How to
trumpet players traditionally greet each other?
A: "Hi. I'm better than you."
Q: How do you know when a trumpet
player is at your door?
A: The doorbell shrieks!
Q: Why can't a gorilla play trumpet?
A: He's too sensitive.
In an emergency a jazz trumpeter was
hired to do some solos with a symphony orchestra.
Everything went fine through the first movement, when she had some really
hair-raising solos,
but in the second movement she started going improvising madly when she wasn't
supposed to play at all.
After the concert the conductor came round looking for an explanation. She
said, "I looked in the score and it said `tacit'--so I took it!"
Trombone
Jokes
Q: What do
you call a beautiful girl on a trombonist's arm?
A: A tattoo.
Q: Three trombone players in a car.
Who's driving?
A: The police.
Q: What's the difference between a
bass trombone and a chain saw?
Q: How can you make a french horn sound like a trombone?
Q: How do you know when a trombone
player is at your door?
A: The doorbell drags.
Q: What is a gentleman?
A: Somebody who knows how to play the trombone, but
doesn't.
Q: What do you call a trombonist with
a beeper and a cellular telephone?
A: An optimist.
Q: What is the diffference
between a dead trombone player lying in the road, and a dead squirrel lying in
the road?
A1: The squirrel might have been on his way to a gig.
A2: Skid marks in front of the squirrel.
Q: How many trombonists does it take
to change a lightbulb?
A: Just one, but he'll do it too loudly.
Q: How do you know when there's a
trombonist at your door?
A: His hat says "Domino's Pizza"
Q: How do you improve the aerodynamics
of a trombonist's car?
A: Take the Domino's Pizza sign off the roof.
Q: What kind of calendar does a
trombonist use to keep track of his gigs?
A: "Year-At-A-Glance."
Q: How can you tell which kid on a
playground is the child of a trombonist?
A: He doesn't know how to use the slide, and he can't swing.
Q: What is the dynamic range of the
bass trombone?
A: On or off.
It is difficult to trust anyone whose
instrument changes shape as he plays it!
It's 99% of the trombonists that give
the rest a bad name!
French
Horn Jokes
Q: How do you
get your viola section to sound like the horn section?
A: Have them miss every other note.
Q: How can you make a trombone sound
like a french horn?
A: Stick your hand in the bell and play a lot of wrong notes.
Q: What is the difference between a french horn section and a '57 Chevy?
A: You can tune a '57 Chevy.
Q: What's the difference between a
French Horn and a lawn mower?
A: You can tune the lawn mower.
Q: What do you get when you cross a
French Horn player and a goalpost?
A: A goalpost that can't march.
Q: How many French horn players does
it take to change a lightbulb?
A: Just one, but he'll spend two hours checking the bulb for alignment and
leaks.
Q: Why is the French horn a divine
instrument?
A: Because a man blows in it, but only God knows what comes out of it.
Q: How do horn players traditionally
greet each other?
A girl went out on a date with a
trumpet player, and when she came back her roommate asked,
"Well, how was it? Did his embouchure make him a great kisser?"
"Nah," the first girl replied.
"That dry, tight, tiny little pucker; it was no fun at all."
The next night she went out with a tuba player, and when she came back her
roommate asked,
"Well, how was his kissing?" "Ugh!" the first girl
exclaimed.
"Those huge, rubbery, blubbery, slobbering slabs of meat; oh, it was just
gross!"
The next night she went out with a French horn player, and when she came back
her roommate asked, "Well, how was his kissing?"
"Well," the first girl replied, "his kissing was just so-so; but
I loved the way he held me!"
Tuba
Jokes
Q: What's the
range of a tuba?
A: Twenty yards if you've got a good arm!
Q: How many tuba players does it take
to change a light bulb?
A: Three! One to hold the bulb and two to drink 'till the room spins.
Q: What's a tuba for? 1 1/2" by 3
1/2" unless you request "full cut."
Note: in the USA, a 2 x 4 is a two-inch by four-inch piece of wood, which
actually measures 1 1/2 inches by 3 1/2 inches.
Q: How do you fix a broken tuba?
A: With a tuba glue.
Q: These two tuba players walk past a
bar...
A: Well, it could happen!
...top of page
Percussion
Q: Why are
orchestra intermissions limited to 20 minutes?
A: So you don't have to retrain the drummers.
Q: What do you call someone who hangs
out with musicians?
A: A drummer.
Q: What did the drummer get on his IQ
test?
A: Drool.
Q: How do you know when a drummer is
knocking at your door?
A: The knock always slows down.
Q: How do you get a drummer to play an
accelerando?
A: Ask him to play in 4/4 at a steady 120 bpm.
Q: Why do bands have bass players?
A: To translate for the drummer.
Q: How do you know when the drum stage
is level?
A: The drool runs equally out the sides of the drummer's mouth.
Did you hear about the time the bass
player locked his keys in the car? It took two hours to get the drummer out.
Q: How many drummers does it take to
change a lightbulb?
Q: Why is it good that drummers have a
half-ounce more brains than horses?
A: So they don't disgrace themselves in parades.
Q: What's the difference between a
drummer and a drum machine?
A: With a drum machine you only have to punch the information in once.
Heard backstage: "Will the
musicians and the drummer please come to the stage!"
In New York City, an out of work jazz
drummer named Ed was thinking of throwing himself off a bridge. But then he ran
into a former booking agent who told him about the fantastic opportunities for
drummers in Iraq. The agent said "If you can find
your way over there, just take my card and look up the bandleader named
Faisal--he's the large guy with the beard wearing gold pajamas and shoes that
curl up at the toes." Ed hit up everyone he knew and borrowed enough to
buy transport to Iraq. It took several days to arrange for passport, visas,
transportation into Iraq and the shipping of his equipment, but he was finally
on his way. Ed arrived in Baghdad and immediately started searching for Faisal.
He found guys in pajamas of every color but gold. Finally, in a small
coffeehouse, he saw a huge man with a beard--wearing gold pajamas and shoes
that curled up at the toes! Ed approached him and asked if he was Faisal. He
was. Ed gave him the agent's card and Faisal's face brightened into a huge
smile. "You're just in time--I need you for a gig tonight. Meet me at the
market near the mosque at 7:30 with your equipment." "But," gasped Ed, "what about a rehearsal?"
"No time--don't worry." And with that, Faisal disappeared. Ed arrived
in the market at 7:00 to set up his gear. He introduced himself to the other
musicians, who were all playing instruments he had never seen in his life. At
7:30 sharp, Faisal appeared and hopped on the bandstand, his gold pajamas
glittering in the twilight. Without a word to the musicians, he lifted his arm
for the downbeat. "Wait." shouted Ed. "What are we
playing?" Faisal shot him a look of frustration and shouted back,
"Fake it! Just give me heavy afterbeats on 7 and 13."
A drummer, sick of all the drummer
jokes, decides to change his instrument. After some thought, he decides on the
accordion. So he goes to the music store and says to
the owner, "I'd like to look at the accordions, please." The owner
gestures to a shelf in the corner and says "All
our accordions are over there." After browsing, the drummer says, "I
think I'd like the big red one in the corner." The store owner looks at
him and says, "You're a drummer, aren't you?" The drummer,
crestfallen, says, "How did you know?" The store owner says,
"That `big red accordion' is the radiator."
A drummer and bass player are out in
the woods hunting when the bassist falls to the ground. He doesn't seem to be
breathing and his eyes are rolled back in his head.
The drummer whips out his cell phone and calls 911. He gasps to the operator,
"My friend just keeled over. I think he's is
dead! What can I do?" The operator, in a calm soothing voice says,
"Just take it easy. I can help. First, lets make sure he's dead." There is a silence,
then a shot is heard. The drummer's voice comes back on the line. He says,
"OK, now what?"
Bodhran
Jokes
Q: What do
you call a groupie who hangs around and annoys musicians?
A: A bodhran player.
Q: What is the difference between a
bodhran player and a terrorist?
A: Terrorists have sympathisers.
Q: How do you know when there is a
bodhran player at your front door?
A: The knocking gets faster and faster and faster.
Q: What do bodhran players use for
birth control?
A: Their personalities.
Q: What's the best thing to play a
bodhran with?
A: A razor blade.
Vocalist
Jokes
Q: If you
threw a violist and a soprano off a cliff, which one would hit the ground
first? (two answers)
A1. The violist. The soprano would have to stop halfway down to ask directions.
A2. Who cares?
Q: What's the difference between a
soprano and a terrorist?
A: You can negotiate with a terrorist.
Q: What's the difference between a
soprano and a pirhana?
A: Lipstick.
Q: What's the difference between a
soprano and a pit bull?
A1: Jewelry.
A2: Perfume
A3: Lipstick
A4: Attitude
A5: You can train a pit bull (sort-of).
Q: How many sopranos does it take to
change a lightbulb?
Q: What's the difference between a
Wagnerian soprano and the average All-Pro offensive lineman?
A: Stage makeup.
Q: What's the difference between a
Wagnerian soprano and a Wagnerian Tenor?
A: About 10 pounds.
Q: How is a soubrette different from a
sewer rat?
A: Some people actually like sewer rats.
Q: What is the difference between a
soubrette and a cobra?
A: One is deadly poisonous, and the other is a reptile.
Q: How do you tell if a Wagnerian
soprano is dead?
A: The horses seem very relieved.
Q: What's the first thing a soprano
does in the morning?
A: Puts on her clothes and goes home.
Q: What's the next thing a soprano
does in the morning?
A: Looks for her instrument.
Q: What's the difference between a
soprano and a Porsche?
A: Most musicians have never been in a Porsche.
Q: What's the definition of an alto?
A: A soprano who can sightread.
Q: How do you put a sparkle in a
soprano's eye?
A: Shine a flashlight in her ear.
A jazz musician dies and goes to
heaven. He's told "Hey man, welcome!
You have been elected to the Jazz All-Stars of Heaven--right up there with
Satchmo, Miles, Django; all the greats.
We have a gig tonight. Only one problem--God's girlfriend gets to sing."
Alto
Jokes:
Q: What's the
difference between an alto and a tenor?
A: Tenors don't have hair on their backs.
Q: How many altos does it take to
screw in a lightbulb?
Tenor
Jokes:
Q: How many
tenors does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Four. One to change the bulb and three to bitch
that they could have done it if they had the high notes.
Q: What do you see if you look up a soprano's skirt?
A: A tenor.
Q: How do you tell if a tenor is dead?
A: The wine bottle is still full and the comics
haven't been touched.
Q: Where is a tenor's resonance?
A: Where his brain should be.
Q: What's the definition of a male
quartet?
A: Three men and a tenor.
Did you hear about the tenor who
announced that in the following season he would only sing three title roles:
Othello, Samson, and Forza del Destino? (true story)
If you took all the tenors in the
world and laid them end to end, it would be a good idea.
Bass
Jokes
Q: How do you
tell if a bass is actually dead?
A: Hold out a check (but don't be fooled: a slight,
residual spasmodic clutching action may occur even hours after death has
occurred).
Q: How do you tell if a bass is dead?
Q: Why do we have bass players?
A: To translate for the drummers.
In the last act of Don Giovanni, there
is always a statue which is replaced at some point by a real singer,
a bass (the Commendatore).
Q: How can you tell when the switch has occurred?
A: The "statue" starts looking a bit stiff.
Q: How many basses does it take to
change a lightbulb?
A: None. They're so macho they prefer to walk in the dark and bang their shins.
High
School Chorus Jokes
Q: What is
the difference between the men's final at Wimbledon and a high school choral
performance?
A: The tennis final has more men.
Q: How does a young man become a
member of a high school chorus?
A: On the first day of school he turns into the wrong
classroom.
Q: What is the difference between a
world war and a high school choral performance?
A: The performance causes more suffering.
Q: Why do high school choruses travel
so often?
A: Keeps assassins guessing.
Q: What's the definition of an
optimist?
A: A choral director with a mortgage.
Q: What is the difference between a
high school choral director and a chimpanzee?
A: It's scientifically proven that chimpanzees are able to communicate with
humans.
When asked by the Pope (I forget which
one) what the Catholic Church could do for music,
Igor Stravinsky is reputed to have answered without hesitation: "Give us
back castrati!"
Fretted
Instruments (and unfretted versions of the ilk)
Q: What's the
difference between a banjo and a chain saw?
A: The chain saw has greater dynamic range.
Q: Why do some people take an instant
aversion to banjo players?
A: It saves time in the long run.
How many banjo players does it take to
screw in a light bulb?
A: Five. One to change the bulb. Four to complain that it's electric.
What's the least-used sentence in the
English language?
"Isn't that the banjo player's Porsche?"
What do you say to a banjo player in a
three-piece suit?
"Will the defendant please rise?"
There's nothing I like better than the
sound of a banjo, unless of course it's the sound of a chicken caught in a
vacuum cleaner.
Female five string banjoist shouting
at her boyfriend in a crowded shopping mall: "Don't forget, sweetheart, I
need a new G string."
Q: Do you know the definition for
perfect pitch?
A: When you throw the banjo into the dumpsite and it
lands right on the accordion.
Guitar
Jokes
Q: How can
you get a guitar player to stop playing?
A: Put sheet music in front of him.
Q: How long does it take to tune a
guitar?
A: Nobody's bothered to find out.
Q: How do you get two guitar players
to play perfect counterpoint?
A: Put the same chart in front of them.
Q: What does it mean when a guitar
player is drooling out both sides of his mouth?
A: The stage is level.
Q: How many guitar players does it
take to change a light bulb?
A: Twelve. One to change the bulb and eleven to say they could do it better.
Q: How do you get a guitar player to
play softer?
A: Give him some sheet music.
Q: What do a vacuum cleaner and an
electric guitar have in common.
A; Both suck when you plug them in.
QL How do you make a bass player turn
down the volume?
A: Put a chart in front of him.
Q: How many lead guitarists does it
take to change a light bulb?
A: None--they just steal somebody else's light.
Q: What do you call two guitarists
playing in unison?
A: Counterpoint.
Q: What did the guitarist do when his
teacher told him to turn his amplifier on?
A: He caressed it softly and told it that he loved it.
Q: What's the best thing to play on a
guitar?
A: Solitaire.
Q: How many bass players does it take
to change a lightbulb?
Q: In the 22th
century, how many guitar players will you need to replace a light source? Five.
A: One to actually do it, and four to reminisce about how much better the old
tubes were.
Did you hear about the electric bass
player who was so bad that even the lead singer noticed?
Lute
Jokes
Lute players
spend half their time tuning their instrument and the other half playing out of
tune.
Accordion
Jokes
Q: If you
drop an accordion, a set of bagpipes and a viola off a 20-story building, which
one lands first?
A: Who cares?
Q: What's the difference between an
Uzi and an accordion?
A: The Uzi stops after 20 rounds.
Q: What do you call ten accordions at
the bottom of the ocean?
A: A good start.
Q: What's a bassoon good for?
A: Kindling for an accordion fire.
Q: What's a accordion good for?
A: Learning how to fold a map.
Q: What do you call a group of topless
female accordian players?
A: Ladies in Pain
Q: How do you get an accordion player
out of a tree?
A: Cut the rope!
Bumper
Stickers:
Minimum safe distances between street
musicians and the public:
Chang
Jokes
A
"Chang" is a Central Asian instrument (from countries such as
Uzbekistan). It's something like a hammered dulcimer with a damper pedal.
Q: How long does it take to tune a chang?
A: Nobody knows.
Q: Why is it so difficult to tune a chang?
A: So that violist can feel superior about something.
Q: How many chang
players does it take to change a light bulb?
A: All of them. One to twist the bulb for several hours, and the other one to
decide that it's as good as it's going to get, and that they might as well flip
the switch.
Misc.
Jazz/Folk/Rock/Country/Blues/Popular
Q: Why do
bagpipe players walk while they play?
A: To get away from the noise.
Q: What's the difference between an
Appalachian dulcimer and a hammered dulcimer?
A: A hammered dulcimer burns hotter; an Appalachian dulcimer burns longer.
Q: How many country & western
singers does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Three. One to change the bulb and two to sing about the old one.
Q: How do you know there's a singer at
your door?
A: They can't find the key, they keep knocking, but they can't come in.
Q: What happens if you play a blues
record backwards?
A: Your wife returns to you, your dog comes back to life, and you get out of
prison.
Q: What do you get when you play New
Age music backwards?
A: New Age music.
Q: What happens if you play Blues
Music backwards?
A: Your wife comes back and treats you okay, and you don't wake up in the
morning.
Q: What does it say on a blues
singer's tombstone?
A: "I didn't wake up this morning..."
Q: "Hey, buddy, how late do the filkers play?"
A: "Oh, about half a beat behind..."
Q: What's the difference between a
puppy and a singer-songwriter?
A: Eventually the puppy stops whining.
Q: How many sound men does it take to
change a light bulb?
Q: Why do sound men only count to TWO?
A: Because on THREE you lift.
Q: What is the difference between a
toilet and a monitor mix engineer?
A: The toilet only deals with one asshole at a time.
Q: How many Deadheads does it take to
change a lightbulb? 12,001.
A: One to change it, 2,000 to record the event and take pictures of it, and
10,000 to follow it around until it burns out.
Q: How many punk-rock musicians does
it take to change a light bulb?
A: Two: One to screw in the bulb and the other to smash the old one on his
forehead.
Q: Know how to make a million dollars
singing jazz?
A: Start with two million.
Q: How many jazz musicians does it
take to change a light bulb?
A1: None. Jazz musicians can't afford light bulbs.
A2: "Don't worry about the changes. We'll fake it!"
Q: How do you turn a duck into a soul
artist?
A: Put it in the oven until its Bill Withers.
Michael Caine goes up to Milton Berle during a party and asks, "What kind of cigar are
you smoking there?"
"It's a Lawrence Welk." says Milton. "What's a Lawrence
Welk?" Michael asks.
Milton says "It's a piece of crap with a band
wrapped around it."
Angus was asked why there were drones
on the bagpipe when they make such a distressing
sound.
He answered, "Without the drones, I might as well be playing the
piano."
Two musicians are driving down a road.
All of a sudden they notice
the Grim Reaper in the back seat. Death informs them that they had an accident
and they both died. But, before he must take them off into eternity, he grants
each musician with one last request to remind them of their past life on earth.
The first musician says he was a Country & Western musician and would like
to hear eight choruses of Achy-Breaky Heart as a last hoorah! The second
musician says "I was a jazz musician...kill me
now!"
I was playing
in a night club, and getting few requests and small
tips. Towards the end of the night, a man walked up with a wad of bills in his
hand and asked me to play a jazz chord. I played an Amaj7. He said, "No,
no. A jazz chord." I did a little improvisational thing, but he didn't
like that either. "No, no, no! A jazz chord. You
know, 'A jazz chord, to say, ah love you.'"
Son: Mother,
I want to grow up and be a rock-n-roll musician. Mother: Now son, you have to
pick one or the other. You can't do both.
A Jazz
musician was told by his doctor, "I am very sorry to tell you that you
have cancer and you have only one more year to live." The Jazz musician
replied, "And what am I going to live on for an entire year?"
A bass guitar
player dies and immediately finds himself in the afterlife. He looks around to
see that he's in a recording studio, holding his bass. On his left he sees Jimi
Hendrix tuning his guitar. Looking around, the bass player sees many other
familiar faces... "Wow," he thinks, "this must be Heaven!"
All of a sudden Karen Carpenter walks
into the studio and sits down at the drums.
"OK guys, Close To You, two bars."
A jazz
musician dies and shows up at the pearly gates. St. Peter greets him, and after
finding out that the guy was a musician, tells him, "uhhh we're a bit full right now, so you see that
door over yonder (gestures) with the big red button? That's the elevator to
Hell. Now some folks have gone there and thought it was just fine. You can try
it out, no strings, and if you like it, you can stay, otherwise come back here and wait for an opening. The Devil will show you
around."
The guy thinks it over for a moment,
and says, "sure... what have I got to lose?"
St. Peter: "See you later."
So the guy goes over to the big door and
presses the button. The door opens, he walks in, and descends. At the bottom,
the Devil greets him, and surprised to see him, says, "well, we weren't
expecting YOU but why don't I show you around some?
Off they go; the Devil shows him the
different scenes, and the guy is really pretty stunned. They walk down a dark
alley and all of a sudden the guy hears a jazz band.
He gets really excited, and nearly drags the Devil to the source of the tunes.
It's a night club called "The Club in Hell",
really dark and really smoky, and there's a band up there on stage and they're
just wailing. There was Dizzy, Charlie Parker, Stan Getz, Ella, Bill Evans on
the piano, Buddy Rich, and Ray Brown on bass. They were playing up a storm...
The guy looks at the Devil and says, "Wow, man, that's really something.
Do they play every night?"
The devil replies, "Yeah man,
they're always playing here. There's one detail though... ain't
no solos."
...top of page
General
Q: What's the
difference between a bull and an orchestra?
A: The bull has the horns in the front and the asshole
in the back.
Q: A conductor and a violist are
standing in the middle of the road. Which one do you run over first, and why?
A: The conductor. Business before pleasure.
Q: Why are conductor's hearts so
coveted for transplants?
A: They've had so little use.
Q: What's the difference between a
conductor and a sack of fertilizer?
A: The sack.
Q: What do you have when a group of
conductors are up to their necks in wet concrete?
A: Not enough concrete.
Q: Did you hear about the planeload of
conductors en route to the European Festival?
A: The good news: it crashed. The bad news: there were three empty seats on
board.
Q: What's the difference between a
symphony conductor and Dr Scholl's footpads?
Q: Dr Scholl's footpads buck up the feet.
Q: What's the difference between a pig
and a symphony orchestra conductor?
A: There are some things a pig just isn't willing to do.
Q: What is the ideal weight for a
conductor?
A: About 2 1/2 lbs. including the urn.
Q: Why is a conductor like a condom?
A: It's safer with one, but more fun without.
Q: What's the difference between God
and a conductor?
A: God knows He's not a conductor.
Q: What's the definition of an
assistant conductor?
A: A mouse trying to become a rat.
Q: What's the difference between alto
clef and Greek?
A: Some conductors actually read Greek.
Q: What do do
with a horn player that can't play?
A: Give him two sticks, put him in the back, and call him a percussionist.
Q: What do you do if he can't do that?
A: Take away one of the sticks, put him up front, and call him a conductor.
Q: What's the difference between an
opera conductor and a baby?
A: A baby sucks its fingers.
A musician calls the symphony office
to talk to the conductor.
"I'm sorry, he's dead," comes the reply.
The musician calls back 25 times, always getting the same reply from the
receptionist.
At last she asks him why he keeps calling. "I
just like to hear you say it."
A musician
arrives at the pearly gates. "What did you do when you were alive?"
asked St. Peter.
"I was the principal trombone player of the London Symphony Orchestra"
"Excellent! We have a vacancy in
our celestial symphony orchestra for a trombonist.
Why don't you turn up at the next rehearsal."
So, when the time for the next
rehearsal arrived our friend turned up with his heavenly trombone [sic].
As he took his seat God moved, in a mysterious way, to the podium and tapped
his batton to bring the players to attention.
Our friend turned to the angelic second trombonist (!) and whispered,
"So, what's God like as a conductor?"
"Oh, he's O.K. most of the time,
but occasionally he thinks he's von Karajan."
It was the
night of the big symphony concert, and all the town notables showed up to hear
it. However, it was getting close to 8 o'clock and the conductor hadn't yet
shown up. The theater's manager was getting desperate, knowing that he'd have
to refund everyone's money if he cancelled the concert, so he went backstage
and asked all the musicians if any could conduct. None
of them could, so he went around and asked the staff if any of them could
conduct. He had no luck there either, so he started asking people in the lobby,
in the hope that maybe one of them could conduct the night's concert. He still
hadn't found anyone, so he went outside and started asking everybody passing by
if they could conduct. He had no luck whatsoever and by this time the concert
was 15 minutes late in starting.
The assistant manager came out to say
that the crowd was getting restless and about to demand their money back. The
desperate manager looked around and spied a cat, a
dog, and a horse standing in the street. "Oh, what the heck," he
exclaimed, "let's ask them--what do we have to lose?"
So the manager and assistant manager
went up to the cat, and the manager asked "Mr. Cat, do you know how to
conduct?" The cat meowed "I don't know, I'll try," but though it
tried really hard, it just couldn't stand upright on its hind legs. The manager
sighed and thanked the cat, and then moved on to the dog. "Mr. Dog,"
he asked, "do you think you can conduct?" The dog woofed "Let me
see," but although it was able to stand up on its hind legs and wave its
front paws around, it just couldn't keep upright long enough to last through an
entire movement. "Well, nice try," the manager told the dog, and with
a sigh of resignation turned to the horse. "Mr. Horse," he asked,
"how about you--can you conduct?" The horse looked at him for a
second and then without a word turned around, presented its hind end, and
started swishing its tail in perfect four-four time. "That's it!" the
manager exclaimed, "the concert can go on!"
However, right then the horse dropped
a load of plop onto the street. The assistant manager was horrified, and he
told the manager "We can't have this horse conduct! What would the
orchestra think?" The manager looked first at the horse's rear end and
then at the plop lying in the street and replied
"trust me--from this angle, the orchestra won't even know they have a new
conductor!"
The
Rabbit and the Snake
Once upon a
time, there was a blind rabbit and blind snake, both living in the same
neighborhood. One beautiful day, the blind rabbit was hopping happily down the
path toward his home, when he bumped into someone. Apologizing profusely he explained, "I am blind, and didn't see you
there." "Perfectly all right," said the snake, "because I
am blind, too, and did not see to step out of your way." A conversation
followed, gradually becoming more intimate, and finally the snake said,
"This is the best conversation I have had with anyone for a long time.
Would you mind if I felt you to see what you are like?" "Why,
no," said the rabbit. "Go right ahead." So
the snake wrapped himself around the rabbit and shuffled and snuggled his
coils, and said, "MMMM! You're soft and warm and fuzzy and cuddly...and
those ears! You must be a rabbit." "Why, that's right!" said the
rabbit. "May I feel you?" "Go right ahead." said the snake,
stretching himself out full length on the path. The rabbit began to stroke the
snake's body with his paws, then drew back in disgust. "Yuck!" he
said. "You're cold...and slimy... you must be a conductor!"
n.b. This same tale can also be applied to
concert promoters, A&R people and nightclub
owners.
Musical
Parrots
A guy walks
into a pet store wanting a parrot. The store clerk shows him two beautiful ones
out on the floor. "This one's $5,000 and the other is $10,000." the
clerk said. "Wow! What does the $5,000 one do?"
"This parrot can sing every aria Mozart ever wrote." "And the
other?" said the customer. "This one can sing Wagner's entire Ring
cycle. There's another one in the back room for $30,000." "Holy moly!
What does that one do?" "Nothing that I can
tell, but the other two parrots call him 'Maestro'."
"Mommy,"
said the little girl, "can I get pregnant by anal intercourse?"
"Of course you can." her mother replied.
"How do you think conductors are made?"
A new conductor
was at his first rehearsal. It was not going well. He was wary of the musicians
as they were of him. As he left the rehearsal room, the timpanist sounded a
rude little "bong." The angry conductor turned and said, "All
right! Who did that?"
A violinist
was auditioning for the Halle orchestra in England. After his audition he was
talking with the conductor. "What do you think about Brahms?" asked
the conductor. "Ah..." the violinist replied, "Brahms is a great
guy! Real talented musician. In fact, he and I were just playing some duets
together last week!" The conductor was impressed. "And what do you
think of Mozart?" he asked him. "Oh, he's just swell! I just had
dinner with him last week!" replied the violinist. ERROR: unknown dot command:. Suddenly the violinist looked at his watch and
said he had to leave to catch the 1:30 train to London. Afterwards, the
conductor was discussing him with the board members. He said he felt very
uneasy about hiring this violinist, because there seemed to be a serious credibility
gap. The conductor knew for certain that there was no 1:30 train to London.
Maestro (to Horns): "Give us the
F in tune!"
Violist (to Maestro): "Please can we have the F-in' tune too?"
A
Player's Guide for Keeping Conductors in Line by Donn Laurence Mills
If there were
a basic training manual for orchestra players, it might include ways to
practice not only music, but one-upmanship. It seems as if many young players
take pride in getting the conductor's goat. The following rules are intended as
a guide to the development of habits that will irritate the conductor.
(Variations and additional methods depend upon the imagination and skill of the
player.)
Make the
conductor feel he is keeping you from doing something really important. It is
time that players reminded their conductors of the facts of life: just who do
conductors think they are, anyway?
Donn Laurence
Mills is the NSOA contributing editor. He holds music degrees from Northwestern
University and Eastman School of Music. A conductor and music educator, he is
also the American educational director for the Yamaha Foundation of Tokyo.
See also Mitropoulos on conducting...
Musician
Jokes
What's the
difference between a pop musician and a jazz musician?
The pop musician plays three chords for a thousand people, and a jazz musician
plays a thousand chords for three people.
A four piece
band (drums, guitar, bass, vocals) was playing in a club. The crowd was full of
especially
good looking women, and throughout the evening, the band members were thinking:
Singer - Woah,
that blond looks great! I'll get her number after the gig!
Guitarist - Wow! That brunette is F I N E! I'll be seeing her later...
Drummer - That redhead is hot! We're going to have fun later...
Bassist- A-A-A-A D-D-D-D E-E-E-E...
See also Beethoven's Ninth.
What's the first thing a musician says
at work?
"Would you like fries with that?"
What do you call a musician without a
significant other?
Homeless.
Why do musicians have to be awake by
six o'clock?
Because most shops close by six thirty.
What would a musician do if he won a
million dollars?
Continue to play gigs until the money ran out.
What's the difference between a
conductor and a stagecoach driver?
The stagecoach driver only has to look at four horses' asses.
The stages of a musician's life:
There were
two people walking down the street. One was a musician. The other didn't have
any money either.
A community
orchestra was plagued by attendance problems. Several musicians were absent at each rehearsal. As a matter of fact, every player in the
orchestra had missed several rehearsals, except for one very faithful oboe
player. Finally, as the dress rehearsal drew to a close, the conductor took a
moment to thank the oboist for her faithful attendance. She, of course, humbly
responded "It's the least I could do, since I won't be at the
performance."
Saint Peter
is checking ID's at the Pearly Gates, and first comes
a Texan. "Tell me, what have you done in life?" says St. Peter. The
Texan says, "Well, I struck oil, so I became rich, but I didn't sit on my
laurels--I divided all my money among my entire family in my will, so our
descendants are all set for about three generations." St. Peter says,
"That's quite something. Come on in. Next!" The second guy in line
has been listening, so he says, "I struck it big in the stock market, but
I didn't selfishly just provide for my own like that Texan guy. I donated five
million to Save the Children." "Wonderful!" says Saint Peter.
"Come in. Who's next?" The third guy has been listening, and says
timidly with a downcast look, "Well, I only made five thousand dollars in
my entire lifetime." "Heavens!" says St. Peter. "What
instrument did you play?"
St. Peter's
still checking ID's. He asks a man, "What did you do on Earth?" The
man says, "I was a doctor." St. Peter says, "Ok, go right
through those pearly gates. Next! What did you do on Earth?" "I was a
school teacher." "Go right through those
pearly gates. Next! And what did you do on Earth?" "I was a
musician." "Go around the side, up the freight elevator, through the
kitchen..."
A guy walks
into the doctor's office and says, "Doc, I haven't had a bowel movement in
a week!" The doctor gives him a prescription for a mild laxative and tells
him, "If it doesn't work, let me know." A week later the guy is back:
"Doc, still no movement!" The doctor says, "Hmm, guess you need
something stronger," and prescribes a powerful laxative. Still another
week later the poor guy is back: "Doc, STILL nothing!" The doctor,
worried, says, "We'd better get some more information about you to try to
figure out what's going on. What do you do for a living?" "I'm a
musician." The doctor looks up and says, "Well, that's it! Here's
$10.00. Go get something to eat!"
Variations
on a Theme
What's the
difference between a seamstress and a violist? The seamstress tucks up the
frills.
What's the difference between a
seamstress and a soprano? The seamstress tucks and frills.
What's the difference between a
seamstress and a french horn player? The seamstress says "Tuck the frills."
Miscellaneous
"Wagner's
music has beautiful moments but some bad quarters of an hour." --Rossini
"Richard Wagner's music is better
than it sounds." -- Mark Twain
"A critic is like a eunich: he knows exactly how it ought to be done."
"A drummer is a musician's best
friend." from a Martin Mull album.
"The present
day composer refuses to die." -- Edgar Varese
"Beethoven had an ear for
music." -- anonymous
"The clarinet is a musical
instrument the only thing worse than which is two." -- The Devil's
Dictionary, by Ambrose Bierce
Did you hear that Mr. Solfege had a
dog? His name was Feedo.
What do you get when you put a
diminished chord together with an augmented chord? A demented chord.
How many producers does it take to
change a light bulb? ...hmm...I don't know...what do you think?
I listened
to Busoni, absorbed his knowledge, and ended up a re-creator instead of a
creator. — I deteriorated into a conductor! -- Dimitri Mitropoulos
A first violinist, a second violinist,
a virtuoso violist, and a bass player are at the four corners of a football
field. At the signal, someone drops a 100 dollar bill
in the middle of the field and they run to grab it. Who gets it? The second
violinist, because:
Why
did the Philharmonic disband?
Excessive sax
and violins. Borodin nothing to do!! Gone Chopin. Bach in a minuet.
Haydn's
Chopin Liszt at Vivaldi's:
string quartet |
a good violinist, a bad violinist, an ex-violinist, and someone who hates violinists, all getting together to complain about composers. |
||||||
detach |
an indication that the trombones are to play with their slides removed. |
||||||
glissando |
a technique adopted by string players for difficult runs. |
||||||
subito piano |
indicates an opportunity for some obscure orchestra player to become a soloist. |
||||||
risoluto |
indicates to orchestras that they are to stubbornly maintain the correct tempo no matter what the conductor tries to do. |
||||||
senza sordino |
a term used to remind the player that he forgot to put his mute on a few measures back. |
||||||
preparatory beat |
a threat made to singers, i.e., sing, or else.... |
||||||
crescendo |
a reminder to the performer that he has been playing too loudly. |
||||||
conductor |
a musician who is adept at following many people at the same time. |
||||||
assistant conductor |
a mouse trying to become a rat. |
||||||
clef |
something to jump from before the viola solo. |
||||||
transposition |
the act of moving the relative pitch of a piece of music that is too low for the basses to a point where it is too high for the sopranos. |
||||||
vibrato |
used by singers to hide the fact that they are on the wrong pitch. |
||||||
half step |
the pace used by a cellist when carrying hi instrument. |
||||||
coloratura soprano |
a singer who has great trouble finding the proper note, but who has a wild time hunting for it. |
||||||
chromatic scale |
an instrument for weighing that indicates half-pounds. |
||||||
bar line |
a gathering of people, usually among which may be found a musician or two. |
||||||
ad libitum |
a premiere. |
||||||
beat |
what music students do to each other with their instruments. The down beat is performed on top of the head, while the up beat is struck under the chin. |
||||||
cadence |
when everybody hopes you're going to stop, but you don't. |
||||||
diatonic |
low-calorie Schweppes. |
||||||
lamentoso |
with handkerchiefs. |
||||||
virtuoso |
a musician with very high morals. (I know one) |
||||||
music |
a complex organizations of sounds that is set down by the composer, incorrectly interpreted by the conductor, who is ignored by the musicians, the result of which is ignored by the audience. |
||||||
oboe |
an ill wind that nobody blows good. |
||||||
tenor |
two hours before a nooner. |
||||||
diminished fifth |
an empty bottle of Jack Daniels. |
||||||
perfect fifth |
a full bottle of Jack Daniels. |
||||||
perfect pitch |
1. when you throw the banjo into the dumpster
and it lands right on the accordion. |
||||||
ritard |
there's one in every family. |
||||||
relative major |
an uncle in the Marine Corps. |
||||||
relative minor |
a girlfriend. |
||||||
big band |
when the bar pays enough to bring two banjo players. |
||||||
pianissimo |
"refill this beer bottle". |
||||||
repeat |
what you do until they just expel you. |
||||||
treble |
women ain't nothin' but. |
||||||
bass |
the things you run around in softball. |
||||||
portamento |
a foreign country you've always wanted to see. |
||||||
conductor |
the man who punches your ticket to Birmingham. |
||||||
arpeggio |
"Ain't he that storybook kid with the big nose that grows?" |
||||||
tempo |
good choice for a used car. |
||||||
A 440 |
the highway that runs around Nashville. |
||||||
transpositions |
|
||||||
order of sharps |
what a wimp gets at the bar. |
||||||
passing tone |
frequently heard near the baked beans at family barbecues. |
||||||
middle C |
the only fruit drink you can afford when food stamps are low. |
||||||
perfect pitch |
the smooth coating on a freshly paved road. |
||||||
tuba |
a compound word |
||||||
cadenza |
|
||||||
whole note |
what's due after failing to pay the mortgage for a year. |
||||||
clef |
what you try never to fall off of. * bass clef.col where you wind up if you do fall off. |
||||||
altos |
not to be confused with "Tom's toes," "Bubba's toes" or "Dori-toes". |
||||||
minor third |
your approximate age and grade at the completion of formal schooling. |
||||||
melodic minor |
loretta Lynn's singing dad. |
||||||
12-tone scale |
the thing the State Police weigh your tractor trailer truck with. |
||||||
quarter tone |
1. what most standard pickups can haul. |
||||||
sonata |
what you get from a bad cold or hay fever. |
||||||
clarinet |
name used on your second daughter if you've already used Betty Jo. |
||||||
cello |
the proper way to answer the phone. |
||||||
bassoon |
|
||||||
french horn |
your wife says you smell like a cheap one when you come in at 4 a.m. |
||||||
cymbal |
what they use on deer-crossing signs so you know what to sight-in your pistol with. |
||||||
bossa nova |
the car your foreman drives. |
||||||
time signature |
what you need from your boss if you forget to clock in. |
||||||
first inversion |
grandpa's battle group at Normandy. |
||||||
staccato |
how you did all the ceilings in your mobile home. |
||||||
major scale |
what you say after chasing wild game up a mountain.col "Damn! That was a major scale!" |
||||||
aeolian mode |
how you like Mama's cherry pie. |
||||||
bach chorale |
the place behind the barn where you keep the horses. |
||||||
plague |
a collective noun, as in "a plague of conductors." |
||||||
audition |
the act of putting oneself under extreme duress to satisfy the sadistic intentions of someone who has already made up his mind. |
||||||
accidentals |
wronng notes. |
||||||
augmented fifth |
a 36-ounce bottle. |
||||||
broken consort |
when someone in the ensemble has to leave to go to the bathroom. |
||||||
cantus firmus |
the part you get when you can play only four notes. |
||||||
chansons de geste |
dirty songs. |
||||||
clausula |
Mrs. Santa Claus. |
||||||
crotchet |
|
||||||
ducita |
a lot of mallards. |
||||||
embouchure |
the way you look when you've been playing the Krummhorn. |
||||||
estampie |
what they put on letters in Quebec. |
||||||
garglefinklein |
a tiny recorder played by neums. |
||||||
hocket |
the thing that fits into a crochet to produce a rackett. |
||||||
interval |
how long it takes to find the right note. There are three kinds
|
||||||
intonation |
singing through one's nose. Considered highly desirable in the Middle Ages. |
||||||
isorhythmic motet |
when half of the ensemble got a different edition from the other half. |
||||||
minnesinger |
a boy soprano. |
||||||
musica ficta |
when you lose your place and have to bluff until you find it again. |
||||||
neums |
renaissance midgets. |
||||||
neumatic melishma |
a bronchial disorder caused by hockets. |
||||||
ordo |
the hero in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. |
||||||
rota |
an early Italian method of teaching music without score or parts. |
||||||
trotto |
an early Italian form of Montezuma's Revenge. |
||||||
lauda |
the difference between shawms and krummhorns. |
||||||
sancta |
Clausula's husband. |
||||||
lasso |
the 6th and 5th steps of a descending scale. |
||||||
di lasso |
popular with Italian cowboys. |
||||||
quaver |
beginning viol class. |
||||||
rackett |
capped reeds class |
||||||
ritornello |
a Verdi opera. |
||||||
sine proprietate |
cussing in church. |
||||||
supertonic |
Schweppes. |
||||||
trope |
a malevolent neum. |
||||||
tutti |
a lot of sackbuts. |
||||||
stops |
something Bach didn't have on his organ. |
||||||
agnus dei |
a famous female church composer. |
||||||
metronome |
a city-dwelling dwarf. |
||||||
allegro |
leg fertilizer. |
||||||
recitative |
a disease that Monteverdi had. |
||||||
transsectional |
an alto who moves to the soprano section. |
Quite a
number of years ago, the Seattle Symphony was doing Beethoven's Symphony No. 9
under the baton of Milton Katims. Now at this point, you must understand two
things:
It had been
decided that during this performance, once the bass players had played their
parts in the opening of the symphony, that the bass players were to quietly lay
down their instruments and leave the stage, rather than sit on their stools
looking and feeling dumb for twenty minutes. Once they got backstage, someone
suggested that they trot across the street and quaff a few brews. When they got
there, a European nobleman recognized that they were musicians, and bought them
several rounds of drinks. Two of the bassists passed out, and the rest of the
section, not to mention the nobleman, were rather drunk. Finally, one of them
looked at his watch and exclaimed, "Look at the time! We'll be late!"
The remaining bassists tried in vain to wake up their section mates, but
finally those who were still conscious had to give up and run across the street
to the Opera House. While they were on their way in, the bassist who suggested
this excursion in the first place said, "I think we'll still have enough
time--I anticipated that something like this could happen, so I tied a string
around the last pages of the score. When he gets down to there, Milton's going
to have to slow the tempo way down while he waves the baton with one hand and
fumbles with the string with the other." Sure enough, when they got back
to the stage they hadn't missed their entrance, but
one look at their conductor's face told them they were still in serious
trouble. Katims was furious!
After all...
It was the bottom of the Ninth, the basses were loaded, the score was tied,
there were two men out, and the Count was full.
Reprinted without permission from Edmonton Centre newsletter, Canada, and
Canadian RCCO newsletter. Apologies to the fine bass players in the SSO.
Mrs.
Spelke's bio
The following
program notes are from an unidentified piano recital.
Tonight's
page turner, Ruth Spelke, studied under Ivan Schmertnick at the Boris Nitsky
School of Page Turning in Philadelphia. She has been turning pages here and
abroad for many years for some of the world's leading pianists. In 1988, Ms. Spelke won the Wilson Page Turning Scholarship, which sent
her to Israel to study page turning from left to right. She is winner of the
1984 Rimsky Korsakov Flight of the Bumblebee Prestissimo Medal, having turned
47 pages in an unprecedented 32 seconds. She was also a 1983 silver medalist at
the Klutz Musical Page Pickup Competition: contestants retrieve and rearrange a
musical score dropped from a Yamaha. Ms. Spelke
excelled in "grace, swiftness, and especially poise." For techniques,
Ms. Spelke performs both the finger-licking and the
bent-page corner methods. She works from a standard left bench position, and is the originator of the dipped-elbow page
snatch, a style used to avoid obscuring the pianist's view of the music. She is
page turner in residence in Fairfield Iowa, where she
occupies the coveted Alfred Hitchcock Chair at the Fairfield Page Turning
Institute. Ms. Spelke is married,
and has a nice house on a lake.
Orchestra
Personnel Standards
conductor |
Leaps tall buildings in a single bound. Is more powerful than a locomotive. Is faster than a speeding bullet. Walks on water. Gives policy to God. |
concertmaster |
Leaps short buildings in a single bound. Is more powerful than a switch engine. Is just as fast as a speeding bullet. Walks on water if sea is calm. Talks with God. |
oboist |
Leaps short buildings with a running start and favorable winds. Is almost as powerful as a switch engine. Is almost as fast as a speeding bullet. Walks on water in an indoor swimming pool. Talks with God if special request is approved. trumpet player Barely clears a quonset hut. Loses tug-of-war with locomotive. Can fire a speeding bullet. Swims well. Is occasionally addressed by God. |
bassoonist |
Makes marks high on wall when trying to clear short buildings. Is run over by locomotive. Can sometimes handle a gun without inflicting self-injury. Dog-paddles. Talks to animals. |
second violinist |
Runs into buildings. Recognizes locomotives two times out of three. Is not issued any ammunition. Can stay afloat with a life jacket. Talks to walls, argues with self. |
manager |
Falls over doorstep when trying to enter buildings. Says "Look at the choo-choo." Wets self with water pistol. Plays in mud puddles. Loses arguments with self. |
horn player |
Lifts buildings and walks under them. Kicks locomotives off the tracks. Catches speeding bullets in teeth and eats them. Freezes water with a single glance. Is God. |
Math/Logic
Quiz
1. Wilson is tired of paying for clarinet reeds. If he adopts a policy of
playing only on rejected reeds from his colleagues will he be able to retire on the money he has
saved if he invests it in mutual bonds, yielding 8.7%, before he is fired from
his job? If not, calculate the probablitity of him
ever working in a professional symphony orchestra again!
2. Jethro has been playing the double
bass in a symphony orchestra for 12 years, three months and seven days. Each
day, his inclination to practice decreases by the equation: (total days in the
orchestra) x 0.0076. Assuming he stopped practising
altogether four years, six months and three days ago, how long will it be
before he is completely unable to play the double bass?
3. Wilma plays in the second violin section, but specializes in making disparaging remarks about
conductors and other musicians. The probability of her making a negative
comment about any given musician is 4 chances in 7, and for conductors is 16
chances out of 17. If there are 103 musicians in the orchestra and the
orchestra sees 26 different conductors each year, how many negative remarks
does Wilma make in a two-year period? How does this change if five of the
musicians are also conductors? What if six of the conductors are also
musicians?
4. Horace is the General Manager of an
important symphony orchestra. He tries to hear at least four concerts a year.
Assuming that at each concert the orchestra plays a minimum of three pieces per
concert, what are the chances that Horace can avoid hearing a single work by
Mozart, Beethoven or Brahms in the next ten years?
5. Betty plays in the viola section.
Despite her best efforts she is unable to play with the rest of the orchestra
and, on average, plays 0.3528 seconds behind the rest of the viola section,
which is already 0.16485 seconds behind the rest of the orchestra. If the
orchestra is moving into a new concert hall with a reverberation time of 2.7
seconds, will she be able to continue playing this way undetected? 6. Ralph loves
to drink coffee. Each week he drinks three more cups of coffee than Harold, who
drinks exactly one third the amount that the entire brass section consumes in
beer. How much longer is Ralph going to live?
7. Rosemary is unable to play in keys
with more than three sharps or flats without making an inordinate number of
mistakes. Because her colleagues in the cello section are also struggling in
these passages she has so far been able to escape
detection. What is the total number of hours they would all have to practice to play the complete works of Richard Strauss?
Memorandum
From: EFFICIENCY & TICKET, LTD.,
Management Consultants
To: Chairman, The London Symphony Orchestra
Re: Schubert's Symphony No. 8 in B minor.
After attending a rehearsal of this work we make the following observations and recommendations:
Translation:
Takuya ABE has graciously provided of many of these
jokes.
Can't find your favorite joke here? Send
it to me.
This page was orginally found at www.mit.edu
somewhere. I grabbed it and reformatted it.
Last modified 03/30/2010. 15:32:01