Poll: Turntables, an instrument?!

[AgDr_ODST]

EDIT: X3 This guy ^ has beaten me to my point on Stomp but it still stands

It takes time and effort to make effectively learn how to use turntables(which I do think is an instrument) to make music just as one might need equal time to make music with a broom. You need look no farther than
Stomp(a performing arts show in which they among other things use common items like brooms, and metal trashcan lids to make music) to see how Im backing my claim up

 

[Tipsy Giant]

Eric B and Rakim (which ever one of them used turntables) shows a deftness of touch and ability to utilise turntables to produce beautiful sounds/music.

It was Eric B, and god was he awesome.

It dawned on me that I was listening to 'Paid in Full' on the way to work today savouring a few last moments of pleasure listening to the line "The R to the A to the K I Am" meaning I should have been able to work it out. But yes they he was awesome.

Great duo, I ain't No Joke is still one of my all time classics

 

[angelbe2232]

To say that DJ's are musicians is the same as saying Mr.Brainwash is an artist. While they both can turn out beautiful and amazing things, they both are using someone else's work for your own gain.

From my understanding, a turntable is just a record player with some extra options. So, to say they are instruments, to me, would be the same as saying auto-tune is an instrument.

 

[AgDr_ODST]

To say that DJ's are musicians is the same as saying Mr.Brainwash is an artist. While they both can turn out beautiful and amazing things, they both are using someone else's work for your own gain.

From my understanding, a turntable is just a record player with some extra options. So, to say they are instruments, to me, would be the same as saying auto-tune is an instrument.

this guy is a DJ and heres one of his best tracks I'd dare you to try too denounce the musical and artistic merit in what he's doing:

 

[Verlander]

Like a comb and paper, they can be an instrument, but also have another use

 

[SageRuffin]

While I love turntables and the amazing things people can do with them (Jazzy Jeff anyone?), even I think it would be a bit of a stretch to call them an instrument in leagues with a woodwind, or brass instrument (just to name a few of course).

Hip-hop for life! [/obligatory declaration]

 

[Accountfailed]

turntable (tûrntbl)
1.
a. The circular horizontal rotating platform of a phonograph on which the record is placed.
b. A phonograph exclusive of amplifying circuitry and speakers.

instrument (nstr-mnt)
5. Music: A device for playing or producing music: a keyboard instrument.

(src=www.thefreedictionary.com)


So that would be a no, because the turntable is designed for playing music and not producing it, it cannot be an *actual* musical instrument.

My computer chair makes a squeak when I turn it 90 degrees, I can't call that a musical instrument can I?

Before I have to clarify this, I'm not saying that it isn't an important -nay sometimes crucial- element in music. But you really can't call it an instrument, what you do with a turntable is in action the equivalent to putting a guitar up to the amp that its plugged in to. yeah, so it produces a sound, and sure, maybe somebody can take that sound and turn into some good music, but that doesn't make the amp a new instrument in it's own right. It's like saying that scratching words onto a chalkboard with a knife makes the knife a piece of chalk because it can write on the chalkboard.

 

[TheSolemnHypnotic]

Guitar= instrument
Bass=instrument
Drums= instrument
Vocals= instrument
Piano/Keyboard= instrument
ETC.= instrument
Turntables=Tool

 

[zehydra]

Is it possible to create original sounds without the aid of pre-existing music/sounds with a turntable? If yes, then yes it is. If no, then it is not.

 

[darkorion69]

My ex-gf was a DJ, and imho her Turntable Setup was not an Instrument, because to me an Instrument is used by a Musician to make their own music...not scratch and sample other Artists work.

I find it detestable that an already generally crappy 'music style' like Hip-Hop is trying to steal all the elements of Electronica (turntables, auto-tune, electronic music, etc.) like it stole everything it is today from Rap and RB in the late 80's and early 90's.

Hip-Hop is nothing more than pop for the 'Urban Cool Kids' imho. That being said, I listen to some Hip-Hop because some of it is good music.

 

[Jonluw]

I'mma say no. They are not designed to produce music, they are designed to alter pre-produced music. If they are to be called instruments, you would have to call cd-players instruments too, since I can put a CD in one and smack it to make it make strange noises.

I have a mac with an editing program that can do all sorts of funky things with a pre-recorded song, but I don't call it an instrument; I call it an editing-tool. You may call a turntable a real-time editing tool perhaps.

Spoiler: Of course, that doesn't stop them from being neat

 

[Hashime]

For sure if used right.

 

[CrashBang]

If you can't write music for it, it isn't an instrument. Simply a method of making noises that might sound pleasurable. There are no notes, there is no tuning. Your range of sounds is limited to whatever you happen to have put into it at the time.

This describes my argument perfectly and better than I could've. I don't hate them, despite not being a fan of most club music, but I agree that they're not instruments

 

[Davey Woo]

It aids in the production of music, and it is an instrument.
So yes, it's a musical instrument.

 

[Valiance]

No, they aren't. Hand me a musical instrument, and I can play any song you name with some practice. It might sound a little strange to hear "Bohemian Rhapsody" on a Flute, but the G will be a G, the F will be an F, and the A will be an A. With a turntable, you are completely incapable of playing any song other than the one you have sitting on it at the moment.

If I hand a sitar player a guitar, can he play every note of his scale on it, or on any western instrument for that matter, I think you are a little hung up on notation.

A single drum..... only plays the one note, is that an instrument?

You do know that drums can be tuned, right? And they can be hit in different ways to change volume and pitch, such as hitting the rim, or hitting it with a higher velocity, or hitting the center of a snare as opposed to the edge, or hitting it with the side of your stick, etc...

I would equate those to different scratching techniques, but you're asking this on a gaming forum where everyone's a metal-head anyway.

I have a mac with an editing program that can do all sorts of funky things with a pre-recorded song, but I don't call it an instrument; I call it an editing-tool. You may call a turntable a real-time editing tool perhaps.

Also, there are musical groups that use those editing tools in real time on stage just like some people use turntables. For example, they would be changing settings on a phaser, flanger, EQ, turning off channels to create solos, sequencing another instrument's music on the fly to create harmonies, etc.

Anyway, saying that "It needs a record on it" is not a logical rebuttal. Doesn't a guitar need strings on it? Don't those strings make a different sound if you put different ones on? Doesn't a guitar need pickups? Don't they make a different sound depending on which you use?

Loading samples or using samples in music has been done for a very, very long time. Two turntables and a mixer allow you to manipulate those sounds in interesting ways, creating loops, repetition, modifying the arrangement, or editing the lyrics.

Take this for example: http://www.soundclick.com/player/single_player.cfm?songid=4554800&q=hi&newref=1

^ This is someone looping some shit on top of an old financial success record. (Give it some time, it kicks in at about the 1 minute mark. I guess 0:53)

Throughout the song the turntable becomes the melody, the lead instrument, even around 1:27 sounding as if the speaker is saying "I realize...I rule, I rule."

It's the kind of thing that is one lame loop on top of an old record without the turntablism, but a pretty interesting song with it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In my opinion, if you have a tool that can assist in rearranging a song, it should not be undervalued. Turntables, like the human voice, can be used for other things can creating music. However, when a skilled performance artist uses it as an instrument, I think I'd say it's an instrument. People bang on pots, trash cans, and whatever they can find.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83TYDtYwir0

^ I guess that a shopping cart was not designed to be a musical instrument, but it can be, depending on how it's used. And that's my point. Turntables can be used as musical instruments. While it is common to use them for playback, shopping carts are commonly used to carry groceries. A guitar can be used as a weapon, but it is commonly used as an instrument.

It is whatever you decide it to be, is all I'm trying to say.

 

[K_Dub]

Way I see it, if an object can produce a number of noises or sounds in a melodic or rhythmic manner, then it's an instrument.

 

[Yellowbeard]

in the way golf is a sport.

Golf is a sport. It's just a terrible one.

 

[bdcjacko]

in the way golf is a sport.

Golf is a sport. It's just a terrible one.

My point exactly.

 

[stubbmann]

If you can't write music for it, it isn't an instrument. Simply a method of making noises that might sound pleasurable. There are no notes, there is no tuning. Your range of sounds is limited to whatever you happen to have put into it at the time.

Ok, play me an F-sharp on a drum kit. There's no notes there, and the "tuning" isn't really the sort you're talking about I think.

I would say they're a percussion instrument that happens to be able to do non-percussion things, and doesn't require you to actually hit anything. If you can use something to make music, it's an instrument, and I've definitely seen DJs make music.

Not MANY, but still...