guitarlesson wrote:Irminsul wrote:No, incorrect. A musical instruments is a device that is designed for one purpose - to make music on it. Following your logic, a banjo is actually a doorstop merely because it can function as one.
It's not my logic you're arguing with... it's the dictionary, which has a bit more authority. I'm not just saying "No! You're wrong!" I'm quoting sources based on research.
And following your logic, one could argue that a jug, washboard and wash tub are not musical instruments, but Jug Bands have a history going back over 70 years, while you with your opinions on the matter go back a mere 47.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jug_band
Yeah I thought I'd walk into it with that banjo comment. Poor banjo players, they get so much sh*t....
Anyway, I cannot see how you can compare a musical instrument to a computer not only because a musical instrument is, as I said, a piece of equipment specifically designed and crafted for one purpose...to make music...but for a more esoteric reason. You made mention of your comp being like a piano - you key in certain commands to make different tones and it plays them. Seriously, nothing could be further from the truth. I am a lifelong pianist, and I can tell you that its much MUCH more than striking a key with your finger. It is an immensely evocative, sensitive instrument capable of such a wide range of expression, that such one dimensional terms like note-on-note-off are totally off its charts. Even though I have used computers for 25 years, and still do every day, I would never propose that they are the same as these fine instruments, that are such an immediate outlet for a musicians soul. They cannot be replaced. Even now, when I submit compositions and scores to the various programs I participate in yearly, they call the computer recording of your piece, no matter how nicely crafted, a "MIDI realization" and nothing more. That's because it can NEVER be anything more.
Dueling with dictionaries is really a shallow form of discussion. There are issues here much too transcendant for that.
