The closest instrument to the human voice?

[EuphTubaBassBone]

What is the closest instrument to the human voice???

I have been told that it was the tuba, but others have told me the trombone...

Does anyone actually know?

[Donn]

Does anyone actually know?

Yes, it's the saxophone, probably alto or tenor depending on the particular voice you have in mind. Use a small chambered mouthpiece but without a big baffle, I would think.

[jon112780]

KAZOO

[tubaguy9]

My thought would be trombone...out of wind instruments (discounting the kazoo)...

[Dean E]

What is the closest instrument to the human voice???
. . . .

Peter Frampton's guitar is the instrument with which I am most familiar. He used a commercial talkbox.

For expressiveness, I vote for sax and violin.

Several years ago, the New York Times did a series on the "best" of the millennium. The best instrument was the human voice, exemplified by a throat-singing monk, as I recall.

[oedipoes]

euphonium

[sloan]

all of them - played correctly

[Donn]

all of them - played correctly

No, correctly played they're supposed to sound like angel voices. Except the saxophone.

[Jobey Wilson]

I recently read "The Princpals & Art of Singing" by Olga Averino...great book!! Kind of a singer's take on Song & Wind. A friend's mother (who wrote the forward for the book) loaned it to me, and I told her that I was shocked that Averino mentioned (numerous times) that certain principals did not apply to instrumentalists...many of these ideas are my personal philosophy & approach to the tuba. She replied that some people mentioned this to Olga after publication...she whole-heartedly agreed & stated she had recenly discovered that the French Horn was the closest to the human voice.

Great book...quick, easy read...check it out!!

Oh, & I like the "all of them, played correctly " comment...jobey

[J.c. Sherman]

The serpent. And its pretty much the only instrument conceived and designed to do so.

J.c.S.

[pgym]

The serpent. And its pretty much the only instrument conceived and designed to do so.

Although, according to Doug Yeo, Handel, upon hearing a serpent for the first time, is purported to have remarked, "Aye, but not the Serpent that seduced Eve."

[Dustytuba]

We have been bringing church service/worship services to nursing homes for the last 5 years. We use a 100 year old Eb Martin tuba to provide the melody line to old favorite hymns. I feel the mellow tones of the tuba are an inspiration to our congregations. We have residents who have forgotten how to speak or sing because of memory loss, etc. and the low mellow tones seem to stimulate that part of the memory that helps them recall all of the verses to an old hymn like Amazing Grace. Our very unscientific research seems to prove that the tuba is the one instrument everyone can sing to and thus is the closest instrument to the human voice.

[J.c. Sherman]

The serpent. And its pretty much the only instrument conceived and designed to do so.

Although, according to Doug Yeo, Handel, upon hearing a serpent for the first time, is purported to have remarked, "Aye, but not the Serpent that seduced Eve."

Handel never heard Doug play

[JCalkin]

Does anyone actually know?

Yes, it's the saxophone, probably alto or tenor depending on the particular voice you have in mind. Use a small chambered mouthpiece but without a big baffle, I would think.

IIRC, I read somewhere that Percy Grainger agreed with you on the saxophone being most like the human voice, and that's why he featured it so prominently in his works.

Anyone confirm or deny?

[ZNC Dandy]

What would be interesting to me, is to know what instrument others think their voice sounds like?

[pgym]

We have residents who have forgotten how to speak or sing because of memory loss, etc. and the low mellow tones seem to stimulate that part of the memory that helps them recall all of the verses to an old hymn like Amazing Grace. Our very unscientific research seems to prove that the tuba is the one instrument everyone can sing to and thus is the closest instrument to the human voice.

Wow! Talk about a non-sequitur!

Have you tried it on a double bass, bass or contrabass trombone, bass or contrabass sax, contrabass trumpet, or other low range instrument to eliminate the possibility that it's the range the instrument plays in, rather than the instrument, that triggers the recall?

Furthermore, all the ability to sing with an instrument demonstrates is that the singers can hear or otherwise perceive the vibrations put out by the instrument. It proves nothing about the closeness of the instrument's sound to the human voice.

[tbn.al]

We have residents who have forgotten how to speak or sing because of memory loss, etc. and the low mellow tones seem to stimulate that part of the memory that helps them recall all of the verses to an old hymn like Amazing Grace. Our very unscientific research seems to prove that the tuba is the one instrument everyone can sing to and thus is the closest instrument to the human voice.

Wow! Talk about a non-sequitur!

Have you tried it on a double bass, bass or contrabass trombone, bass or contrabass sax, contrabass trumpet, or other low range instrument to eliminate the possibility that it's the range the instrument plays in, rather than the instrument, that triggers the recall?

Furthermore, all the ability to sing with an instrument demonstrates is that the singers can hear or otherwise perceive the vibrations put out by the instrument. It proves nothing about the closeness of the instrument's sound to the human voice.

Hmmmmm........You really are a lawyer, aren't you?

[Donn]

Hmmmmm........You really are a lawyer, aren't you?

The ability to reason isn't limited to lawyers.

(And while the post in question did use a Latin phrase, I would really deduct a point - non sequitur does not require a hyphen!)

[Bob Kolada]

My voice? Probably bass trombone.

[k001k47]

What would be interesting to me, is to know what instrument others think their voice sounds like?

My voice sounds -and resonates- like organ pedal notes.