Unusual Ensembles, They should sound weird, but they actually sound GREAT Options

[all ears]

The mandolin that forced its way through our front door sounds great with acoustic guitar...everybody but me knew that, but now I know it too!

Son's pretty taken with a proposal to arrange some rather reflective pieces for piano, guitar, female voice...and sho! The sho is similar to the Chinese sheng, a bamboo free-reed mouth organ that usually plays long chords with a wailing intonation.

What other duos and ensemble combinations do you enjoy...or dream of enjoying? And what kind of music would they suit?

[shelley]

I play in a small ensemble consisting of two mandolins and three guitars and we have lots of fun, also getting some interesting effects when one of the mandolins plays one of the inner voices instead of always the first voice.

The leader of the other guitar ensemble I play in has a flautist wife and they give concerts as a duo. I don't suppose it's really an unusual combination, but it's not one that would have occurred to me.

Heard James Galway and Kazuhito Yama.s.h.i.t.a (blooming sensor!) playing La Ronde des Lutins by Bazzini on the radio - wow!

And son and I enjoy playing clarinet and flute duos. We had great fun with his Christmas carol duo book - transposing for the flute while sightreading made for a very educative experience!

[all ears]

Clarinet and flute...I wouldn't have thought of that, but it makes good sense when I try to imagine it!

Guitar and flute do sound good together. I like playing my wooden flute with son's classical guitar, and son's teacher quite often gives concerts with a flautist (standard flute).

[river]

there's a few people i often play with - they play electric guitar, bass guitar, and guitar/mandolin, and myself on fiddle/flute, which is probably an unusual collection of instruments, but it works pretty well. i think we're about to add a keyboard...

also saw the Phil Beer Band recently. the lineup was, i believe, fiddle/electric guitar, electric guitar/bass guitar, melodeon, and acoustic guitar/double bass. i really don't have the words to describe just how awesome they were.

[shelley]

Just remembered we saw a trio playing tango nuevo and other latin american music on acoustic guitar, bandoneon and double bass. They were really good.

[Arundodonuts]

also saw the Phil Beer Band recently. the lineup was, i believe, fiddle/electric guitar, electric guitar/bass guitar, melodeon, and acoustic guitar/double bass. i really don't have the words to describe just how awesome they were.

Of course that sort of line up goes back to the folk/rock period in the early seventies pioneered by (amongst others) Ashley Hutchings. The original "Morris On" album is still superb as are the more recent revivals of the "genre".

I can't say I'm terribly keen on the Phil Beer Band though.

Another couple of line ups I like:

String Quartet, piano and harmonium (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif) as used by Schonberg for arrangements of Johann Strauss waltzes.

A fantastic album by Philip Pickett (he of the Globe musicians) called "The Bones of all Men" - arrangements of 16th and 17th century pieces. Instrumentation includes, shawms, crumhorns, recorders, virginals, fiddle, electric guitar and bass, drums.

[all ears]

I agree, Shelly, Latin American and South American music have this line-up well sorted. Have an accordion factory not far from us, and a jazzy string ensemble...the two just need to be put together...

What about Griere's violin and double bass combo? It's not only "upside down" with the melody mostly down the bottom, it really exploits the viola range of the violin (or the viola, to be scrupulous). I like it a lot, would like to hear more music for these two instruments.

[monkey flute]

hi flute and guitar is commonplace in our band along with congas percussion and voices i am going to add saxophone soon. on my four track recorder (zoom thing) i have played flute on one track then sax on another and sung on the third it was different (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blush.gif) (my sax playing needs to improve) i like to hear different instruments together that are not normally played so

monkey flute (IMG:style_emoticons/default/party1.gif)

[eirlys]

My OH plays in a band with 2 guitars, 1 guitar doubling viola, percussion in the form of cajon and bongos, various people doing shakers, and all 4 of them singing.

I always thought that viola sounded like it shouldn't fit in that set up, but it really really works.

[violinma]

My daughter plays in a very unusual ensemble at school; violin, piano, flute, clarinet and cornet!
Music teacher works quite hard with them to arrange suitable pieces and it sounds much better than anyone would guess!!

Violinma

[shelley]

Am listening to the radio and they're playing music from Purcell's 'King Arthur' - played by cello, electric guitar, double bass, bandoneon and harpsichord. Weird, but it works quite well.

[des]

I've seen a couple of concerts recently with wierd ensembles - one with piano, violin, sax and trumpet, which worked surprisingly well! The other was double bass, cello viola and electric guitar, which was awful, though I suspect that was the fault of the music rather than the ensemble..