What do you call a groupie who hangs around and annoys musicians?
A bodhran player.
What is the difference between a bodhran player and a terrorist?
Terrorists have sympathisers.
How do you know when there is a bodhran player at your front door?
The knocking gets faster and faster and faster.
What do bodhran players use for birth control?
Their personalities.
What’s the best thing to play a bodhran with?
A razor blade.
- Why are orchestra intermissions limited to 20 minutes?
- So you don’t have to retrain the drummers.
- What do you call someone who hangs out with musicians?
- A drummer.
- What did the drummer get on his IQ test?
- Drool.
- How do you know when a drummer is knocking at your door?
- The knock always slows down.
- How do you get a drummer to play an accelerando?
- Ask him to play in 4/4 at a steady 120 bpm.
- Why do bands have bass players?
- To translate for the drummer.
- Did you hear about the time the bass player locked his keys in the car?
- It took two hours to get the drummer out.
- How many drummers does it take to change a lightbulb?
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- “Why? Oh, wow! Is it like dark, man?”
- Only one, but he’ll break ten bulbs before figuring out that they can’t just be pushed in.
- Two: one to hold the bulb, and one to turn his throne (but only after they figure out that you have to turn the bulb).
- Twenty. One to hold the bulb, and nineteen to drink until the room spins.
- None. They have a machine to do that.
- Why is it good that drummers have a half-ounce more brains than horses?
- So they don’t disgrace themselves in parades.
- What’s the difference between a drummer and a drum machine?
- 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.”
- What’s the range of a tuba?
- Twenty yards if you’ve got a good arm!
- How many tuba players does it take to change a light bulb?
- Three! One to hold the bulb and two to drink ’till the room spins.
- 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.
- How do you fix a broken tuba?
- With a tuba glue.
These two tuba players walk past a bar…
Well, it could happen!
- How do you get your viola section to sound like the horn section?
- Have them miss every other note.
- How can you make a trombone sound like a french horn?
- Stick your hand in the bell and play a lot of wrong notes.
- What is the difference between a french horn section and a ‘57 Chevy?
- You can tune a ‘57 Chevy.
- What do you get when you cross a French Horn player and a goalpost?
- A goalpost that can’t march.
- How many French horn players does it take to change a lightbulb?
- Just one, but he’ll spend two hours checking the bulb for alignment and leaks.
- Why is the French horn a divine instrument?
- Because a man blows in it, but only God knows what comes out of it.
- How do horn players traditionally greet each other?
-
- “Hi. I played that last year.”
- “Hi. I did that piece in junior high.”
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!”
- What’s the difference between a bass trombone and a chain saw?
-
- Vibrato, though you can minimize this difference by holding the chain saw very still.
- It’s easier to improvise on a chainsaw.
- How can you make a french horn sound like a trombone?
-
- Take your hand out of the bell and lose all sense of taste.
- Take your hand out of the bell and miss all of the notes!
- How do you know when a trombone player is at your door?
- The doorbell drags.
- What is a gentleman?
- Somebody who knows how to play the trombone, but doesn’t.
- What do you call a trombonist with a beeper and a cellular telephone?
- A optimist.
- What is the diffference between a dead trombone player lying in the road, and a dead squirrel lying in the road?
- The squirrel might have been on his way to a gig.
- How many trombonists does it take to change a lightbulb?
- Just one, but he’ll do it too loudly.
- How do you know when there’s a trombonist at your door?
- His hat says “Domino’s Pizza”
- How do you improve the aerodynamics of a trombonist’s car?
- Take the Domino’s Pizza sign off the roof.
- What kind of calendar does a trombonist use for his gigs?
- “Year-At-A-Glance.”
- How can you tell which kid on a playground is the child of a trombonist?
- He doesn’t know how to use the slide, and he can’t swing.
- What is the dynamic range of the bass trombone?
- On or off.
It is difficult to trust anyone whose instrument changes shape as he plays it!
- How many trumpet players does it take to change a lightbulb?
- Five. One to handle the bulb and four to tell him how much better they could have done it.
- What’s the difference between a Trumpet player and the rear end of a horse?
- I don’t know either.
- What’s the difference between trumpet players and government bonds?
- Government bonds eventually mature and earn money.
- How to trumpet players traditionally greet each other?
- “Hi. I’m better than you.”
- How do you know when a trumpet player is at your door?
- The doorbell shrieks!
- Why can’t a gorilla play trumpet?
- 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!”