Musicians And Their Instruments Quiz

Answer: Paul McCartney

Paul McCartney was originally a guitarist, but The Beatles needed someone to play bass guitar, and so the task fell to him. McCartney used a Hofner bass in those halcyon Beatles days, and for many years afterwards.

The Hofner differed in appearance from the model shown, being much more delicate looking. In fact it resembles a violin rather than a big bass. Because it was so closely associated with Macca, few other bassists used a Hofner.

You may have noted that the bass pictured has just four strings, which was traditional, although some have five or six strings.

Answer: Pete Seeger

Pete Seeger (1919-2014) was one of the most influential singer-songwriters and musical interpreters of the last half of the 20th Century. In his world of folk music he was always a leader in campaigning for peace, civil rights, human rights and the environment. Inscribed on his banjo was the legend: "This machine surrounds hatred and forces it to surrender".

In fact Pete Seeger invented and used a long-neck version of the banjo. Seeger arranged for an instrument maker to take a traditional banjo and insert three additional frets. This enabled him to tune the instrument to suit the lower register of his voice.

So, let's go with a few of those well-worn banjo jokes:
Question: What's the difference between a banjo and an onion?
Answer: Nobody cries when you cut up a banjo.
Question: What's worse than a banjo?
Answer: Two banjos.

Answer: James Galway

James Galway was brought up in what he described as "extreme poverty" in Belfast, where his father worked in the shipyards in World Two and later in night shifts cleaning buses. His mother worked in a flax mill. A musical escape came from the young James Galway through playing the flute in marching bands.

In a 2017 newspaper interview he said: ''It was a lot of fun. It was interesting because the flute band I was in didn't just play marches; the first band was a sort of marching band with flutes and drums; in the second band, 39th Old Boys, they had different sorts of flutes like melody flutes - so this was a different sort of life because they played things like the Unfinished Symphony; when I went to London, I knew all these pieces and the other kids didn't.''

While Galway went on to became one of the greatest flautists of his generation, playing in symphony orchestras everywhere, he will always be best known for his version of John Denver's "Annie's Song". It reached number three in the UK singles charts in 1978. He was knighted for services to music in 2001.

Answer: John Bonham

'Rolling Stone' opined in 2016 that "On the very first cut of the very first Led Zeppelin LP, John Bonham changed rock drumming forever."

John Bonham was born in England in 1948 and died there at the all-too-young age of 32. He played with a number of bands before co-forming Led Zeppelin with Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones in 1968. Just like the Beatles a few years earlier, it was the coming together of several musical geniuses. In 2020, 'Classic Rock' magazine compiled a list of "The 50 best rock bands of all time" and put Led Zeppelin at number one - ahead of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. They disbanded after Bonham's death in 1980. (Although there were to be reunions by the remaining members from time to time.)

Bonham brought a lot of influences into his drumming. Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy said: "Bonzo's sound came from a combination of brute power, subtle finesse, and impeccable groove. John Bonham is the only one who could ever truly sound like John Bonham. That sound was him - not necessarily his drums." The wrong answers were all American or Canadian drummers.

And so, a drumming joke: How many rock drummers does it take to change a lightbulb? Five; one to screw it in and the other four to discuss how John Bonham would have done it better.

Answer: Clarence Clemons

Also known as 'the big man', Clemons was born in Norfolk County, Virginia in 1942 and died in West Palm Beach, Florida in 2011. From 1972 he was key member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band.

Clemons came to rock music as a diversion, he had the potential to be a good (American) Football player and had trials with several NFL teams. A serious car crash forced a change in direction.

Clemons started playing sax at the age of six and by the age of 18 was recording with some of the top names in jazz. At one stage in about September 1971 he was playing with Norman Seldin & the Joyful Noyze, whose lead singer was Springsteen's ex-girlfriend Karen Cassidy. While they were playing a residency at the Wonder Bar in Asbury Park, New Jersey, The Boss happened along. A few nights later, Clemons sat in for a set at a Springsteen gig at the Student Prince. In June 1972, Springsteen reconnected with Joyful Noise and asked Clemons to join his band. They became close personal and professional friends.

Answer: Tommy Emmanuel

"Nothing is more beautiful than a guitar, except, possibly two," is a saying attributed to the composer Frédéric Chopin. Many guitarists have named Tommy Emmanuel as among the most influential finger pickers of all time.

Born in Australia in 1955, he was taught guitar by his mother at the age of four and was making money from it by the age of six. He developed his technique by practicing for 16 hours a day. In early years he was part of a family band that toured Australia and he went on to play with several well-known artists.

The young Emmanuel was influenced by some of the top guitarists around at the time, including the American Chet Atkins and the English Hank B. Marvin. He later wrote: ""I heard a track of [Atkins'] on the radio and did a total backflip. That lovely fingerpicking led to my picking up the guitar. When I was in my mid-teens, I sent Chet a fan letter and he wrote me back--I've still got his letter. In the early '80s, I went to Nashville for the sole purpose of meeting him." They went on to play together for several years.

The wrong answers were also guitarists, but more noted with the electric versions.

Answer: Elton John

Elton John had his first UK top ten hit with "Your Song" in 1971. After that he had more than 70 singles in the UK top 40, 10 at number one. "Your Song" topped out at number four, but there to be 15 more releases before he hit the top spot with a duet with Kiki Dee "Don't Go Breaking My Heart". In the USA, he topped the Hot 100 nine times.

In 2023, Elton John said he would largely retire from performing at the end of his 'Farewell Yellow Brick Road' tour - but did not rule out occasional performances. That tour was estimated to be the biggest ever at $800 million. The 'Sunday Times' Rich List in 2023 estimated his worth at £450m ($560m), putting him joint 309th on the list. (Since you are fretting to know it, the wealthiest musician on the list was Sir Paul McCartney at almost £1 billion ($1.25bn).

Elton John was knighted in 1998. Six years earlier he founded the Elton John AIDS Foundation, which went on to raise more than $600m

Answer: Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong has been named in several lists as the best ever jazz trumpeter. (The instrument associated with the wrong answers was the clarinet.)

Louis Armstrong - 'Satchmo' - was born in New Orleans 1901 and died in 1971. He was noted as a vocalist as well as trumpeter. His interest in the trumpet began at the age of 11 and by the early 1920s he had moved to Chicago where the jazz scene was particularly strong.

Armstrong felt straightjacketed by the tight arrangements that were then the norm and is credited with revolutionising jazz by going off on extended solos. He toured extensively with numerous bands, and although he had sung as well as played, in the 1950s, he later began to employ his throaty, some said rough, singing voice to its best extent. The clue in the question is to one of his best songs, "What A Wonderful World".

Answer: Joshua Bell

The wrong answers were all cellists. (Or as the singer Harry Chapin called the cello, "pregnant violins".)

Joshua Bell was born in Indiana in 1955. He was a child prodigy, first playing violin at the age of four; was a soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra at 14; and made his Carnegie Hall debut at 17. He went on to become one of the best selling recording violinists of all time.

Many of his performances were on a 300-year-old Stradivarius which he reportedly paid almost $4 million for. Bell also worked on movie scores and in January 2007 as part of an experiment by 'The Washington Post' he performed incognito as a busker at a DC metro station. (He picked up $32.17 for his efforts and just one person recognised him.)

Answer: Jimi Hendrix

The wrong answers were all born in England. The four named were the top four on that list.

John Allen Hendrix was born in November, 1942 in Seattle, Washington, and died in September, 1970 in London, England. Incredibly for someone who had such an influence on so many, his career spanned just four years. Yet in the brief time he was credited as altering the course of popular music.

'Encyclopaedia Britannia' noted he was: "An instrumentalist who radically redefined the expressive potential and sonic palette of the electric guitar, he was the composer of a classic repertoire of songs ranging from ferocious rockers to delicate, complex ballads."

Hendrix found fame in London at the height of Beatlemania, and was noted for covers of songs by the Fab Four. Paul McCartney and George Harrison were in an audience when Hendrix played the song "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" three days after that album was released.

McCartney said it was "the ultimate compliment." "It's still obviously a shining memory for me because I admired him so much anyway, he was so accomplished. To think that that album had meant so much to him as to actually do it by the Sunday night, three days after the release....I put that down as one of the great honours of my career."