What happened to the recorder?

Today I discovered that whoever lives in the house two doors down from me is not only learning the drums, they've taken up electric guitar. Either that or they're forming a band of beginners.

There's nothing quite like hearing the same rhythmical bang of a drum kit every day for hours at a time. Except perhaps what sounds like jerky chords being plucked repeatedly on an electric guitar.

What's the most annoying instrument your neighbour has been learning to play?

I imagine the bagpipes would make the ears bleed. Don't get me wrong, I actually enjoy the sound of a soulful lone piper or even a band of them.

I've been to the Edinburgh Military Tattoo (both the original in Scotland's capital and the travelling version in Sydney) and my nephew plays the pipes but I imagine the first time he or anyone else nestled it beneath their armpit it sounded pretty brutal.

I don't think I'd like a neighbour to play the harp. You might think it's sound calming but I reckon if it woke you up in the morning you might imagine you'd died in your sleep and start looking about for the pearly gates.

The tuba, trumpet, trombone or pretty much anything in the brass section might be a bit trying too. Remember, we're talking about learner musicians here, not skilled blues saxophonists.

The sax, clarinet and anything that uses a reed would also be risky. I learnt* to the play the clarinet for two years while I was in high school, so I know just how bad the instrument can sound with an old, chipped reed.

*A point of clarification, in this context when I say learnt, I mean I had a clarinet, turned up to lessons once a week and even ended up sitting in the school band for a while but I never practised and therefore never actually learnt to play anything more than Hot Cross Buns.