We all know what a xylophone is. It's a horizontal instrument made up of a number of parallel bars (in my experience typically made out of wood or plastic, depending on the quality of the xylophone) that you hit with a stick to create notes.
I even used one in a video.
But why do we know what a xylophone is? It isn't used in popular music. Unless you have a kid, you probably don't have one in the house. There are lots of unusual musical instruments that you probably don't know - the Aquaggaswack, the Daxophone, the Trump (pardon me), and the Skatar to name but a few.
I think it's because of its first letter.
Think about it - when you were learning the alphabet, there was probably any number of words for other letters. In comparison, "C" was probably associated with Cat, but it could have been C for Cake, C for Candle, or C for Cannula.
Maybe not the last one - but you get my drift.
But X? It's either "X for Xylophone", or occasionally "X for Xmas" which feels like a cop out by someone that couldn't be bothered to write "Christmas" (that's a point - "C" could be for "Christmas"). The only other choice I've seen was a story that was "X is for Fox" which I think totally messes with kids heads.
So as a result, we all learned when we grew up that X is for xylophone, and now we all know what one is.
I think we've all learned something today...
Just a last comment - according to Blogger I'm a couple of hundred views away from hitting 70,000 views on this blog. Thanks so much to everyone that's read my blog, commented, shared it... all that kind of thing is really appreciated. There's a likelihood in the region of 99.9% that I'm not going to make this blogging lark into any kind of career, but it's an enjoyable hobby that helps me practice my writing, and it does help that I know that at least one or two people will be reading it. Thanks again!
