Since there were many instrument names that Mu Yanxi didn’t recognize, she had to use her immortal brain to search the Dao web while reading the introduction to Music Path basics.
During this process, Mu Yanxi learned about a function she had previously discovered but hadn’t used much—forums.
The Dao web had many forums where cultivators could leave messages, ask questions, and discuss the Dao. Different forums had their own unique characteristics or themes.
Mu Yanxi went to a music cultivator forum to learn about instrument classification.
This forum was called Sound Cultivation Forum, where many professional music cultivators or those who dabbled in the Music Path posted discussions. It was said you could even find many precious pirated score links there.
However, Mu Yanxi paid more attention to the instrument section discussions. Many people there discussed the selection, maintenance, and techniques of instrument-type divine artifacts and treasures.
From this, Mu Yanxi learned that in the eyes of music cultivators, instruments were also divided into hierarchies.
The highest class was called noble instruments, referring to those capable of independently performing complete musical pieces, with numerous accompanying scores available, and even a large number of exclusive celestial music pieces.
For example, violins, pianos, harps, guzheng, flutes, and xiao all belonged to noble instruments. Mu Yanxi understood them as being like the spear and sword among divine artifacts—the most mainstream choices.
Next were instruments that could perform independently but lacked certain parts. They were best used in combination with other instruments to compensate for their deficiencies, often appearing in bands. Their exclusive repertoire was relatively smaller.
Drum kits, guitars, double basses, pipa, and erhu were jokingly called commoner instruments. Instruments like suona, trumpets, and huqin also fell into this category.
It was worth mentioning that someone on the forum specifically pointed out that instruments like guitars and pipa were suitable for singing while playing, making them favorites among song cultivators.
Their popularity in that circle was no less than noble instruments, perhaps even more widespread.
The next category consisted of instruments with single parts, unsuitable for solo performances, with only a few specially composed exclusive pieces for them.
Examples included bass guitars, bassoons, tubas, trombones, bagpipes, glockenspiels, bianzhong (chime stones), sheng, and most drums.
These instruments usually only appeared in orchestras. Music cultivators called them auxiliary instruments or supporting instruments, but according to the forum, their playful nickname was more popular—armless instruments.
Mu Yanxi also saw a post saying that some instruments used to be armless instruments, rarely used for solos. However, there had been specialists who mastered these instruments.
When they became grandmasters, they composed many exclusive pieces specifically for these instruments, elevating them to commoner instrument status. A typical example was the erhu.
Therefore, although most music cultivators were unwilling to cultivate armless instruments, they wouldn’t openly look down on them. After all, auxiliary instruments were important for orchestras and bands.
Someone had to cultivate auxiliary instruments to form complete ensembles. Moreover, many just lacked development, not potential.
Finally, at the bottom were those instruments with extremely single parts, almost impossible to form a complete musical piece through solo performance, only used to assist orchestras. Examples included maracas, triangles, cymbals, gongs, whistles, and jars.
These were jokingly called broken-arm instruments or no-arm instruments. They could hardly exist independently from an orchestra. Some extreme music cultivators even believed they couldn’t be considered real instruments.
However, these instruments had one advantage: they didn’t require users to have high Music Path talent or realm, nor did they need to comprehend complex scores.
They only needed to follow the orchestra’s accompaniment. There weren’t many complex techniques, and they were less prone to mistakes and backlash.
Whether for solo performances, bands, or orchestras, they all followed one rule: the more three-dimensional, complete, and complex the composition elements of a musical piece, the greater its power.
After reading all this, Mu Yanxi fully understood the key point of the orchestra versus band debate from a year ago—it lay within this hidden hierarchy of musical groups.
All truly talented Music Path geniuses wanted to cultivate noble instruments, allowing them to become independent musicians, even famous masters standing above all others. They wouldn’t have to defer to anyone, and everyone would treat them with respect.
Next were those forming bands. Most tended to cultivate those commoner instruments.
With just four or five different instruments playing together, they could form a complete celestial music piece. At critical moments, they could also stand independently, just not as powerfully as noble instruments.
Probably only the least talented and those dabbling in the Music Path would choose auxiliary instruments.
They lacked the ability to fight alone and the talent to cultivate noble instruments, so they hoped to tag along in orchestras, following the experts in their cultivation.
Among these three groups, noble instruments basically didn’t conflict with the latter two.
They could perform solos, join orchestras and bands, and even take the main position in music formations. It was precisely because of this versatility that they were called noble instruments.
But the conflict between bands and orchestras was significant.
Many commoner instruments used by bands, such as guitars, bass, and drum kits, could be replaced by more specialized instruments.
Those armless or even broken-arm instruments, although less effective in solo combat, when combined in an orchestra, could unleash more powerful divine abilities than commoner instruments. After all, they maximized specialization and support.
Thus, whether to form several small groups as bands or gather dozens of people to form an orchestra became an irreconcilable contradiction.
Forming an orchestra required many disciples to cultivate auxiliary instruments, which could hardly exist independently from the orchestra.
If in a specialized Music Path Sect, those disciples wouldn’t have such worries.
They could safely cultivate auxiliary instruments because Music Path Sects would have several large orchestras, ensuring they always had a place. Switching to other instruments would also be convenient.
But for disciples of the Spiritual Moon Sect, cultivating auxiliary instruments was a one-way road to darkness.
If they couldn’t test into the Great Sect and continue joining an orchestra, cultivating auxiliary instruments would be a waste.
It would be hard to find another place, as these instruments were too simple, with many potential replacements, and they couldn’t join bands either.
Most Spiritual Moon Sect disciples didn’t aim to enter the Great Sect. Their achievement levels normally wouldn’t allow them to test in anyway. Their goal was to graduate from the Sect and then seek to attach themselves to high-level cultivators.
In this situation, they would naturally prefer to form a band.
Even for high-level cultivators, spirit stones and other resources weren’t infinite. Supporting a band was the most cost-effective method.
Just supporting five to ten people was enough to assist their cultivation. Supporting an entire orchestra basically wasn’t something a single high-level cultivator could afford.
From this perspective, that Music Path genius’s plan was destined to fail. Her grand orchestra plan completely conflicted with the Spiritual Moon Sect’s foundational path.
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