Easiest/Hardest Musical Instruments to Learn

[Lufia Erim]

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If you ever get you hands on a pipe organ. First thing you do is pull out all the stops. Then press 1 key ( perferable in an empty church ). You will know where the expression " pulling out all the stops" comes from. Brace your ears.

 

[IndieForever]

I'm casting another vote for a keyboard, but not a piano. If you want to be a whole band, orchestra or choir, synth-group or guitarist, you need an electronic keyboard - more specifically, a workstation or arranger.

Firstly, they're easier to play than a piano; the weighted keys on a piano are hard work for a new player, whilst the semi-weighted keys on a good workstation still sense velocity (i.e. the harder you hit them, the louder the note) but without the strain.

Secondly, they are portable, unlike a piano. They're not lightweight, but you can take one to a party, round to a friend's house, wherever. You can plug headphones in whilst you're practicing and they can be hooked up to an amp for full-on hall-filling performances

Thirdly, you can compose full pieces on them, save your music to a USB stick, to an internal HD, to the cloud.

Finally, you can sound like a god, like Vangelis himself, using two fingers, even when you're starting out! These things are instant gratification which means you're unlikely to put it away disappointed or frustrated. As you get better, a workstation has the sounds and capabilities not to leave you needing more. Starting out? Play chords with one or two fingers. Hit the D key for a D major, hit the D and the C# together for a D minor. More advanced? Hit D, C# and C together for a Dm7. Or play them in full...

Now then. These things have a bit of a rep for being owned by blue-rinsed retirees who do nothing but play elevator music on them. This is mostly true, but it means you can pick up an ungigged second-hand one in mint condition for a fraction of what they cost new when these players upgrade to the latest and greatest.

We've got a Yamaha Tyros 4 in our studio which we use for basic composition because it's so quick to get ideas out and recorded. It's then taken to a PC-based workstation where we use stupidly expensive samples to record the final track, but don't think the workstations sound rubbish - they don't.

The Tyros 3 is pretty cheap these days, and there are tonnes to choose from Korg, Roland, Yamaha and many others.

I don't know what kind of music you like playing or writing, but I reckon with your musical background you could be playing stuff like this in a few months:

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And with a bit (perhaps a lot!) more practice:

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And if you don't like any of those, then bear in mind these machines will do everything from Arabic to Chinese, Eastern European to African styles, rhythms and sounds. Or dubstep, or trance, or chamber orchestra or soft rock, 80s synth-pop or big band or... well, you get the picture.

Now hit up Ebay or Craigslist for a cheap previous generation keyboard and buy one

 

[mysecondlife]

Easiest? The triangle.

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Not exactly rocket science, wouldn't you say?

Yes

The nyckelharpa, a traditional Swedish instrument, is a complete ***** to learn.

I just googled it. That looks unnecessarily complicated considering it doesn't sound different from violin.

 

[Dizchu]

The easiest instrument to learn that is also the most versatile in my opinion is the guitar. They come in so many varieties that I doubt there's any genre that a guitar cannot be used in.

There's the bass guitar which can be acoustic or electric, have 4 strings, 5, 6, 7 or even more. Then there's the acoustic guitar that can come in loads of different varieties like 6 string, 12 string, baritone, classical and steel-string. Then there's the electric guitar that can also be baritone, it can have 6 strings or more (depending on what range you want). You can use different tunings or use a capo. If you're an advanced guitarist you can move on to things like Warr guitars and Chapman sticks.

If someone were to ask for an easy instrument to learn, I'd recommend the guitar. Yes there are instruments that are easier to play, but none of them are as versatile.

 

[Byte2222]

Another viola player! Praise be, we're rare these days. If you want my advice, don't learn violin if you want to play it in an orchestra - as soon as they find out you can play viola, you'll be asked to play that instead and probably pestered until you do.

Instrument recommendation: what kind of music do you want to play, and in what kind of role? Violins have top-of-range melodious parts but cellos spend part of their time supporting and part of it carrying a tenor melody. If you wanted to branch out into concert band or brass band-type music then brass instruments are fairly easy to pick up. I don't know what types of band you have in your part of the world but, in the British brass band, the euphonium famously takes on a cello-like role and is a very easy instrument to pick up. If you want to play more contemporary music, I can't help you

Easy instruments: I'd argue that achieving mastery of an instrument requires a pretty consistent level of work regardless of instrument. String instruments are difficult to pick up but you learn a lot in the first couple of years. Brass instruments are easier to pick up (just blow a raspberry into it and you'll get a note) but mastering them requires lots of practice and physical conditioning. This is even more true for percussion.

Hard instruments: how obscure do you want to get? I'm sure there is a weird, almost-unplayable traditional instrument out there which would take the title but you're unlikely ever to see it (partially because of its difficulty). As I understand it, the hardest instruments in the orchestra to pick up are the oboe (due to the unforgiving embouchure) and the french horn (it's weirdly long, weirdly narrow and has a weird, too-small mouthpiece, everything about it is counter-intuitive). You also have to account for the complexity of the music you normally play: oboes don't normally have very tricky parts but some violin solos are brutally difficult. The piano is a very complex instrument which requires great co-ordination. I've learned a lot of instruments in my time but the piano just never clicked for me. That might be personal experience...

I've learned violin, viola, tuba, euphonium, (bass) trombone, singing and conducting in my time, as well as casual dabbles in piano, trumpet and french horn. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

I heartily recommend the piano. It's a very versatile instrument with a sensible layout that makes it easy to learn and enjoyable to perfect. The hardest instrument to learn (that comes to mind) is probably the bagpipes, as you have to have access to a quiet place where you won't disturb people when you practice. For many prospective students in Scotland, I imagine that means having to drive to the nearest town or city with appropriate (soundproofed) practice facilities.

But surely you could just stay out of the inhabited areas to learn? Just find a Cairn or a Crag with no one around and get on with it?

 

[MeatMachine]

Another viola player! Praise be, we're rare these days.

So I've noticed. I had no idea how many people favored the violin until I got out of high school. Turns out, almost everyone does, to the point of not knowing there even is a similar alternative - I can't count the number of times I've told people I play the viola, only for them to helpfully correct me and say, "you mean the violin. It's pronounced, 'vio-LIN!'"

If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

If I was also interested in bettering my viola skills, where can an adept viola player go to find other string-users? I live in a small, isolated town that has a small college, but they don't have an orchestra here - just a marching band. Given my environment, am I out of luck for finding a potential quartet? This is pretty much one of the main reasons why I've been looking into solo instruments to begin with.

 

[Barbas]

I heartily recommend the piano. It's a very versatile instrument with a sensible layout that makes it easy to learn and enjoyable to perfect. The hardest instrument to learn (that comes to mind) is probably the bagpipes, as you have to have access to a quiet place where you won't disturb people when you practice. For many prospective students in Scotland, I imagine that means having to drive to the nearest town or city with appropriate (soundproofed) practice facilities.

But surely you could just stay out of the inhabited areas to learn? Just find a Cairn or a Crag with no one around and get on with it?

Thou wouldst hear it in the next glen over, I shit thee not. :I

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

I heartily recommend the piano. It's a very versatile instrument with a sensible layout that makes it easy to learn and enjoyable to perfect. The hardest instrument to learn (that comes to mind) is probably the bagpipes, as you have to have access to a quiet place where you won't disturb people when you practice. For many prospective students in Scotland, I imagine that means having to drive to the nearest town or city with appropriate (soundproofed) practice facilities.

But surely you could just stay out of the inhabited areas to learn? Just find a Cairn or a Crag with no one around and get on with it?

Thou wouldst hear it in the next glen over, I shit thee not. :I

But surely the 'free Scotland' activists would revel in such an invasion of their aural privacy?

 

[Barbas]

I heartily recommend the piano. It's a very versatile instrument with a sensible layout that makes it easy to learn and enjoyable to perfect. The hardest instrument to learn (that comes to mind) is probably the bagpipes, as you have to have access to a quiet place where you won't disturb people when you practice. For many prospective students in Scotland, I imagine that means having to drive to the nearest town or city with appropriate (soundproofed) practice facilities.

But surely you could just stay out of the inhabited areas to learn? Just find a Cairn or a Crag with no one around and get on with it?

Thou wouldst hear it in the next glen over, I shit thee not. :I

But surely the 'free Scotland' activists would revel in such an invasion of their aural privacy?

There may be some trouble with the music licensing people, for all I know. Scotland has some odd laws.

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

I heartily recommend the piano. It's a very versatile instrument with a sensible layout that makes it easy to learn and enjoyable to perfect. The hardest instrument to learn (that comes to mind) is probably the bagpipes, as you have to have access to a quiet place where you won't disturb people when you practice. For many prospective students in Scotland, I imagine that means having to drive to the nearest town or city with appropriate (soundproofed) practice facilities.

But surely you could just stay out of the inhabited areas to learn? Just find a Cairn or a Crag with no one around and get on with it?

Thou wouldst hear it in the next glen over, I shit thee not. :I

But surely the 'free Scotland' activists would revel in such an invasion of their aural privacy?

There may be some trouble with the music licensing people, for all I know. Scotland has some odd laws.

Och... this is true! Thems be crazy beyond the wall!

So glad I have my brick walls, electricity and motor vehicles to protect me down south!

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

As a bassist, I'm not going to even try and pretend that it's not a very easy instrument to pick up. It's a hard instrument to get really good at though, it's really underused (fuck you, guitarists) so people tend to think it's a simple instrument. You can do a lot of awesome things (don't tell me you don't want to play slap bass) and it's super versatile.

As for hardest, I've heard Theremin to be insanely hard to learn. If you don't know what that is, it's

an early electronic musical instrument controlled without physical contact by the thereminist (performer).

The instrument's controlling section usually consists of two metal antennas that sense the relative position of the thereminist's hands and control oscillators for frequency with one hand, and amplitude (volume) with the other. The electric signals from the theremin are amplified and sent to a loudspeaker.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theremin#Uses

Oh man, I played one of these once. Made an awful mess of it, those things are super sensitive. Ridiculously good fun though!

 

[Xeros]

I heartily recommend the piano. It's a very versatile instrument with a sensible layout that makes it easy to learn and enjoyable to perfect.

More of a drummer myself, but I've gotta go with this. I could never wrap my head (or hands) around it, but the versatility is undeniable, especially when you apply the techniques to a higher-end keyboard that can emulate just about another other instrument surprisingly well.

Hardest? [Insert obscure instrument that looks like it was inspired by Dr. Suess here]

The nyckelharpa,

Yeah, that thing fits the bill rather nicely. Sounds delightful though.

Besides, three hours of frantic banging every day is a great workout.

Oo la l-

Banging the drums, that is. I know where your minds are going!

Oh...

Drumming was (and still is) an incredible outlet for that excess energy, even though hours of playing still doesn't wear me out entirely. What's more is that I easily picked up the ability to independently control all four limbs without having to think of what I needed to do in order to play what I intended to play.

Couldn't agree more. While I still recommend the piano to the OP for sheer versatility, drums are where you go when you're looking to go nuts. Though they fall in with the previously-mentioned "butter instruments"; more for support than sounding pleasant in their own right.

 

[Juan Regular]

Drums were the easiest for me because I move all. the. time. Besides, three hours of frantic banging every day is a great workout.

Still very much a support instrument, so not really what he's looking for, but I agree. I'm mostly a guitar player these days, since my rotten neighbors throw a fit whenever I play my drums, but I still maintain that drums is by far the most fun you can have with an instrument. Once you've mastered a technique you'll play it like it's nothing and at a certain point you can just play without having to think. It's an awesome instrument.

As far as solo instruments go that are easy to pickup and fun to play, I always recommend the ukulele. You can play thousands of songs with just a couple of very easy chords and it's great preparation for guitar.

 

[Something Amyss]

Drums were the easiest for me because I move all. the. time. Besides, three hours of frantic banging every day is a great workout.

Banging the drums, that is. I know where your minds are going!

I plead the fifth.

However, on the topic of drums, it is incredibly easy to bang out a basic pattern. I might have even got good, but my back affects my legs and it's hard to do a standard drum kit when your spine sends shots of pain down your back both for sitting down too long and using a kick....

Where was I? Oh yeah. My hands have mirroring problems and I can still do a basic pattern.

Hardest instrument I've ever learned is technically the trombone, because there's only one fixed position. A lot of the people who played trombone in my school couldn't play by ear and whatnot, which was always less than pleasing.

 

[Chemical Alia]

Harp play a harp! Do it Now! Then learn how to play zeldas theme song on it.

OT: I would say the piano. But that's a boring answer. Learn to play a mother fucking Pipe Organ. That shit is fun as hell to play. 3-4 keybords, plus 1 or 2 ranges of pedals. You are literally dancing when you play one properly.

It has to be this, and you also have an arbitrary number of stops.

I'm curious how difficult organ music is, both to play, and to gain access to. Unless you're part of the local church choir, I can't imagine it's easy to get access to one. And it looks like a ***** to learn. It has a beautiful sound, though.

The organ, a full pipe organ, is one of the most insanely complex instruments ever.

Do you have a picture of that organs pedals? That looks glorious.

As far as i know ( not an expert by any stretch) but it's looks a lot more intimidating than it is.

The stops from what i understand ( which isn't much) is to change the sound of the organ. So as for actually playing one you don't really need to be switching stops mid-play ( it's awsome if you can though). Also the keybords are like piano keybords. You can play on the same level. Or play on different levels. And switch levels mid play. The hard part is learning to play with your feet on the pedals.

All things you can learn one step at a time.

I used to play the pipe organ. My piano teacher was an organist at her church and gave me lessons when I was in high school, and I was given a key to practice at a church whenever I wanted in exchange for playing at the occasional mass. I'll try to fill in a few details of how it works.

There's four main categories of organ stops, based on the type of instruments they're supposed to represent (the organ is supposed to be like a full orchestra): strings, horns, horn (or reed), and principal (which is the "true organ" sound.

Each stop is a different instrument voice, and there's numbers on them like 8', 4', 2', 16', that indicate the octave (8' is the native pitch), and that's where the halftone sounds come from. There are also stops with fractions called mutation stops that play their respective octave plus like, a third or 5th on top of that.

So you basically program each piece you play with a selection of stops to give the organ the sound you want, onto a button that's found on a row right underneath the keyboards that you play on. This enables you to quickly press THOSE buttons to change an entire set of stops at once during the middle of playing, but you can and do change stops themselves during a piece.

I think the two hardest things about the organ, coming from being a pianist, is finger independence and playing the foot register with your hands. A note will play unchanged in volume for as long as you hold it, so one of the things that makes playing the organ different than the piano is having to hold down a lot of keys while playing melodies with others. And with the piano, you have to learn to read and coordinate both hands playing different notes at once, but on the organ, you read three whole staves and play keyboards with your hands and feet (with your feet by touch alone, and they make shoes for this). Coordinating with my hands was easy, but when I first added the foot parts it totally broke my brain!

Anyway, the organ is really hard, but also complex and awesome, and is sadly slowly dying out. Which is kind of sad because it's effing majestic and so much fun to play.


That all said, I recommend the piano or guitar, depending on what kind of music you like to play. I get where you're coming from with the viola, I played the violin in school, and personally didn't like the way it sounded just on its own without other people playing with me. Probably because I was terrible at it, though.

 

[Arkliem]

Easiest? The triangle.

Spoiler

Not exactly rocket science, wouldn't you say?

There's actually technique to triangle that most people probably wouldn't know about. Where to hit it(Sounds worse if you hit it near the center instead of the edges), alternating dampening and ringing, or doing a proper roll. It's fairly simple for most rhythms, but definitely not the easiest instrument. I'd give that to the Whip Crack(AKA Clapper) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clapper_(musical_instrument)]

 

[EvilRoy]

I really enjoyed the Tenor Sax when I played it (currently collecting dust on the closet thanks to no practice spaces being available), but for whatever reason it always seemed to me the vast majority of available sheet music for pleasant or famous songs was all on the alto. The choice for me was based entirely on the fact that I like the deeper sound of the tenor more than the alto, but I guess that sort of reduces the number of non backup roles you can have.

I think it's pretty hard to play well, just because of the number of keys compared to some other woodwind or brass instruments, but I also didn't start playing until I was like 22 so I didn't have that plastic brain of youth that's supposed to be such a big deal. Still can't read music years later, but I have managed to learn a number of songs by ear. I would love to do jazz, but it seems like playing an instrument in the jazz style is automatically half again as hard at a minimum regardless of what instrument you pick.

 

[MeatMachine]

As a bassist, I'm not going to even try and pretend that it's not a very easy instrument to pick up. It's a hard instrument to get really good at though, it's really underused (fuck you, guitarists) so people tend to think it's a simple instrument. You can do a lot of awesome things (don't tell me you don't want to play slap bass) and it's super versatile.

I think I may try out the bass guitar. Easier than the standard guitar, still somewhat within the realm of familiarity for me, and not a huge investment.

Thanks everyone for your input.