What is the Hardest Instrument to play?

What I'm saying is that certain glissandos will be impossible. And the harpist can't decide how to play it - they just can't.

What I'm saying is that certain glissandos will be impossible. And the harpist can't decide how to play it - they just can't.

Meh, that's why you use them sparingly, and not write them in insane keys.

Man this is a good discussion

Well about the harp, if you write it and it's intended to be played, you should make it at least playable.

"And that's all I have to say, about that"

-------Forrest Gump, 1992 (or 91 somewhere around that time)

Man this is a good discussion

Well about the harp, if you write it and it's intended to be played, you should make it at least playable.

"And that's all I have to say, about that"

-------Forrest Gump, 1992 (or 91 somewhere around that time)

I don't own a harp, so that makes that a little hard :)

I'm sure you could find out all you needed online, just google it

(did you like the Forrest Gump thing? My dad saw it and laughed)

I googled it about found http://www.harpsociety.org/index.html

Hehe, not quite as bad as www.bassoon.org

Nice

Trumpet isn't that hard, once you learn to double and triple tongue, playing fast isn't hard at all. Squealing involves a lot of muscle work, but double-reeds require a lot of lip-strength too. Plus, no double-tonguing for us, we have to do everything the hard way.

What's wrong with double tonguing on the Bassoon?

The double-reed? Every time I try to double-tongue I get a lurching motion and a "Kuck" sound from the instrument. Several people on the Double-Reed Mailing List have said it's impossible to do.

Some people find it impossible yet some people can do it. Luckily, I can, though I've only ever used it once in performance. The upward arpeggio part in Berloiz's Symphonie Fantastique:

http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/variations/sco...ge/sco10104.gif

Score available here: http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/variations/sco...arge/index.html

I would submit that the horn is easily the hardest to play well. For no other instrument is there such a large difference in quality between players widely considered to be the best soloists in the world (where the likes of Brain and Tuckwell made literally everyone else sound amateurish)...

I'd have to say that the tablas are extremely difficult.

At least the way they're played in Indian classical music. You have to hit them just right to get a certain tone, and most music written for them have you play them surprisingly fast.

Theremin.

The theremin is insanely difficult to play. A buddy of mine has been learning to play and intonation is almost

a joke. I don't know how Clara Rockmoore did it.... I gota find a video or something.

Incidently, there's also this middle eastern horn with which it's supposedly almost impossible to get even a

sound out of it. Let alone tune it. Anybody heard about something along those lines?

I would submit that the horn is easily the hardest to play well. For no other instrument is there such a large difference in quality between players widely considered to be the best soloists in the world (where the likes of Brain and Tuckwell made literally everyone else sound amateurish)...

Maybe it is hardly the easiest... *grin*

My perception has always been that the bassoon and horn were the most difficult instruments to play, as in difficult to learn to make any kind of nice sounds that resemble a melody. From the previous posts it seems that that may be true.

Nickthoven (I think that's who said it but I'm already typing the response, oops) made an interesting and good point with the organ (ie. using your feet, left and right hands simultaneously on separate surfaces) but although when it gets to more complex music it can be pretty crazy to play the instrument, in general the organ is a pretty friendly instrument, IMO. Although when one is very nervous (ie. me at 8 playing "Georgy Girl" in a recital on an organ) it can be hard to control three limbs at once. :D At least a lot of the time the organ is concealed inside an ominous box in some churches, so you can make crazy faces and mock scream when you mess up and nobody can see you. ;) The pianists in the recital never had that option!

A brief side track - sorry - about organs being friendly - or is it fiendish?!?

Try this:

http://www.acchos.org/html/gallery.html

You get some idea watching the video if you have broadband.

7 manuals, 1000+ stops, about 30,000 pipes...

Several stops on 100" wind.

;)

Okay, that was pretty much the scariest thing I've ever seen (the photos). The video was pretty cool though, I wish it was longer!

Theremin.

The theremin is insanely difficult to play. A buddy of mine has been learning to play and intonation is almost

a joke. I don't know how Clara Rockmoore did it.... I gota find a video or something.

Incidently, there's also this middle eastern horn with which it's supposedly almost impossible to get even a

sound out of it. Let alone tune it. Anybody heard about something along those lines?

The Theremin is all well and good, but when there's the Ondes Martenot - what's the point?

That was a rhetorical question, by the way. I do like the Theremin and admire anyone who can make even a vague melody from one. I have had a very brief go on one and had little success on it. I suppose once you visualise where to play it, it is not much different from a fretless stringed instrument - instead of placing your fingers in relation to the instrument's neck, you place your arm, hands and fingers in relation to your body and the Theremin. Easy, really! No?

With the ondes martenot.... I read that you control pitch with a keyboard but do you get the volume control?

Also, what about vibrato and portamento?

And what the hell doe an ondes martenot look like anyway? It's in Piston's orchestration book but I haven't seen it anywhere else.

Ah, well. Yes, you get volume, vibrato and portamento.

The keyboard is only one method of pitch input - there is also a ribbon which gives it the characteristic glissando ability. For vibrato it's obvious on the ribbon - just wiggle it left and right. The keyboard is moveable, so when pressing a key, you just wobble the key to the left and right, and there's the vibrato.

Volume and related things are far more interesting, though. The left hand does all that - with a little keypad on the left of the intstrument. The lozenge controls attack, decay and volume. There are also various keys that route the sound through various filters and to the different speakers. It really is a versatile instrument.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ondes_Martenot

http://www.ondes-martenot.com/ondes_martenot.html

http://www.ishibashi.co.jp/academic/histor...martenot-01.jpg

So far as mucis goes, there is a fair amount. I suggest Messiaen's Turangalila Symphony if you like big orchestral works (symphony in ten movements with solo parts for piano and O.M.) or, if you prefer solo and smaller ensemble works, there is a nice Naxos CD available. I forget the CD's title, but the artists's name is Thomas Bloch.

I saw a performance of Messiaen's Turangalila Symphony in August 2001. Cynthia Millar playing O.M. with Pierre-Laurent Aimard playing the piano. The orchestra was the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, and they were absolutely fantastic. Sir Colin Davis conducted.

I have that on video somewhere, as it was televised live. I must watch/listen again!

http://www.owenwhitemanagement.com/instrum...Cynthia-Millar/

http://www.nyo.org.uk/reviews/Aug01.htm

Hyperbass flute? Given its lowest octave is out of human hearing range I'd assume its godly hard. But out of practical instruments, most likely those organs, though I'd never know for sure.

I think that's a somewhat theoretical instrument. Theoretically it works, but whoever would want to seriously write for it?

Having said that, I want a sub-contra bassoon. That'd be amazing. I also want a contra bass clarinet - I saw one in a shop window in London a couple of years ago. Had I £2000 floating around in my bank, I would have bought it. It was a full sized wooden one, too - not a folded up metal one.

Where in the world did you hear about that instrument?

What's the point of being able to play in an octave so low it's out of human hearing range?

It's an instrument, It's supposed to be heard

Pretty zany though

You have two side by side and create interesting overtones...