What is the Hardest Instrument to play?

Guitar is definitely not extremely high up on the difficulty list. No worries about intonation, or thick textures. Tone production is less flexible, and therefore less difficult to master. I'm not saying it's cake, just that it's not a bastard, like the piano sometimes is, and the horn virtually always is. .

mmmmm, guitar is always getting out of tune, (unless you play electric and have a very good one)... tone production is not easy, since there are so many different tones, using pinkys in guitar is tough... you say it

[Edit] Hm, whoops, messed up my post while editing and am lazy.

I think the guitar's easy.

"while on the piano you just play in the key of Gb or Eb minor..."

Yeah... transposing a piece from E minor to Eb minor on piano is a lot easier than retuning the strings, and playing with the exact same fingering...

Proper classical guitar is hard, but it's not the hardest by far, IMO.

yeah i know it

but definitly not the hardest... to me the hardest would be bassoon

No it isn't.

I think the hardest just depends on you. Give me a string instrument and i'll do well on it. Give a brass instrument and i'll die. Then some people are the reverse.

No it isn't.

ok, so instead of being negative, give a positive answer and tell us what is the hardest instrument for you... saying "no it isn

I think the hardest just depends on you. Give me a string instrument and i'll do well on it. Give a brass instrument and i'll die. Then some people are the reverse.

well said.

The hardest instrument? The one you don't practice.

Duh.

...

First of all, "hardest" is simplifying the question. Obviously, some instruments are going to be easier to get started with (piano or guitar, for example), but others might take more work to attain professional-level skills on.

And, of course, it depends on what kind of playing you're talking about: to learn to play tuba well enough to play 99% of tuba parts takes only a couple years, since they almost exlcusively play "oom-pah". Violinists, on the other hand, are expected to be able to play tricky 1/16th note runs all day long. These are just generalizations, however, since any professional musician should be prepared to play stuff more difficult than the normal fare.

That said, I believe french horn is more difficult than any other brass instrument, simply because all the partials are so close together, which makes locating the correct one nearly impossible. I've heard oboe is extremely difficult (from my sister, who has played several other instruments). I agree with the comment made early on about organ being tricky due to the "all four limbs" nature of it.

Also, it depends on the person. Some people simply find some instruments more intuitive than others. For one guy singing might come naturally, while the other feels right at home with a clarinet.

Oh, and I don't know if it's been mentioned before, but I tried playing a theremin once, and it was wicked difficult. I've heard it takes several years to even be able to play a simple melody.

I'd say the horn is the most difficult to master, since arguably, in the entire recorded music era, only two or three people have ever truly mastered it. No other instrument has such a huge disparity in standard of playing among full-time professional players - Dennis Brain and Barry Tuckwell make literally everyone else I've ever heard sound amateurish by comparison.

The hardest to play, at a more moderate level? Oboe, I think. It's an extremely finicky instrument, and just getting a sound out of it isn't easy.

I think the main argument for violin being rated as difficult is the level of competition on it: it takes an incredible level of technical proficiency to be considered a competent professional, because the technical possibilities of the violin have been so thoroughly explored by composers compared to other instruments.

Have any of you tried to play a Gu Zheng?

I play the instrument every day

EXTREMELY COMPLICATED!!!!!!!

(but of course im great at it >^_^<)

SO modest! I bet it's simple and you just like to think you're a virtuostic prodigy. I make joke! AHA HA HA!

not to burdern you guys with my intellectual stupidity, but

" is not hard, it just needs to be done"

it was a joke, couldnt you tell? it is complicated, and i've been told that im pretty good >^_^<

but then again, with an ego like mine, small complements go a long way

The gu zheng is of the zither family.

From what I've heard and expierenced (I play flute and oboe) here is what I would say from hardest to play to easiest.

1. French Horn

2. Oboe

3. Flute

4. Bassoon

5. Tuba

...You think bassoon and tuba are easier to play than FLUTE? :)

I'd have to say there is a significant difference in ease of playing and ease of mastering.

Piano/Organ is SO simple to learn how to play

"You mean I just mash the button and it makes the sound for me?"

There are pretty much no worries about producing your note.

But depending on what you want to play it can be a scallop to master. It would be really incredible to be able to freely improve 3 good parts on an organ simultaniously on a regular basis. Thats just a lot to mentaly keep up with. But its not hard at all to make the notes.

I really don't think guitar is that hard... its harder to make notes on than piano... but everything is.

I've heard sitar is difficult, but I doubt its that hard. The thing is cool though, it has movable frets! Any other sitar lovers? I want one.

Theres another indian instrument, its a... I guess you could call it a wood wind. Its like a little flute, except it branches off into three pipes. One pipe plays a constant tone, the other two have holes and you are free to change. You are supposed to play it only with cyclic breathing, and those guys are very good at it. I really don't know why we don't have polyphonic wind instruments in the western music world. Anyone know what that instrument is? I want one of those too.

Oh a friend of mine plays the monochord. Its from vietnam I think. Its just what it sounds, one string. You play it by adjusting the tension with a little whammy bar basicaly. Pretty neat.

I'd have to say there is a significant difference in ease of playing and ease of mastering.

Piano/Organ is SO simple to learn how to play

"You mean I just mash the button and it makes the sound for me?"

There are pretty much no worries about producing your note.

But depending on what you want to play it can be a scallop to master. It would be really incredible to be able to freely improve 3 good parts on an organ simultaniously on a regular basis. Thats just a lot to mentaly keep up with. But its not hard at all to make the notes.

I really don't think guitar is that hard... its harder to make notes on than piano... but everything is.

I've heard sitar is difficult, but I doubt its that hard. The thing is cool though, it has movable frets! Any other sitar lovers? I want one.

Theres another indian instrument, its a... I guess you could call it a wood wind. Its like a little flute, except it branches off into three pipes. One pipe plays a constant tone, the other two have holes and you are free to change. You are supposed to play it only with cyclic breathing, and those guys are very good at it. I really don't know why we don't have polyphonic wind instruments in the western music world. Anyone know what that instrument is? I want one of those too.

Oh a friend of mine plays the monochord. Its from vietnam I think. Its just what it sounds, one string. You play it by adjusting the tension with a little whammy bar basicaly. Pretty neat.

I think some old guy was playing a monochord in the movie "Hero."

Could've been something else, but it was definitely zither-like.

Actually, fretless stringed instruments are often overlooked as being hard; this is probably because there are so many people who are good at playing them out there. They are extremely sensitive and consequently it is very easy to play out of tune.

I play the cello and it's hard particularly in the upper register where you have to keep your fingers very close together and always put the bow close to the bridge to have any amplification at all.

I don't know why so many people are saying the bassoon is so hard. After 3 months of bassoon I was playing the Hindemith bassoon sonata. And rather well, thank-you please.

I suspect that the difficulty might lie more in the concpetion of the instrument and your own natural abilities than any actual physical difficulty. For example, I find the guitar incredibly difficult to get my mind around. My father was a classical guitarist, and he tried and tried and never got me to play more than a few bars of the simplest music. Yet I switched from bassoon to oboe after a year (as a trial, I wanted to see if I'd prefer the oboe) and thought it was a breezr, actually easier than the bassoon for breath control and fingering.

Yet I'm a pianist by training, so it's not because I have any particular affinity for woodwinds. Go figure.

I suspect that the difficulty might lie more in the concpetion of the instrument and your own natural abilities than any actual physical difficulty. For example, I find the guitar incredibly difficult to get my mind around.

I agree - and the guitar baffles me as well.

:huh:

I agree - and the guitar baffles me as well.

:huh:

Hmm. I found the guitar a very easy instrument to learn. But when it comes to brass I suck. I make trumpets sound like oboes. :pinch:

Theremin.

/end