What is the Hardest Instrument to play?

But if you can't hear it what's the point?

I guess you could make it play in another octave, but still.

The overtones would be audible...

Plus, it'd make overtones on its own. Not much point, I know, but still. Overtones are nice things!

I see

Maybe they should make a Hyperbass Guitar or Cello

That would be cool

There was a silly-octave double bass sometime ago. It required a few people to play it though, as it was so large. It also had keys to stop the strings - but it didn't have enough keys to be useful.

http://www.contrabass.com/ is useful for deep wind instruments.

Its entirely theoretical. They make it, but its generally pointless, it just looks cool.

''Contrabass Mania'', hehe...

hm, reminds me of this:

the subcontrabass sax.

Impressive.

Hey Carulli.... Ever played a baritone acoustic guitar?

I think the low note becomes a B and you tune fourths from there. Don Ross plays one as well as others I'm sure. Gorgeous sound though.

Man... Can you imagine the wide-eyes of the audience as your bigband/saxophone octet walks up and you have one of those big boys?

Almost makes me want to play jazz....

I have played a Baritone Electric guitar, I have never seen a Baritone Acoustic

The only thing about the tuning on a Baritone is the fact that the neck is longer allowing lower tunings.

The lower string is tuned to B but most people refrain from tuning by fourths. Most people that play baritones are Heavy Metal and Metal enthusaists. They usually tune the lowest string to C and then leave the others tuned as the following C G C F A D And for an ever heavier tone which is not possible on a normal 6 string but is on a Baritone is B F B E G C.

Hope that explains a little ;)

Is anybody familiar with the Contrabass Flute?

I think the only way you can get a baritone acoustic is if you ask someone to build one for you....

On the with guitar talk... How about harp guitars?

Here's michael hedges playing a harp guitar.

Not only is he a good guitar player but he's a pretty mean composer to boot.

Is anybody familiar with the Contrabass Flute?

Yeah, I've seen one played in a concert.

One of my instructors was a small Brazillian woman from Cambodia. She was very short, about 5'0 - 4'9 and she was world famous for her baroque flute style. She showed me a picture of her playing it, she had to stand on a stool.

Is anybody familiar with the Contrabass Flute?

I saw one on a special display a little while ago for $19,995 US. I was like, "hmm, that's a cool looking flute...oooh, think of all the crap I could buy for $20000!" I then stood there thinking about what kind of laptop I would get. I tend to be absentminded. However, that is a lot of money for a flute.

From my perspective, only being a high school musician... the only ones I think looks hard are any double-reed and the flute (but that's because I spent ten minutes on a piccolo blowing and blowing, and not getting a sound).

Wow, I don't really know anyone (I'm only grade 8 remember) who had any trouble learning their instrumetns except for our oboe player and two french horn players. So I s'pose they'd be hard. That sub-contrabss sax (I think it's only a contrabass, I've been on that site before) looks liked it'd be hard, the low notes would be hard to get out.

I think no instrument is harder or easier, instruments are just tools to make music, and they can be used in many ways and techniques, hard and easy is a matter of subjective opinion to whoever is playing the instrument.

To me I think it would be hard for me to play precussion of somesort since I am not used to moving seperate parts of my body in different rhythms, but I mean if I did this everyday it would be like riding a bike.

Seriuosly the hardest instrument must be the HARMONICA

[moderator's snip of Annoying Abuse of Space]

...just joking there :)

Well Organ sure is hard, iis the accordian hard?

Never tried it.

Accordian isn't all that difficult.

The most difficult instrument for me would be the french horn. Hella hard man! Flute is hard because you have to hold it the same way every time or your notes will all be flat/sharp. Harp guitar is hard. A family friend is a master of it though. Organ is easy for me at least.

I played horn for two years in middle school. It isn't all that hard once you get the hang of it.

*blows dust off old thread*

Guitar is easy as hell,QUOTE]

are you kidding me?... guitar is one of the most difficult instruments to learn... the thing is that, kids learn it the "BAD WAY"... using tabs and learning by ear and wrong fingerings... but to play well is not easy.. to be able to sightread in guitar perfectly is almost impossible...

you have so many ways of playing the same pitch, say E (2nd fret 4th string), (7th fret, 5th string), (12th fret 6th string)...

besides that, fingering options (sometimes you have to go down in order to go up a scale)... plus all the other common problems we find in other instruments...

guitar usually covers 3 or 4 octaves in range and it

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.

Piano is not the hardest. After all, you do have all the notes in front of you. But for difficult leaps, it's unsurpassed. Try La Campanella or that one spanish guitar transcription. Craziness.

English horn is a fucker, in the low register. Our english horn player screwed up her solo every time in rehearsal, but ended up playing it perfectly in performance. That's an exception to the rule, I would say. The thing seems reluctant to produce a tone, and then very difficult to control once it's vibrating. Beautiful, though.

Even though this part of debate ended five pages ago, I'll just settle it by saying the harp is by no means the hardest instrument. Like a piano, anyone can play a few notes, but it doesn't have the piano's popularity and toccattas that follow.

I think hman voice is the hardest instrument to perfect. Of course, the instrument is also the cheapest.

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.

Piano is not the hardest. After all, you do have all the notes in front of you. But for difficult leaps, it's unsurpassed. Try La Campanella or that one spanish guitar transcription. Craziness.

English horn is a fucker, in the low register. Our english horn player screwed up her solo every time in rehearsal, but ended up playing it perfectly in performance. That's an exception to the rule, I would say. The thing seems reluctant to produce a tone, and then very difficult to control once it's vibrating. Beautiful, though.

I'm told by multiple oboists (all of whom play both instruments) that the English horn is a lot more forgiving than the oboe.