Hardest instruments to play

i agree with rogue drummer, its based on drive/talent.
in middle school i played alto sax, and it was easy for me, i was first chair and everything.
then my friend was like try trumpet... different story
 
Friends of mine, have told me that playing the harp is a bit complex and takes time to become an expert.
 
I dont know about you guys but for me, all guitars/string instruments are the hardest instruments to play...I have no idea how you play consistently on these instruments. I just tried to play a little bassline just now and the way you move around the neck with fluidity while keeping a good tone coming out of your bass while also staying in time just baffles me. for someone just starting, guitar/bass guitars are fricken hard...
 
Alright, I'll chime in. I believe that this question is not only unanswerable, but just plain fundamentally wrong.

It's not possible to compare the difficulty of playing various instruments, because the idea of "playing" or "mastering" or whatever-word-you-choose-ing an instrument is completely vague. I'm having trouble putting my thoughts into words, but the basic idea is that comparison is impossible.

For example, if you were to compare the hands-down world's best drummer and, say, oboe player, the oboe player would show unmatched skill, as would the drummer. But the reality is that there would be no point of reference; no way to judge; which one was better at their instrument, because they themselves are the standards of perfection. Neither can be better, since they're both the best.

But we all know that this standard of perfection does not exist. We can't decide which instrument is the hardest because people will always attempt to achieve perfection, and perfection is defined by people's ability.
 
Also that endless quest of perfection, can end up in frustration.
 
Pedal steel guitar. you have to be a good slide guitar player, that's hard enough plus you have foot pedals and knee levers to worry about
 
I would say the Drums are the Hardest and the easiest.

I say easiest, because it is very simple to learn a 2 4 rock beat. You dont even need proper technique to do it (it just helps).

But at the same time, i think it is the hardest to sound truly good and become a 'master'.
 
Everyone know that thing Spock is playing is extremely difficult to learn. The steering wheel, not so much.
 

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Alright, I'll chime in. I believe that this question is not only unanswerable, but just plain fundamentally wrong.

It's not possible to compare the difficulty of playing various instruments, because the idea of "playing" or "mastering" or whatever-word-you-choose-ing an instrument is completely vague. I'm having trouble putting my thoughts into words, but the basic idea is that comparison is impossible.

For example, if you were to compare the hands-down world's best drummer and, say, oboe player, the oboe player would show unmatched skill, as would the drummer. But the reality is that there would be no point of reference; no way to judge; which one was better at their instrument, because they themselves are the standards of perfection. Neither can be better, since they're both the best.

But we all know that this standard of perfection does not exist. We can't decide which instrument is the hardest because people will always attempt to achieve perfection, and perfection is defined by people's ability.

I'm with you on this...different things are difficult to different minds. Our bodies are all capable of playing the instruments, it's just a matter of instructing them correctly, and that's true for any instrument equally.
 
The Twin Neck, electric Steel Guitar with 12 Pedals and four knee levers has to be the most difficult instrument on any band stand to master.......... I used to sit behind Buddy Emmons some nights at the Palomino Club in LA and watch that guy for hours. One of the Worlds Best. Curly
 
I'm with you on this...different things are difficult to different minds. Our bodies are all capable of playing the instruments, it's just a matter of instructing them correctly, and that's true for any instrument equally.

Some instruments are easier than others to learn. Mastery is a different thing altogether. How easy is it to be vageuly functional, to produce a vaguely pleasing sound? With keyboards, drums, blues harp and recorder the sounds are right there. Coaxing good sounds out of reed instruments, especially double reeds, is not easy. Violin is evil in the hands of a layperson, like running fingernails down a blackboard

Then you have the next level - trying to be functional enough to play tunes. That's where harp is insane with the pedal and trying to work out where your hands are in free space and the pedals would be hard to get the hang of, like the steel guitar Curly talked about. Wind instruments that need extra air pressure to get the octaves are hard to control when you want higher notes.

People talk about how hard the coordination aspect of drumming is but there are plenty of rock drummers making a good living out of it who don't have true limb independence, but have just worked out some four-limb patterns.
 
I'll volunteer the theremin for its total lack of any visual reference points, infinitely adjustable 'scale length' and the fact that you have to hold your entire body totally still to maintain a constant pitch!

Definitely, but I have heard somewhere that it is easy to learn but hard to master. The hard thing is that hardly any teaches it and playing is freeform, often players experiment and come up with their own technique.

Definitely the hardest instrument to play:

  1. No feedback (apart from sound) when hitting note
  2. Volume and pitch controlled indepedently of each other by opposite hands
  3. No defined note positions
  4. Hard to play one note after another without it sounding "blurred".
  5. Have to keep very still with note

The Continuum also sounds hard as it has no clearly defined notes, basically you can play inbetween the conventional notes, Jordan Rudess from Dreath Theater plays one aswell as Pedal Steels and Keyboards.

...and I could also imagine playing a guitar minus the frets as hard...

...has any one heard of the gusle? Probably not so hard as it is only one string but interesting sound, almost haunting and middle-eastern in nature but basically any musical instrument that you need to learn by hand positions (violin, theremin, gusle) is hard enough just to get the note you want.
 
Two strings, isn't it? It's very much like an erhu, and also some middle eastern instruments (rababa?). Similar sort of idea and construction.
 
Two strings, isn't it? It's very much like an erhu, and also some middle eastern instruments (rababa?). Similar sort of idea and construction.

That depends. Gusle contains one string (although a Serbian variant has two) I believe. The kind I have seen has one string, made of horsehair and bow string made of horsetail...it's odd, middle-eastern sounding but in the Balkans, influenced by Ottoman culture for sure.
 
The drums and guitar is all I have ever tried, I gave up on guitar but not because I did'nt think I could do it, I was in the navy and never had the proper time to learn it. Drums have been kickin my butt for 4+ years now.

If you think drums are easy go to a local open mic sometime and watch someone who has very little experience get up and play something in 2-4 and tell me it's easy after that. They may be able to do it without other musicians around and they may even pull it off playing to cd's as it gets masked but watch them when they are with a band and only have themselves as the official time keepers, then tell me it's easy.
 
Some instruments are harder than others in the beginning. They all seem to meet up somewhere at the end of the road and become just as hard to master though. Its also an indvidual thing, some people are to clunky for a guitar and others just dont have that inner groove that drummer needs. Its a great thing that everyone is drawn to their own instrument.

I play percussion but was originally a guitarist and mandolin player. They are all just as hard as each other in the end.

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I think to play anything to a high level is difficult. One of the "hardest" instruments I play is the humble pandeiro.

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Darbucas are not simple either.
 
Another vote for pipe organ. It is indeed the King of Instruments.
 
The control to play great sensitivity on a concert snare drum has always been hard for me. To play it musically is really the challenge.

Outside of that, I understand the French Horn is supposed to be a difficult instrument to play well.
 
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