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Thread: What instrument is the hardest? My experience

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    Registered User Gunnar's Avatar
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    Default What instrument is the hardest? My experience

    So someone on another forum asked me how I would rank the instruments I play by difficulty, and those of you who are multi-instrumentalists will know this is difficult, but I did my best to break it down, here’s my essay.
    Ok, little disclaimer here, I picked these instruments up in about six month intervals, so the ones I started later would be easier proportionally.

    Ok, to the topic at hand, I’m gonna try to rank my five main instruments by difficulty, in a few different categories. The instruments are (in the order I picked them up) Guitar, Harmonica, Fiddle and Mandolin, and I’ll add Ukulele for fun.

    Beginning phase:

    1. Mandolin

    2. Banjo

    3. Fiddle

    4. Harmonica

    5. Guitar

    Bonus

    1.5 Ukulele

    So, that list was for just starting out each instrument, and it’s not objective because I had a different level of experience before picking each one up. The mandolin was easiest because I already had lots of experience, and the Ukulele cuz it’s similar to guitar. Guitar was hardest cuz I had no prior experience.

    Getting good:

    1. Banjo

    2. Guitar

    3. Mandolin

    4. Fiddle

    5. Harmonica

    Bonus

    4.5 Ukulele

    So, this is a very different list, it’s about when you’ve been playing a while, how easy is it to start improvising or playing more advanced material, and just being comfortable just randomly playing with the instrument. This list is influenced by both the amount of time I’ve played each instrument as well as the layout of the instrument. I find the banjo to be super intuitive and easy to play, and play with, but others may feel differently (but they’re not making this list, so they can’t complain :joy definitely the harmonica is the hardest to get good at because there is a lack of both learning materials, and good players to emulate, and same with ukulele, most people who play it only play a few chords and sing.

    Physically:

    1. Guitar

    2. Banjo

    3. Mandolin

    4. Harmonica

    5. Fiddle

    Bonus

    3.5 Ukulele

    6. Bass
    So, (I say that a lot), this is basically which one is physically the easiest. Honestly, it depends on whether I’m sitting and where, but the only reason banjo is lower than guitar is my shoulder gets tired holding my arm up in first position. I’ve always found ukuleles awkward to hold, and depending on your lungs and the shape of your harmonica, it can be unpleasant too. And it’s no secret that the fiddle is an awkward thing to hold, I haven’t had any trouble holding it in a long time, but my bowing arm gets very tired. I added bass for giggles, it’s bass guitar (not upright) and they’re super heavy.

    Overall:

    1. Guitar

    2. Banjo

    3. Mandolin

    4. Harmonica

    5. Fiddle

    Bonus

    0.5 Ukulele

    So, this is the last one, it’s an all things considered list. The Ukulele is the easiest, because the simplicity of the chords and the forgiving nature of the instrument make it very easy to make nice music. There’s a reason why so many people play them, and if you’re a serious musician, there is some advanced material to learn, a lot of innovation waiting to happen, and a very low Audience expectation when you take it out.

    The guitar is next, everyone has one, and it’s very forgiving similar to ukulele. There’s a reason everyone plays one. And when you’re advancing, there’s so much material out there to learn and numerous artists to look up to.

    Banjo, I found the open tuning super easy to use and think about, and there’s a lot of material to learn.

    Mandolin, this one is pretty easy cuz there’s such a devoted following, information isn’t too hard to find, and there’s lots of material and great players. Also, since it’s rather obscure, it’s a great conversation starter.

    Harmonica, this one is hard both to think about and to get good at, there’s several notes missing unless you can do advanced overblowing techniques. There’s very few real musicians playing these, and material is hard to find. On the upside, expectations are low when you get one out, and people will be surprised if you play well.

    Fiddle wins most difficult, this wasn’t a blowout victory, it was a close contest, but fiddle is more difficult because there’s no frets, the bow is a **** and it’s loud, so not forgiving. But there is a great community of players you can find, lots of instructional materials, and no limits to the possibilities of the instrument.

    I hope you enjoyed this list, it’s by no means scripture, it’s just my experience.

    And for the record, when I say harmonica I mean ten hole diatonic, not chromatic

    Now all of these were very close decisions hard to make, but it’s what I felt at the time.
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    String-Bending Heretic mandocrucian's Avatar
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    Default Re: What instrument is the hardest? My experience


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    Default Re: What instrument is the hardest? My experience

    Quote Originally Posted by mandocrucian View Post
    I used to play the Zu Zitter Carzay and the Trum Tupers. Very difficult. You don't see them much except in the Whoville area

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    Default Re: What instrument is the hardest? My experience

    The hardest instrument would be the one you have not started yet!
    I never felt like the mandolin was “hard” because I really fell in love with it, the desire was a greater driving force than discomfort.
    It is always a challenge which is the fun!
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    Default Re: What instrument is the hardest? My experience

    I don't believe I'm coordinated enough to play a pedal steel guitar.

    (For what it's worth, the jury's still out on my mandolin playing ability, too,) ♫
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    Default Re: What instrument is the hardest? My experience

    Double bass is an extremely physical instrument to play and transport. I highly recommend it for us older retirees, you'll get lots of exercise. Especially on cruise ships, walking corridors, going up and down circular staircases or through revolving doorways, etc. (don't ask how I know).

    In comparison, Mandolins, ukes and fiddles are kids's stuff, bluegrass banjos come close because of weight (but not size), acoustic guitars are lightweights and Dobros are closer but are still outclassed in this category.

    (If you're mobility impaired like me, there are some pretty nice wheels available for double bass, but it's still very physical.)

    On the bright side, you may actually get more work with double bass -- they are audience magnets.
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    Default Re: What instrument is the hardest? My experience

    Forget the instruments; Tuvan throat singing seems pretty difficult to me.
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    Default Re: What instrument is the hardest? My experience

    Quote Originally Posted by Bob Clark View Post
    ... Tuvan throat singing seems pretty difficult to me.
    Hmmm, that's me, unintentionally, just about every morning.
    -- Don

    "Music: A minor auditory irritation occasionally characterized as pleasant."
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    Default Re: What instrument is the hardest? My experience

    Quote Originally Posted by Gunnar View Post
    So someone on another forum asked me how I would rank the instruments I play by difficulty,.
    While I applaud the effort you put into making sense of the chaos, I do not think your results are universal.

    There are many individual differences that in large part determine or influence what is hard or not for an individual. A person without great muscle memory might find violin more difficult than others. Or depending on the muscle memory issues, might find concertina easier. A person whose only conception of the music is a keyboard, or woodwinds, comes at all of these other instruments very differently.

    And then there is what you expect to do on the instrument. If the extent of your guitar playing expectations are four or five chords and strumming, while you look to play melody on mandolin, then of course the guitar looks easier. But if your goal is to play melody on the guitar, and chord slamming on the mandolin, the reverse is true.

    If you learn to read notation there is a ton of music out there for all the instruments.

    I find mandolin much easier than guitar, because of all the symmetry. I know what is next to, above, and below anywhere my finger happens to be, because it is always the same. Guitar is not the same across the neck and having to know where you are across the neck is such a pain.

    I find violin very hard because of the bowing. It doesn't do anything for you. You have to not only accurately start each note, but you are responsible for extending each note its proper length in time, and you are in charge of when each note stops. The mandolin you pluck it and move on.

    And so on. I don't think you could make a list that most people agree with.

    I would say that playing any instrument well, is much much harder than playing at that instrument. So in a way, you could say that the hardest instrument you are going to find is the one you make a commitment to playing well.
    Last edited by JeffD; Oct-05-2019 at 11:01pm.
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    Default Re: What instrument is the hardest? My experience

    There was a book in the library that recommended (band and orchestra) instruments for kids who are not especailly disciplined, up to really determined kids. It said sax, clarinet and flute were easiest and then I don't remember which ones are in the middle but I think it said bassoon and French horn and maybe trumpet and violin were the hardest. I think anybody that's ever tried bassoon and French horn would agree. I'll have to see if I can locate the book
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    Default Re: What instrument is the hardest? My experience

    Quote Originally Posted by DHopkins View Post
    I don't believe I'm coordinated enough to play a pedal steel guitar.

    (For what it's worth, the jury's still out on my mandolin playing ability, too,) ♫
    There was a time where I could not play guitar. My fingertips would go numb. I had to play something so I bought a pedal steel. I took lessons, practiced like the devil, and amused myself for two years. Another ten or so and maybe I could have played in a band. Hardest instrument I ever tried. But I did learn to use metal fingerpicks and a lot of skills ported over to Dobro. Luckily I could still play bass guitar.

    My feeling is what folks consider folk instruments, guitar, banjo, etc., are all easy to play simply and sing with. After all, there was no big structure of learning materials. Skill was passed down by family members. Instruments had to be cheap to buy or easy to build. How the fiddle thrived in these conditions is beyond me. But advancing on any instrument takes time and dedication. Playing tambourine is a skill few people have mastered. Learning a fourth instrument is easier by far than the first.

    I can play and sing with my banjo after three weeks. My daughter, a violist, picked up my mandolin and played a prelude to a Bach suite without error. Never laid her hands on one. I just told her it was like a violin.

    But that pedal steel takes feet moving separately, knees moving separately both left and right, one hand moving a bar with intonation, and a right hand working ten strings while palm blocking. Hardest by far than anything else. French Horn is a bitch too.
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    Registered User Gunnar's Avatar
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    Default Re: What instrument is the hardest? My experience

    Quote Originally Posted by JeffD View Post
    While I applaud the effort you put into making sense of the chaos, I do not think your results are universal.



    I would say that playing any instrument well, is much much harder than playing at that instrument. So in a way, you could say that the hardest instrument you are going to find is the one you make a commitment to playing well.
    Nor do I think they are universal, and I think I made that pretty clear in the OP, I just listed my personal experience with a few instruments (at the request of someone else) it is not meant to be a comprehensive guide to all instruments, just something to think about. For the record, I hope to in the future tackle the Concertina, the Accordion, Dobro, Uilleann pipes, GHBP, Bodhran, and more. I currently can play several more than listed also.
    I agree totally with that last statement. I sort of covered that in my OP, but not as clearly
    Mandolin: Kentucky KM150
    Other instruments: way too many, and yet, not nearly enough.

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    Default Re: What instrument is the hardest? My experience

    Over the years I have taken a crack at many instruments:
    - Guitar
    - Bass
    - Keyboards
    - Drums
    - Hand Percussion
    - Trombone
    - Banjo
    - Pedal Steel Guitar
    - Accordion
    - Harmonica
    - Lap Steel
    - Violin
    - Dobro
    - Recorder
    - Ukulele

    In my experience I have found that I personally cannot play any instrument that involves breath/blowing (harmonica, recorder, trombone). . . come to find out I have low-lung capacity, and a very narrow throat opening; (one doctor was surprised that I could even breathe, much less play an instrument - but that's another story).

    Like DHopkins above, my lack of physical coordination made my short attempt at playing pedal steel a frustrating attempt at getting two hands, knees and feet to work at the same time - however (like the violin) I did 'master' it just enough to play the instrument on one recording - so I was able to wipe that instrument off of my musical bucket list before I sold it.

    In the end however, for me personally, I had the hardest time attempting to play the accordion. Trying to coordinate left-hand bass notes, right hand chords and squeeze the instrument in-and-out all at the same time was just plain impossible for my un-coordinated body and brain. The accordion that I had was a loaneer from a friend, and I gave it my best shot for the entire day - but in the end it was my biggest musical failure. (Pete Townshend of The Who one said that he 'learned to play the accordion for this demo of the song 'Squeeze Box' , but he didn't play it properly, he learned it just enough so that he didn't fall over while playing it'.)
    Last edited by MikeZito; Oct-06-2019 at 8:34am.

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    Registered User Simon DS's Avatar
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    Default Re: What instrument is the hardest? My experience

    Yes the diatonic accordion is pretty hard. The worst thing about it is that whereas with a guitar if you forget some part in a song, you can improvise and fake it by ear till the next part, with the diatonic there’s nothing, you just trip over and stop. For me the learning process is long and technical with lots of unintuitive memorisation involved.
    One sure sign is that if I get it out, or even if I just carry the case around the apartment then the cat scowls at me, and slinks over to the front door pleading to go out. Meooooow! -even if it’s raining, which is often why I get the thing out in the first place. Yes, cats know things. Harmonica is another instrument that the cat doesn’t appreciate.

    I did try a sort of hunting horn one time, can’t remember the name of it, it had two circles of tubing.
    Anyway that was really easy, just a couple of days, because it naturally resonated on a couple of main notes of 2 keys and the rest was like whistling. It’s actually a great instrument for someone with a dog.
    The tone improved after just four days.
    Last edited by Simon DS; Oct-06-2019 at 9:33am.

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    Registered User Eric Platt's Avatar
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    Default Re: What instrument is the hardest? My experience

    Yes, diatonic accordion has me stumped. Mainly because I haven't taken the time to practice it enough.

    But watching folks play English concertina makes me think that's more difficult. Maybe not as bad as being a good violin player, but close.
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    Default Re: What instrument is the hardest? My experience

    "What instrument is the hardest?"

    The one you don't practice.

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    Default Re: What instrument is the hardest? My experience

    I don't play it but I have always heard that a Harp is the most difficult ! Any Harp players out there ? With not much ability and starting late ( 64) any instrument would be difficult for me ! One quality I do have is determination !

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    Registered User Gunnar's Avatar
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    Default Re: What instrument is the hardest? My experience

    Quote Originally Posted by yankees1 View Post
    I don't play it but I have always heard that a Harp is the most difficult ! Any Harp players out there ? With not much ability and starting late ( 64) any instrument would be difficult for me ! One quality I do have is determination !
    I can play two different types of harp, the blues (mouth) harp, and the auto harp. I do love good harping though, and would love to learn some Celtic harp music
    ..
    Mandolin: Kentucky KM150
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    Registered User Polecat's Avatar
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    Default Re: What instrument is the hardest? My experience

    I would say the Yaybahar. Apart from the fact that they are not commercially available, I can imagine that there are a fair few people one might have difficulty persuading that what one is producing is actually music.

    "Give me a mandolin and I'll play you rock 'n' roll" (Keith Moon)

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    Default Re: What instrument is the hardest? My experience

    I've been a drummer my whole life. In the 80's, when I told my friend Mike I had bought a guitar, he asked me to start playing a gig with him once a week because he had just lost his guitar partner. I asked, "shouldn't I learn to play it first?" He replied, "No problem, come by the house and I'll show you what to do." We ran through two Grateful Dead songs and a few days later I was in front of an audience. Playing electric rhythm guitar I quickly discovered I only needed a few bar chords, eventually a dozen or so. Another advantage to electric was that I started with the amp so low that only I could hear it. It took two months before I was using normal volume. The rhythms were brush patterns. In fact as a trio, with his wife on piano, I sometimes brought a drum set and played with brushes and it seemed somewhat interchangeable.

    A few years later I was playing guitar with the world class harmonica player Sandy Weltman. Sandy was on bass in this group and when he had to miss a performance he asked me to play bass, "come by my place and I'll show you what to do." Sandy gave me two rules, "start every measure on the root" and "the rhythm is more important than what notes you play" so I limited myself to arpeggios. It worked very well.

    All these years later, I can't call myself a guitarist or bassist because, while the access to playing is easy, mastery is hard and elusive.

    I call myself a drummer because I can sit down with anyone in almost any genre and make music.

    I hope to call myself a mandolinist one day. Access to playing isn't much harder than a guitar. But the real payoff, possibly due to the residual learning of decades at the outer edges of guitar, is that the intermediate level, wherein I understand the theory and potential of the instrument, has opened up to me readily. I think this is mainly about having seven frets under your fingers on each string, as well as the consistency of fifths.
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    Default Re: What instrument is the hardest? My experience

    Quote Originally Posted by Polecat View Post
    I would say the Yaybahar. Apart from the fact that they are not commercially available, I can imagine that there are a fair few people one might have difficulty persuading that what one is producing is actually music.

    Sounds like someone drumming on a sheet of ice on a lake in winter, or if they happened to have a bow and arrows, they’d put an arrow into the ice and play it with the bow?

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    Default Re: What instrument is the hardest? My experience

    I only play guitar (electric and acoustic) and mandolin, and I find the mandolin absolutely unforgiving in every way.
    ...

  36. #23

    Default Re: What instrument is the hardest? My experience

    For me, the "hardest" ones are:

    Violin (hdgfl foremost for various reasons - 11.5" SL being one..)

    Pedal steel (long learning curve)

    Guzheng

    Dance music (instrument played in folk or dance idioms) tends to be "easier" than more complicated forms, etc.

    For me, (lever/celtic) harp was intuitive because I had technically prepared for it for decades with classical & flamenco guitar. I also found diatonic accordions "easy" after two weeks to get comfortable with bisonorics (you dont have that problem with unisonoric english or duet concertina for example).

    Of course, context is everything; playing anything at a high level is "hard." Performing Bach may perhaps be no more challenging than your fastest fiddle tune. Playing Bach on a guzheng or erhu would be quite difficult indeed. And so on.

    For me, Chinese and Arabic music is most challenging. But of course, it wouldn't be for those raised in Chinese or Arabic cultures.

    For some reason, I was never a keyboard person - perhaps having grown up with strings - and it took me 10 years learning as an adult to get comfortable playing professor longhair on piano accordion.

    Aside from ergonomic, cultural and stylistic considerations, the "hardest" instrument is the most expressive one.
    Last edited by catmandu2; Oct-06-2019 at 1:51pm.

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    Default Re: What instrument is the hardest? My experience

    Being a no talent hack, there is no easiest one. The most difficult is what ever I happen to be playing at the time......
    Thanks

    Several mandolins of varying quality-any one of which deserves a better player than I am.......

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    Default Re: What instrument is the hardest? My experience

    There are so many different angles to this question. Even if it's limited to just one person's experience, some of the issues are more about the style of music than the instrument itself.

    For example, if we're just talking about the mechanics of playing, then the mandolin is much easier for me to play than one of my other instruments, the wooden "Irish" flute. Part of that is all the years I played guitar before discovering mandolin, but the flute is just a very physically demanding instrument. It's more of a whole-body workout than mandolin, combining finger articulation with mouth articulation and breath control.

    Now approach the question from a different question, and ask which instrument is easier for playing Irish traditional dance music?

    For me, there is no question that flute is easier than mandolin for playing this music. It just fits naturally, because the techniques for ornamentation borrow so many elements from the early pipes. It's more of a struggle for me to get a mandolin to sound authentically "Irish." I'm not saying it can't be done, and the mandolin has certain advantages in partial harmonization within the melody line. But it takes more work, and the options for ornamentation and rhythm pulse within the melody are far more limited on mandolin.

    We could take this through one more iteration and ask which of those two instruments is easier for playing Bluegrass?


    The answer there is clear (flute ain't no part of nuthin'). So music style matters as much as the instrument, if we're talking about "what's easier."

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