What instrument is the hardest to play well?

[Anonymous]

My friend and I are having a debate about what instruments are the hardest and easiest to play well. What do you think?

I think trumpet is the easiest and violin is the hardest. I also think French horn and oboe are very hard.

[Anonymous]

I always thought the piano would be so hard because you're playing two different things with two hands and looking at two rows of notes at the same time. Seems impossible to my brain!

[Anonymous]

Bagpipes hardest, cymbals easiest

[Anonymous]

French horn is one of the hardest.

[Anonymous]

Harp

[Anonymous]

Oboe is a stone cold b**ch

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My friend and I are having a debate about what instruments are the hardest and easiest to play well. What do you think?

I think trumpet is the easiest and violin is the hardest. I also think French horn and oboe are very hard.

Weird, because I would say the trumpet is actually the hardest. I have a friend who majored in music in college, specifically playing the trumpet. If she takes a break from it for too long, it takes weeks to be able to train herself back into it again because of the particular mouth movements and such. It's not an instrument you can just pick up and expect to be able to play what even remotely passes for music. At least with the violin, the bow on string will actually make a musical sound.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oboe is a stone cold b**ch

Why so?

[Anonymous]

Earth harp!
J/k. I just think it’s cool.

[Anonymous]

Oboe is hard, such a small reed! Both oboe and the horns are tough because of the small muscles needed (in different ways obviously). I didn’t find flute, piano or strings too difficult. Clarinet was mildly harder but doable. For my brain I found drums to be difficult because of the separate rhythms in different hands. But if we are talking about woodwinds or brass I think oboe and French horn are the hardest, the kids in band struggled the most with those two.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My friend and I are having a debate about what instruments are the hardest and easiest to play well. What do you think?

I think trumpet is the easiest and violin is the hardest. I also think French horn and oboe are very hard.

Weird, because I would say the trumpet is actually the hardest. I have a friend who majored in music in college, specifically playing the trumpet. If she takes a break from it for too long, it takes weeks to be able to train herself back into it again because of the particular mouth movements and such. It's not an instrument you can just pick up and expect to be able to play what even remotely passes for music. At least with the violin, the bow on string will actually make a musical sound.

My son is a fairly dedicated euphonium player. He's thinking about taking an international trip this summer for a few weeks, and one of his concerns is the effect on his embouchure if he goes that amount of time without playing. (I think he can mitigate against this somewhat by just buzzing with a mouthpiece.)

[Anonymous]

Pipe organ

[Anonymous]

Violin.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My friend and I are having a debate about what instruments are the hardest and easiest to play well. What do you think?

I think trumpet is the easiest and violin is the hardest. I also think French horn and oboe are very hard.

Weird, because I would say the trumpet is actually the hardest. I have a friend who majored in music in college, specifically playing the trumpet. If she takes a break from it for too long, it takes weeks to be able to train herself back into it again because of the particular mouth movements and such. It's not an instrument you can just pick up and expect to be able to play what even remotely passes for music. At least with the violin, the bow on string will actually make a musical sound.

This is true for all brass instruments. You have to play or you'll lose your embouchure.

French horn has harmonics that are closer together so it's harder to hit the right note without cracking. It requires a ton of control. It also has a smaller mouthpiece, so smaller movements make a big difference.

Violin is hard because so many play it that it's crazy competitive. It's certainly hard, but the level of competition takes it up a notch.

[Anonymous]

We are a somewhat musical family and were so excited when DS brought home a trumpet as his instrument in middle school. None of us had ever tried it and really wanted to. No one could make a single sound out of it except DS. I guess he found his instrument.