What is the Hardest Instrument to play?

here is a thread I thought might bring up some good discussion

So what do you think is the hardest Instrument to play?

Guitar?

Violin?

Share your thoughts

For me, it's the Violin

And I also hear from some people that the French Horn is sadisticly hard

The bassoon is quite complicated. Lots of keys and an insane amount of alternate fingerings which are essential to playing. Not to mention double-reeds are unpredictable, break easily, and are affected wildly by humidity.

I'd have to agree with John here, despite all instruments having their difficulties, bassoons are probably near the top of my list for being hard to learn.

Guitar is easy as hell, violin is tough without a teacher and french horn is difficult but not as much as the bassoon.

What about Trumpet or something like that?

(I know absolutely nothing about brass, I'm more of a string kind of guy)

Trumpet isn't that hard, once you learn to double and triple tongue, playing fast isn't hard at all. Squealing involves a lot of muscle work, but double-reeds require a lot of lip-strength too. Plus, no double-tonguing for us, we have to do everything the hard way.

Flute and tuba are actually two of the most hardest instruments to play, along with piccolo. They are require an insane amount of air. It is not hard to start playing either of these instruments but it is very hard to master the airflow and such.

Organ. While playing the organ, not only are you working almost everything you do when you play the piano, but your feet are working as well, and you are switching manuals, and your brain is constantly moving. You have to change registrations, move foot pedals, essentially it is the only instrument where you must use your entire body while playing. It's not called the 'King of All Instruments' for no reason.

Also, the organ is usually only a solo instrument or a solo accompanying instrument, so you never have a full orchestra to rely on, to blend with. Also, the sound is produced at full volume however softly you touch the keys, so any mistake you make is instantly heard. Also, dissonance on the organ is 10x times worse than a piano or any other multiple-note instrument, for the same reason. Also, there is no decay with the notes, as with a piano. So, making legato passages is much much harder and oftentimes means making really awkward fingering, cross-overs and replacements.

So there.

I am not to sure but to be a master at any instrument is not an easy path.

I would say the harp with all those pedals must make it difficult would one not say.

The Harp? I don't know about that, the harp has some challenge, but pedals? I have never seen a harp with pedals before, you might be thinking of something else, or I'm not thinking of the same thing as you

No, the harp has pedals.

I honestly did not know that

Violin isn't too difficult IMO. Certainly not much more than guitar. I.e. not very.

I'd go for bassoon over horn.

Contrabass must be quite hard to play, due to the size and thickness of strings.

Yes paganini lover from what i have read in books and seen pictures of,the harp has many pedals indeed.

There could be harps with no pedals for i do not know if there are different versions off the harp.

:thumbsup:

I have seen harps at performances without pedals many times, I just had never seen one with pedals

thanks for the insight :thumbsup:

To Daniel, violin IS too dificult, but I will discuss this with you only if you do play it :thumbsup: otherwise, lie. In the piano, the keys are already tuned: all you have to do is press the right keys. You have to control the intensity of the bow, vibrato, tuning, etc. in the violin. Tuning at the top of the scale is VERY hard.

To Daniel, violin IS too dificult, but I will discuss this with you only if you do play it :thumbsup: otherwise, lie. In the piano, the keys are already tuned: all you have to do is press the right keys. You have to control the intensity of the bow, vibrato, tuning, etc. in the violin. Tuning at the top of the scale is VERY hard.

Tuning in most intruments top scales are hard. There's tendancies for most notes to be flat on wind instruments, and the nature of some instrument's construction makes some notes sharp by nature, like trumpet.

"Tuning at the top of the scale is VERY hard."

I know advanced features of violin technique get very hard, but to be able to play the instrument, without going way way up the neck, or anything else, isn't too bad.

Vibrato isn't hard, it's just something you automatically do (and controlling it doesn't take too much effort). Intonation (especially in the high register, like you say) is probably the hardest thing to do, when not talking about deliberately difficult pieces.

And I also hear from some people that the French Horn is sadisticly hard

Yes, if you've ever played French Horn, you would know how hard it is to hit the right notes. Even after you learn a piece very well, you can still mess it up.

I think that's possible with all instruments

And I also hear from some people that the French Horn is sadisticly hard

Yes, if you've ever played French Horn, you would know how hard it is to hit the right notes. Even after you learn a piece very well, you can still mess it up.

It depends, to a degree. It helps a lot of you can hear the pitch in your head before you play it, then getting the right partial is a lot easier, but you're not always guaranteed a good note.

I think learning how to play any instrument is pretty easy, but mastering them and getting good at them are all difficult. For me, It'd have to be percussion, 'vuz there are hundreds of different instruments, each with many different techniques used to play them in different settings.

But then again, I only play percussion, so how would I know about anything else? :)

~Kal

_I never knew harps had pedals. Hmm...

_I never knew harps had pedals. Hmm...

How many people didn't know harps had pedals? It's sort of the hardest thing about writing for them. Because you can't do heavily chromatic stuff with them. The order of the notes that the pedals effect is really weird too.

How many people didn't know harps had pedals? It's sort of the hardest thing about writing for them. Because you can't do heavily chromatic stuff with them. The order of the notes that the pedals effect is really weird too.

Haha, that's why I just write glissandos and let the harpist figure out what to do.

That's not a good idea :)

You need to check if it's playable, otherwise they just can't play it.

But glissandos aren't often heavily chromatic, and can be accomplished quite easily.

That's not a good idea :)

You need to check if it's playable, otherwise they just can't play it.

But glissandos aren't often heavily chromatic, and can be accomplished quite easily.

By writing a glissando, I'm in terms, letting the harpist decide what notes to play and how to play the gliss. I'm not expecting the entire chromatic scale to be heard, just what's feasable, and no one can tell what the harp can do better than the harpist.