What is the hardest instrument to play?

Sporky

To, let's assume, a "competent" standard.

I will start the bidding at the trombone; lots of lip and mouth and lung control, plus that wiggly bit which presumably needs to be wiggled correctly.

Cirrus

The Audience

guitarfishbay

Some kind of fretless stringed instrument, though I wouldn't know how to rank which. You can really tell a pro violin/cello etc player from their control over intonation and dynamics. This gets multiplied in ensemble, where again a pro standard group sound far better than a good amateur performance (especially in terms of intonation). 

Sporky

Cello is certainly an order of magnitude harder than guitar, but you don't have to put an awful lot of thought into your breathing which is why I thought trombone might trump it on overall difficulty.

I reckon violin is probably harder than cello because you've got the awful shrill noise of a violin to put up with, which I reckon is more of an ordeal than the wider left-hand stretches of the cello.

guitarfishbay

Sporky said:

Cello is certainly an order of magnitude harder than guitar, but you don't have to put an awful lot of thought into your breathing which is why I thought trombone might trump it on overall difficulty.

I reckon violin is probably harder than cello because you've got the awful shrill noise of a violin to put up with, which I reckon is more of an ordeal than the wider left-hand stretches of the cello.

Following this logic the hardest instrument must be bagpipes  

Sporky

Good point. However, bagpipes look a bit easier to play (assuming ear defenders) so I don't think the atrocious racket quite gets them to violin level.

octatonic

Oboe, or any other double reed instrument really.

4 way co-ordination with drums is pretty hard too.

paul_c2

It depends on the criteria used to define "hard", for example on the one hand, its widely recognised that the violin is one of the hardest instruments to develop the necessary skills etc to play competently so it sounds musical, etc. (Violin being smaller than viola or cello, naturally means its harder to play accurately in tune).

And for brass, the French Horn uses a smaller mouthpiece relative to the notes usually achieved on it; has twice the length of tubing for its notes than other brass; and typically employs the 4th harmonic, rather than 2nd, to sound instrument middle C. So the embrochure needs to be twice as accurate, the amount of air is twice as much, etc. Also its range is greater than other brass, such that in orchestras you have "low horn" and "high horn" specialists - all horn players being expected to be good at the middle of the range. So for brass, definitely French Horn.

But then there's also a school of thought that the paino is the hardest. Whilst its physically easy to sound a note, the fact that the music uses both bass and treble clef, has a lot of polyphony, etc means the "easiness" of playing it is exploited by composers to make complicated pieces. And its often soloing etc. Combined with the fact that there's tons of people who play piano and being a successfull pianist could be perceived as hard.

Then there's instruments which are uncommon eg bagpipes, harp, bassoon, etc

viz

The Berlin Philharmonic

Rocker

I never found any instrument to be easy to learn but I think the piano is one of the most difficult to play competently. Less difficult for Western Saloon type playing but to play Chopin , Beethoven or Mozart 'properly' requires very high skill levels and ability.

TheBigDipper

I'm a guitarist who is also a 35 years lapsed cellist. Different skills, but ultimately the left and right hands are working together. Hardest for me (never having been a drummer or a pianist) is my pitiful efforts at learning to play a Chapman Stick. Playing independent parts with your left and right hands - now that's hard! 

Grunfeld

Kazoo's a bastard.

stratman3142

I would guess trombone, but I've not tried to play one. I've worked with one very good trombone player that I knew to have perfect pitch, which I think helps with that instrument. Fortunately for me, it's not important for guitar.

Kebabkid

Pedal Steel.

paul_c2

stratman3142 said:

I would guess trombone, but I've not tried to play one. I've worked with one very good trombone player that I knew to have perfect pitch, which I think helps with that instrument. Fortunately for me, it's not important for guitar.

I've played trombone (and other brass instruments), the fact that is has a slide doesn't make it harder than any other brass instrument. In fact, due to the nature of the valves, its in fact easier because you can compensate for slight out-of-tuning with the slide, where a different brass instrument would have to alter the embrochue, (or a French Horn player do that and manipulate their hand in the bell).

octatonic

Don't google "tromboning" with the safety filter off.
Or do... I don't care, really.

merlin

I agree with @paul_c2 about the French Horn. I would also pitch in with shakuhachi. Coming from the perspective of a pro clarinetist, I would disagree about the double reeds and would say that of the brass, trombone is probably the most straightforward....

octatonic

Apparently I win.: http://listaka.com/top-10-most-difficult-musical-instruments/

Moss

octatonic said:

Apparently I win.: http://listaka.com/top-10-most-difficult-musical-instruments/

Mmmmmm, clickbait...

meltedbuzzbox

singing 

Teetonetal

Over the years I have learnt:

Trombone
Saxophone
Violin
Drums
Bass/Guitar
Piano
Singing.

Out of all those, Violin was by far and away the hardest. It's just so easy to make it sound so bad and if you don't have a good ear you are screwed. Trombone was much easier. there are more visual cues available for note positions, and the embouchure is far easier than on the saxophone.

Drums, guitar and piano are all very easy.