Rank musical instruments hardest to easiest

[Korg]

This is inspired by a conversation on another thread but off-topic so I’m starting a separate one.

I’m interested in mn views on what the easiest and hardest instruments are to learn. Dc1 plays several instruments, dc2 does piano and dc3 is about to start.

Granny - I put oboe & horn further down the list specifically because they only need 1 hour per day practice instead of the 6 needed for violin

Definitely violin and piano seem to need more practise ( partly because you don't run out of puff) though Ds recently worked with a world renowned trumpet player who's quite old now and he still practises for hours a day . Ds also often does well in excess of an hour ( sometimes split up) to allow him to practise all that he needs to . Similarly he doesn't ever manage an hour on piano ( though he would get pretty good if he did ) because that's not his focus . Having said that his 20 minutes most days !?! is serving him quite well !! I think pianists and violin players do practise more but ultimately to get really good at any instrument you have to put the hours in . The recorder is often seen as easy but I don't think most people play it like the recent recorder player on BBC Young Muscician

@string - great list - it's really interesting to see where different people would put different instruments!
I'd say that the clarinet is quite a bit harder than flute due to the clarinet's registers being built in 12ths rather than octaves :)

-ahh oops, sorry, you can ignore my comment! I've just noticed you said to perfect, rather than to begin! Once you're up to a high standard, the multiple fingerings shouldn't be an issue, so they're, I think, equally hard!

There's no way you could master the horn or oboe - or any instrument tbh - on one hour's practice a day.

maybe you couldn't Keith, but a child probably could.

Not sure what you mean, Colditz. Do you mean I personally couldn't master those instruments on an hour a day's practice, but a child could?

I'm confused.

I think even children playing strings ( or piano ) to a high level come the teenage years practise for more than an hour a day . Ds came back from his NCO course at easter amazed by how much some of the muscicians ( mostly string players ) are already fitting in . I think most of the woodwind and brass according to ds ( who's 13 so may not be entirely reliable as a source of info!!) we're doing between 1 and 2 hours a day . I think to get really good you just need to practise, but to start with you probably need to spend more time practicing piano than say trumpet or cornet to pass similar standard exams - or maybe my 2 just find brass easier ?

i couldn't get a sound out of a trumpet or a flute
I couldn't tune a violin

so for me its piano easiest

although recorder was pretty easy too

and have you tried an ocarina!

can I ask a question - how did all you guys access music lessons for your DC.

I'm really keen for my child to learn an instrument, but there doesn't seem to be any state offering. They sing/drum the desk at school (primary)

yes, that's what I mean, Keith, Certainly I find learning a new instrument very, very much harder now than I did at eleven. I seems to pick it up at light speed as a child, and it's been a shock to discover how much cognitive flexibility I've lost by 38!

grasspigeons, if you want your child to learn an instrument and you're at state school, unfortunately you just have to find a private tutor and pay around £15 - £20 a week for a weekly half hour lesson, and either buy a second hand instrument or hire purchase one.

If you're a confident musician yourself, you could teach them yourself but don't underestimate how LAZY your own child will be compared to getting someone else to teach them! 5 times worse if they're not really interested (colditz eyes p-bone crossly)

I think it depends where you live but if you are lucky you will still have some sort of county music service or music hub. This is how Ds started trumpet with a loaned instrument and free ( to us) whole class lessons . He also went to the county music service Saturday school for beginners . Dd also had whole class lessons last year for cornet but I found a local music centre for piano because I didn't know where to start (luckily we found a good teacher who's lovely and teaches them both now) . If you don't have a music hub any more you could ask at school or look up music teachers on the music tutor websites ( can't think what they're called off the top of my head) come and say hi on the regular extracurricular music thread ( still in April - just) there's lots of really knowledgeable and helpful people there . sorry I don't know how to post a link to it !!

I learned the French horn at 11 :) had lessons till I was 18 and got to a grade 8. I wish I was still that good!!

My comment was questioning an assertion by String that one could "perfect not begin" oboe or horn on an hour's practice a day, whereas it would take 6 hours a day to achieve the equivalent standard on the violin. I think that's wrong.

Oh yes or ask in a local music shop

aah - thans colditz

that's quite sad - the state paid for me to learn violin so I thought similar schemes might be available still

I'm not confident enough to teach a child my imperfections as I'm not very good.

Echo pp who says everyone's different. I found piano a doddle and did all my grades my bro struggled but found guitar a piece of cake but I tried and dismally failed with guitar as I think it's the most complicated instrument ever!!!

There's always the option of amateur bands and orchestras, which sometimes have a "junior band" which are simply run by a more experiences player who is generally retired and quite patient. The child won't get the same quality of tuition as a paid-for lesson but a musically driven child could learn a great deal - it's how I learned to play brass. Most musical ability is simple obsession-driven practice and with a more experienced player to guide them, a child can do very well

I agree Keith you couldn't .

I assume that 'perfect' means going to a top conservatoire and then becoming a professional musician in an orchestra. In which case, yes, you probably would be doing 6 hours practice a day on the violin. I assume that it is more physically difficult to do long hours on brass and woodwind.

But if you want to get to a decent amateur standard (i.e grade 8, diploma) then you can do that on an hour a day for strings.

I've never got far trying to teach my own 2 it always ends in tears !!

DS definitely got to grade 8 (brass) without ever putting in more than an hour a day unless he was actually playing in a concert.

Yes, Grasspigeons, see if you have a local brass band - ours was something like 50p subs per week for the littl'uns on third cornet/fourth tenor horn and the like.

(The shock to the system when we realised we needed to stop borrowing and actually BUY some rather large heavy instruments was another matter.)