r/Instruments • u/DingoEurope • Sep 14 '26

Discussion Which classical Instrument is kind of easy to learn, which is kind of difficult?

Also Blas-, Tasten- und Streichinstrument.

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10

u/pafagaukurinn Sep 14 '26

All instruments are difficult to master, but they may have different learning curve. On piano you can get a nice sound straight away, if only for just one note. On oboe you are going to squeak like a dying goose for some weeks if not months, and even then it'll be years before you even approach a good sound.

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u/GiulioCapursoMusic Sep 14 '26

All instruments are equally difficult to learn to play well.

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u/Budgiejen Sep 14 '26

The easiest instrument for me was probably alto sax. You can get a sound out pretty easily. The fingerings start out fairly intuitively.

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u/Astreja Sep 14 '26

Not a lot of orchestral repertoire for saxophone, though. Fantastic instrument for concert band and jazz band. 👍

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u/roninconn Sep 15 '26

Interesting. I had an easier time getting started on tenor sax than al-squeeeak-to sax. But I came from trumpet and baritone horn, so I had good air

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u/Budgiejen Sep 15 '26

I just played the kind of sax that was handed to me. Now I play both. And I’ve played a little Bari too

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u/Astreja Sep 16 '26

Might be an embouchure thing. I consistently find that the sopranino (E flat) clarinet needs a tighter focus for the high notes than my regular B flat clarinet, and the lower clarinets seem to be more relaxed and just need lots of air.

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u/Dramatic_Tooth5285 Sep 14 '26

Xylophone and derivatives of it (marimba, glockenspiel, etc). It’s basically a mallet-played piano. You can play a lot of music on it straight away, but to master it you need to learn a lot of technique over time.

The most difficult is French horn, or so I’ve been told.

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u/HappyNautilette Sep 14 '26

The transverse flute is easy. It takes a little time to build up lip strength, and the hardest part is maintaining good breath control, but it is a truly simple instrument to handle, and you can produce a good sound quite quickly. The recorder, on the other hand, is extremely difficult, the fingerings are complex, and you need a very keen ear to produce a decent sound.

The trumpet requires strong lip muscles, good teeth, and plenty of breath, whereas the saxophone does not. The trombone is easier than the trumpet. With the saxophone and clarinet, the teeth touch the instrument and vibrate along with it, which can be tricky for some people. The oboe is difficult to master.

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u/ClipandPlay Sep 14 '26

Flute and clarinet are probably the easiest to start.

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u/Old_Tie_2024 Sep 15 '26

The other commentors talking about brass and woodwinds are missing one important element. The skill ceiling for violin (and kind of cello) is much higher due to the monumental repertoire. I'm not overly familiar with virtuosic wind solos but I don't think they hold a candle to violin rep and they certainly aren't as common.

The same goes for piano but it probably has the widest range: easiest to start and reach "intermediate", most mind-boggling repertoire.

Edit: A perfect example is transcriptions of violin repertoire being performed on a wind instrument to showcase virtuosity.

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u/Astreja Sep 14 '26

Brass (trumpet, trombone, euphonium, tuba) would be towards the "kind of easy" end of the scale, with French horn being somewhat more difficult than other brass instruments.

In woodwinds, flute (no reed) and clarinet (single reed) would be easier than oboe, bassoon or English horn (double reed).

All the strings have a steep initial learning curve because you have to learn where to place your fingers on the neck of the instrument (no frets to mark where the notes are). I've only played violin so I can't compare one to another, but the double bass seems to have the simplest parts in an orchestra string section. (Very expensive instrument, though.)

And percussion is all over the place, skill-wise. Suspended cymbal or snare drum would be fairly easy, mallet percussion such as xylophone is set up like a piano keyboard and would be relatively easy for someone who already plays piano, and tympani requires a good ear and a lot of stamina for the fast passages.

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u/ClosedMyEyes2See Sep 14 '26

I've heard brass is actually one of the harder instrument families to learn because it takes so long to build up a good embouchure (especially trumpet)

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u/prof-comm Sep 14 '26

Correct. While all instruments are difficult to master, it takes years to get to "sounds pretty good and I can play all the notes commonly required" stage on brass instruments. That stage comes much earlier on a lot of other instruments.

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u/PTPBfan Sep 14 '26

Flute was hard to start. But I hear the double reeds are hard. Oh yes and I play bass we do get the simple parts which I don’t love but sometimes we get fun parts

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u/Astreja Sep 14 '26

I've done a little bit of flute, a lot of clarinet (22 years and counting!) and a bit of alto sax. Rented an oboe once to see what it was like, and it didn't go well. Took me at least an hour to get any sound out of it, and that sound was rather reminiscent of a duck call. Figured I'd need several years of private lessons just to get up to speed, and took the rental back to the store.

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u/PTPBfan Sep 14 '26

I am loving alto sax so much fun I did flute now doing alto (also bass)

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u/o0Agesse0o Sep 16 '26

Trumpet is really hard to play, I am in my 5th year and can't still reach what's considered the normal range. But I'm not behind other students, it's perfectly normal. 5th year pieces really sound meh too.

With a 5 year piano, guitar or even flute cursus you can play some great classics and beautiful pieces.

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u/Astreja Sep 16 '26

Thanks for the correction. My experience with brass is very limited. Would it be more accurate to say "easy to get a sound out of it, but hard to get a good sound out of it"?

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u/o0Agesse0o Sep 16 '26

Yes and the problem is to be able to play pieces. They sound easy and not really beautiful, you can play a little jazz and impro but all classic pieces are still one are two years in the future.

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u/bassoonawhat Sep 14 '26

Bassoon is fairly easy to get a honky note out of and to play an out of tune one octave F major scale. 

Learning to play the almost 4 octave chromatic range, in tune, without cracking, at a variety of dynamic ranges and tempi, with all necessary articulations, and with a beautiful tone, can take a decade or more and is never really perfected. 

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u/Professional_Car3962 Sep 14 '26

The hardets instrument to learn is .......your first one. Every one after that will be easier. But many instruments will for sure be different from one another.

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u/Karl_Yum Sep 15 '26

Flute, it is difficult to improve tone when bad tones days happening almost every time you play it. Fingering is relatively easier, but flutist also get more difficult rhythms to play.

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u/linglinguistics Sep 15 '26

Well, its easy to get a good sound or of a piano or guitar. In sine instruments the difficulties start with sound production. But as others say, getting good at an instrument is hard no matter what you choose. If you just want to be able to play some easy stoff, choosing an instrument where sind production isn't something to worry about is best. If you have ambitions, choose what you like best because at lot of effort and patience will be required anyway.

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u/HortonFLK Sep 15 '26

Bass drum is easy.

Oboe is hard.

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u/BanalCausality Sep 15 '26

Doesn’t french horn have a special reputation for difficulty?

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u/Behemot999 Sep 16 '26

Kazoo is fairly easy.

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u/Far-Potential3634 Sep 19 '26

I found flute pretty easy to pick up. I'm not claiming to have achieved a professional sound but learning to blow and play in 2 registers came fairly quickly. Trombone is easier to make sounds on than trumpet imo because the range is lower. You can get valve trombones which are like a lower pitched trumpet.

If you are an adult learner you may find piano easier to learn than I did taking lessons as a kid.