6 Hardest Instruments to Play
We all love music. We listen to it every day and try to include it in every facet of our lives, but what greater way of showing our love of music than by learning how to play an instrument. I’ve written about easy instruments to play but now it’s time to talk about the hard ones. Why? Well, not only are complicated instruments harder to play, they often produce more unique sounds than those that are easy. The commitment it takes to learn how to play a challenging instrument is turned into greater satisfaction after we’ve mastered it. Not only that, but there’s also a sense of pride in knowing that you’ve managed to learn an instrument that most wouldn’t even consider.
Below are some of the hardest instruments to play.
1. French Horn
This palmier-shaped instrument is French, as you can tell by its name. It is a brass instrument and it is often overlooked as its sound isn’t as striking as say, a trumpet, but nonetheless, the French Horn produces a very distinct and soothing sound in the upper registers.
The instrument is hard to play because its long pipes (that bend in almost doodle-like fashion) require lots of air to make a sound. This requires players to control their breath and blow into the mouthpiece with precision and control. Not only that but the instrument is big and heavy and that in itself can be hard on the player.
2. Bassoon
If only you knew how difficult it is to produce a sound on a woodwind instrument, having to moisten the wooden reed and gently blow into it to even make it honk. Such is the struggle for a learning woodwind player, but particularly those learning the bassoon. Why? The bassoon uses two reeds, making it a double-reed instrument, which adds to the complicated factor in learning how to play as double-reeds are often very delicate.
Here is an image of the bassoon’s double-reed. Imagine aiming all your breath into that tiny slit, it would be like folding a paper in half and trying to make a sound by blowing into it.
3. Theremin
The theremin is an electronic instrument that is controlled without any physical contact. The instrument consists of two metal antennas that sense the position of the player’s hands in relation to themselves. One hand controls volume and the other controls frequency. Working together the player is able to make sounds which can be described as eerie.
While the theremin doesn’t require that players work on their embouchure or finger dexterity, it does require of them the finesse of their hand positions to create good sounds coming from the instrument.
4. Didgeridoo
This instrument hails from the Aboriginals of Australia and its sound is unmistakable. What a didgeridoo is is essentially a long pipe that players vibrate their lips into to make that droning sound that is so trance-like.
What makes this instrument hard to play is the amount of air it takes to play. Even though it might not take someone too long to be able to make some sounds from it, what really requires practice is the technique called circular breathing, which allows players to play continuously without stopping by keeping air in their cheeks to use while they breath in with their nose and repeat indefinitely.
5. Bagpipe
The bagpipe is often associated with the Scottish highlands but in truth, they are found in many places including other parts of Europe, Northern Africa, Western Asia and the Middle East. The bagpipe is a woodwind instrument that houses reeds inside the mouth piece which are activated by pressing on the bag and releasing air.
It is difficult to play because air must always be maintained inside the reservoir, so first and foremost players need a large lung capacity to fill the bag. Secondly, players must be able to coordinate their playing with the rhythm of inflating and defaulting the reservoir.
6. Harp
Not only is this instrument hard to play well, it is also hard to tune. With up to 47 strings, those are a lot of notes that a player must memorize. And although the harp doesn’t require much to produce sound from it, to play something nice, one must practice their picking, strumming and independent foot use to press on the pedals.
Final Thoughts
The difficulty of an instrument is ultimately a subjective experience; it all depends on the person. Some might pick up certain instruments more naturally than others. For example: some might find the mechanics of producing sound from a brass instrument to be more intuitive than on a woodwind instrument.. To them, buzzing tighter to make higher notes might make more sense than simple finger placement. Ultimately, as in many things in life, we gain what we put in, and if one dedicates time to learning an instrument (regardless of how easy or difficult it is) then what they’ll gain is confidence and the ability to play music, which for those who know how, know that it is a pleasure. Never let the perceived difficulty of an instrument scare you from giving it a shot. Sometimes we surprise ourselves by how easily we can pick something up.