All over the world, school-age children learn to play instruments like the recorder, violin, and piano. They make it look easy. But in reality, learning to play an instrument takes time, practice, and patience, especially when choosing one of the top 10 hardest instruments to play.
Learning one of the top 10 hardest instruments to play involves more than pushing keys or picking strings. Playing an instrument well involves learning to read music, making pleasant sounds, achieving rhythm.
Some musicians-in-training also have to use physical strength on instruments like the harp and tuba. Moreover, this is our list of the 10 hardest instruments to play.
1. The Challenge of the French Horn
Musicians generally agree that the French horn is the most challenging brass instrument to play. Musicians struggle with the French horn because it has so many tones, but they are so close together. For example, you can make the French horn sound alarming like a trumpet and then soothing like a flute.
Musicians find the French horn fun to play, despite its challenges. The three levers, mouthpiece, and large bell create a challenge that the best musicians strive to master. One of those challenges is getting the lips into the correct position, but many teachers struggle to correctly show their students how to buzz their lips on the French horn.
Another challenge with this instrument comes with the constant need for airflow. Tubes on the French horn are long, so breath control matters. Musicians need to learn how to blow out of their mouths while inhaling through their noses. Otherwise, the sound does not consistently flow out of the horn’s bell.
The next challenge with the hardest brass instrument to play comes with the limited number of keys. This horn has three keys, so musicians need to learn different patterns to produce desired notes. Unfortunately, the tones from those combinations sound similar to others, so it is tough to distinguish various notes on the scale.
The bell adds the final challenge. Some musicians put their right hand into the bell to create a muffled sound. Since the bell faces away from the audience, the notes can seem delayed compared to other brass instruments. These unique needs make the French horn a unanimous choice as one of the top 10 most challenging instruments to play.
2. Mastering the Gentle Violin
Despite young children becoming masters of the violin, it is frequently known as the most formidable string instrument to play. Some musicians compare the violin and the guitar. But, when you get down to it, they are somewhat different, and they are both challenging in their own ways.
The challenge with the violin comes from the size of the instrument and the way violinists hold them. That bow also creates challenges, especially learning how to hold it and move it across the strings properly.
When musicians compare the violin to the guitar, they forget that guitars have frets, so guitarists know where to pluck the strings. Violins do not have frets, so musicians have to know exactly where they place their fingers and where to place the bow to get the desired note. When done correctly, the violin sounds beautiful. When done incorrectly, the sound can be painful.
Along with knowing the notes and how to use the bow, violinists must learn how to hold the instrument. Part of the instrument fits under the chin, and another part sits in the less-dominant hand. The dominant hand manages the bow. Don’t forget that a violinist also has to maintain a perfect posture while playing.
Another part of the challenge comes with having two hands that are doing very different things. At the same time, this is common for most instruments, the violin’s size and the placement of the body up the challenge. Violinists cannot see what they are doing.
3. Learning the Universal Piano
The piano might seem relatively easy when compared to other instruments, but anyone who has taken piano lessons will tell you otherwise. Those 88 keys do not play themselves. The keyboard is large, and the keys all look the same. Like the violin, pianists usually are doing two different things with their right and left hands.
It is challenging but rewarding to learn to play the piano. Because it is one of the top 10 hardest instruments to play, people of all ages pay a lot of money for lessons. Part of learning to play the piano is knowing how to hold your hands because you want to keep your fingers nimble and elegant at all times.
The other challenge is knowing how to transition between notes smoothly. Anyone who has played Rachmaninov, Chopin, or Debussy knows that moving between those massive chords and swift melodies require precise fingering techniques that cannot be achieved overnight.
But, learning to play the piano is highly rewarding. Nearly every song imaginable can be played on the ivories, which cannot be said for many other instruments. When you play the piano, you can accompany every instrument, including the human voice.
4. Banging on the Drums
Remember that drums weren’t originally used as a musical instrument; they were first used as a warning tool. Yes, they are fun to play, especially if you need to take your frustration out on something that can handle it. But, the challenge with learning to play the drums is that drummers never play the melody.
Every other instrument on this list can produce the melody to a song, but the drums have to lead the beat. Moreover, this might be easy if you have a simple beat and one drum, but you need to use your arms and legs with a full set. The physicality of playing the drums steers away all but the most dedicated of drummers.
Drum sets usually include cymbals and drums that produce high, mid, and low tones. Drummers need to learn how to hold and strike the drums with drumsticks to achieve a precise tone. Too much stress and the drums take over, too little, and the drums fade into the background.
Drummers have to learn how to keep rhythm, but they also have to learn how to play solos. Drummers have sheet music to read, too. That sheet music looks different from music for pianists or violinists, which increases the challenge for experienced musicians.
5. Marching to the Bagpipes
The most challenging wind instrument to play is the bagpipes. The Scottish version is probably best known, but other countries have varieties of the unique wind instrument. The challenges of learning to play the bagpipes are similar to the challenges of the French horn.
Like the French horn, bagpipers need to know how to position their lips to get the best sound. A bagpiper doesn’t just blow into the blow stick to get air into the bag. The other similar issue is being able to control the breath and to get power from the lungs.
Interestingly, pipers do not directly blow into the instrument to get noise. Instead, the piper needs to fill the bag with the breath. The piper then uses that air in the bag to get the notes from the drones and chanter. On other wind instruments, the breath directly from the lungs produces the notes. It’s unusual and adds another challenging element to a difficult instrument.
Bagpipers use the pressure from the bag to produce notes. If the pressure is wrong, the notes will be out of tune and off-pitch. Along with filling the bag and using force, the arms have to work to get the notes to sound.
6. Staying Gentle with the Flute
Musicians argue about the most challenging woodwind instrument to play. We have two on this list, and the first is the flute. This instrument is challenging because of the playing position. Flutists cannot see what they are doing, as their hands are both off to the side.
Blowing into the flute is also challenging because flutists do not directly put their lips on the instrument. Getting a beautiful tone from the small instrument does not come easy.
7. Struggling with the Bassoon
The other most challenging woodwind instrument to play is the bassoon. This instrument is challenging for different reasons than the flute. Part of the problem is the size of the bassoon. It’s a big instrument with the bell sitting behind the musician – as the French horn.
The bassoon has holes and keys spaced far apart, so musicians have to practice moving their hands and fingers quickly and smoothly. Unlike other woodwinds, the bassoon is often mocked because of its size and the tones it produces. However, the rich notes can add depth in a way that oboes and clarinets cannot.
8. Plucking the Harp
String instruments are tough to play, and the harp is not an exception. Harps have up to 47 strings, and they have pedals, too. The harp’s challenge involves plucking the right string with the perfect tension while using the pedal to add a flat or sharp. The instrument’s size also adds to the challenge.
Harps are heavy, and many harpists let the instrument rest against them while they play. Harpists need to know exactly where to put their fingers to get the angelic sound they desire while also managing the pedals and planning for the upcoming notes. Harpists also have read music while the heavy instrument is resting against them.
The harp is often considered the hardest orchestral instrument to play because it is so large and noticeable. Other orchestral instruments blend in with their groups, but most orchestras only have one harp. The gentle notes stand out because they are so different from the rest.
Staying in concert with the rest of the orchestra is not easy, especially with an instrument of this nature where the notes often need to linger.
9. Managing the Organ
The piano is tough to play, and many might argue that playing the organ is tougher. Pianos only have one set of keys and three pedals. Organs can have several rows of keys with numerous pedals. Some organs have pedals that have flats and sharps.
The best organists can play the various rows of keys – some have up to 12 rows – and use their bare feet to move up and down the pedals, too. Organists also have to manage the knobs that create different tones. The complexity of choices on the organ is what makes the challenge.
Organs are so tough to learn that top pianists cannot play them. Learning to play the organ requires an entirely new set of skills because of how organists press the keys, move from row to row, use the pedals, and work with the knobs and switches.
Organists usually play solos, or they accompany soloists, so their mistakes stand out. Therefore, organists need to move their hands quickly from row to row, knob to knob, and pedal to pedal. They need to be practically perfect to keep their audiences entertained.
10. Weighing In on the Accordion
The accordion and bagpipe are two instruments that are culturally connected. It is tough to listen to an accordion and not be taken to a romantic Italian restaurant. Like the bagpipes, the accordion involves several steps to achieve a distinctive sound. The accordion relies on bellows and keys to make music.
To play the accordion, the musician needs to control the bellows at different speeds and pressure rates. Musicians use their arms to move the bellows. Then they use their fingers to press keys and buttons to achieve the necessary notes. Doing all of this in sync is the challenge presented by the accordion.
Most accordion teachers instruct their students on the bellows for quite some time before moving to the keys and buttons. The right hand usually plays the melody while the left-hand plays the bass. But, both hands are also involved in moving the bellows. Without the bellows moving correctly, nothing else happens on the accordion.
The size enhances the complexity of the accordion, which can weigh between 10 and 35 pounds. Most people do not take up the accordion without seriously considering all that it entails.
Practice Makes Better
Learning to play an instrument is a rewarding and enjoyable experience. No matter what instrument you choose, you have to practice, be patient with yourself, and enjoy the process. Everyone who has decided to try one of the top 10 most challenging instruments to play had to start at the beginning, which is the only place to start.
