[Closed] Learning a musical instrument

what sort of instrument is a) easiest to learn,

The one that you want to play.

If you don't enjoy it, you won't play it.

The least technically challenging is probably a triangle.

If you want an actual recommendation then a ukelele

The least technically challenging is probably a triangle.

I'm pretty sure it was the triangle I failed my music proficiency test on aged 5... Bad memories.

In reality an instrument capable of playing a range of music from Saharan desert blues to Scottish trad. Less keen on playing thrash metal.

Brass. Any brass. Trumpet, tuba, whatever. Only 3 keys to press. Unless its a trombone, then only a few slide positions to remember.
If you really are a clumsy oaf buy a plastic trumpet, when you drop it and break it you can glue it back together again. Has the advantage that it wont break the window when wifey throws is at your head.

Harmonica

Only one answer: Kazookeylele

I play brass and it's not necessarily the one I'd start with - a bit too much to ask of the others you live with.

Piano/keyboard or guitar would be my suggestion. Easily the two most accessible, you can get cheap enough but good enough learner instruments and there are millions upon millions of websites, books & YouTube videos devoted to those two.

Seriously the Ukelele is a great suggestion.

May I suggest an electric instrument as you can play them really quietly without pissing everyone off. Guitar, keyboard, also violins are available. Keyboards have the advantage that they also teach you about how music and scales work, which depending on your brain might help it all make more sense. The disadvantage of keyboard for me is that keyboard music is terrifying, to me who is rubbish at music reading. The nice thing about guitars is that a huge amount of learning is done by ear and by watching videos of people playing. And when music needs to be written down there's tab notation which is guitar-specific and much more practical. Same applies to ukelele and banjo too.

However as above - learn the one you want to play. I played brass in school then gave it up when I realised I really don't like brass band music.

We got a ukelele for the kids, who don't play it. So I worked out the theme song for Peg + Cat, that's the only thing I can play.

Can give some feedback on my own experience.

Sold my old road bike back in July in order to buy a nearly-new electronic drum kit, stool and a practice pad. I use headphones. It sits in a corner of the utility room and has since become my goto getaway place for 20-30 minutes every night. Have positioned a tablet PC in sight-line so as to use youtube as an instructor (there’s audio in on the drum module). I close the door and enter another world.

Primarily use both Drumeo and Rob Brown instruction channels. I could use a smartphone for the same purpose albeit with smaller screen. I use a (free) metronome app for practising on the practise pad.

Rudiments are best practised on the pad. That cost me ten quid from FB marketplace. Same for an old snare-stand to rest it on. The pad is double-sided, each side with different density/compound so as to mimic different drum-head tension/bounce. With this, some sticks, youtube (and a free metronome app) it’s all I need to learn and practise when away from the kit.

The drum kit I purchased has mesh skins so only the cymbals make any appreciable noise. Even that tapping is minimal with the door closed.

Disclaimer: I have great trouble learning things such as music, mathematics and languages owing to some considerable attention deficit disorder. This has become especially apparent in latter years with mounting daily stresses, anxieties and uncertainties.

I’ve found that just 20 (structured) minutes (on two specific simple patterns) every day has seen my concentration levels improve over 8 weeks. Stress levels also are vastly reduced.

Have charted progress with a table and notes (also entirely uncharacteristic of me). Have in just 8 weeks gone from making between 9 to 12 mistakes in 10 minutes to zero mistakes. Also on-tempo/synch accuracy up from 10-20% to about 70% (The module has coaching functions/display to track accuracy)

Playing/learning is also having a lot of other (social/work/productivity) effects as my brain is effectively reorganising/improving/rewiring.

Bonus is allowing self to go and beat ten barrels of shit out of it whenever I feel like it. It’s up there with cycling and running as a full-on stress-buster.

Again using the kit+tablet I’ve found that playing along with live acts on Youtube is a lot of fun. Last Friday Matthew, I was mostly being Martin Atkins (PiL/Killing Joke) This week so far it’s been Clyde Stubblefield (James Brown band, just about every hip-hop drum sample) I can’t at my age hope to match such great drummers but I will be having a lot of fun trying.

(Discounting a bicycle) a drum kit is by far the best thing I ever bought. Joint first. Wish I’d known decades ago (what it could do for me) as would by now likely be much happier, more productive and also a killer player. But as they say (and it is true): better late than never.

Weird thing is I played keyboard and percussion in bands for decades and always jumped on the drum kit while the other band-members took fag/drink-breaks. Yet it never once occurred to me that I should drum. Simply because since a teenager I was considered ‘the keyboard player‘ as that was a vacancy I filled at the time, then stuck there in successive bands. Idiot. I wasn’t really any good at keyboards to be honest. What a complete fool.

Consider also an electric piano or guitar? Those are quiet used with headphones.

Or get a trumpet if you want to really shake stuff up 😎.

Whatever you choose – best advice I can give is to be prepared to get rid/switch to something else if you’re not captivated/fully enjoying your choice. Don’t make the same mistake I did! You’ll know if you are enjoying it. Even with the frustrations of learning, you’ll know if you’re enjoying the challenge/enjoying music. Note also that different music genres may affect your enjoyment. I’ve discovered that jazz-drumming is very, very different than rock-drumming. Almost like playing two different instruments. Luckily is double the fun in my case. Gravels vs MTB? Howabout both? Bring it all.

Note: My original STW ‘lockdown challenge’ was to ‘learn a Doors song on the digital piano’. Frowningly failed that challenge, yet instead do now belt out the full 7 mins of ‘Light My Fire’ on drums. And with a huge grin! Priceless.

A guitar is easier than a uke IMO. An electric guitar is even easier and quiet with headphones.

I picked up guitar during the 1st lockdown, been meaning to learn for years. Really enjoying it and have progressed from chords, to learning scales to easy solos etc since March. Progression has slowed down a bit now I'm not working from home :p

I tried to learn from books about 20 years ago, but its so much easier now with the amount of web resources available. Andy guitar and Justin guitar have pretty much taught me everything I know.

So from that, I would recommend an electric guitar. Almost silent to practise on.

(Reads back) even I can’t bothered to read all that I typed. Sorry 😬

#braindump

Good luck in your choice OP, and I look forward to reading of your experience 👍🏼

I play brass and it’s not necessarily the one I’d start with – a bit too much to ask of the others you live with.

Piano/keyboard or guitar would be my suggestion. Easily the two most accessible

2nd this. I also played brass and it is almost entirely useless in a social context. Whereas every once in a while a situation arises where there happens to be a guitar or piano around which people want to be played and the only useful thing I can do in that situation is tune the guitar.

I think piano / keyboard is a hard instrument to learn, so many things going on at once
Strings - 6 of them, a bit easier. Unbearable screeching of leaner violin etc.
Wind and woodwind - too many holes and finger positions, I wouldnt remember them, and would get my left and right muddled up.
Thats why I chose brass. A real skill to play quietly. Can do mouthpiece practise without the instrument if you really want to.
Drums - now thats loud. And takes a lot of space.
other percussion - yeah, some interesting stuff out there.

Im out !

Drums – now thats loud. And takes a lot of space.

Not so much nowadays. I also since put the whole kit on a folded mesh-mat so even the bass-drum pedal doesn’t bother downstairs neighbours. One neighbour once said that he could hear sticks clicking when I had the window open one still night and he was outside my window. ie no problems at all.

It takes up about the same practical space as the (small) digital piano in the other room.

Electronic piano or electronic drum kit both take way more space than a guitar/electric sax/electric oboe/etc + headphones. But electronic drum kit or electronic piano and headphones still can take up minimal space in the grand scheme. I just moved a filing cabinet to a different corner.

Also - a practice pad and sticks take up the same or even less practical space as (say) a guitar and I can take them anywhere. Forest. Bedroom. Folk’s spare room. Beach. Even the toilet. They do call it a drum ‘throne‘ after all!

Keyboards have the advantage that they also teach you about how music and scales work, which depending on your brain might help it all make more sense.

Agree. Much easier to grasp the concepts of music with a keyboard as it is perfectly laid out (other than say a guitar which takes a while to get to know where the notes are). Also can be completely silent and used with headphones so won't be annoying anyone.

Agree. Much easier to grasp the concepts of music with a keyboard as it is perfectly laid out (other than say a guitar which takes a while to get to know where the notes are).

Can confirm. I played a very small amount of piano as a kid (did my grade 2 exam) and have played guitar for the last 20+ years. I still 'think' in terms of black and white keys.

I suppose it depends how serious you are, and what your aims are, though. If you want to learn music theory and understand composition then a piano is great. If you want to learn some pop/rock songs to sing along to then a guitar is way easier IMO.

ukelele

I think this fails on point (b)

😀

If this is at all useful to anyone I just quickly measured both the piano and drum kit (with stool/throne tucked under) to give some idea of space required

Sorry for rushed sketch but the measurements are good.

As an easy visual you can more or less fit either setup on 2x (60cm) interlocking playmats like the ones linked below.

The drum kit is 3 inches deeper than the piano setup (21” vs 19”) but a good deal narrower on width*

https://www.jmart.co.uk/products/interlocking-eva-mats-yellow-6pk

*Based on
-Alesis Nitro Mesh (drum kit) with throne (stored beneath)
- Casio Privia (88 key) piano, stand and aftermarket full-sized bench (stored beneath)

I'm 9 months in on guitar, get a good teacher, I haven't a musical bone in my body but what I've achieved so far I am gobsmacked. I've just persuaded my mate to buy a bass guitar, let the good times rock and roll.
Easiest to learn! where's the fun in that!?
Classical guitar is awesome btw.

I think understanding music theory is easier with a guitar than a piano. 12 notes to an octave and the octave is halfway up the string so when the string is half the length it vibrates twice as fast and you have double the frequency.

On a piano the black and white keys are fine till you change key. On a guitar you can play in whatever key you want and the patterns are the same. It's only the b string that irritates; the guitar is tuned in fourths so there has to be one string out of line. The bass is even easier with its four strings. On a guitar you always know where the 3rd, 4th, 5th octave etc are just from the pattern (except on the b string which displaces things a fret up).

The piano give the notion that the black notes are somehow different. On a guitar you learn which scales work for different types of music irrespective of black or white, and play them anywhere on the neck.

Then there's the fact you can bend a guitar string, you aren't stuck with just 12 notes, you can get whatever frequency you want and flow smoothly between notes

In fact a guitar is so easy most players don't bother to learn to read music. 🙂

A guitar is easier than a uke IMO. An electric guitar is even easier and quiet with headphones.

I'm going to disagree. I'd say nylon acoustic. Nice big spaces, easy on the fingers and electric guitars are bloody annoying to listen to for everyone else nylons are the fullest sounding when played gently and grate the least when played badly.

Piano is way better for theory while it may be more complex initially. Theory isn't everything though i was taught flute by ear pretty successfully but it really really hindered me having no theory. Thats where a guitar does shine is that you can learn without the theory to an extent.

And nothing NOTHING is more impressive that being able to sit at a random piano and bash out a tune regardless of difficulty of piece.

I'd love to be a pianist.

I'll suggest a diddley bo

12 notes to an octave and the octave is halfway up the string so when the string is half the length it vibrates twice as fast and you have double the frequency.

On a piano the black and white keys are fine till you change key. On a guitar you can play in whatever key you want and the patterns are the same. It’s only the b string that irritates; the guitar is tuned in fourths so there has to be one string out of line. The bass is even easier with its four strings. On a guitar you always know where the 3rd, 4th, 5th octave etc are just from the pattern (except on the b string which displaces things a fret up).

And all that made realise I should never buy a guitar as it made no sense to me;)

Exactly. Ask the average guitarist to point out all of the D notes on their guitar and most would struggle or take a few seconds. Ask a person who has been playing piano for a day and they could do it straight away.

I do however agree that it may not matter to you if you are not reading music and just need to know what frets to fret in what order...

The best instruments to be able to go from zero to be able to play along with either recordings or other people are bass and drums.

If you ever felt like joining a band choose drums. Finding a solid drummer without a serious personality disorder is nigh on impossible so if you can string a sentence together and hold a 4 x 4 beat you are in.

Piano is best for learning actual music, but who wants to do that?

Form personal experience it may be difficult to learn from scratch with a tutor on Zoom (11 yr old daughter has just started learning the sax although she has already had drum and piano lessons so has a musical background - it was the tutor that warned us of this as apparently it's really difficult to get off the fundamentals).

Music should be fun, shouldn't it? I found a Youtube of Slade performing in Winterland in 75 and inspired by this thread recorded a cover. The beat's all wrong, I'm just using it as a metronome and nobody can sing like Noddy but it's a fun thing to play.

Musically it's in A, the pentatonic solo in A major and that's about all you need to know to join in.

+1 for the what you want to learn

As for easiest, that'll differ for everyone. I really struggle with keys and guitar (over think and lack patience) but when I picked up sax, it clicked.

Firstly think about what you want out of it and go from there

Music should be fun, shouldn’t it?

Absolutely. People find different ways of having fun though.

Sight reading for example allowing a piece you've never heard before unfold infront of your ears can be immensely satisfying.

Smashing the same three chords out on a guitar and singing your heart out (or even better someone joining in) is a wonderful sensation.

Someone said the best instrument is the one you want you play.

Can't disagree about Noddys voice. Cover of Darling be home soon is great.

Infact. Don't forget your voice is an instrument well worth learning.

Finding a solid drummer without a serious personality disorder is nigh on impossible so if you can string a sentence together and hold a 4 x 4 beat you are in.

Oi! I resemble that comment!

I’m starting to learn electric guitar, properly with lessons & everyfink.
Requires practice, lots of it in my case. Quieter & takes up a lot less room than an acoustic kit with cymbals.

Bass is even easier to play the basics, provided you don’t go silly & get a 5-string fretless...

The one that you want to play.

If you don’t enjoy it, you won’t play it.

Very much this. All instruments require a great deal of focussed practice to become reasonably proficient. Each instrument has its own particular difficulties. Some are easier to get started on but it all tends to even out as you get better.

It's worth starting from "what sort of music do you want to play"?

I’d say nylon acoustic

Oh gosh no. Making chords is harder because of the huge fretboard, and bar chords are really difficult. And even when you get the hang of it strumming tunes sounds rubbish.

It is true though about the guitar being easy in some ways. You can learn two or three chords and bash out many great and classic songs, and if your singing is good you can do really well. So it is easy in that sense. But you do need to drill yourself with the chord changes over and over and over again so that you can find them quickly.

[Nylon acoustic] Oh gosh no. Making chords is harder because of the huge fretboard, and bar chords are really difficult.

Yeah, I wouldn't recommend learning on a nylon-stringed instrument. I started guitar by picking up Mum's old nylon acoustic. It sounded OK but it's so hard to play compared with a steel-stringed, thinner neck acoustic.

The best instruments to be able to go from zero to be able to play along with either recordings or other people are bass and drums.

If you ever felt like joining a band choose drums. Finding a solid drummer without a serious personality disorder is nigh on impossible so if you can string a sentence together and hold a 4 x 4 beat you are in.

🤣