Music is an evergreen art. The human mind and soul need music to cure all its woes and return to a state of tranquility. While there are 6 categories and over 300 instruments in each of those categories, all of these instruments require time, patience and determination to be played and attained mastery over.
However, there are certain instruments that have proven to be extremely hard to master, yet have posed an interesting challenge to those who wish to learn to play them. We have compiled a list of such instruments and why they are so hard to play. Take a look at them below.
Check Out the Hardest Instruments to Play
1. Oboe
The Oboe, named by the French for its clear and piercing sound, is a long wooden instrument that requires large amounts of wind to be blown into it to produce music. There are numerous problems with playing this instrument and some of them are,
- The way the player needs to place his mouth against the instrument.
- Next, comes the astonishingly large amount of lung capacity that one needs ot develop to play it.
- It also requires one to switch their fingers very quickly to p[lay successfully.
2. Bagpipe
Throughout Europe and especially Scotland, the bagpipe is an immensely popular and enjoyed of the musical instruments. There are numerous hardships to playing this instrument too that are similar to the oboe,
- A lot of wind is needed to blow through the bag sufficiently and produce music.
- The drone of the bagpipe needs to be held in various combinations to produce different manners of sound.
- Sometimes multiple drones pose bigger problems to the player, as he needs to master their positions as a group as well.
3. Violin
A Violin is a rather small instrument with a medium sized fingerboard and just 4 strings attached to it, these are rubbed against by a 'bow'. The violin is an immensely popular instrument all over the world, for the high quality of melody it produces. And so is the difficulty of playing the instrument.
- Requires being held in the right position involving your neck.
- Requires the player to maintain the right posture while he plays the instrument and for the entire duration of the play.
- Finger positions too need to be mastered and need time.
4. Drums
Who doesn't love drums? They are one of the few instruments in the world that make literally anyone get up and dance. They say that it is easy to learn to play the drums but near impossible to master it. Drums are one of the instruments which is widely used in the rock bands, stage shows and during recording the rock songs.
- It needs the player to use his hands and legs at different time intervals
- The player needs to have his hands and legs in perfect sync to produce the desired music.
- Differing heights during the taps on the drums is difficult to master.
5. Guitar
The world's most loved musical instrument, and the one that makes the player an instant chick-magnet is the guitar. Every teenager aspires to learn and master it but somewhere along the way loses interest.
- The fingers on the fingering hand ache and get cut in the beginning.
- Mastering the art of fingering on the neck requires immense determination.
- Overlapping tones combined with difficult sight-reading make this instrument one of the most difficult to master.
6. Accordion
The accordion a.k.a harmonica is an instrument similar to the harmonium and produces a melodious hum that acts as the background for the music produced by the keys. Some of the hardships with this instrument are,
- One of the hands needs to compress the bellows and the other needs o work on the keys.
- The instrument needs to be held in a particular way and the elbow position of the key-pressing hand is important.
- Coordination of both the hands is the most daunting of tasks while playing this instrument.
7. Harp
The harp is one of the two the biggest instruments in the list. An instrument that dates back to the bronze age in the 35th century BC, is one of those instruments that can have an extremely soothing sound effect on the listener.
- It needs the player to master the hands and finger positions individually.
- Needs a leg to sharpen or flatten a note, which is quite hard.
- Synchronization between the hands and legs which need frequent switching up is tough.
8. French Horn
This is a huge tube shaped instrument from Germany that makes the player look and sound classy as well are red in the face.
- It needs significant amounts of breath to play successfully and for a long time.
- It needs one hand to enclose the opening the right way, which is tough to master.
9. Piano
There are 3 types of the most massive musical instruments, that is the upright piano and the grand piano. Thi instrument has 88 keys to produce Mozart like-symphony.
- Needs two hands working independently.
- Two lines of sight-reading have to be done simultaneously.
- The intonation needs to be perfect to get the desired effect.
10. The Pipe Organ
One can call this a combination of several keyboards, for it has more than three sets of keys and is also known to produce some of the best forms of melody known to the human ears.
- Without a sustain pedal, one needs to impress upon the keys for the amount of time he wants the tone to keep resonating.
- It requires the use of hands and changing them, and/or legs.
- Several hundreds of stops to alter and produce the desired tone.
That ends our list of the hardest instruments to play, if you have any additions to the list please use the comments section and alternatively the reaction sections to express views.
