Easiest Musical Instruments to Learn

Musical instruments that are easy to learn: There are many who dream of playing a musical instrument some day, but never actually make it. Many of them don’t even get started. One of the reasons for that is many feel that its difficult to learn to play a musical instrument. While there’s no doubt that it takes years to master a music instrument, you can definitely learn to play a few simple tunes in a few weeks time (you could learn a couple of tunes in a few days time).

Introduction

Compared to other hobbies, is it really difficult to learn to play a Musical Instrument? This is one common question that lingers in the mind of several beginners, especially teenagers, who’re want to learn but fear that their efforts might go waste.

Most beginners think that a music instrument (be it piano, guitar or drums) is difficult to learn, and as a result most of them don’t even get started. However, as with any musical instrument, it’s easy to get started and learn the basics, but it’s hard to master and take years to do that.

There are many who think sight-reading is difficult, but then a major challenge when learning to play the piano is to get your hands working together, I mean the left and the right hand. That is where beginners spend some time, to get both your hands to play bass & treble well together. Once you are comfortable doing that, it gets easier to take on challenging songs & exercises.

With guitars, many feel that its too painful on the fingers. They think your fingers have to first bleed, after which, newer & stronger layer of skin will come, and then only you’ll be able to start playing. And that stops many from even taking the first step. But, that’s not really true. You can start playing on guitars with Nylon strings, which are much softer.

Also, at times, you should just take the plunge, try it out for a few months and see for yourself how it feels. ‘Hard’ is also a subjective term, some may feel the way you do whereas some may not despite being beginners themselves.

One thing that helps initially is to take the time to practice. If possible have more practice sessions in the beginning, have shorter sessions if you can’t spare more time.

If you’re passionate about a thing, you do get across the initial hurdles and things do get easy eventually.

Easy to Play Music Instruments

Certain musical instruments are easier to learn (to get started with) and they are cheaper as well, compared to say a grand piano.

Here are some musical instruments that are easier to learn; you can easily start playing a few songs on your chosen instrument.

Recorder

The recorder is another small wind instrument (shaped like a flute). Its portable, inexpensive, easy to play, produces a charming sound, and is very popular among beginner music students.
More on Recorder

Melodica

Also known as the key-flute (pianica), this is an easy to learn wind instrument that comes with piano like keys. It can also be used by students for getting introduced to Keyboards.
More on Recorder

Piano / Keyboards

Many feel that the piano is a difficult instrument to play. However, the fact is that there are easier methods to get started on the keyboard. Start with the basic notes, learn a few chords, and you should be fine. Or maybe you can learn to play only with one hand first.
More on Piano / Keyboards. Also read more about the harmonium instrument.

Harmonica

It is very easy to produce a sound on a harmonica (advanced players use it for different genres of music like blues, rock, pop, folk or jazz). It is easy to learn as well and is extremely portable. You can easily carry it in your pocket. Harmonica (also known as the mouth organ in some countries) is basically a reed instrument.
More on Harmonica

Ukulele

The Ukulele basically looks like a small guitar (used a lot in Hawaiian music). Its basically a string instrument but easy on your fingers (the nylon strings). A Ukulele doesn’t cost much.
More on Ukulele

Guitar

Another great music instrument! You can play melody as well as rhythms on a guitar. You can easily carry it on your shoulders and people do get impressed with it. In order to learn guitar within a few hours, all you need to do is remember a few chords and you can get started strumming on the guitar.
More on Guitar

BONGO

Bongos (combination of two drums joined together) is played by keeping it between the knees. An easy to play percussion instrument. Its a rhythm instrument, and a great instrument to carry long on picnics, campfires with friends.

Tambourine
Tambourine is a good instrument to learn about rhythms. You shake the instrument, or strike it with your other hand, there are different techniques to play this instrument.

While these percussion instruments are easy to learn, you ideally need a partner with whom you can practice/jam, because these are rhythm instruments (and don’t play the melody). It will be fun if you get a partner who could sing or play a non-percussion (melody) instrument.
More on Drums & Percussion

Singing

Perhaps, the best thing to do! It will be a great asset if you can train yourself to be a decent singer. A great combination, if you can play the piano and sing along! If you’re not very shy person, you can et started with singing. Its also a great asset (to be able to sing well) for thse who already know how to play a musical instrument.
Singing Lessons

The following instruments are a bit challenging to play, compared to the easier ones listed above.

Flute

Flute is another music instrument which can be taken up. Its a wind instrument and makes a very melodious sound. Initially you might struggle a bit to produce sound from a flute but with little practice it should be easy. With regular practice, you can become good at playing master this instrument.
More on Flute

Percussion/Drums

This is another exciting music instrument which can be taken up. The drawbacks being – it needs more space and can be expensive. Of course, there is the noise factor also which you need to take into account. More on Drums

Harp

Another easy to play music instrument, and can be a good starting instrument to take formal music lessons. Different types of harps are available in market; Pedal harps and lever harps being the more popular types.

Learning to Play Piano vs Guitar

Not sure whether to play piano or guitar, here are some of my thoughts based on my experiences.

Playing chords with your left hand on a keyboard (with the accompaniment) doesn’t take long, you can do that in a couple of weeks, at least the C, F, G chords, and you can play several popular songs with these chords. In fact, if you refer to the Kenneth Baker keyboard books, you can play a couple of songs, with chords (with the accompaniment on), in the first week itself, with say 30 min of practice. If you have never touched a keyboard before, these are great books to get started.

But there is much more to learning a piano or the guitar.

While it’s difficult to generalize, but if you have an outgoing personality, you may be well suited for guitar. If you are a bit on the introvert side, then you will mostly choose the piano/keyboard.

This is what I’ve observed looking at my friends, who play either of these instruments. It may not be totally accurate, but to some extent it seems to be the case.

Heading out over the weekend for a picnic/mini vacation with friends? You can take along the guitar and accompany your friends while singing some fun songs.

And if you have a few more in the group who can play the guitar, you guys will have a blast.

It’s difficult to do this with a piano/keyboard because of its size and because it runs on electricity!

There are some who feel playing the piano with two hands is difficult, compared to playing the guitar.

But that’s definitely not the case. Maybe you need to be a bit more patient initially on the piano, but most students do get it. It also depends on how your teacher introduces the use of left hand in your piano playing.

I also know many students who have picked up the piano quite fast but struggled with the guitar.

If you want to composeyour own music, then it really does not matter what instrument you play; you can play any musical instrument and come up with good musical compositions. Note: Knowing basics of keyboard can help you, since you can do all your musical creation on a computer. Do Keyboard Players Really Have an Advantage Over Other Musicians?

Although, playing the piano might help you become better as a musician and an arranger, keyboard players have an advantage over other musicians when it comes to studio work as its quite easy to input the notes using a keyboard controller.

But when it comes to live playing, singers and guitar players seem to have an advantage, very few keyboard players in popular bands are actually popular.

Closing Thoughts

There are many who want to learn music, want to play a musical instrument, but don’t get started because they think its difficult to learn. Surprisingly, there are many who have taken lessons as a child but did not pursue it seriously. Years later, as an adult they wish they had learnt and want to learn to play a music instrument. If you’re one of those, this is the list of easy to music instruments for you. get started on one of these and then you can switch later to the more difficult instruments.

What you should remember is that every person’s learning capacity and the way s/he learns is different. What is easy for one person may look difficult to the other person and vice versa. You should also follow your heart, what sounds good to you? You don’t have to necessarily stick to this list, if you find something interesting, go ahead and learn to play it.

Also Read

• Musical Instruments For Kids
• Get started with piano lessons here
• Also Read: Get started with guitar lessons here

So if you have always wanted to learn to play a music instrument, make your pick from this list. These are easy to play.