Hardest instrument to play?

Discussion in 'Art & Culture' started by sargentlard, Feb 17, 2009.

  1. sargentlard Save the whales motherfucker Valued Senior Member

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    In your opinion what is the hardest instrument to play...mainstream ones alteast?

    I wanted to nominate the guitar simply because making a string of notes sound right requires good amount of right and left hand coordination but then I got to thinking about the Piano.

    While it's easier to get something decent sounding out of a Piano right away, eventually the musician has to teach him/her self playing seperate pieces from right and left hand.

    Bass is hard also because slap technique takes a good time to get right (For me at least)


    All things considered I'd say the Piano is the hardest to play IMO.

    You?
     
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  3. Vkothii Banned Banned

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    Piano is easy compared to a sax say, but it depends what you mean by 'play'; you might learn some Beethoven and be able to play a handful of tunes from memory. and learn to play them to say concert level. Then you find some other music (the Rach) which is much harder to play or learn.

    Bagpipes must be a bit tricky to get the hang of.
     
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  5. Challenger78 Valued Senior Member

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    Bagpipes.
    They're the hardest to coordinate, Both hands, mouth etc.
     
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  7. sargentlard Save the whales motherfucker Valued Senior Member

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    Yeah, I think it really is different from person to person. I find guitar to be very hard. For the life of me I can't get 6 string sweep picking.
     
  8. Challenger78 Valued Senior Member

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  9. Vkothii Banned Banned

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    Can you describe "6 string sweep picking"?
     
  10. sargentlard Save the whales motherfucker Valued Senior Member

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    The more well known term would be arpeggios. It's also called economy picking or just sweep picking.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAOr6SYGAyw
     
  11. Vkothii Banned Banned

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    Can you manage 6-string plucking with 5 fingers? I can pluck the 3 plain strings consistently and boogie on the wound strings with thumb and first. Sorta banjo style.

    Plucking 6 together is a bit advanced I suppose if you don't have a thumb and 5 fingers.... (ba da, bing!)
     
  12. sargentlard Save the whales motherfucker Valued Senior Member

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    Now you're talking about classical technique. In modern rock it's a downward sweep with a pick across 6 strings while depressing a string at the right time to sound out a clear note.

    Eventually, after enough practice, guitarists can do it at lightning fast speeds. I can do 6 string sweeps very slowly...
     
  13. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    Playing an instrument can be learned by being taught how to play it. The trick comes in when you can actually master the instrument and make it become one with you. As in the case of a violin. Here are two masters of the violin who can make them seem as if the violin is a extension of themselves and their emotions.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76RnSbRyUqA
     
  14. John99 Banned Banned

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    i imagine the hardest instrument to play is a 12 string. the thing is that when you start very young things come more naturally.

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  15. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    What about a Sitar?

    "A distinctive feature of the sitar is the curved frets, which are movable, allowing fine variation in tuning, and raised so that sympathetic strings can run underneath the frets. A typical sitar, depending on the style, can have 21, 22 or 23 strings. Among these strings are six or seven playable strings, which are situated over the frets. A Gandhar-pancham sitar (used by Vilayat Khan and his disciples) is one which has six playable strings, whereas a Khadaj-pancham sitar has seven playable strings and was used in the Maihaar Gharana (Ravi Shankar). Three (or four in a Khadaj-pancham sitar) of these strings, called chikari, provide the drone and the rest are used to play the melody, though most of the notes of the melody are played on the first string (called the baj tar). The sitar also has 11-16 sympathetic strings or tarbs (also known as "tarif" or "tarifdar") running underneath the frets."

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  16. John99 Banned Banned

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    yes but it is not exactly versatile afa sound goes. can you say it is harder than a 12 string?
     
  17. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    Since I have never played anything in my life I can't really say for sure but it would seem something with 24 strings would be more complex and difficult to learn and play than 12, but again I really couldn't say for sure.
     
  18. electrafixtion Registered Senior Member

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    Without question the hardest instruments to develop the skills needed to play adeptly are those in the stringed instrument family. The lap held instruments that face outward away from the musician are specifically the hardest because of the inversion of the fretboard finger positioning. It's completely unnatural. The picking or fingering is much easier than the opposing hand.
     
  19. clusteringflux Version 1. OH! Valued Senior Member

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    Violin.
    At least it's the hardest to listen to if the player isn't highly skilled.
     
  20. electrafixtion Registered Senior Member

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    LOL! I always love your comments!
     
  21. (Q) Encephaloid Martini Valued Senior Member

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    I would suspect that the wind instruments are most difficult to play, especially the trumpet.
     
  22. Orleander OH JOY!!!! Valued Senior Member

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    drums. Your hands are doing one thing while your feet are doing another. I can't do a different rhythm with both at the same time. Try doing fast tapping with your hand and slow tapping with your foot.
     
  23. Enmos Valued Senior Member

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    French Horn ?
    I heard the violin was a difficult instrument as well.
     

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