The Hardest Goshdarn Musical Instruments by Family

You have heard from your music teachers that if you want to play a any musical instrument, they suggest to you that you should start on the piano. But, in the context of aspiring to learn how to play the hardest musical instruments, you have to start on more than just the humble instrument used to accompany circle-time sing-a-longs. In order for an instrument to torture the inexperienced, it must require either two hands, lots of breath control, a narrow mouthpiece, nimble feet, or a combination.

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Hardest Brass Instrument

The F horn, also known as a French horn, is not just a symphony orchestra staple instrument anymore. You can find it in a brass quintet, a woodwind quintet (it blends perfectly well with the woodwinds), and even concert bands. Speaking of bands, students can learn it even as early as sixth grade. If they can start playing it at an early age, why is it so darn difficult to play?

Despite being easy to hold, it has narrow tubing, requiring a considerable amount of breath control. Even worse, it has a funnel mouthpiece, and perfecting an embouchure on it is even more torturous than the mellophone, trumpet, tuba, saxhorn, or trombone – all of which use cup-shaped mouthpieces. If you want to play that horn, look on the bright side – at least it has valves to change the pitch along with your ever-tightening lips.

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Hardest Woodwind Instrument

It may look like a skinny, small clarinet with a tube in place of a mouthpiece, but the oboe is even harder to play. Unlike its single-reeded counterpart, it has no mouthpiece – just a double reed attached to a staple. You just can’t blow directly on the reeds, you have to draw your lips and insert that bare reed between them.

It takes a lot of breath control, especially if you pass little air through your “mouthpiece.” You might consider the bassoon as an alternative but it’s also another pain in the apples instrument to play because it also has an exposed double reed you have to blow through. If I were to be suggested to play the oboe in the band, I’d rather play an alto clarinet.

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Hardest String Instrument

Religion and lore have made frequent references to and used the harp for centuries – and one thinks of angels playing it. But because two hands are needed to play its huge set of strings, playing it is more like suffering in hell than jamming with the angels in heaven. Plus, you have to put your foot at the right pedals or else it will be out of tune. Playing the harp is a lot different from playing the guitar or lute – and even more painful.

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Hardest Keyboard Instrument

I don’t care if it’s electric or pipe, but the organ is among the hardest musical instruments to play. There are some one-manual (aka keyboard) organs that make it as easy as playing the piano, but the ones with two or more manuals are killer enough. You can’t just have a single timbre on an organ – you have to use a series of stops in order to produce multiple sounds. (It’s worse if you play on a console with drawknob stops on either side that you have to reach for.)

Oh, and you have to have nimble feet too. A lot of consoles have pedalboards, which look like a really-stretched out keyboard at the bottom of it, and expression pedals to make the sounds softer or louder. Playing both keyboards for the hands and feet while changing tones with stops is a multi-tasker’s nightmare, but that’s the burden you carry when accompanying the congregation in churches or synagogues.

Sure, I allow you to have free choices in instruments, but just be aware that if learning the above, you’ll find that it’s worth your pain playing them. Anyway, I have organ lessons in my mind – don’t worry about me enduring the pain of pulling stops and playing foot and hand keyboards.