Need your opinions?!?

Question:

Need your opinions?!?

Just wanted to ask what do u believe is the easiest instrument to play and the hardest? and if u could maybe find the official easiest and hardest instrument to play?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Well, from what I've seen in my 20 years of watching people learn and 10 years of teachingpeople how to play, the hardest instrument to play is the one you like the least. I've found that when people like the sound of what they're playing, they play it more, and get better faster.

Just so that doesn't sound like a cop-out answer, I've also noticed these things -

Flute is the hardest instrument to start, especially if it is a younger or smaller child. It isn't that you have to blow so hard or do anything funky to get a sound, but the balance of how you form you mouth and how you hold the instrument is very important. Anyone who has a hard time managing the instrument has a hard time getting the sound down.
Clarinet and Sax are both relativly easy to get started on, but as you progress, there are issues with controlling the sound. Since tone quality is so important, you could say that is the hardest part.

Brass instruments - Again, it is all a matter of how you hold your mouth and breathe. If you have a teacher that you can understand, it shouldn't be difficult. I had 2 students switch to the trombone before Christmas and they picked it up in 2 days.

Oboe and bassoon - tricky litle critters. Mostly your sound depends on your breath support and embochure (mouth shape) If you understand how to breathe properly, it isn't so hard to pick theese up.

French horn - now this may get my vote - the partials are so close together, and I saw many people struggle with this all through college. I think if you have a good sense of pitch and you have a good understanding of what your music is suppossed to sound like, you'll do better with this 'beast'

Stringed instruments without frets - If you don't have a good sense of pitch, again, this is going to be very difficult to play well. Using an electric tuner can help solve this problem though.

So, to sum it up, each instrument has its own trials and joys. The trick to finding the instrument for you is using your strenghts to overcome the technicalities of the horn. And remember - just enjoy it. That's what music is all about anyway. It's not suppossed to be the inate character battle within us that all the old fashioned teachers make it out to be. Pick something you will enjoy practicing, and you'll find you 'practice'/play all the time. You'll get really good really fast, and any one of them can be ' easy'.