What's The Easiest Instrument To Teach Yourself?

[ruserl88]

Re: What's The Easiest Instrument To Teach Yourself?

ah yes , the good ole auburn harmonica

[Bornindamecca]

Re: What's The Easiest Instrument To Teach Yourself?

I really want to learn how to play SOMETHING.

But I just don't think I will have the money to pay for lessons. So I thought that I could get an instrument and learn to play on my own. But I didn't know if some were easier to pick up and learn than others. And if its just better to learn from an instructor for some.

Any thoughts/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

The easiest is piano. With just your ear and left hand octaves, you can start playing some songs pretty much right away. One of the most forgotten about and consequently discouraging aspects of playing the guitar is that it hurts when you first start. It hurts the tips of your fingers, it hurts the muscles in your hands, and if you sit wrong, you even get up with your back feeling funky. Now it doesn't hurt forever, and it doesn't hurt in an extreme way, but it does hurt.

When people forget to mention this, newcomers find themselves discouraged and often ask "is this supposed to hurt?" The answer is yes. And if you run toward the pain, and not away from it, you get the strength and callouses necessary to move forward.

Here are the two big differences between the guitar and piano:

Guitar: Takes two hands to get a note. One to hold it, one to pluck it.

Piano: Takes one hand. Just touch the key.

So coordination becomes an issue in Level 1 guitar, but it probably doesn't become a real issue in Piano until say Level 3 or 4.

You can get on a piano and learn a bunch of songs in one or two days with the right teacher. I've never seen anyone able to flawlessly execute a real song on guitar, even within a week.

On either instrument, it'll take at least a year of intense practice to get proficient, but for casual play, piano gives much more than guitar. Most casual guitar players know either scales or chords, but rarely both.

I've been playing guitar for almost 10 years and am not more than average, if even that.

But I started teaching myself piano several years ago and am lightyears ahead of my guitar skills.

Piano is the easiet to me, b/c you have all the notes sitting them in front of you. Even if you dont know what you're playing in the beginning, you can pick out notes, and eventually see patterns aka scales.

This is another more technical aspect. On Piano, the notes are all laid out in order, which is very intuitive. Because of the strings on a guitar, the patterns are strange if you don't know them.

Now all that having been said, guitar is way cooler. If you only want to learn power chords, you can get pretty far pretty fast and cover a lot of pop rock in a short time. Also, there is always the bass, which is fun, cool, easy, but ultimately the guitar's chubby, less attractive sister.

[ruserl88]

Re: What's The Easiest Instrument To Teach Yourself?

The easiest is piano. With just your ear and left hand octaves, you can start playing some songs pretty much right away. One of the most forgotten about and consequently discouraging aspects of playing the guitar is that it hurts when you first start. It hurts the tips of your fingers, it hurts the muscles in your hands, and if you sit wrong, you even get up with your back feeling funky. Now it doesn't hurt forever, and it doesn't hurt in an extreme way, but it does hurt.

When people forget to mention this, newcomers find themselves discouraged and often ask "is this supposed to hurt?" The answer is yes. And if you run toward the pain, and not away from it, you get the strength and callouses necessary to move forward.

Here are the two big differences between the guitar and piano:

Guitar: Takes two hands to get a note. One to hold it, one to pluck it.

Piano: Takes one hand. Just touch the key.

So coordination becomes an issue in Level 1 guitar, but it probably doesn't become a real issue in Piano until say Level 3 or 4.

You can get on a piano and learn a bunch of songs in one or two days with the right teacher. I've never seen anyone able to flawlessly execute a real song on guitar, even within a week.

On either instrument, it'll take at least a year of intense practice to get proficient, but for casual play, piano gives much more than guitar. Most casual guitar players know either scales or chords, but rarely both.


This is another more technical aspect. On Piano, the notes are all laid out in order, which is very intuitive. Because of the strings on a guitar, the patterns are strange if you don't know them.

Now all that having been said, guitar is way cooler. If you only want to learn power chords, you can get pretty far pretty fast and cover a lot of pop rock in a short time. Also, there is always the bass, which is fun, cool, easy, but ultimately the guitar's chubby, less attractive sister.

to me the bass guitar is severly under rated . it absolutely made the redhot chili peppers what they are . same can be said about many bands and songs

[Bornindamecca]

Re: What's The Easiest Instrument To Teach Yourself?

to me the bass guitar is severly under rated . it absolutely made the redhot chili peppers what they are . same can be said about many bands and songs

For every Flea, there are a thousand bass players that just sit there and outline chords. Even in fairly complex rock, the bass is the first instrument allowed to lay in the cut. I love the bass. Even as a guitar player, I find it easy to sit through some of those great bass tapes, but the natural position for the bass in most rock, blues-based music is as a background instrument. The guitar is a virtuoso instrument by its very nature, and the drums require the most physical stamina of any instrument by far.

I think the drums are extremely easy to pick up, but they are just a harder instrument to manage and find a practice space for, because of their size. And lets face it, electric drums just aren't as rewarding. Either way you cut it, it's easier to play bass than it is to play a six+ string guitar or drums.

[ruserl88]

Re: What's The Easiest Instrument To Teach Yourself?

For every Flea, there are a thousand bass players that just sit there and outline chords. Even in fairly complex rock, the bass is the first instrument allowed to lay in the cut. I love the bass. Even as a guitar player, I find it easy to sit through some of those great bass tapes, but the natural position for the bass in most rock, blues-based music is as a background instrument. The guitar is a virtuoso instrument by its very nature, and the drums require the most physical stamina of any instrument by far.

I think the drums are extremely easy to pick up, but they are just a harder instrument to manage and find a practice space for, because of their size. And lets face it, electric drums just aren't as rewarding. Either way you cut it, it's easier to play bass than it is to play a six+ string guitar or drums.

all true . i bought my son a drum set a couple years ago . my neighbors still have not forgiven me

[NoDakHusker]

Re: What's The Easiest Instrument To Teach Yourself?

For every Flea, there are a thousand bass players that just sit there and outline chords. Even in fairly complex rock, the bass is the first instrument allowed to lay in the cut. I love the bass. Even as a guitar player, I find it easy to sit through some of those great bass tapes, but the natural position for the bass in most rock, blues-based music is as a background instrument. The guitar is a virtuoso instrument by its very nature, and the drums require the most physical stamina of any instrument by far.

I think the drums are extremely easy to pick up, but they are just a harder instrument to manage and find a practice space for, because of their size. And lets face it, electric drums just aren't as rewarding. Either way you cut it, it's easier to play bass than it is to play a six+ string guitar or drums.

Very true. Most bassists will just play the bare minimum. The bassist in my band on the other hand(he's no Flea) but he plays some wicked grooves.
I find guitar very easy but I have little rhythm when it comes to playing drums.
It's interesting that I can keep rhythm while playing guitar but then I go to create the rhythm and have almost zero ability...thus the reason I stick with guitar lol.
Of course one person's ant hill will be another person's Everest, so to speak.

[Pared]

Re: What's The Easiest Instrument To Teach Yourself?

I really want to learn how to play SOMETHING.

But I just don't think I will have the money to pay for lessons. So I thought that I could get an instrument and learn to play on my own. But I didn't know if some were easier to pick up and learn than others. And if its just better to learn from an instructor for some.

LMAO

Way too easy. I will leave this one alone.

[mgoblue]

Re: What's The Easiest Instrument To Teach Yourself?

LMAO

Way too easy. I will leave this one alone.

Yeah, MassNole beat us to the skin flute reference...

[Speedy]

Re: What's The Easiest Instrument To Teach Yourself?

Bass is the easiest and the best thing to learn to play initially. You just have to play 1 note at a time and provides/teaches a feel for how songs go. I started with just learning the basic notes (like with the C chord: C, F, G) then started learning the 7ths and minors (E-minor, A-minor, D-minor, C7, F7, Bb, etc.)..Once I learned how to play a bass everything else was fairly simply to learn since I had the basics so I went to a guitar, drums then my piano.

[Maxattax3]

Re: What's The Easiest Instrument To Teach Yourself?



Theremin.


and if you arent playing it like this guy, then you are doing wrong.
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[raidersbball20]

Re: What's The Easiest Instrument To Teach Yourself?

I think a recorder would be good to learn on, it is a little annoying but I think it is really easy