2. The French Horn is very difficult to position the right note. Meaning, that you could hold buttons down or none at all and be able to play many different pitches. When you hold down the correct button positions, an inexperienced player would find themselves playing the wrong pitches. I did an experiment on this. From the starting note on Bb concert scale I found that I could hold one button down and play 7 incremented pitches before it went half an octave up.
Other voted difficult instruments are the oboe and the harp. Trombone, I think, is in the top 10?
I always figured the theremin was one of the hardest to play.
The theremin is dead easy to play. Getting it to play any recogniseable tune, like the Dr Who theme song, is nigh impossible.
That said, the theremin shares the basic principle of most instruments- wavelength modulation relates to change in frequency, which correlates to change in pitch. With brass instruments, changing valves and slide position merely alters the harmonic range, but what harmonic actually played depends entirely on the player's lips and lungs.
The French horn is the hardest of the brass instruments, because it requires more lip pressure than a trombone but relies less on it than with the trumpet. Thus the control largely lies on the speed of air which the player has to breathe. But it's the volume of air which determines the loudness... basically your lungs control both the speed of the air and the amount of air (it's a single tract, geez!) but you still need to think about the lips just as much. No wonder the newbies can't hit the right note.
Personally I find French horn easier than flute, and I'm pretty sure I'll find it easier than oboe. I simply can't get the embrochure right for either.
I wouldn't exactly say my experience counts though, since it's only my secondary instrument and I never practice. Piano, however, is a completely different story. I've been playing that longer than most of you were alive, and I suspect that also includes you, Freakenstein. I'm a relic :/
The holophonor is harder. Only a few people in the universe can play it.
Now if I could get my hands on one of those, I'd definitely give it a burl. Even if I sucked worse than Fry.
Right now I'm playing viola, the Luigi of the strings. Always under the shadow of his big attention-whoring brother, the violin. Ah well, better than the String Basses...
I play the drums and as such, there is little to learn about most pop tunes, so I reckon I can play most of those.
Since my band writes its own songs, there are few covers I actually ever had to learn to play properly like the original drummer. These few songs are quite basic (Green Day, Metallica, Pixies, Foo Fighters, etc. are not too creative drum-wise), but getting them exactly right is a different story. I hate learning stuff by heart that other people made up; I'd rather make up my own groove.
I started off on the drums when I was younger. Moved to the trumpet, then quit band due to the moving of schools. Now I play my guitar everyday. I still can play the trumpet and drums quite well though.
I wouldn't exactly say my experience counts though, since it's only my secondary instrument and I never practice.
I don't count middle school technically, since it's "learning how to play the instrument" instead of years actively playing it. The director gave us pleeeenty of extra class time to give us lessons on the horn, boy I'll tell ya....
Piano, however, is a completely different story. I've been playing that longer than most of you were alive, and I suspect that also includes you, Freakenstein. I'm a relic :/
DAAAAANG. Longer than 18 years worth of piano??
1. District Solo and Ensemble is coming up tomorrow.
2. I'm playing a group I solo, and if I can get a gold rating, that's a ticket to playing State solo and ensemble.
