Bagpipes is by far, you have to control 7 things at once wile you play and they have to be perfect

to the person who said the flute because the speed you have to play on certain songs... please dont tell me you`re serious. thats the difficulty of the song not the instrument.

people....duh..the hardest instrument to play is the bagpipe!!!

look i say that there is no hardest instrument or easiest instrument, because everyone has different opinions on how difficult an instrument is, look the bassoon might be hard for me to play, but the oboe is very easy for me to play, a bassooniest might think the bassoon is easy as, but for them the oboe might be a challenge, so for different people, the difficulty for an instrument is different. So in conclusion i dont think any instrument is hard or easy, it just depends on the person playing it.

I agree, although the kazzoo may be the exception

i agree that no instrument is easier or harder to learn.it all depends on the person playing.I mean we all have our strenghts and weaknessess.for instance, i cant play my friends double bass, as because i play violin i find the difference in how far to stretch your fingers completley mindblowing and comical.also, my friends tuba is tricky becuse it took me ages to learn how to even make a sound wheras, i personally, find it easier on sax and flute.many of my friends find piano difficult once theyve got past a certain point, as with all instruments, but some pick it up easier than others.it depends on the person playing! Lol

I`d say that the french horn or the trumpet is very hard to play.

in response to jay, i doubt you have ever played the harp. that is considered the hardest instrument. my mom is a harp professor and i played harp for 8 or 9 years before moving on to piano, then cello, then acoustic guitar and now i am currently learning to play the electric guitar and the bass. the harp is considered the hardest instrument to play by many because of the pedals and the strings etc. another of the hardest is the french horn which my brother has played for over 12 years. my other brother played violin and currently studies the viola which is another difficult instrument to play. i speak from experience...i have tried all these instruments. i will continue to say that harp is definitely the hardest.
any comments, please email me (peyton) at rchiteq4Him@yahoo.com because i probably won`t be coming back on this site.

I`d have to say the french horn is the hardest instrument. Well that`s what i`ve heard, and i play it. I also play the accordion that is pretty hard too...like the piano, your using all your fingers but not supposes to look at the keys!, and it`s hard becasue you need to have a syncopated rythm, doing different things with your hands at the same time.

I`d love to play the piana...i can do it...it can`t be much harder than accorion...in accordion your reading two lines of music. But yeah...french horn, and i`ve heard the oboe is hard

I hear the harp is a pretty hard insturmeant

I have been playing both the piano and the f horn for 6 years now and i have found that for the fhorn 1: Pitch control is harder than any other orchestral instrument 2: F horn has very very broad range of dynamics and 3: The range of notes are too wide for 1 person alone. With the piano, a 3 year old can PLAY it but to master it is another question. There are sevral techniques that most people have never heard of such as: Double trills-where both hands are trilling at equal speeds for long periods of time;extremly difficult. Mixed rhythm such as 3 aginst 2 in 1 beat (think Greensleeves) or 3 aginst 4 or 3 aginst 5 or 5 aginst 7 or 7 aginst 9; techniques like that require emminse ammout of thought (alot of Chopin`s music has rhythms like those). I list goes on and on. Playing fast anyone can do, but to play slow, melodic and smoothly is another story.

(There is probably more I can write but i have to really start working on college) application/audition stuff

clarinet is easy to start out with then gets really hard in the higher notes

i believe that it would be flute. i have heard this from many band members as well. its not necessarily the fingerings, but the mouth placement. For instance, you can pick up a clarinet and get a sound out way easier than on a flute. It only was easy for me at first cause a lot of music comes easy to me.
-Deena

I think you hafta be a little more specific. Technique wise the most difficult is bassoon, hands down. I don`t know how they do all that. Musically, prolly strings and piano, with piano being harder. Embouchure, oboe wins here. The mechanics of that are ridiculous. It really just depends. I think the easiest instrument is not flute, as I read earlier, becuz it is just floating there. No way to really anchor on to anything, you know? I say the easiest is sax.

BTW, if violin, piano, and cello are so hard, how come 99% of soloists are on those instruments? Yes they are very, VERY difficult, but still. Numbers don`t lie!

ok I don`t think anyone has said this but I definately think that the OctoContra Bass clarinet would be the hardest to play. I play Bass Clarinet and my school has a broken Contra. It`s definately not as big as an Octo Contra but I saw one played and it was huge!!! WAAY taller than the guy that was playing it and he was pretty tall. Can you imagine how much air you`d need to blow into that???