What do you think is the most difficult instrument to master?

[moopants]

Probably slightly biased, but I'd say double bass, or maybe the french horn.

What do you think?

[fdeck]

Voice

[Jazzdogg]

Double reeds like oboe and bassoon are supposed to be very difficult, but I have no personal experience with 'em.

[Marcus Johnson]

Surgical scalpels. Don't ask me how I know.

[DevinF]

How about the Chapman stick? I have no idea if it's difficult to play or not, but holy cow! Look at all those strings!

Also, there are those like 25 stringed fretless Indian instruments...

[barbarbass]

It depends how you mean difficult. Sure, if you mean, getting a "decent", or "passable" tone and accurate pitch on a consistent basis, something like a french horn has to be right up there. And yes, the double bass as well -- think of the hand and shoulder strength required just to sweat your way through a two-octave scale. It's a full upper-body workout.

I would guess, though, on the basis of the actual literature for the instrument, that the piano still has place of pride. In fact, it's actually because the piano mechanism itself makes the operator's job so easy (reduced to "touch key and listen for note") that the composer can make a greater set of demands.

Look at hyper-Romantic composers like Reger, or Godowsky (his "Passacaglia on a theme of Schubert", for instance), or Charles-Valentin Alkan (the solo "symphonies" for keyboard) or even more famously Rachmaninov. You're talking about pieces that ask for a multiplicity of voices (four and five not uncommon) as well as uneven phrases (f'rinstance, runs of 27, 18, or 17 over two and four) and extremes of dynamics.

The moderns are not to be outdone. Kaikhosru Sorabji's monstrous "Opus Clavicembalisticum", which takes hours to play through, has ridiculous technical difficulties, almost requiring a lifetime of specialization just to play.

[lowfreq33]

Flute requires more "wind" than any other instrument, due to the fact that only about 1/4 of the breath actually passes through the instrument to produce sound. The rest goes right over the top of the mouthpiece.

[Big chicken]

The hardest instrument to master is............The Rain Stick

[Marcus Johnson]

I think it's only music critics, journalists, and album sleeve copy writers that dare to claim (incorrectly) any particular musician has "mastered" his or her instrument. Any musician who's been doing it for awhile knows that, no matter how much time you've spent playing an instrument, it can kick your ass on any given day without warning. Mastery is something you can only approach.

[Chris K]

I played many different instruments. As a rule of thumb (as opposed to what many people figure) smaller instruments are harder to master compared to big ones.
Secondly, difficulties are not easy to compare. The violin is very hard in terms of getting a decent sound, intonation and speed. On the piano, sound and intonation are less of a problem, but playng different voices simultaneously can be very complex.

[Paul Warburton]

Any arguements?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfozEG98U_M

[zeytoun]

I know a lot of people make cool sounds on a theremin, but few have mastered it...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuKBPEDU-W0

[::::BASSIST::::]

The gazoo.

[Marcus Johnson]

Originally Posted by ::::BASSIST::::

The gazoo.

[Gornick]

Being a DJ looks particularly difficult, must be why they're making the big money gigs these days.

[::::BASSIST::::]

Originally Posted by Marcus Johnson

The wazoo?

[longfinger]

If the instrument is easy to start playing, then people expect more from the player before a level of 'mastery' proclaimed. If the instrument is hard to start playing, people expect less from the player before a level of 'mastery' is proclaimed.

So it evens out in the end to all being equivalent. Everyone is expected to play at the top of their human abilities to be proclaimed a 'master instrumentalist' by someone else.

[relacey]

vuvuzela

It must be hard, I've never heard anyone play it well.

[Phil Rowan]

Originally Posted by relacey

vuvuzela

http://twitter.com/livevuvuzela

[bobwhite]

Violin is very tough for the reasons described above; I always thought trumpet to be difficult, as well as trombone and French horn, the latter just because it has SO MUCH plumbing.

Frankly, any instrument where most of the tone comes from an imprecise measurement that must be fine-tuned--and quickly--by ear (like a violin, trombone or singing difficult pieces), and has difficult actuation (like a violin bow or blowing on the mouthpiece with steady modulation) will be difficult to play well, it seems to me.