5 Easiest Musical Instruments to Learn

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Learning a musical instrument can be one of the most rewarding things you take. No matter what instrument you choose, there are always challenging parts to master any instrument.

If you’re looking for an easier way to get started, you might want to try one of these five instruments.

5. Piano

The piano is one of the most common beginner instruments because all of the notes are already laid out for you and it’s easy to distinguish between natural notes and sharp/flat notes (white vs black keys respectively). The hardest part about piano is knowing how to play two different clefs (bass clef and treble clef) at the same time. Acoustic piano and digital pianos are similar in difficulty level until you add different pedals.

Related: 18 Most Famous Pianists

Playing piano
Source: Canva

4. Xylophone

Most people get to experience playing the xylophone in grade school. All you need to do is hit the right bars to produce the right notes. This is even easier if the bar is marked with the note name. Xylophones are usually made from wood or steel tubing and are usually fairly portable. They even come in kid-size.

Xylophone
Source: Canva

3. Harmonica

Another one of the best-selling instruments out there, the harmonica is bound to bring you back to the Wild Wild West. It is extremely portable (it can fit in a pocket) and it’s nearly impossible to sound bad. Obviously, mastering it and playing the exact note you intended to is difficult, but since most harmonicas come in the Key of C, you will likely sound good regardless of whether it’s your first time playing.

Harmonica
Source: Canva

2. Triangle

There’s a reason percussion players in orchestras have to manage multiple instruments. If they only had to play the triangle, it would be the easiest job ever. Really all you need to master with this instrument is rhythm. This goes for other percussion instruments as well including the cymbals and xylophone.

triangle - second easiest instrument to learn
Source: Canva

1. Ukulele

Loved for their tropical sound, ukuleles are really easy to learn which is why they have become extremely popular in recent years. Well over a million ukuleles are sold every year. These lightweight instruments have frets which makes them easy to learn for beginners and makes them the easiest instrument to learn on our list.

Related: 20 Fun and Easy Ukulele Songs for Beginners

Ukulele - easiest instrument to learn
Source: Canva

Bonus: Recorder

Another fairly easy instrument to learn that many students learn in grade school anyway. Once you learn what notes the holes represent, it’s fairly easy to pick up the recorder.

Recorder
Source: Canva

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