What musical instrument is the easiest to learn to play? 12 Musical Instruments Designed for Traveling
Many musical instruments require for long years training and practice in order to master the skill of playing them. But if you are looking for quick results, then our list will help you. These are the most “painless”, most easy to use tools you can imagine. However, don't think that everything is that simple. The beauty of any instrument is that each of them has its place and role, and even the simplest of them become an integral part of any composition. Once you master your instrument, a whole new world of possibilities opens up for you. Even the simplest rhythm instrument, such as a tambourine, makes music shine with completely different colors if it is “placed” in the right place.
Widely used in blues, folk, country, jazz, rock and pop music. However, you don't have to be Bob Dylan to enjoy the sounds of the harmonica at home. You can learn to play a few tunes in just a couple of weeks, and that's great. 
Since its invention by Christian Friedrich Ludwig Buschmann in 1821, the instrument has grown in popularity. And after the advent of the Hohner chromatic harmonica, the repertoire that could be performed on such instruments expanded significantly. The first recordings of the harmonica were made in the USA in the early 1920s, although this instrument was recorded on film in silent films as early as 1894.
After World War II, when the soldiers returned home, there was a rise in the black ghettos, which was naturally reflected in the music. Young Southern musicians (Little Walter, Junior Wells, Snooki Pryor) now played harmonica through a microphone and amplifier. “Mississippi saxophone” (as they called it in American slang harmonica) could now solo to the accompaniment of an orchestra. In the 50s, rock and roll exploded the patriarchal silence of the then music scene. And the harmonica found itself at the forefront of the youth rebellion, which drew inspiration from the black American blues.
A pianica is actually a reed instrument shaped like a piano. There is no need to coordinate the movements of both hands - press the keys of one, blow into the mouthpiece, and that's the end of it. 
The instrument was invented by the German company Hohner in the late 50s. Already from the beginning of the 60s, piano became popular all over the world. The piano was first used as a serious musical instrument by Phil Moore Jr. on the album Right On, recorded at Atlantic Records in 1968. She is also often associated with Jamaican dub and reggae artists of the 1970s. Henry Slaughter played the piano solo on the song I'll Remember You, recorded by Elvis Presley, which was included on the Spinout album.
The kazoo may take one of the first places in the ranking of tools for the laziest, but without losing an ounce of charm. The instrument fits into your pocket and is very easy to use - you just need to sing or blow into it, playing some notes. If you are the lucky owner musical ear, then consider yourself lucky - you already know how to play the kazoo. 
The use of kazoos is widespread among skiffle music performers - an Anglo-American style (guitars, melodica and washboard as a rhythm instrument), but we are all well aware of how bravely last years the instruments travel between styles, so even if you don't intend to play skiffle, you will find a use for the kazoo.
In Russia, a tool similar to the kazoo has been known for a long time - it is a comb with tissue paper placed on the teeth. It was used to special effect by Evgeny Vakhtangov in the music for the play “Princess Turandot” - at the right moment the violinists put down their violins and played a waltz on combs.
Let's face it - none musical style It wouldn't be complete without a good old tambourine. Only a seriously concerned fanatic would undertake the search 
a performer who has never used this instrument. And everyone can play it. If you have problems with a sense of rhythm, another simple invention will help with them - a metronome. And after a few lessons, you can easily accompany your friends at rehearsals, pretending to be a full-fledged musician (just kidding).
The use of the tambourine and its varieties are mentioned in accounts of life in ancient colonies in Greece, China, Rome and India, as well as several times in the Bible. Later he reached medieval Europe, where it was used in operas, ballets and games. And then, in the 19th century, the tambourine became popular in America, where street bands played banjos and fiddles, and it was used as the main percussion instrument.
8. AUTOHARP 
The autoharp does not look like a harp at all, but rather resembles a zither (Russians, in turn, adamantly call it a gusli). The instrument has chord bars with dampers that, when pressed, dampen all strings that are not in the desired chord. To a person accustomed to playing, for example, the guitar, such mechanics may seem rather strange, but in reality everything is much easier.
There is some debate about the origin of the instrument. At about the same time, two Germans different sides The Atlanticists worked on its creation without any agreement: the German immigrant Charles Zimmerman came up with the design of a musical instrument in Philadelphia with a mechanism for muting certain strings during playing, and gave it a name; and Karl Gutter of Markneukirchen created a model which he called the Volkszither (folk zither), and it was this that was most similar to the modern autoharp.
Nowadays, the autoharp is used by many folk musicians, and PJ Harvey became its next popularizer, playing the instrument in some compositions from the album ‘White Chalk’ (and continuing to perform with it to this day).
They say that music is food for the soul. There is no doubt that music can affect us in ways we cannot even imagine. Unfortunately, not all of us have the time to learn how to play complex instruments. So we bring to your attention a list of seven musical instruments that are easy to learn to play.
1. Xylophone
The xylophone is a great instrument for learning music and is certainly one of the simplest. The bars of a xylophone are similar to the arrangement of notes on a piano, and they are struck with special hammers to produce sound. Plastic xylophones are one of the most common toys for children.
2. Autoharp
If you have knowledge of chords and are willing to learn, the autoharp is for you. A big plus is that all strings except those involved in the chord are muted, so you won't be out of tune while playing.
3. Comb
This musical instrument is not only easy to learn to play, it is also easy to make. All you need is a comb and tissue paper. Wrap the comb in paper and off you go.
4. Kazoo
A kazoo is a small metal or plastic cylinder that tapers to a point. A metal plug with a tissue paper membrane is inserted into the middle of the cylinder on top. Playing music on a kazoo is very easy - you just need to sing into it, and the paper membrane will change your voice beyond recognition.
5. Bongo
Learning to play the bongo is very easy. A bongo is a combination of two drums that are connected together. To play it, it is held between the knees. The surface of the bongo is struck with the palms and fingertips.
6. Diamonds
Tambourines are small drums that are held in the hand. Some types of tambourines have metal bells attached to them, which begin to ring when the performer strikes the membrane of the tambourine, rubs it, or shakes the entire instrument. You can shake it, hit the surface of the tambourine with your fingers or knuckles, or use any other methods depending on what works best for you. This is a very simple musical instrument.
7. Drums
Although the drums seem very difficult, they are easy to learn to play if you have a sense of rhythm. You don't have to start with a full drum kit when you start learning. Just learn to play us bass drum or hi-hat. The most important thing in this case is the sense of rhythm.
If I had been asked this question 5 years ago, I would have answered no. Having a teacher who sets the stage, corrects your skills, and corrects mistakes is a key part of any learning experience. But given the fact that the Internet is now available, even those teachers who previously taught at home or in schools are gradually coming to online teaching.
Let's get straight to the main question. Is it possible to learn to play musical instruments online? Yes. And I will try to describe all the ways of online learning. The main disadvantage of online learning is that you are on your own. For some, this may be an advantage, but the speed of such learning is much lower than learning with a live teacher.
The ideal option would be if you have already learned the basics of playing the instrument. Then it will be much easier to study from materials on the Internet. Here are some resources to help you get into the world of music or improve your skills.
YouTube
Perhaps the most The best way learn to play online. There are many channels on YouTube that teach you how to play musical instruments. Mainly it's a guitar, but there are others. Eg:
- Martyzsongs- a lot of video lessons that cover popular guitar riffs and songs. There are already more than 1000 videos on the channel. You'll have plenty to do!
- Andy Crowley— a channel for beginners who have just entered the world of guitar, drugs and rock and roll. This channel covers the basics of playing the guitar, various techniques and sound production techniques.
- Lypur— a channel that focuses on keyboard instruments and music theory. Despite the fact that the channel is no longer active ( latest video was posted a little less than a year ago), the channel has collected a huge amount of material that will teach you the basics music theory and playing the piano.
- Drumeo is a channel dedicated to gaming percussion instruments. Suitable for both beginners and people who already know what rimshots and paradiddles are.
- Eric Arceneaux is a performing vocalist who runs his own Youtube channel, where he shares the basics of vocals, production, warming up and improving the voice.
Unfortunately, all the channels listed are in English. There are training videos on Youtube in Russian, but not only is their quality noticeably inferior to their foreign counterparts, almost all the materials are not combined and are published irregularly.
In addition, all of the above channels have websites where you can find various educational materials, tablature, sheet music, etc.
Forums
On the forums you can also find many useful information. Apart from forum trolls who consider their opinion to be the only correct and unshakable one, there you can actually meet knowledgeable people and experts in their field who will be happy to share their experience. Here are the forums that I could find:
- GuitarPlayer.ru is the largest Russian-language guitar forum. Tens of thousands of topics and hundreds of thousands of messages on any topic related to playing the guitar. Equipment, guitar techniques, search for musicians, analysis of various compositions - all this can be found on GuitarPlayer.ru. Also in Russian!
- DrumSpeech is an educational site with lessons, articles and interesting materials for drummers. The design of the site and forum leaves much to be desired, but we didn’t come there to look at the design.
- PianoWorld is an American forum for pianists. Its scale is simply amazing, so if you want to learn how to play keyboards and own English language, feel free to step there!
Mobile applications
AppStore and Google Play have many apps that can teach you how to play musical instruments. I wrote about what music apps I use on my iPhone, take a look, some might be useful to you too.
Ultimate Guitar
Guitar website with apps of the same name for iOS and Android. It contains tens of thousands of guitar tabs and chords. There are also various auxiliary tools there. For example, a chord chart and a metronome.
Lick of the day
An application that contains a lot of guitar riffs for improvisation. The app is free, but most riffs need to be purchased via in-app purchases.
Guitar Lessons Free
An Android application containing many lessons on playing the guitar. The developer translated the description of his application into Russian via Google Translate, but never got to the application itself. Therefore, only for those who understand English.
Google Helpouts
I have not tested this method, but judging by the reviews and ratings, it also deserves a place on the list. Google Helpouts is an online platform that contains live lessons in various fields. Next to each lesson is written the time when it is held and the price.
The price is quite high, but I cannot verify the quality of these lessons. However, the reviews that each teacher has can help with this.
Conclusion
I did not describe methods such as video conferencing on Skype or many groups with VKontakte materials. But there’s not much to talk about here. There are many ways to learn to play. You will have to devote at least an hour a day to this.
When you start studying without a teacher, the most important thing is to stick to a certain schedule, and for this you must have real motivation. Don't expect that in a week you will be able to play and surprise everyone you know with your great skills. For this you will need much more time. But everything will depend on how much you want it and how much time you can devote.
When you achieve some success, you can start recording yourself and listening from the outside. You don't need powerful studio equipment for this. A voice recorder, smartphone or computer is enough. If you have an electric guitar or synthesizer, you can connect it to your computer and record the sound into the computer. For example, using Guitar Rig.
The most important! Do it for your own pleasure. Music should bring joy and positive emotions. If lessons become uninteresting and a burden, then you are doing something wrong. Learn, try to play something of your own, no matter how bad it sounds, and develop.
For many people, the love for music comes already at a conscious age, when there is time to visit music schools It's just not there anymore. Below is a list of musical instruments that are easy to learn and play.
Guitar
Even teachers of classical music schools confirm that the guitar is the easiest instrument to learn among strings. The thing is that in order to develop an ear for music with its help, systematic hard training is enough, for which you do not need more than an hour in a day.
You just need to learn a couple of chords and you can already play a simple melody. With each new chord and way of playing you learn, the variety of possible melodies increases many times over.
Drums
It’s very easy to play the drums - everything is driven by a sense of rhythm. To start, take 2-3 small classic drums. Gradually increase their number and add new instruments, such as cymbals. Over time, you will assemble a full-fledged installation of bass, snare, and floor drums.
By the way, good drummers are in great demand among many musical groups, so your talent may come in handy in the future.
One of the few downsides to these tools is that a large setup requires a lot of space, which is so often lacking at home. In addition, the drums are very noisy, and you can only practice on them until 8 pm.
Brass
Among the pipers and trumpeters, there are also instruments that are not at all difficult to learn to play.
This includes the zafun - a hybrid model, a mixture of a clarinet body and a saxophone whistle. Although it resembles a regular pipe, the zafun produces interesting sounds, similar to a clarinet or oboe. The range of this wind instrument is not very wide, but it is quite interesting to play.
There is another option: the saxonet is an instrument similar to a zafun, mainly with a wooden body. It is often used in junior music schools to teach children how to produce sound from reeds.
Synthesizer
Of course, an instrument such as a piano requires perseverance from a person who wants to learn how to play it. But there are simplified variations - for example, a synthesizer. Some of them initially have a self-instruction program.
An electronic keyboard with a reduced number of keys but expanded sound functionality will allow you to create original compositions with different sounds. You can even achieve the effect of playing multiple instruments at the same time.
If you want to perform with your synthesizer on the street or in concert halls, it is better to purchase additional speakers - they will significantly increase the volume and power of the sound output. Beginning musicians especially like small models that can be transported from place to place by simply putting them in a briefcase.
Harmonica
Surely you have seen lonely cowboys with this instrument in their hands in many films about the Wild West. In fact, learning to play it is not very difficult.
The peculiarity is that while playing the harmonica, the musician perceives the sound differently than his listeners, due to the touch of his lips and hands. To understand your sound, record it on a voice recorder.
Start your lessons by playing chords and individual sounds, gradually moving on to combining them and playing simple melodies. Watch and listen to performances by professional harmonica players - harpers. Copying their style will be helpful for you at first.
Using a harmonica as an example, this video shows the process of choosing a musical instrument for beginners:
