The Best Musical Instrument to Learn

Learning to play a musical instrument is a worthy goal. The end results can be beautiful, musically speaking, and can help the learner develop other important life skills, like goal-setting, persistence, and focus. Often, the most challenging part of learning to play an instrument is deciding which one to play. Here are some strong choices for first instruments.

Piano

The piano is one of the best instruments to learn for the purpose of learning to read music. The student will learn to read both treble and bass clefs. After this, music readers will find it easier to learn other instruments.

Drums

Rhythm is such a huge part of music that the drum is an easy pick to join this list. Within the percussion family are so many different types of drums that the drummer may never be bored with music lessons.

Voice

This is the instrument that we all already have access to. Like the piano, a vocalist will learn to read music, but probably only in either the bass or treble clef.

Guitar

This is one of the most versatile instruments because you can take it wherever you go, especially the acoustic guitar. The choices in the type of guitar (acoustic, electric, bass), help the player be able to learn more than one and be able to play all genres of music.

Violin

The best-stringed instrument to start with, especially for younger students. Learning this instrument focuses on the mechanics, so patience and attention to detail are personality strengths that go well with this instrument.

Saxophone

Who doesn’t love the soulful sound of an alto saxophone? This instrument yields itself to jazz and classical music. It is not too difficult to learn and is a great instrument if you are planning to play in a band.

Trumpet

Another great band instrument is the trumpet. Every band needs the bright sound of this brass instrument. With only a few keys, students of this instrument have a simpler fingering chart to learn.

Flute

The flute is relatively easy to learn to play, once appropriate embouchure (lip posture) is learned. It is also lightweight and has a lovely tone. Flutes are tuned in the key of C and written music does not need to be transposed.

Once you have chosen the instrument you want to learn, the next decision is how to go about learning to play it. Modern technology has made learning easy with CDs and videos for almost anything, instruments included. While these are low-cost and easy to use, the results may not be the best. You may learn to play the instrument, but a music student’s goal is to play the instrument well. Taking lessons from a professional will give that extra edge. He or she can teach technique and theory necessary to play well. Also, the professional’s trained ear can help the student develop the tone, phrasing, and clarity that makes the music what it needs to be.