Musical instruments that are easy to learn to play. The simplest musical instrument

If you want to learn how to play musical instrument, but have not yet decided on which one - this article is for you. What is the easiest musical instrument to learn? This question is often asked by people who decided to make music, but faced some difficulties in mastering this multifaceted art.

To allow this problem, we need to consider all types of musical instruments and identify their main features.

Types of musical instruments.

Conventionally, all existing musical instruments can be divided into three categories:

• rhythmic,
• monophonic (single voice)
• polyphonic (polyphonic)

It is in this sequence that the complexity in their development increases.
By using rhythmic instruments, as their name implies, the musician can create rhythm. A typical example of such a tool would be different kinds drums.

There can be no talk about all sorts of musical complexities, such as pitch, chords, bass and solo lines, therefore, purely theoretically, learning to play such an instrument is much easier than playing the guitar or piano. In addition, the presence musical ear it is not necessary at all: it is enough to have good feeling rhythm, and if there is none, it can always be developed in oneself.

Playing on monophonic, or, more simply, monophonic instruments, you can create a melody. It will sound as if we sang it “with one voice”. There are a great many monophonic musical instruments: these are wind instruments (trumpet, flute, saxophone), bowed strings (violin, cello) and many, many others.

The ease or difficulty of mastering such instruments largely depends on the technique of extracting the sound, as this is often not easy. For example, on a trumpet, the sound itself is extracted with the help of a special vibration of the musician's lips, and the instrument itself only amplifies and corrects this sound.

Learn to play polyphonic (polyphonic) instruments is perhaps the most difficult. In this case, in addition to the main melody, either a bass melody or an accompaniment is extracted - a sequence of chords that creates an emotional and rhythmic background for the entire piece of music. The most popular instruments in this category are button accordion, accordion, guitar and piano (or synthesizer).

The main difficulty in the game is that the two hands of the musician play different notes or chords, i.e. move independently. And if the player who plays such an instrument also sings, this is already aerobatics!
As can be seen from the above, the more complex the instrument, the more complete and beautiful musical works can be created with it. The above classification, of course, is not universal, because there are virtuoso drummers, whose playing not everyone dares to repeat, and there are also guitarists who know only three chords.

In any case, if a person learns to play an instrument, his enthusiasm and love for music will be the main factor. And when these qualities are present, you can easily and with great pleasure master any instrument, no matter how difficult it may seem.

Also, listen to yourself! And you will find the answer within your soul. This is the most correct answer!

If I had been asked that question 5 years ago, I would have said no. A teacher who sets the foundation, corrects your skills and corrects mistakes is a key part of any learning. But given the fact that the Internet is now, even those teachers who used to teach at home or in schools are gradually coming to online learning.

Let's get straight to the main question. Is it possible to learn how 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 training is much lower than training with a live teacher.

The ideal option would be if you have already learned the basics of playing the instrument. Then learning from the materials on the Internet will be much easier. 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 how to play musical instruments. Basically, it's a guitar, but there are others. For example:

• martyzsongs- A lot of video lessons that understand popular guitar riffs and songs. There are already over 1000 videos on the channel. You will have something 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 techniques.
• Lypur is a channel that focuses on keyboards and music theory. Even though the channel is no longer active ( latest video was posted a little less than a year ago), on the channel collected great amount material that will teach you the basics of music theory and how to play the piano.
• Drumeo is a channel dedicated to the game on percussion instruments. Suitable for both beginners and people who already know what rimshots and paradidles are.
• Eric Arceneaux is a performing vocalist who maintains his own Youtube channel in which he shares the basics of vocals, staging, warming up and improving his voice.

Unfortunately, all the channels listed are in English. There are also instructional videos in Russian on Youtube, but not only are their quality noticeably inferior to their foreign counterparts, almost all materials are not combined and come out irregularly.

In addition, all of the above channels have websites where you can find various educational materials, tablature, sheet music, and more.

Forums

You can also find many on the forums. useful information. Apart from forum trolls, who consider their opinion to be the only correct and unshakable one, there you can really meet knowledgeable people and experts in their field who will gladly share their experience. Here are the forums I could find:

• GuitarPlayer.ru is the largest Russian-language guitar forum. Tens of thousands of topics and hundreds of thousands of posts 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 the 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 the keyboard instruments and own English language feel free to go there!

Mobile applications

AppStore and Google Play have many applications that can teach you how to play musical instruments. I wrote about the music apps I use on my iPhone, take a look, some might be useful for you too.

Ultimate Guitar

Guitar site with apps of the same name for iOS and Android. It contains tens of thousands of guitar tabs and chords. Also there are various auxiliary tools. For example, a chart of chords 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 guitar lessons. The developer translated the description of his application into Russian using 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 collects live lessons in various fields. Near each lesson is written the time when it is held, and the price.

The price is quite high, but I can not check the quality of these lessons. However, the reviews that are available for each teacher can help with this.

Conclusion

I have not described methods such as video conferencing on Skype or many groups with VKontakte materials. But there isn't much to talk about here either. There are many ways to learn how to play. You will have to dedicate at least an hour a day to this.

When you start learning without a teacher, the most important thing is to stick to a certain schedule, and for this you must have real motivation. Do not expect that in a week you will be able to play and surprise all your friends with great skills. This will take you much more time. But everything will depend on how much you want it and how much time you can devote.

Once you've made some progress, you can start recording yourself and listening from the outside. It does not require powerful studio equipment. All you need is a voice recorder, smartphone or computer. If you have an electric guitar or a synthesizer, you can connect it to your computer and record sound into your computer. For example, using Guitar Rig.

The most important! Do it for your pleasure. Music should bring high and positive emotions. If the lessons become uninteresting and burdensome, then you are doing something wrong. Learn, try to play something of your own, no matter how bad it sounds, and develop.

If I had been asked that question 5 years ago, I would have said no. A teacher who sets the foundation, corrects your skills and corrects mistakes is a key part of any learning. But given the fact that the Internet is now, even those teachers who used to teach at home or in schools are gradually coming to online learning.

Let's get straight to the main question. Is it possible to learn how 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 training is much lower than training with a live teacher.

The ideal option would be if you have already learned the basics of playing the instrument. Then learning from the materials on the Internet will be much easier. Here are some resources to help you get into the world of music or improve your skills.

YouTube

Perhaps the best way to learn how to play online. There are many channels on YouTube that teach how to play musical instruments. Basically, it's a guitar, but there are others. For example:

• martyzsongs- A lot of video lessons that understand popular guitar riffs and songs. There are already over 1000 videos on the channel. You will have something to do!
• Andy Crowley- a channel for beginners who have just entered the world of guitar, drugs and rock and roll. This channel deals with the basics of playing the guitar, various techniques and methods of sound production.
• Lypur is a channel that focuses on keyboards and music theory. Despite the fact that the channel is no longer active (the last 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 of music theory and how to play the piano.
• Drumeo is a channel dedicated to playing percussion instruments. Suitable for both beginners and people who already know what rimshots and paradidles are.
• Eric Arceneaux is a performing vocalist who maintains his own Youtube channel in which he shares the basics of vocals, staging, warming up and improving his voice.

Unfortunately, all the channels listed are in English. There are also instructional videos in Russian on Youtube, but not only are their quality noticeably inferior to their foreign counterparts, almost all materials are not combined and come out irregularly.

In addition, all of the above channels have websites where you can find various educational materials, tablature, sheet music, and more.

Forums

You can also find a lot of useful information on the forums. Apart from forum trolls, who consider their opinion to be the only correct and unshakable one, there you can meet really knowledgeable people and experts in their field who will gladly share their experience. Here are the forums I could find:

• GuitarPlayer.ru is the largest Russian-language guitar forum. Tens of thousands of topics and hundreds of thousands of posts 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 the 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 speak English, feel free to go there!

Mobile applications

The AppStore and Google Play have many apps that can teach you how to play musical instruments. I wrote about the music apps I use on my iPhone, take a look, some might be useful for you too.

Ultimate Guitar

Guitar site with apps of the same name for iOS and Android. It contains tens of thousands of guitar tabs and chords. Also there are various auxiliary tools. For example, a chart of chords 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 guitar lessons. The developer translated the description of his application into Russian using 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 collects live lessons in various fields. Near each lesson is written the time when it is held, and the price.

The price is quite high, but I can not check the quality of these lessons. However, the reviews that are available for each teacher can help with this.

Conclusion

I have not described methods such as video conferencing on Skype or many groups with VKontakte materials. But there isn't much to talk about here either. There are many ways to learn how to play. You will have to dedicate at least an hour a day to this.

When you start learning without a teacher, the most important thing is to stick to a certain schedule, and for this you must have real motivation. Do not expect that in a week you will be able to play and surprise all your friends with great skills. This will take you much more time. But everything will depend on how much you want it and how much time you can devote.

Once you've made some progress, you can start recording yourself and listening from the outside. It does not require powerful studio equipment. All you need is a voice recorder, smartphone or computer. If you have an electric guitar or a synthesizer, you can connect it to your computer and record sound into your computer. For example, using Guitar Rig.

The most important! Do it for your pleasure. Music should bring high and positive emotions. If the lessons become uninteresting and burdensome, then you are doing something wrong. Learn, try to play something of your own, no matter how bad it sounds, and develop.

Helpful Hints

Music is good for health. This statement has been repeatedly confirmed in practice by numerous studies. However, Music can be just as beneficial. And may your child not become a great musician (or a musician in general), but visiting music school will do him some good.

These are not common words. In fact, there is a huge amount of research that clearly proves the fact that any musical activity can benefit not only the human brain and spirit, but also the body.

Moreover, it does not matter at all how old you are, how well you play this or that instrument, how long ago did you start practicing music. The fact is that playing music improves the cognitive functions of the brain.

There are other benefits associated, frankly, with a reduction in stress levels, as well as normalization of blood pressure, which in the end can prevent the development of depression and dementia.

And if you are looking for a useful hobby that can positively affect your well-being in general, as well as improve moral well-being, it makes sense for you to start going, for example, to piano lessons. So, here are 10 reasons why you should get into music.

Music lessons are beneficial

As a result of one of the studies carried out at the Kansas University Medical Center, USA, scientists came to the conclusion that musicians do better on tests of cognitive abilities than non-musicians do.

Playing any musical instrument regularly is a great way to train your brain. And it doesn't matter at all whether you're playing drums or lazily "blowing" the saxophone. Certain areas the brain at the same time increase their activity.

Playing music improves coordination

This is an absolute fact - musicians usually demonstrate excellent coordination of movements. This is because playing musical instruments requires very high hand-eye coordination. Even athletes for whom visual coordination of hand movements is of paramount importance can learn from this.

Extracting musical sounds improves your mood

Music affects the mood - this is a well-known fact, which would not be worth mentioning, if not for the need to explain the mechanism of action. Studies show that not only the music itself, but also the process of playing music affects the level of cortisol.

And if you play music at different speeds, you can regulate this process. By playing musical instruments, you create an emotional outlet. When you create your own music, you adjust your level of sadness, joy, or tension through art if you like.

Music improves reading as a learning skill

One of important aspects music-making, which distinguishes a musician from a non-musician, is, so to speak, ability to read and comprehend music. Constant reading and recognition of various notes also contributes to the improvement of reading skills and comprehension of ordinary texts.

Making music improves the respiratory system

Whether you play the trumpet, clarinet, flute, or any other wind instrument, one of the most important skills you need to master is how to breathe properly.

Relatively speaking, all these instruments turn air vibrations into music, which the musician must create. This means that well-trained breathing should become, if you will, second nature to any musician.

Music improves listening skills

In order to learn how to skillfully extract from any instrument musical sounds, you need to be able to listen literally at the level of intuition. This skill, if it is developed at the proper level, allows you not only to hit the notes.

Someone might say that this requires an ear for music, which is given by nature. Actually, it is not. Musical ear can be developed. This, in turn, will teach you to listen to the surrounding sounds in the literal sense of the word. This skill is extremely important in terms of building social relationships.

The benefits of music

Music allows you to set goals, achieve them and develop

The very process of learning to play a musical instrument can be quite tedious and even boring. However, as soon as you overcome these necessary barriers, you will instantly feel in yourself not only a certain pride, but also the strength to move on.

In this situation, a simple principle works - you get exactly as much as you invest. This fact should spur you on, no matter how tired you are. The more time and effort you invest in perfecting your craft, the more visible the result will be, which will have an inspiring impact.

Making music improves concentration

There are so many aspects to music that should not be underestimated when you play any musical instrument. As a musician (even an amateur or a beginner), you must catch the rhythm, timbre, light shades, texture of a piece of music.

The only thing that can be more useful to a musician than the ability to concentrate on the sounds of your music, is the ability to concentrate on all the sounds of, say, an entire orchestra or group.

Many musical instruments require years learning and practice in order to master the skill of playing them. But if you are looking for a quick result, then our list will help you. These are the most "painless", the most easy-to-give instruments of all that one can imagine. However, do not think that everything is so simple. The beauty of any instrument lies in the fact that each of them has its own place and role, and even the simplest of them become an integral part of any composition. As soon as you master your instrument, you will open the whole world new opportunities. Even the simplest rhythm instrument, such as the tambourine, makes the music shine in a completely different light if it is “placed” in the right place.

Widely used in blues, folk, country, jazz, rock and pop. However, you don't have to be Bob Dylan to enjoy harmonica sounds at home. You can learn how 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 steadily grown in popularity. And after the appearance of the Hohner chromatic harmonica, the repertoire that could be played on such instruments expanded significantly. The first recordings of the harmonica were made in the United States 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 an upsurge in the Negro ghettos, which was naturally reflected in the music. Young musicians from the south (Little Walter, Junior Wells, Snooki Pryor) now played the harmonica through a microphone and amplifier. "Mississippi saxophone" (as American slang called harmonica) could now solo to the accompaniment of the orchestra. In the 50s, rock and roll blew up the patriarchal silence of the then music scene. And the harmonica was at the forefront of youth rebellion, which drew inspiration from the black American blues.

Piano is basically 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 it.

The tool was invented by the German company Hohner in the late 50s. Since the beginning of the 60s, pianica has become popular all over the world. The pianica was first used as a serious musical instrument by Phil Moore Jr. on the Atlantic Records album Right On in 1968. She is also often associated with Jamaican dub and reggae artists of the 1970s. Henry Slaughter played the piano solo on Elvis Presley's I'll Remember You, which was featured on the Spinout album.

Kazu can take one of the first lines in the ranking of tools for the laziest, but not lose an ounce of charm because of that. The instrument fits in a pocket and is very easy to use - you just need to sing or blow into it, reproducing some notes. If you are a happy owner of a musical ear, then consider yourself lucky - you already know how to play the kazoo.

The use of kazoo is widespread among performers of skiffle music - it is an Anglo-American style (guitars, melody and washboard as a rhythm instrument), but we all know very well how courageous in last years instruments travel between styles, so if you're not even going to play skiffle, you'll find kazoo to use.

In Russia, an instrument like a kazoo was known from long time ago- This is a comb with tissue paper superimposed on the teeth. It was used for special effect by Yevgeny Vakhtangov in the music for the play "Princess Turandot" - at the right time, the violinists put down their violins and played a waltz on combs.

Let's face it - none musical style wouldn't be complete without a good old tambourine. Only a seriously concerned fanatic will take up the search artist who has never used this instrument. And everyone can play it. If you have problems with the sense of rhythm, another simple invention will help with them - the 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 is mentioned in the descriptions of the life of the ancient colonies in Greece, China, Rome and India, as well as several times in the Bible. Later he got to 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 violins, and it was used as the main percussion instrument.

8. AUTOHARP

The autoharp (autoharp) does not look like a harp at all, but rather resembles a zither (a Russian person, in turn, adamantly calls it a gusli). The instrument has dampened chord bars that, when pressed, dampen all strings that are not in the desired chord. For a person accustomed to playing, for example, the guitar, such mechanics may seem rather strange, but in reality everything is much easier.

The origin of the instrument is disputed. At about the same time, two Germans different sides The Atlantics were involved in its creation without collusion: the German immigrant Charles Zimmerman came up with the design of a musical instrument in Philadelphia with a mechanism to mute certain strings during playing, and gave it a name; and Karl Gütter of Markneukirchen created a model which he called the Volkszither (folk zither), and it was she who was most similar to the modern autoharp.

Now the autoharp is used by many folk musicians, and PJ Harvey became another popularizer of it, playing the instrument on some compositions from the White Chalk album (and continuing to perform with it to this day).