I’ve got a Yamaha keyboard that I can plink out a few songs on, what with my limited ability to read music, and I bought myself a guitar a couple years ago, but it’s collecting dust (school, kids, demanding job, etc). Anyways, I’m not even sure it’s music I’m making with them: you know if you read the words to a song it’s not singing, well it’s kind of like that, I think. Be nice to be able to pick something up quick, though. Thoughts? Kazoo? Comb & tissue? Should I just hum?
What do you mean by play? Do you mean play well enough so i sounds ok, or be really good at it?
It’s not too hard to learn a bunch of guitar chords and strum out a tune, but on the other hand, learning how to pluck really well is much harder, from what little I knwo of playnig a guitar.
I would imagine, though, that the easiet “middle of the road” instrument would be the clarinet. At first it seems intimidating, because there’s a lot of buttons and holes and whatnot, but it really isn’t hard to learn all the fingerings. Then it’s just a matter of knowing how to make it produce a good sound, which, with a woodwind, doesn’t take much work at all. (As oppossed to a brass instrument, which relies much more heavily on mouth movements and position.)
I mean play well enough that it won’t make people’s ears bleed. If I had the time and money, I wouldn’t mind taking some piano or guitar lessons. But I don’t. Like they call Pot a gateway drug, I’m wondering if there’s soem simple-to-master musical instrument that could be a gateway to being a musician.
I’m sure that doesn’t make any sense.
I’m not trying to be funny here, but the question’s answer seems obvious to me: drums!
Getting good at drums requires a lot more than just a sense of rhythm and some dexterity, but the average person who can walk, chew gum, and hold a briefcase ought to have enough of the basic skills to learn basic drumming technique.
Now if starts having to make a tune, chords and keep a beat going all at once, I guess drums go by the wayside and you have to move on to guitar, keyboards, or some other string instrument. Violin, banjo, bass, melodica, etc. seem to me to require fewer skills for minimal competence. Any of the wind instruments are more complex.
The one wind-operated instrument that demands little more than just plain blowing is the melodica. It’s a one-hand instrument with keys so you can’t be worried about all the coordination needed to play piano or electronic keyboards. You can make chords if you want, but making simple melodies is quite easy. They’re pretty cheap (or were when I bought mine 30 years ago or so). They sound a little like an accordion but they don’t produce a lot of volume. Kind of a step or two up from a kazoo in that you do have to let your fingers find the notes instead of just humming them.
Just for what it’s worth, I’ve seen pictures of (and probably heard) Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen playing one on some number(s).
Unless you really are talking about kazoos and combs with toilet paper around them, I doubt there is an “easiest” instrument. If an instrument is easy people will write harder music for it. In that sense piano is probably “easy” to play “Hey, you just push the keys down like this!” but are the top-level pieces easy? Hell no. If you want to play an instrument stop worrying about “easy” and pick something you like and stick with it. By the time you get reasonably good at it the difficulty is not going to matter.
For me, it was the ukulele. Hear me out…
I’m quite well versed in music, from Mississippi Delta blues all the way up to contemporary indie rock, yet I never could play an instrument. Just not something I coul do, and I tried - I have an accordian, harp, did have a guitar, etc. Then, I got a uke for Christmas, and let it sit for awhile.
Now, in the past month, I have learned several strum patterns, most of the notes on it, how to read music, chords, whatever. I’m getting pretty well versed with it, because it is so easy. Everything sounds happy or atleast mellow on it, and there are only four strings to mess with.
Online, there is everything you could possibly need to learn how to play it. Some places, like this one site called Pineapple Petes or something, basically tells you everything to get started. There is one site that has just about every Beatles song along with an animated guide of which cords are playing during which part of the song. Basically, there are TONS of ukulele stuff online, enough to get you started or more.
Best of all, they are cheap. You can get a really cheap ukulele that sounds really good for less than 100 bucks. 50 bucks, even. I know one place that sells a 64 dollar uke with pickups.
Even still, as most people will tell you, the easiest way to learn how to play is to be dedicated, no matter what instrument. You can learn just about anything if you try hard enough, as it isn’t really too difficult. If you are discouraged, though, it becomes very difficult very quickly.
My vote would be for the recorder. Best of all, you can get one cheap.
The recorder isn’t very hard to play decently, so long as you remember to blow more gently on the low notes. The piano is an instrument that beginning musicians at least learn something about. For example, they often make you learn the piano if you are interested in becoming a drummer. If you can already sing passably, why not stick to that as a musical talent? Or, maybe learn to whistle a few melodies if you can do that?
Can you explain better what you’re wanting to do? Do you want to be able to pick out melody or do rhythm chords or what?
If you’re wanting chords, guitar is really fairly easy, but it does take practice. We recently got a friend of ours started on auto-harp because she was intimidated by the idea of learning chords. She loves it.
I’d suggest learning some basic chord progressions and go from there.
I’ve learned to play several different instruments (piano, french horn, violin) but none of them was as easy as the djembe drum. If you’ve got good natural rhythm (tapping foot in time with music, rubbing head/patting tummy at same time, etc.) you’d most likely be able to jam pretty good on a djembe. You can get a decent starter one for cheap. Mine has a clay body and fish skin head, and I got it at an international food market for $20.
Beware though, if you get one like this, check the drum head carefully for tiny pinholes, which are indicative of infestation of a little worm which will gradually eat holes in the skin and weaken it. The skin should have no perforations.
One vote for the jew’s harp! Really, it’s lots of fun.
Also agree with the suggestion of a recorder. Quite possibly the easiest.
However, I’d strongly suggest going back to your keyboard for another try. If you did not get a beginner’s book with it, go buy one. I have absolutely no musical talent, but with a little time, it’s amazing how much I can do. There are a lot of beginners books with easy tunes, and they are not very expensive. Get several of these, and just learn to play the melodies at first.
If it is one with built-in chords, backgrounds, etc, all you have to learn is to pick out a melody with your right hand and it sounds great.
If you put it in the “organ” mode, it is very forgiving and you can noodle through a lot of great songs and it sounds far better than you would think. Later you can learn a few left-hand chords in this mode, and you’ll be surprised how good it sounds.
Suggestion if anybody else is in the house: use a pair of headphones at first to avoid murder. 
EVIL!
EVIL!
EVIL!
EVIL!
:eek: :eek: :eek:
[Walken] This thread…needs more cowbell! [/Walken]
When my friends and I wander around the school playing our instruments, people run in terror from the accordion. However, they generally smile at the ukulele. Now, the accordion is the easier instrument to play, as it only really requires good timing and a complete lack of sympathy for humanity. Still, it was not recommended, as society needs as few accordionists as possible.
So, not the most evil, by far.
(I’ll also point out that the theremin, saw, and spoons are also pretty easy to play, but still much worse than an ukulele.)
You can play real music on a uke, too. There is a Japanese-Hawaiian performer --sorry, name escapes me–who’s filling auditoriums with his uke playing. Also, I was in the local music store once when I heard a fellow playing “Blackbird” on a uke…it was beautiful!
And if you want to move upmarket, you can get a Martin uke for several hundred dollars.
This is very funny. It reminds me of what Ray Manzarek said in his memoir, which I’ll paraphrase here:
My aunt once found a perfectly good ukelele in the garbage outside her apartment building. All it needed was strings.
5 bucks later she had a new ukelele. 
My husband, the jack-of-all-instruments and master of none, recommends the baritone ukelele as a great beginner’s instrument. It is cheap and easy to play, and if you tune it properly it is a great stepping stone to the guitar. From what he says the chord fingerings transfer easily. Besides, it is cute, portable, sounds nice and girls will like it. 
Do you mean Shinji Maki, the comedian?
And, here’s classical gas on the ukulele. It definitely is not just a toy.
Now, sorry for the hijak OP.
As a <HUFFY TONE>trained clarinetist</HUFFY TONE> *and * a less-trained trumpet player I have to nitpick. It’s really easy to get sound out of a clarinet, but it’s really hard to get a *good * tone. And the *bad * tone produced by a clarinet is unpleasant to the player and the neighbors.
I ended up playing the clarinet because the winds teacher in elementary school said “It’s a lot like the recorder.” Seriously, I play both, and if you’re looking for something that you can learn quickly and get a good sound from, go for the recorder. Decent instruments are inexpensive, they sound nice, and it really is easy to play.
I understand your frustration with the keyboard. There’s a big gap between basic competency and skill which I was never able to bridge, either. There’s no shame to just plinking around on it, though, if you like what you hear and it makes you happy.