Musical Instruments with SIMPLE Fingering?

In My Humble Opinion (IMHO)
#1

I grew up playing the B-flat cornet – trumpet – and loved it. Three keys. Eight combinations, no more. And the combinations repeated with octaves. Really easy to learn. SUPER easy to learn.

I messed around with the recorder. Nice and soft. You can play it indoors in an apartment complex. (Not like the trumpet!) But the fingering killed me. Ten holes; 1024 combinations! (Yeah, I know, most of them are never used.) But, still, dozens of combinations. And they don’t progress logically. The combinations “jump around” instead of being linear.

(Linear, like, “if the bottom four holes are closed, that’s a D. If the bottom five holes are closed, that’s an E. If the bottom six holes are closed, that’s an F.”)

Is there a somewhat soft-spoken musical instrument, likely a woodwind, with really easy fingering to learn?

Thank’ee kindly, all, for any opinions and advice.

#2

Harmonica?

#3

Kazoo?

#4

French horn. You could probably get away with it in an apartment complex.

#5

Uh… I was coming to propose the recorder, but I think my “it’s easy so long as you don’t try to play a Mi#” may have been easier than yours thanks to using solfege and not those letters.

Do: everything closed. Re, Mi, Fa… keep opening holes starting from the bottom. Half-notes, half-open the next hole for a # or leave the hole half closed for a ♭ (so, re sharp = mi flat would be the first hole open, the next one halved). That’s all. Perfectly easy, so long as you’re using the musical alphabet for which they are built.

(For those who aren’t familiar with solfege: Mi# would be a Fa).

#6

Piano - 88 keys, each key corresponds to one and only one note. The keyboard is logically laid out, from lowest note on the left to highest note on the right. The pattern of black and white keys corresponds exactly with the pattern of accidentals; it’s easy to see the octaves. There’s really no question as to which key produces which note.

:smiley:

#7

The trombone, of course: consecutive notes are just an inch or two from each other.

Or its more apartment-friendly cousin, the slide whistle! :slight_smile:

#8

Agreed, that’s why I think kids should learn how to play piano first, just to get a handle on how to read sheet music.

#9

The Melodica. That’s what elementary schools in Japan teach as the first musical instrument (or did, when I was a child there in the 70s/80s).

#10

You can see Stephen Colbert’s bandleader, Jon Batiste, use one most nights on his show.

#11

You beat me to it. It really is easy to learn and because its popular (or has been) with kids there are some nice low-cost versions available. I had one for a while (possibly Kenner) that was plastic that still gave a respectable sound.

#12

Ocarina or tin whistle would also fit the criteria. I used the book in the tin whistle link and was playing in a day. Not like The Chieftains by any stretch but the tunes were recognizable.

#13

Get yourself another Bb cornet. You can find old/restored “Shepherd’s Crook” models at shops specializing in used instruments, and online. These look very cool, and you can dress up for Halloween as Bix Beiderbecke.

Now. Buy yourself a state-of-the-art MUTE. Bingo – you’re soft-spoken and apartment-friendly. And you can be loud again when you go out to the park or the beach or get invited to a parade.

“St. James Infirmary” and “Tiger Rag” sound MUCH better on cornet than on ocarina or recorder.

#14

Not a woodwind but a soft-spoken instrument that is very easy to play – the dulcimer – variously known as an Appalachian dulcimer, lap dulcimer, mountain dulcimer, or any combination of those adjectives.

Easy fingering because it can be played with one finger (or with a noter instead of a finger) and it is diatonic, so there are no ‘wrong’ notes.

A youtube video that clearly shows the playing method: Noter Drone Demo by Stephen Seifert

Another video showing a beginning player: Cluck Old Hen with noter and quill on mountain dulcimer

#15

Kick drum.

#16

Ukelele Ike:

In fact, go get a Yamaha Silent Mute. Makes the instrument very, very quiet, has a headphone jack and built in reverb and effects. Get your chops together and get in a community band. Check it out.

#17

For simple fingering, you basically can’t beat an autoharp.

#18

Didgeridoo – there’s another woodwind that doesn’t have fingering at all, plus it’s fun to say!

There are also a whole family of hammered instruments that don’t rely on fingering. I’d love to learn the hammered dulcimer, marimba, or steel drum, for example.

I think you should just get used to the recorder fingering though. It’s mostly linear anyway, and it just becomes ingrained after awhile. I also mess around with a Vietnamese bamboo flute, which is even more linear, at least until you get towards the upper limits of its range. You could give that a try. I even have an extra one. :slight_smile:

#19

Thank you, everyone! Lots of really fun ideas here! I’d never heard of the melodica, which looks like it might be right up my alley! The ocarina also sounds feasible!

I’ve tried the tin whistle, and didn’t have much luck. (Do they make an “alto” or “tenor” tin whistle?)

My really primary concern is simplifying the hand-brain interface. For that reason, the trombone would be both absolutely ideal…and hella terrible wrong! It’s really simple: move upward a bit to raise the pitch. But it’s ghastly, because I’d always be missing the sweet spot by a few millimeters! Yikes!

(Do they make a “miniature” trombone? I mean other than the slide-whistle?)

“When on music’s mighty pinions,
souls of men to heaven rise.
Then both vanish earth’s dominion,
man is native to the skies.”

Happy music!

#20

Plus, zero fingerings. Can’t get much simpler than that.

Or, there’s the theremin.

stoopid spellcheck… why you not know theremin?