6 Hardest Instruments to Play for Kids in an Orchestra

If you were scouting through the internet to find what are the 6 hardest instruments to play for kids in an orchestra, we are going to ease your research with our list.

Music has a huge impact on the human brain, mood, memory and body. Music is affecting different parts of the brain depending on rhythm and the genre. If you are listening to happy or sad music, it will affect your brain and how you see neutral faces. The ambient music fosters creativity while the classical music is improving the visual attention. If you want to learn more about music and how it affects us, you can check TED’s playlist.

You already know how big of a role music has to your whole body, mind, and spirit but do you know how much the music can help you with education and the learning process? The Johns Hopkins University highlighted one part of the book “Music and Learning” written by Chris Brewer in 1995 which indicates that teaching a class with music in the background will enhance the learning atmosphere and it will increase the learning activities among students. Music can help one person learn because it creates a positive and desired atmosphere. It is changing the brain wave states, it is increasing the attention and a sense of anticipation, it is improving the memory, releasing the tension while adding an element of fun.

Even though these are the hardest instruments to play for kids in an orchestra, they will have a significant impact on your child’s development. According to Peterson Family Foundation, there are many benefits why one child must learn how to play at least one instrument. While the learning process develops, your child will increase its memory skills, will gain a sense of achievement, it will improve its coordination, math, reading and comprehension skills and it will create a sense of responsibility. However, if you want your child to start with something simpler for a beginner, you should check our list of 5 Best Instruments For a Child to Learn First.

If your child already knows how to play an instrument and wants to join an orchestra, you should know what kind of benefits it could have from doing it. The Oxford Royale Academy reported that with playing in an orchestra, your child will learn how to work in a team, how to organize, how to cope under pressure and the importance of discipline.

In order to create our list of 6 hardest instruments to play for kids in an orchestra, we scouted deep and found The Straight Dope, ABRSM, Quora and Yahoo Answers which we used as our sources. Finding the hardest instruments isn’t easy because it all depends on the person’s determination and discipline. Moreover, it depends on people’s personal capacities as well, as someone can master piano fairly easy, while poor lung capacity can discourage them from practicing some wind instruments. However, we compiled our list of hardest instruments to play for kids in an orchestra by pulling the information from our sources and people’s opinions. After we completed our list, we sorted it by the number of mentions.

6. Piano

Unlike in the past, today,  most of the symphony orchestras have a pianist. Although it is not one of the must-have instruments in an orchestra, piano found its place on our list. This acoustic and stringed instrument was invented in 1700. Back in the days, the strings were struck by hammers and it is played on a row of small levers called a keyboard. Piano is one of the crucial instruments in many music genres like rock, folk, jazz blues and classical music. Many composers used the piano keyboard because it produces complex melodic and harmonic interplay. Today, there are many techniques for piano playing and it is one of the hardest instruments to play. However, if a child has the will to learn how to play piano, it will also learn a lot about music theory and history.

5. Timpani

Before the timpani became an orchestral instrument, during the Civil War, people used to play on the horseback. This type of drum has a skin which is called head and it is stretched on a large bowl made of copper. The instrument is played with a timpani stick and they are used in many orchestras, marching bands, musical ensembles and concert bands. Timpani has a huge impact and role in the orchestra, and it became part of it from the early 16th century and it is still one of the most important instruments, but one of the hardest not only for children but for adults as well.

4. Trumpet

We are continuing our list of hardest instruments to play for kids in an orchestra with trumpet that is a very popular instrument, and although it is mainly used in jazz and classical ensembles, it plays a huge role in an orchestra. People began to use trumpet as an instrument in 14th and 15th century for different reasons like signaling in hunting or battles. Trumpet produces sound by blowing air which creates a standing wave vibration. Today, there are many types of trumpet and most of them have valves of the piston type. Since there are various different trumpets, there is a wide range of playing techniques as well. Learning how to play trumpet is hard because there are a lot of things you need to learn and keep in mind. You will also need to learn how to breathe while blowing.

3. Oboe

Children have a pretty hard time learning how to play woodwind instruments, and oboe, the number three on our list of hardest instruments to play for kids in an orchestra is one of them. They have metal keys, a flared bell, and a conical bore. In order to produce a sound, you need to blow into the reed which will create a vibrating column of air and the sound will come out. Despite in an orchestra, oboe is well known for its role in the classical music, but it also is common in jazz, rock, pop and film music. This musical instrument will give your child a pretty hard time learning it but once he does the result will be truly amazing and pleasant for the ears.

2. French Horn

This brass instrument, which is also known simply as ‘horn’ is mainly used in bands and professional orchestras. The fFrench horn instrument is made of tubing and it is wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. You can see how hard the French horn is to be played just by the look of it, especially by children. The classical orchestra has two horns. The first horn is playing in a higher part while the second horn is playing in a lower part. Beethoven often used four horns and today’s music is following this pattern. The horn instrument can be a little confusing especially for beginners and children which is the reason it found its way higher on our list.

1. Violin

On top of our list of hardest instruments to play for kids in an orchestra is the violin. Violin typically has four strings and it is played by drawing a bow across the strings. Violin has a very big role in different kinds of musical genres like classical music, jazz, Indian classical music, pop, folk, rock and Arabic music. Today, there are different kind of violins by their size and there are also electric violins. Violins are hard for playing especially for children who don’t have knowledge about them. Judging by the look of it, it may seem easy but when you draw a bow across the strings and all you hear is whistle, screech and graunch, you will realize it isn’t as simple as it looks.

This was our list of 6 hardest instruments to play for kids in an orchestra. Do you know how to play one of the listed instruments?