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I did not come down from Mount Sinai bearing sacred laws...

I chose classical guitar for the combination of factors I mentioned. Orchestral and band wind and brass instruments have varying degrees of difficulty in just getting a good sound out, and involve breathing. Clarinet is probably the easiest but some people might never be able to get a good trumpet or French horn sound, and the oboe and other double-reed instruments are probably the hardest of all to get good sound out of and they are expensive.

Violin, viola, and cello all involve holding your body hands and arms in unusual positions, and the first few months the sounds you get are likely to be scratchy.

Anyone can pluck a classical guitar string and get a nice tone. Keyboard is another option but that very soon gets complicated with harmonies and counterpoint involving both hands having to choose the right notes. On the classical guitar, the left hand selects the note and the right hand sounds it.

A career path I was kind-of on and bailed out on decades ago was music education, so of course I am aware that pentatonic recorder (straight wooden or plastic flute) and pentatonic harp are the "easiest" instruments, but they are also limited. I of course admit that a master can get very impressive music out of either, but even more music out of recorders and harps that have all the notes of the Western scale.

I did not consider mandolin, but I know that it has its advocates. You play it like a guitar but it is tuned like a violin, so there are more notes under your fingers in the first position. And since I wrote that, the ukulele has made a major comeback, surely a Sign of the End Times.

jm


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  • I did not come down from Mount Sinai bearing sacred laws... - John Marks 07:42:43 04/26/15 (0)

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