I mean, in many languages it is. In spanish, recorders are called either "flauta dulce" (sweet flute) or "flauta de pico" (beak flute). And it's similar in german, dutch, etc (if I'm not wrong, it's called something like "block flute" in those languages). It is also part of the flute family, more precisely an internal duct flute.
Mojo's formula is quite simple. Hardest instruments: "Though it is easy to learn, it is hard to master" Easiest instruments: "Though it's hard to master, it is easy to learn"
@@Quesnar The school system basically treats them like books, which is a shame honestly I think everyone would understand way more about them if we got to watch them, preferably in-person (obviously not now, but maybe watch a recording of a production, etc.)
*Top 10 Easiest Instruments in the World* "Number 1. The triangle" Actually, the *triangle* is the hardest instrument because no one has played *Flight of the Bumblebee* on It.
Okay, percussion gang here. At high levels we're required to know how to play ALL of those instruments, and even something as "simple" as the triangle or tambourine has a lot of depth behind it. Freshman year percussion studio class we had a whole THREE WEEKS devoted to nothing but triangle, and another three weeks to tambourine, and another three weeks to cymbals. No drums, no keyboard instruments, nothing. Beyond that we had juries where we were required to incorporate x amount of instruments in original compositions, so you had to keep up with your skill on the "low skill" percussion instruments. Not to mention the fact that getting a good tone out of a keyboard percussion instrument is largely due to correct mallet selection for the repertoire, consistent striking locations (not hitting the damn nodes), and correct stick control. Plus, using four mallets is ridiculously hard. Especially when you have to swap between two and four.
Very true. Playing one percussion instrument really good is hard to do, but having to play *all* relatively good is not an easy thing. It's easy to make any sound on perc instruments, but making good sounds and correct sounds for the context is not.
Even as an outsider I can tell playing with for stick must be hard. And that is not even considering going from "hit stick with stick to make sound" to "play keyboard percussion using mallet consistently" is hard in itself.
One time, a percussionist told me, hit the triangle, that’s easy. Now, hit the triangle with the same strenght and produce the same sound 10 times in a row.
LING LING GRANGER I mean yes, but they show “percussion” as something worthless which really concerns me when I think about all the practice I’ve made to learn😂
My perspective as a percussionist is this: yes, some percussion instruments, like the egg shaker, are not very hard to learn or play. We can all agree on that. But, NO percussionist plays only the egg shaker. How about maracas, vibraslap, cowbell, woodblock, temple blocks, suspended cymbal, crash cymbals, toms, snare drum, bass drum, ratchet, gong, slide whistle, triangle, tambourine, timpani, bells, xylophone, chimes, marimba, vibraphone, steel pan, congas, bongos, and castanets, just for starters? Each instrument has its own technique and mallet requirements, so the thing that makes percussion hard is not how hard each individual instrument is, rather how many we have to know how to play. And yes, I am lightly offended by this video. But who cares? Real musicians appreciate every instrument in the band. And about that xylophone comment, if you’re playing xylophone in a band or orchestra and you miss a note, literally everyone in the hall hears it. It’s not something you can afford to miss notes playing. And one last gripe: they showed a clip of a bunch of kids playing xylophones, and then immediately switched to a clip of somebody playing MARIMBA. They don’t even know the difference between the two, so they (DumbMojo) have absolutely no authority in making this video.
The video is mostly a joke... You probably shouldn't take it too seriously. They pretty much picked the most easily offended groups. Awkwardly they avoided bass and electric guitar despite them both being nearly as easy as any ukulele/banjo/lute instrument. Assuming because Davie has a hard on for acting like a dumb ass and pretending his one note nonsense "bass skills," are greater than classical music. Anyway, hate to break it to you but most percussions are very easy... Unless you're performing on like a 75+ piece kit in a progressive multi genere band going as hard core as like death metal to as chill as caribbean tunes... I don't think you should expect people to think your job is very hard. If you get THIS offended, well there is probably a reason for it.
I played the marimba for 7 years in school, and it’s NOT easy. Especially getting 9 marimbas to play difficult pieces together. Getting the right sound and dynamics. Getting the correct notes to play. With 4 mallets. I am a violinist now but will always have a respect to marimba players.
I'm your hundredth like, and I totally agree! You can easily slip up and hit two notes at the same time, you must have a great amount of coordination to play them.
I play clarinet and even I can tell that percussion isn't easy. Percussion is the group that my band director has to work with the most because of all the different rhythms and timing they have to learn and perfect for each piece.
Also I will say as a percussionist, the most vital thing is timing. We have to be the best with timing. If not, you are not playing. I was in marching band as a bass drum, and being on time and subdivisions, polyrhythms, were so difficult. Dont even get me STARTED on xylophone with the 4 mallets...
I'm not a musician, only do digital music for my college projects. but I have had the pleasure of playing real drums before and i gotta say, my admiration for drummers grew tenfold after. Holy crap, it was hard. The precussion gang seems to be really underated and I don't really understand why.
Legit; watching you guys react to this made me feel better about me playing my Native American drum, I felt inferior to all other non-native instruments 😅. I always thought "I'm just hitting my one drum with my one stick, it's not very impressive looking for non-natives"🥲. But watching you guys say how those instruments aren't as easy as they look even with less drums or strings and whatnot...it made me feel better. I feel validated in my pride of native American drumming. Also, using our rattles! I have played the Native American drum and rattles. It IS more difficult than you'd think. Even more so for us actually. In my tribe, we aren't allowed to hit the center of the drum hide because it's seen as disrespectful. Our ancestors/grandma are in the center, so you'd be hitting them basically.
As a percussionist, anything that shakes or rattles is a lot harder than it looks (ex. tambourine, maracas, etc.), it takes an incredible amount of control so please be proud of what you play!
Wow, that's awsome! What is your instrument's specific name? I'd like to look it up, the whole tradition and symbolism behind it is really interesting!
It’s actually not that easy because if you want those high and I MEAN high notes then you have to blow hard across, but at the same time you can’t blow that hard or then it’s going to squeak and you have to stay steady and breathe right or then your going to have a head ache 😣 but yea dumb mojo is what their name is 🙄😬😂😂
"Ah yea the xylophone is pretty easy" _shows footage of a MARIMBA, being played with 4 MALLETS_ It even said marimba in the f***ing title card!! ._. "Ah yes the tambourine is very easy" _shows footage of a beatring_ Beatring doesn't have a head! Tambourine does! "Ah yes cymbals is easy" _shows footage of clash cymbals, one of the HARDEST percussion techniques to pick up for beginners_ .. My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined.
No one understands how insanely difficult producing consistent, good crashes on crash cymbals is. It's super fucking hard and you usually only get 1 crash in a movement. It's probably the most underrated skill even by some percussionists.
Davie and TwoSet should just straight up set their differences aside and join forces to diss the sh*t out of WM in the name of all the musicians and instruments' honor insulted by WM. DumbMojo is both NOT EPIC and LAMENTABLE
Percussionist here who plays varsity marimba for high school Frontline: When I was first learning, there is so much that goes into the sticking and mallet technique. You have to have your hands gripping the stick a certain way, hit the center of the bar (even with four mallets and with you’re perception of the center being warped with the angle) thinking about up stroking, not pushing the mallet into the instrument, prepping the hands over the next note, moving in the direction you’re playing, pulsing on the pulse marks to match the music, and so much more all while looking up at the other frontline players to match what they’re doing as well. Mallet instruments take so much time and work to master. During the summer, only the drum line and frontline sections have to take 3 hour practices each week, and by the end of it, you’re hands are blistering and you’re arms are sore. Don’t ever downplay percussion, frontline, or drum line, instruments for being seemingly easy to master. They’re not.
I just joined front for indoor percussion season. We had two three hour practices and one six hour practice this week. My hands hurt so bad. Still really fun tho. We’re going to nationals later this year.
I'm in drumline (snare player), I got put on marimba for one of our concert pieces and my part was easy but man marimba is extremely difficult I have mad respect for anyone that can have that accuracy and precision.
Also, as a mellet percussion player myself, I would call myself average at xylophone and glockenspiel. I still take many hours to practice on single piece of music. Dumbmojo does not do their research!
@@tuxdraws8004 Dude playing high notes on the piccolo is so hard for me (the E flat, F above the ledger line and notes after) (;-;) For some reason my embouchure gets tight that I can't hit a clear note. It's so difficult since I'm still a beginner at the piccolo.
The comment was correct, the accompanying footage wasn't. It''s all about the baseline. "Scaling" is another thing all together. Going from 2 to 4 is not twice as difficult with that instrument.
Yeah, running is just fast walking. "Bruh, why aren't you running right now? You're wasting your time walking when you could be training to run. It's the eASiEsT sport, Of cOUrSE."
considering the way the reduce things every sport is the easiest sport because you just [do the win thing] - kick some ball in some net - throw some ball in some net - drive a car in a circle - hit a ball with a stick - punch some guy in the face - etc
@@nxyuu no, it isn’t. Because the strings are actually making the noise, it makes a piano a string instrument. Edit: I just looked it up, and it’s considered both.
I'm a percussionists who's played in an Orchestra for many years. I've played all of the above percussion instruments in concerts and none of them are in any way easy. Frankly getting a basic beat going (which seemingly is what they're basing their video on) is far easier on drum kit than say bongos, or with Piano than Xylophone
when I was in band, we didn't have enough percussionists so the teacher had some flutes and clarinets play the instruments. This one kid was unlucky enough to play the triangle, and every sectional, the teacher spent half of it trying to get her to hold the triangle right, play the right rhythm, play the right tone, etc. Triangle isn't easy. You have to hit it at a precise angle to get the sound you want. 45 degrees is the sweet spot, but it depends on the piece you're playing and the conductor's preference. not to mention how stressful it was. the triangle's sound cuts through the sound of the band, so if you fuck up, the whole band stops and stares at you. there are also many sticks to hit the triangle with, and you have to use the right one to play the note depending on the dynamic. There are lighter sticks for piano, and heavier ones for forte. You also have to control the pitch, tone, and the amount of ringing, and know when the muffle it and when to let it ring.
I think the mistake people often do is just because someone can transfer their skills and get an ok sound out of an instrument quickly it means it's easy. If you're a good percussionist then then you've already laid a lot of the ground work for tonnes of other percussion instruments. It's like with language, English is easier to learn if you're a native speaker of another germanic language (Swedish, Dutch, etc.) than if your native language is Korean. Because the languages are related and you already have a lot of the foundation ready.
*DumbMojo:* * Says the ukulele is easy to play * *Me, a ukulelist:* * expects TwoSet to agree with them * *TwoSet:* * defends ukulele honor * *Me:* THIS IS WHAT I LIVE FOR!!!
I played the “Screeching Drunk Tomcats version of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” very well on the violin after only a month or so of my grandfather, who doesn’t even play the violin that well, exasperatedly trying to teach me the violin. I never touched a violin after that.
I'm a percussionist. My instructor in high school made me learn every different way to play the tambourine. Then I had to learn a tambourine solo. That was the most difficult experience I've had.
@@IETass Most underrated comment of 2020. If the head isn't waxed properly, or your thumbs too dry or too damp, you're screwed. You don't know unless you know.
I.E. Tass THUMB ROLL GANG I HAD TO DO A TAMBOURINE SOLO TOO. Honestly went into it thinking it wouldn’t be hard and probably unimportant, but during practice, my conductor was telling me how he wrote the tambourine solo to stand out from everything else and that it was one of the most important instruments in the piece and I was stumped 😂
I once played cymbals in orchestra (i was the pianist, but one piece had no piano so i was asked to do cymbals) and keeping track of 100 measures of rest was no joke. Percussionists, who have to play many different instruments, are AMAZING.
Same. I am a drummer and though I don't know much but that was unnecessary. She didn't even know what she was saying or the point she was trying to get across. She was repeating herself over and over again without giving an explanation
Omg this comment is gold😂 I was really confused as to why kazoo wasn't number 1 or 2 in the original list since drum like instruments depend a lot on rhythm which needs talent.... Kazoo though... Yah...
Anyone who plays recorder well knows it's extremely difficult. Between producing a pleasant tone, playing in the third register, constantly adjusting pitch, creating vibrato with finger shading, applying the many tonguing techniques, playing in both bass and treble clef, learning to transpose fingerings across F, C, and D instruments, and using the many extended recorder techniques, there's at least as much to deal with on recorder as on more modern instruments.
On the low notes you have to barely breathe at all and half holing consistently is a pain. There's a bit more to learn because the recorder was never revamped with keys like other modernized instruments like the clarinet.
Technically the ideas and the list items are usually submitted by viewers, then voted upon to determine their placement in the list. WM writes the script but their viewer base is largely responsible for their content. That's a really simplified way to put it, but it doesn't excuse their ignorance in many subjects.
WatchMojo logic: Instrument A is top easiest instrument because while difficult to master, it is easy to pick up Instrument B is top hardest instrument because while easy to pick up, it is difficult to master
I play the recorder and the clarinet (and a bit of sax). If anything, the recorder is the hardest at a higher level because of tuning, alternate fingerings, extended techniques that are essential at a grade 7 level, which isn't the same with the clarinet. Even though it was easier to get a sound out of the recorder, making it sound good was so much harder than the clarinet or sax
As a flutist, clarinetist, saxophonist, and oboist (who has played recorder to a decently high level before), yeah Out of all of them, Oboe is definitely the hardest, both to start and to sound good at, followed by recorder. You have to find a way for the recorder to actually sound soothing and not like a kid's toy. You have to play well enough to not just sound good, but to fight the stigma. Flute and clarinet are both harder to start but it takes less effort to sound good after intermediate level. And sax is just easy. It should be the thing kids start on. It's substantially easier than all other symphonic band instruments, especially alto and tenor.
I could be completely wrong since I only play bowed string instruments, but I think that only matters if it can be better than sax or clarinet. A $100 instrument will be a lot more difficult to get a good sound out of than a $10,000 instrument of the same kind, and that isn't because it's harder, it's because the instrument is worse.
@@T4zchi Friend of mine took up the violin as an adult. He got a decent second hand violin rather than buying a "school version", so he actually sounded ok after just a few months. And after two years he had a really nice rendition of "Happy birthday". We got to try it and it was not that hard to create _one_ pure note, because it is a good instrument. The cheaper "school violins" kid get to learn on requires a master to sound even decent. (I believe, these guys have a video on the subject, if not, feel free to roast me.)
Let's be honest here, all instruments are difficult to play if you want to play one professionally. Percussion, difficult. Woodwinds, difficult. Brass, difficult. Strings, difficult. Basically, almost every instrument requires a different set of skills.
Yeah, but I think this video is just trying to get ppl with no music background to start an instrument with, and some are easier to start with in terms of understanding basics or producing a good sound..
Okay, sure. I'm a classical orchestral percussionist who spent three years as the head of a world percussion ensemble. Let's get into it. Xylophone - reading music and learning key placement is a big hurdle for beginners. Any tonal instrument will have this. For xylophone players, choosing the mallet you use is important because it's the only way you have to change the timbre. If you've ever wanted to spend hours researching plastics, resins, rubber thicknesses, yarns, and various types of wood, this is the instrument for you. Xylophones also have fairly narrow bars for each note while also being very horizontally wide. However, many musicians will perform on a venue-provided instrument rather than traveling with one, and there is no standardized size. You need to re-learn the distance between notes on the fly every time you play on a different xylophone, which can make it hard to build muscle memory. Maracas - rhythmic accuracy on the maracas is extremely difficult because the weight of the beads inside will determine the time between when you move the maraca and when you hear its sound. Sharp, distinct sounds require precise wrist flicks, which take a lot of practice to learn to control the dynamics of. One of the hardest things to do on maracas is to create odd-numbered rhythm patterns, like two sixteenth notes connected to an eighth note. This is because the sound happens when the beads hit the edge of the maraca, so you need to get the beads high enough inside the maraca that they can come back down without making them go so high as to hit the back and ruin the rhythm, all while keeping it in time. Cymbals - they're showing and talking about two different types of cymbal here. A pair of hand-held crash cymbals are hard to play properly because if you just clap them together like one of the monkey toys, you will profoundly crunch the sound. You need to hit them together and then separate them apart in one continuous movement so the sound can resonate, but if they rub together there will be a loud and unpleasant scraping sound. Quickly repeating hits at low dynamics without crunching the sound is one of the hardest things you can do on the instrument. The suspended cymbal requires an understanding of the mallet you use, and if your piece moves between distinct hits and smooth rolls, you will need to rapidly change mallets during the performance. Dynamics control on suspended cymbal is very challenging for beginners, as the choice of mallets and the size of the cymbal will affect how long it takes to reach different dynamic levels over the course of a roll, and good players will look at the dynamics a roll is supposed to begin at and understand their cymbal well enough to judge how much earlier than written to come in to create the composer's written effect. Bongos - bongos have three main striking timbres, each with their own technique, and if you cannot play them all then you are not playing bongos. Bass is in the middle of the drum and can use the palm of the hand or the fingers depending on preference, and the challenge is to avoid a flat or deadened sound, which can happen if your hand stays on the drum for too long or if you hit too close to the dead center. Tone is on the edge, and is what people typically think of as playing bongos. Slaps are a higher-pitched sound that is often louder, played close to the edge. Getting a good slap sound requires a knowledge of the speed required as well as how to properly cup the fingers, and it is the hardest sound to produce on the instrument. It isn't uncommon for beginner bongo players to have swollen or dislocated finger joints or to experience fractured or broken fingers as they learn this technique, and many beginner bongos players will bind their fingers with medical tape to avoid injury as they learn. Tambourine - tambourines combine the hardest part of the bongos with the hardest part of maracas. Tambourines have bass, tone, and slap techniques, and you can also shake them to get just the sound of the shakers without the drum tone. Slaps continue to be difficult, as is judging the timing of your shaking to produce an even, consistent, on-tempo rhythm. Depending on the region of music you're playing, tambourines also add finger and hand rolls. Finger rolls are also present in Turkish drumming and are easy to understand the concept of but difficult to keep steady and consistent because some fingers of the hand tend to be stronger than others. Hand rolls are a full-hand movement that comes from the wrist, and have similar issues with dynamic consistency and rhythmic evenness in addition to requiring a lot of stamina. Tambourines are also deceptively heavy, so developing the stamina just to hold it and keep it in motion for an entire performance can be challenging for newer players. Triangle - any time you have a metal instrument being played with a metal mallet, you are moments away from a timbre disaster. The hardest part of a triangle is to avoid excessively abrasive sounds to keep it feeling light instead of clang-ey. Hitting a triangle off-center will tend to make it rotate on its string making it hard to play repeated notes in tempo, so there's a surprising amount of physical accuracy required. In more advanced repertoire, you can play a triangle with one hand and mute it with the other to create more rhythmic complexity, which is hard to get the hang of initially.
Hey thanks a lot man you're speaking for all of us. I was going to write out myself what makes me crazy about the percussion part but my English is just too bad! There is just to much wrong in that mojo video especially the cymbal and triangle part drives me the most. I played Schostakowitsch 10 cymbals & TamTam and here in germany we don't have quality percussive stuff in highschool. So I learned the part at home without feeling for the instruments that I had to play, coming to meet the orchestra for one week of intensive rehearsing an just knowing when to play. After screwing up im the crash rehearsal, luckily there was a professional percussionist showing me the important things on my instruments and I can tell ist f**ing hard
They are comparing instruments though, not roles in an orchestra. Also, yes, any instrument can be hard, no-one ever disputed that, but is it hardER than other instruments? if you had to rank the difficulty of instruments, by a metric such as, how long would it take to sound acceptable to the untrained ear when playing standard repertoire, all the ones there, are probably less hard than most other popular instruments, which makes them easier. You can, for example, sound acceptable to the untrained ear in triangle instantly (you need to be able to count but even if you can't people might not notice as long as you play on the beat) wheras with violin or sax it would take much longer
wow I didnt know there wasnt a standardized size for marimbas and xylophones, I dont play them very much tho Im more of the drumset and hand percussion. Great information anyways, thanks.
What they fail to understand is that nobody plays "cymbals" or "triangle". You play percussion, which requires the player to quickly be able to switch and play instruments like marimba, timpani, drums, and all sorts of small percussion like triangle and tambourine. There is a lot to it and becoming an expert in all of them is very difficult and takes time. Melodic percussion (xylophone,marimba etc) can be easy to pick up, yes hitting a note with a mallet isn't hard, but when you have to acurately play fast pieces or use 4 mallets it's extremely difficult. Every mistake is VERY noticable as you can't "hide" your mistakes in the masses like other instruments can do. You're on your own and if you miss, you bet that the conductor is going to give you dirty looks. Small percussion might not be THAT hard technically, but for example there are some really challenging tambourine pieces, which require hard techniques that do require actual training and practice. No it's not as hard as string instruments technically, but often they are relying on you for tempo (especially in youth orchestra's) If you mess up and start going slightly off beat, you'll confuse everyone and mess up the entire piece. Percussion also includes timpani. Quite difficult to master, especially if you have a challenging piece which requires you to tune timpani's mid piece. Sometimes you have less than a second to tune multiple timpani's. It forces you to actually plan before you play so you can set up everything beforehand. Also percussionists always have to set-up up ALL their instruments way in advance, pack them up at the end, carry them to a van, load them into the van, bring them back to a storage location. We're always at the venue at least an hour before everyone else and also leave way later than everyone else. It's a lot of work, especially if you play in an unconventional location (like an outside location) where you can't use wheels, so you have to carry those heavy drums and ruin your back.
Hey, reminds me when I was playing Mega Man X. In this game, you collect special weapons that have different effects from defeating bosses. Each weapon has a function that it is easy to use on it's own, but you often have to switch between them. So I can feel for you by playing this game.
As a percussionist I’m actually going insane from this list. I’m fairly new to percussion (~2 years) and having played marimba (and xylophone for that matter) triangle, bongos, tambourine, shakers and cymbals, they are all shockingly technique based. They look super simple but often require super precise hand movements. For example, to get the proper sound from a shaker you need to ensure your doing the proper motion just rolling the beads inside isn’t playing it. Tambourine and triangle are more simple to do just a few small hits but they definitely get difficult when you have to do a bunch of repeated beats and keep in time. Also doing rolls for both of those are pretty hard, with triangle it can sound really messy if not done properly and tambourine there is a specific technique where you tightly drag your thumb around the edge to create a roll, it is hard to do (I still haven’t learned how yet 😢) Lastly, (I didn’t mean for this to be an essay whoops) cymbals are in the same area as triangle and shaker in the sense that getting a noise out is easier but it can sound reeeaaaallly messy if you don’t get the proper seal, motion, speed, mute when they crash. That I you for those that have read my percussion rankings and thanks two set for appreciating the percussionists ❤
I'm a 15-year recorder player and I admit that the recorder is easier for starters because the blowing techniques is simpler than other woodwinds such as the flute, clarinet, oboe, etc, but if your going up to the Vivaldi concertos, sonatas, or Romantic music levels, it's real freaking difficult
Exactly! I’ve been playing the recorder for 8 years, and I’m doing it as one as one of my three instruments for my music A- level in two years time (I’m 13) and I hate that when I tell people I play the recorder, they immediately think I’m not a good musician. It’s about repertoire!
The blowing technique is easier but isn't it kind of harder in its own way? Like it's easy to make a sound, so you end up over blowing and squeaking and you need to have good control. I'm a flute player not a recorder one though, but that was my experience when I tried to play the recorder one time haha.
Ayy exactly!! Have been playing the recorder for 6 years now and it is not easy... I tried oboe once and it was not any harder... It is just the stigma of the recorder being a "School instrument" :/
@@aceatlasska4343 Exactly! That’s why many recorder starters ended up overblowing every note. It’s easy to make a sound, but when it comes to controlling, dynamics or phrasing, it’s as hard as other instruments.
Same! When you're 8 it is baby easy, but when you start taking it seriously it gets crazy difficult. Blowing at exactly the right speed and force. Recorder Gang, unite!
As someone who has played recorder in symphonic band, it is not easy. the fingerings are similar to a saxophone, but it mostly requires changing your air flow like you would when playing trunpet to change octaves, as opposed to a sax having an octave key. plus not to mention, anyone can make sound out of a recorder but it takes practice to actually achieve a GOOD sound like most wind instruments
but...watchmojo never said that its easy to be percussionist/knowing how to play SEVERAl of percussion instruments, they just said that individually, certain percussion instruments are just easier to pick up and learn reasonably well, than other instruments. But obviously that knowing a ton of them all together is really hard
YES! Though as a vocalist, I will say it is simultaneously the easiest and the hardest as most instruments were based on the voice. Everyone can sing, but there are very very very few operatic singers in comparison.
Cocobarbarian true it does sound that way I am just of a mind that all singing is beautiful. It is an expression of self, but operatic singing and other such professional singing is beautiful on another level
they literally showed a clip of the MARIMBA when talking about the xylophone, that itself is enough to show that they have no idea what they're talking about. Both marimba and xylophone are actually a lot harder to learn and get used to as well. Even if you have piano/keyboard experience and know which notes to hit, you still have to practice holding and using the mallets, and getting used to four-mallet holds can be pretty painful and uncomfortable for your hands when you're a beginner.
Ikr. I remember being told to play the marimba at a school concert and I was like wtf because I'm a pianist. I told the teacher that, but she still said that it's similar, even though the song we're playing is pentatonic and I have zero clue nor experience of playing the instrument. Truly sacrilegious.
they roast the xylophone (which stands out in any setting, orchestra, marching, anything) and proceeds to show a 5 octave marimba from what i assume is a vic firth video. i hate it when people cant tell the difference.
Lady: "All these percussion instruments are so easy" Me, a percussion captain trying to teach my freshmen and watching them fail for an entire two years before they somehow get an inkling of what they're supposed to be doing: "You betcha."
Literally took me months to learn proper 4 mallet techniques Also, I ABSOLUTELY HATE WHEN PEOPLE REFER TO EVERY SINGLE KEYBOARD AS A XYLOPHONE And I feel targeted watching this video sorry for my ranting lol
They shows NEIL PEART, the GOD of drumming, for their “bongos” clip. I’m at a loss. He was well known for bringing and playing an entire percussion section to live performances, he was a fucking beast. I honestly would love to watch your guys’ reaction to Rush’s live performance of Xanadu from Exit… Stage Left, it’s a work of art, and all three band members are virtuosos in the rock community.
4:34 I'm really triggered with this statement. I mean, I could be wrong but the basic notes for almost all instruments are just the same, yes. But to play a piece or a music, it needs time and practice. Seriously, mojo is a piece of crap that they just find stupid content on google and make a video. The stupider, the better.
Tabla is probably one of the most difficult percussions ever. The thing I hate is the way these days no mainstream indian song uses tabla. And I personally think indian music is incomplete without it. Gone are the days of 50's-60's when all of the mainstream compositions used tabla. It's sad.
As a music teacher of 15 years and a percussionist for 26, this was really hard to watch. Xylophones have really small ideal strike zones and since the bars are different lengths and widths between Xylophones, you can't completely get it into muscle memory in addition, the parts are usually fast. You cannot hide even the slightest mistake as it is a very pronounced sound. Marimba is that to the 4th power. While playing 4 mallet, you usually have 3 different hardnesses of mallets as an added layer of difficulty. Maracas are easier than bongos by far. Getting those pieces inside to strike in time is hard as you have to move ahead of the strike. Bongos have so many tones and touches needed in addition to fingers of steel. Cymbals are a physical challenge, especially if you need to control crash length and dynamic. If you accidentally hit them straight on, they can suction cup each other, if the strap gets loose, you're gonna have a bad day. Triangle, you don't hit it going down but rather as you're pulling up. They have 2 sounds, good and clear or rough and metallic, rolling is its own beast. Tambourine, look up thumb rolls, arabic styles, etc.... its hard. In percussion, usually its a one man show and everyone has a unique part, no one to support you.
Percussion instruments on this list are "easy" as in anyone can pick them up and make a sound, but they are SO idiotic because no instrument is easy to to play well. (Other than the kazoo lol)
THANK YOU. just today in orchestra we got to see one of the most famous percussionists in Latvia perform with our orchestra as a solo artist (with orchestra ofc) and the TECHNIQUE THERE OHMYGOD. when I tell you I GAGGED when she did the SMOOTHEST thumb roll on tambourine I GAGGED like-....that was so beautiful. (also this was the piece "'Concerto for Percussion and Chamber Orchestra, Op. 109''
The Marimba is easy to play though. I learned how to play several songs on it, while using all 4 mallets when I was only 8 years old, with only 10-20 total hours of practice.
triangle being number one is not suprising at all. people think its super easy because "oh you hit metal thing on triangular metal thing" even though something as little as putting a little velocity into each hit making it create a ding sound everyone thinks of makes it difficult already, but making sure you do the rythms right while watching the conductor and reading your music takes it to a whole nother level
You can “just shake them” IF you can move your hands to all the Latin dance rhythms...with syncopation...and polyrhythms...and accounting for the delay of the rattling material to be flung from one side to the other...which varies A LOT...but yeah, you can just shake them...
IKR, I tried playing maracas once, I was like, oh YEAH imma pick them up and shake them and it will sound so cool. 1 out of 3 shakes made a real noise, the rest barely even made a sound.
As a percussionist over 4 years in learning, here is my 2 cents: Marimba/Xylophone/Vibraphone: This is where I specialize. Been playing them for half my career. Shit is extremely difficult. Ask literally anyone for an explanation why. Triangle: The first thing you need to learn before playing is how to hold it, which is very specific. Triangle beater control is something I still cannot do well, and rolling is an entirely different monster. Tambourine: A third of playing this instrument is to learn to be still, another third of it is chops, a quarter of it is learning all of the hand techniques for striking it, and the other 9ish% is learning the hand technique for holding. This takes incredible hours of dedication to get down. Maracas: I cannot say I have played maracas in a musical setting before, but I imagine it takes just as much, if not more control as a tambourine. Hand drums: I don't even have to speak on this so much as a few sentences. I don't play bongos but I have played djembe. Getting the desired sound out of the drum (like all things) takes intense precision. Not to mention how much it physically hurts you to play. Cymbals: As someone who has marched cymbals for parades I can say they are deceivingly heavy and zap your energy quickly. As someone who has played cymbals in a concert setting I can say they are deceivingly heavy and zap your energy quickly. There are a million different techniques and sounds you can get out of a pair of crash cymbals (assuming this video was ONLY talking about crash cymbals, and not ride cymbals, china cymbals, suspended cymbals, splash cymbals or bells). This was a pathetic jab at an incredibly talented craft. Musician to musician I hope we can agree that this is a whole lotta bullsh
The one thing I can say about percussion (as someone who's done it a small amount but is mainly a flutist) is that percussion is a lot easier to get a relatively good sound on to start. It doesn't require tuning (in most cases) and it doesn't require breath control, *but* it does require a lot more than other instruments in other areas. It's like they said, each instrument is a lot different, and while there's a lot more one can do as a beginner, those skills are incredibly difficult to progress afterwards. And, musician to musician, props to you for being able to do as much as you do because this shit is difficult, and it's really awesome that people do care about it. Flutist to percussionist, specifically, thank you to all percussionists for helping to keep us all in line in a band setting.
As a percussionist, this video offended me to a whole new level. I mean like, come on. We literally have to learn and master the techniques of every single percussion instrument. Just think of it this way. You have to learn violin, viola, cello, and double bass in a few weeks because you have to play them all in your upcoming concert. Sounds challenging, right? Also, don't you just love how DumbMojo shows literal movie clips of some of the instruments as valid evidence? All I can say is, many thanks to TwoSet for supporting us percussion players.
Even their claim of “simply learning the feel and the notes of the instrument will take no time at all” is garbage. I started percussion about a month ago for my high school’s indoor percussion program (glockenspiel). I’ve had about 45-50 hours of rehearsal and no. I can rarely hit all the notes correctly, I’m only just able to look up from my board to make sure I’m with the other players, and my hands hurt constantly. Also I never expected the triangle to be as difficult as it is.
As a unprofessional percussionist I can say that maracas and other shaker type instruments can be incredibly hard to learn. Keeping time is hard on any instrument, but on maracas, you have to keep time by feel, not visuals. This isn't even including anything but straight 8ths.
"Harmonica is easy! JUst put in mouth and blow!" You also gotta INHALE as well to get half the notes. It's literally a machine controlled by breathing, and your tongue is a part of the sound.
God, let alone bending and overblowing. Dear god it takes a while to just play single notes consistently. Also learning how to read sheet music on a diatonic instrument. Then chromatic harmonica is a whole different beast.
Yeah, I'm trying to learn harmonica and this shit is hard! Like it's easy to play happy birthday or camp town ladies poorly, but it takes work to play it well! What were they thinking?
For real, just getting a single note by itself took me weeks of playing at every stoplight. The only “easy” thing about a harmonica is that you can practice almost anywhere and carry it in your pocket. Still gotta out the time in to actually play it.
lol pls could they(dumb mojo) search up cy leo or just chromatic harmonica pls????!!! i mean, chromatic harmaonica can play 3 octaves!! also, ever heard of the chord harmonica or bass harmonica??? they are vey heavy and could take out someones head out!!! As a cromatic harmonica and chord harmonica player, im very offended. plus, cromatic harmonica has a whole seprate button to get sharps and flats! and dont even mention octaves and double stops.
"Percussionists, teach us why that comment was sacrilegious." *I've got this one, Eddy...* *...Finally, my time to shine.* *{Inhales}* I have been a percussionist for 7-years now, basically half my life, and I still have not "mastered" any of the instruments--despite playing them almost every single day. I dare you just to TRY the four-mallet grip and play a single chord repeatedly--I'd be MONEY you'd mess up. Maracas aren't the hardest instrument, admittedly, but if you just "shake them," they won't sound musical at all--you need developed touch and feel to get them to sound the exact way you want them to. Oh-ho-ho, crash cymbals... I'm gonna teach you a cymbal technique called a "sting" real quickly: When crashing the cymbals--the right way, with the right angle and approach--you're going to immediately jab those Captain America shields straight into your God-given ribcage and suck up the pain to mute the cymbals as fast as you can. Tell me how that goes. Most people don't know how many different ways there are to strike a bongo, and most people can't even do one effectively or consistently--next time you hear one, just listen to all the different tones and resonances they are creating to create feel in the song. Tribes didn't just go "Oh, it goes 'bong', duhh"--NO, it can create many different rhythms and even be musically independent to sound good by itself. Tambourine--okay, try a thumb roll--or just to create a consistent noise with it. Even all-state percussionists can struggle with thumb rolls because they're just not easy... Lastly--triangle... One of my fellow percussionists played the triangle on "Also Sprach Zarathustra" (aka the 2001 Space Odyssey theme) and he legitimately was cramping so bad after rehearsals that it was hard for him to write, because rolling on a triangle corner for that long will make extended writing look like a break.
I've tried so hard to play four-mallet marimba, and that was an epic fail. I really wanted to get a percussion teacher, but then corona was like "lol nope" Also, my friend lowkey kicked me from bongo duty because she knew I didn't have the experience to play hand percussion at that level, so I did a bunch of traps/aux. stuff. I learned so many things about different ways to hit a triangle. I also did a thumb roll once by accident and could never replicate it, rip I still really want to get marimba lessons someday, it's such a cool and underrated instrument (I play violin/piano)
@@lifeontheledgerlines8394 Thanks, bud. I've always seen it this way--we as percussionists understand that you don't just "blow into a tube" and play advanced pieces, or "hit some keys" and play a composition on piano, so why does everyone think we just "simply hit stuff"...? Of course there's more to the story, anyone with training can make something look easy to some.
@@gabrielfrench8382 Yeah, why is it always percussion that people assume is easy? If there's one thing to know about playing instruments, or any skill really, it would be that anyone with skill can make it look easy, when in fact it's really not.
I’ve been a percussionist for 23 years. Agreed wholeheartedly with this. Dumb Mojo is Clueless! Cymbals are a pain in the ass to learn really well, crash/choke well and sustain. Xylo with four mallets is a bear. Triangle- if you mess up by coming in a 1/8th of a beat late oh it is soooo audible 😂
It can be easy like if you know how to play saxophone, you will be able to play alto and bari sax as well as a recorder and song flute. Or at least that’s how it is for me
@Elijah Kim 김기성 Most instruments require some skill. At any level you should be challenging your self. If you have been playing guitar for 5 years, or piano for 5 years, you should still challenge your self the same. Just find the instrument you enjoy and practice.
As a marimba/xylophone player (and generally a percussionist), I am DEEPLY offended by the ranking video. I can’t even make myself try and see pas that and see why it is easy for those people 🙄 Marimba/xylophones are complex instruments, and they require the right sticks and right pressure to produce a good, resonating sound that can set the metal tubes under them echoing the note. Learning to read the music and play at the same time is quite hard, actually. The sticking has to hit exactly on the note, (and of course, sight reading can be improved with practice) and in more advanced levels, the multiple sticks used to produce chords are even harder to coordinate-you’re basically holding a stick between your other fingers, and is very unsteady. To make the sticks balance and have the same pressure as the other one in your hand is proven, quite difficult. the player also has to move around the keyboard to reach high and low notes. If you have a piece that’s quite long and has a large range of notes, it’ll be a lot of jumping around for you. Since it is not a piano and pressing on keys, the pressure you hit the blocks with will determine the sound quality. Don’t even get me started on rolls, flams, grace notes, double flams. They’re even harder. As a level 5 ABRSM percussionist who started playing at 5 years old (I’m 14 now), i can confirm it’s not easy. Level 5 hasn’t even been the start of double sticking, and the repertoire just gets more complicated with easier polyrhythms and more fancy shmancy grace notes and note ranges. Double sticking is I think-level 6/7 stuff. I’ve been to concerts starring master percussionists and it’s so nice to see difference techniques used in their playing. // Edit: I saw in the comment replies: if you try and save the note, it messes up the tempo. That’s true-a block has a sweet spot that you have to get right to make a good sound. There are dead parts of the block (like where the string connects the blocks) that don’t make any good sound. There are sometimes quick parts in music that makes your sticks fly across the keyboard and a couple wrong stick placements resulting in dead notes can mess up the passage real badly. Edit 2: What I was emphasizing in the short piano paragraph was that piano keys are easier to make a sound because it is pressing down on a key that will lead to a mechanism to strike the string to make a note. In percussion, you need to hit the key in a sweet spot (see edit 1)) that will produce a good sound. A piano key is already set at the spot where it needs to be hit, and it is only a matter of how loudly or softly the note resonates. Edit 3: There are over 100 percussion instruments and percussionists have to master most, if not all of them. Triangle, tambourine, bongos, drum kit, mallet, maracas, cymbals etc etc etc! They each have their own techniques, and to actually learn them all and remember them as well requires *patience* and *lots of practice*. To say that percussion is easy because it just seems like hitting things together is an understatement. Not to mention in orchestras, there are usually a shortage of percussionists, and the ones that are there are required to change instruments a few times in a piece. For example a triangle player might have to also play maracas, bongos and tambourine in a single piece. To switch between them and count on time while doing all that is quite difficult especially if it’s a hard polyrhythmic piece. Sometimes percussionists are required to memorize the music, to (let the other instrument sections have the stands). Imagine memorizing a piece for 4 instruments. Yeah might seem easy playing 3 notes on the triangle in a last bar, but you saw what happened in the “Life As A Percussionist” video. You can miss. Not. Easy. Conclusion: percussion is not easy. As are all instruments in their own way and no one should judge the difficulty of instruments unless they’ve tried them all.
I played the vibraphone all throughout high school. Didn’t take me too long to get through the basics. My first year I only did the warm ups on the marimba and played the percussion instruments the rest of the year, but my second year I got to play the vibraphone and I had a bit of trouble because they immediately got me playing with 4 mallets and I had to move from chord to chord really fast. So, I had a lot of trouble learning how to move my mallets different distances and keeping making it intuitive to hit for different notes at the same time. Overall, I would say that it isn’t too hard to learn the basics though, especially if your already familiar with piano playing.
I think the worst thing about these videos is that non musicians actually look them up for reference. I doubt anyone who worked on this video was an actual musician. I try not to imagine the poor kid who stumbled across this video and decided to play percussion because it was “easy,” and instead found themselves expected to learn ten or more different instruments. I’m a clarinet and violin player, and percussionists are the people who I’m always most impressed by. In my school band, we had two or three percussionists, and in some pieces, each of them were expected to play about two to four instruments at the same time.
This is the truest thing i have ever heard. Trangle- easy Cymbal- easy Shaker- easy. Now try to play the shaker in 1 hand for 10 measures with the tringle in the other hand and then put them both down in 1 beat and pick up the sticks to roll on a cymbal without dropping anything. SOOO EASY!!!!! (drop a triangle on the ground and tell me your ears don't burn it interrupts the whole band and you are the most embarrassed you will ever be.
And the funny moment is when there is one percussionist missing to the rehearsal and you have to constantly Change instruments so that it isn't very noticeable. We're like 6 percussionist and it happens very often xd
Even in my school band, where there are 11 of us, we sometimes play 3-4 instruments. As I said in my comment, there is a reason why all those "percussion toys" are easier to play
DumbMojo really doesn't realize that not only does every Percussion instrument have their own technique, but percussionists have to be able to perfect every. single. percussion. instrument. Btw, there's like 100+ percussion instruments. And no one plays just a single percussion instrument - that literally does not exist. Percussionists play all percussion instruments... Sure, in High School, you can focus more on Drums, or Mallets, but in professional settings, you need to achieve virtuosity on every single percussion instrument.
The only possible exception to this is timpani, because timpani. I know my school offered a whole separate degree for timpani performance. That being said, I still had to learn how to play them to the same standard, so.
In HS, I actually mostly considered myself to specialize in Timpani (the only thing I was lacking in was mallet percussion), but when I got to university, I had to be proficient in everything.
To master violin u practice 40 hours. To master Bass you practice 69 hours. To master percussion you must practice 4.2 hours for each 100+ percussion instruments. Which means 420+ hours to master percussion
"We aren't saying these instruments are easy, rather they are simply easier to learn and play than others" *Ah yes, the floor here is made out of floor*
I guess it really depends on the person. The first instrument I was introduced to was piano as a little kid, then I wanted to try electric guitar and I practiced and practiced and even took lessons but I just couldn’t do it as well as piano. Another friend of mine on the other hand, sucked at piano but was great at bass and guitar, and another was better at percussion and keeping rhythm.
Bring a percussionist myself, percussion is not easy, playing 4 instruments in one song at one of my concerts, plus the stress at being in one is not good
This video hurt me a little bit more than I thought it would. First of all: Percussion is really underestimated. Yes even a triangle is hard to play. I’ve been playing the marimba for about two years and now started my third and only this year I started using 4 mallets. It ain’t easy. The amount of times you hit a wrong bar in the beginning is countless. Btw using 2 or 4 mallets isn’t the only way tho. We can go for 6 mallets in some pieces. As a percussionist this discribes me: “I feel my heart crack”.
You're so right. Once I sas a dude playing with 8 mallets. I did not want to believe it. Sure, he wasn't really able to configure the mallets and stuff. And mostly it was for show off. But hey. I couldn't do it. And it was quite impressing
As a classical guitarist who started playing guitar after learning ukelele, I can say that it isn't easy. It took me 2 weeks to strum and a month to do melody playing.
I thought ukulele was super easy for everyone. I played guitar first (never super good, but still somewhat good), and I got really good really fast. Everyone around me dunked on it, so I was just like “oh, haha, yeah it’s super easy.” Then after a while, I had them play it, and omg they were SO BAD. I think it’s just cause it’s smaller and easier for my hands to reach?
@@OliverHarrington I'm trying to learn Stevens grip, but I'm thinking of maybe trying Gordon Stout's Grip. Its a pretty obscure grip, but it feels comfortable to me.
@Kyle McDonald I would learn Stevens first. It’s pretty widely used and is good for pretty much everything. I only use Stevens grip and it pretty much does everything I want it to. Although it does feel very uncomfortable at first, you’ll get used to it after awhile. Changing intervals is pretty easy and it gives you a good, firm grip on both mallets. Once you’ve learned Stevens and tried playing a couple things with it, then you can start experimenting with other grips. That’s just my experience with 4-mallet - in the end you should do what feels right for you.
@@kylemcdonald8180 Burton was my method of choice personally. Stevens was always a bit difficult. I'd recommend learning Stevens either way even if it's not the one you use the most.
As a woodwind instruments player, I wanted to throw my C# harmonica to people who made this list. As you said harmonica has so many little holes and position of your lips are highly important. For people who do not play harmonica, I can say that harmonica is not played just by blowing/exhaling. Basically exhaling creates sharp notes and inhaling creates flat notes. That means you have to control your breathe very well. That is not even all, harmonica is a highly polyphonic instrument and you have to learn all those ornamentations and consistency on each hole. Recorder? I won't even comment about it. Seems that Dumbmojo is on duty.
mine is chromatic harmonica！yeah when I saw she said you just pick up and “wow” you can play music！ ？？how about your intonation？and all others techniques？
also i play tenor and alto recorder with my high school music program (small school so no real orchestra or even band) and sure, a child can play a soprano recorder but even alto is long enough that it's hard to hit the holes right and make a non-tortuous sound. also i don't think she knows about the second octave which is super finicky and i struggle with after playing recorder for 5+ years. for her punishment, i sentence her to a year of instructing a bunch of first graders on the soprano recorder.
as a percussionist in a class of people who aren’t great or don’t try i want to say mallet instruments are easy to learn but hard to play correctly with the right technique. sure anyone can pick up a mallet and play twinkle twinkle little star but to hold the mallet correct, stroke right, roll, play dynamics, play with multiple mallets, etc. it becomes harder very fast. tldr easy to play incorrectly somewhat hard to play right.
This is so true, I play marimba and one thing that is never perfect is technique. A percussionist never stops trying to improve their technique. Even the greats aren't perfect.
Lmao give a non-percussionist 2 mallets and they may not even curl in their index fingers. Many people play dead strokes if you just hand them mallets because no one thinks of the upstroke
As a percussionist who just did Two Mexican Dances for Marimba by Gordon Stout as my college audition, I was incredibly hurt when they called xylophone (which i won’t even begin to state how they showed a marimba when referencing Xylophone , I’m T R I G G E R E D). Watchmojo should be gotten rid of, plz.
She was pretty mellow, a lot of those instruments are easy to pick up, you can be "decent" at ukulele in a few days, you'll need a few months realistically before you get bearable in piano, violin, etc.
It’s always hilarious seeing non-musicians try and judge which instruments are “easy” or “hard”. To be honest, learning ANY instrument is hard. No matter which one you decide to learn, you will have to learn some form of notation, which is like learning to read in a different language. On top of that, non-musicians think instruments that are easy to get a sound out of automatically means it is the easiest, most user-friendly instrument, when in fact, it probably means that another aspect of playing is difficult. For example, getting the sound out of a piano or violin is incredibly easy. However, learning the technicalities of the instrument, like finger placement, can be immensely difficult. On the other hand, an instrument like a flute or saxophone is nearly impossible to get stable sound out of as a beginner, but once you nail down a somewhat decent tone and develop your embouchure, the learning curve of finger placement and technicalities is fairly linear. Each instrument is pretty unique and just because an instrument may be easy to get a sound out of, does not mean the instrument itself is in any way “easy”.
I mean yeah I don't think @TwoSetViolin cut WatchMojo enough slack. If you rate instruments by difficulty, you'll make people mad. But unless all instruments are equally difficult to learn, *something* is going to end up with the title of "easiest instrument." Now *obviously* there is a huge gulf between beginning on an instrument and the very top. Rythm can be difficult for any beginner. But the mechanics and breadth of possibilities are going to be different from one instrument to the next. A piano and guitar have more musical possibilities than maracas. Not to insult maraca musicians, there's clearly a lot of skill there, but there's only so much you can do with them, which seemed to be a running theme with the instruments they selected to their list. Anyways it should have been titled "10 least difficult instruments" just to respect them.
KT321- Music as a pianist, i often hear that kind of BS. Don't know why DumbMojo didnt place it here. It is quite hard, especially if you are jumping between octaves.
@@jacobbau8328 Have they ever heard of MARCHING BAND I'M IN ONE IT BURNS MY HANDS IT'S DEATH THEY DON'T KNOW THE PAIN ALSO A DRUMMER THE PAIN OF SPEED THE BASS DRUM WILL KILL YOUR FUCKING THIGHS
"Cymbals are easy" Shows a person playing crash cymbals incorrectly. There's a VERY specific technique to playing the crash cymbal. Not to mention that every cymbal (ride, splash, finger, suspended, tamtam, gong, etc) has multiple techniques that you need to know just to be competent. As for aux percussion, the finesse and coordination needed to produce a good sound on those instruments consistently requires tons of practice. Then you have specific techniques with those (maraca roll, triangle role, triangle muting, tambourine roll, hell even figuring out where and how to hit the tambourine) that you need to practice on too. Xylophone (or MARIMBA that they showed over and over) is obvs very difficult. As are bongos. Kazoos can suck it tho signed, a percussionist.
Amazing point, also showmanship is even more important on the more simply designed instruments you don't get into an orchestra by just hitting a gong. You need flare and showmanship to a degree. Make it visually appealing. (Assuming the orchestra is being watched)
Showing a marimba while talking about a xylophone is like showing a recorder while talking about a flute
everyone calls a recorder a flute it's so annoying
@@thetrashcanking ikr
@TheTrashCanKing I flinch every time I hear some one do that...
I mean, in many languages it is. In spanish, recorders are called either "flauta dulce" (sweet flute) or "flauta de pico" (beak flute). And it's similar in german, dutch, etc (if I'm not wrong, it's called something like "block flute" in those languages). It is also part of the flute family, more precisely an internal duct flute.
@@pablolichtig2536 you're right in Portuguese we call a recorder flauta doce.
Top 10 hardest instruments: "The basics are easy, but it's hard to master"
Top 10 easiest instruments: "It's hard to master, but the basics are easy"
Well, your comment is so underrated !
The irony
LMAO
Dumbmojo in a nutshell
But apparently the opposite is true for the tambourine.
" *iF yOU CaN pLAy iT eASy , yOu CaN pLAy iT haRD* " - DumbMojo.
Yeah and you just blow in the holes... someone should tell them that in blues, you do a lot more sucking.
@@runrig97 Dumbmojo sucks anyway, so that should be "easy" for them
I wish you hadn't edited the harmonica comment out of your comment now my reply has a lot less context 🙂
They say it dumb for a reason...
Throws a bongo at you balls of fury style with the wrench
Mojo's formula is quite simple.
Hardest instruments: "Though it is easy to learn, it is hard to master"
Easiest instruments: "Though it's hard to master, it is easy to learn"
Then there's the violin ahh😢
😂😂
I had to read that at least 10 times to figure out both statements say the same...
Lol that is so truee! I just noticed!!
UNDERRATED
"Ukulele only has 4 strings, it's easier then guitar"
"Shakespeare's books have less words than modern novels, they're easier to understand"
Nice one
This made me laugh
Made me let out an actual chuckle
This is an excellent point! I think you meant “scripts” rather than “books” tho
@@Quesnar The school system basically treats them like books, which is a shame honestly
I think everyone would understand way more about them if we got to watch them, preferably in-person (obviously not now, but maybe watch a recording of a production, etc.)
*Top 10 Easiest Instruments in the World*
"Number 1. The triangle"
Actually, the *triangle* is the hardest instrument because no one has played *Flight of the Bumblebee* on It.
Damn that’s big brain
America's Got Talent: *Hold that thought*
Bruh
It's not the hardest, but I agree it's not the easiest either
LMFAOAOAOAOAOAOOAOAOAOAOAOAOO
“Triangle is the easiest”
(Flashbacks to Leonard Bernstein trying to get the percussionists to play that triangle part)
Ah ah 🤣🤣
And the Bernstein clip is here: th-cam.com/video/ebf6_7nHciw/w-d-xo.html (for anyone who's curious)
Digidi dummm
I love that clip!
Same!
Okay, percussion gang here. At high levels we're required to know how to play ALL of those instruments, and even something as "simple" as the triangle or tambourine has a lot of depth behind it. Freshman year percussion studio class we had a whole THREE WEEKS devoted to nothing but triangle, and another three weeks to tambourine, and another three weeks to cymbals. No drums, no keyboard instruments, nothing. Beyond that we had juries where we were required to incorporate x amount of instruments in original compositions, so you had to keep up with your skill on the "low skill" percussion instruments. Not to mention the fact that getting a good tone out of a keyboard percussion instrument is largely due to correct mallet selection for the repertoire, consistent striking locations (not hitting the damn nodes), and correct stick control.
Plus, using four mallets is ridiculously hard. Especially when you have to swap between two and four.
Very true. Playing one percussion instrument really good is hard to do, but having to play *all* relatively good is not an easy thing. It's easy to make any sound on perc instruments, but making good sounds and correct sounds for the context is not.
with triangle what you've just told me is your school wasted your time
learned triangle in 2 minutes. *Ding *Ding
I mean you are making the case that a specific percussion instrument tends to be easier than other instrument, which is fine...
I KNOW! THANK YOU! IT TOOK ME NEARLY FOUR MONTHS TO PLAY RELATIVELY SMOOTHLY ON A BELL KIT HELP 👍🏽👍🏽😭😭
Even as an outsider I can tell playing with for stick must be hard. And that is not even considering going from "hit stick with stick to make sound" to "play keyboard percussion using mallet consistently" is hard in itself.
“dumbmojo is back” knew it
trisha poh yaaass
Is dumbmojo the actual name?
Theres now a new rule. The 169 rule
I’m your 1st sub 👏 👏 👏
Batzo 08 aw thank you but i’d prefer if u dont heh those were my primary school projects
“You just... well... shake them”
*yeah, for the piano you just click on them*
Nice one
good roast!!!
WhATs So HArD AboUT tHat
JuSt ClIcK aNd Be GrIeG aLrEaDy
Yeah for the triangle you just tap them
One time, a percussionist told me, hit the triangle, that’s easy. Now, hit the triangle with the same strenght and produce the same sound 10 times in a row.
Oof
Yeaaaahhh my 3rd grade music teacher said the same
I'm your 666th like 😌
And that reminds me of the Bernstein roasting triangle video
i had a triangle solo once, it went so hard
"there's not really much to playing the xylophone"
**shows marimba player using four mallets**
I’m a professional percussionist and I‘m personally offended
As a percussion student, I feel your pain.
F
Otto Gibb Ayeee instrument mate
Could be worse, you could be a violist and broke. 😁
LING LING GRANGER I mean yes, but they show “percussion” as something worthless which really concerns me when I think about all the practice I’ve made to learn😂
I’ve actually seen a jazz percussionist doing an INSANE triangle solo.
emc gang
Wanna seeee
Even the triangle gang
IS BETTER THAN THA
Bro Saxophone is actually so easy that should be #1
It’s jazz so I’m not surprised
My perspective as a percussionist is this: yes, some percussion instruments, like the egg shaker, are not very hard to learn or play. We can all agree on that. But, NO percussionist plays only the egg shaker. How about maracas, vibraslap, cowbell, woodblock, temple blocks, suspended cymbal, crash cymbals, toms, snare drum, bass drum, ratchet, gong, slide whistle, triangle, tambourine, timpani, bells, xylophone, chimes, marimba, vibraphone, steel pan, congas, bongos, and castanets, just for starters? Each instrument has its own technique and mallet requirements, so the thing that makes percussion hard is not how hard each individual instrument is, rather how many we have to know how to play. And yes, I am lightly offended by this video. But who cares? Real musicians appreciate every instrument in the band.
And about that xylophone comment, if you’re playing xylophone in a band or orchestra and you miss a note, literally everyone in the hall hears it. It’s not something you can afford to miss notes playing.
And one last gripe: they showed a clip of a bunch of kids playing xylophones, and then immediately switched to a clip of somebody playing MARIMBA. They don’t even know the difference between the two, so they (DumbMojo) have absolutely no authority in making this video.
Me a percussionist just realized how many instruments I play
I am a percussionist and you are completely right
As a percussionist myself, you have only spelled facts
Speaked*
The video is mostly a joke... You probably shouldn't take it too seriously. They pretty much picked the most easily offended groups. Awkwardly they avoided bass and electric guitar despite them both being nearly as easy as any ukulele/banjo/lute instrument. Assuming because Davie has a hard on for acting like a dumb ass and pretending his one note nonsense "bass skills," are greater than classical music.
Anyway, hate to break it to you but most percussions are very easy... Unless you're performing on like a 75+ piece kit in a progressive multi genere band going as hard core as like death metal to as chill as caribbean tunes... I don't think you should expect people to think your job is very hard. If you get THIS offended, well there is probably a reason for it.
I played the marimba for 7 years in school, and it’s NOT easy. Especially getting 9 marimbas to play difficult pieces together. Getting the right sound and dynamics. Getting the correct notes to play. With 4 mallets. I am a violinist now but will always have a respect to marimba players.
I'm your hundredth like, and I totally agree! You can easily slip up and hit two notes at the same time, you must have a great amount of coordination to play them.
*"we're not a roasting channel, we're a simmering channel"*
- Eddy Chen, 2020
“The xylophone is easy to play”
**shows a marimba**
Easy to play but hard to recognize it seems...
@Emiliano Nahuel Krembs 😂
3:53 That’s a merimba
4:19 THAT’S STILL A MERIMBA
Exactly, I thought I was the only one who noticed that
Is the marimba not a xylophone?
"Of course it's hard to be good with English, but learning the alphabet will take no time at all."
wonder why im not that good, i have such a flaw
Even the alphabet would be hard. I tried to learn russian, i barely memorized their alphabet LOL
youtube is easy, you just talk
@@signup4146 k, do it
Same logic of this video
I play clarinet and even I can tell that percussion isn't easy. Percussion is the group that my band director has to work with the most because of all the different rhythms and timing they have to learn and perfect for each piece.
Those are true words right there. The only reason i say that our percussionists suck is because they dont put in the effort half the time in my school
i also play clarient and my band director is also very focused in the percussion line because its hard to master
Also I will say as a percussionist, the most vital thing is timing. We have to be the best with timing. If not, you are not playing. I was in marching band as a bass drum, and being on time and subdivisions, polyrhythms, were so difficult. Dont even get me STARTED on xylophone with the 4 mallets...
I'm not a musician, only do digital music for my college projects. but I have had the pleasure of playing real drums before and i gotta say, my admiration for drummers grew tenfold after.
Holy crap, it was hard.
The precussion gang seems to be really underated and I don't really understand why.
Percussionists who don’t get rhythms exasperate me aghhhhh
Any instrument is "easy" to play if your just going to play the four chords of pop.
What if you’re a flautist...
**Sad flute noises**
Easy u clone yourself
@@battlekon215 Of course, I’m sure the chap from NASA who put electrodes in Vov Dylan’s violin will help me
Haha yes. I can play a little hard pop song but I can't even play the easiest classical piece like Mozart's first variation of Twinkle Little Star 🤣
Drummer: haha funny joke
DumbMojo: Four strings makes an instrument easier
Also DumbMojo: The violin is the hardest instrument to play
Me: :confushon:
Four strings is easier.
Bass gang be like: wut?
I'm cOnfuSioN
Oh you’re right!
Oh same
Me : i Am CoNfUsIoN
"Of course, it's difficult to play well" is just DumbMojo's Ling Ling insurance
i would like your comment but it has 420 likes
They're gonna have a high premium
@@liesalllies
They applied for Ling Ling Insurance and got rejected.
Now, they use Guppy
15 minutes can save 15% or more on Roast Insurance.
Legit; watching you guys react to this made me feel better about me playing my Native American drum, I felt inferior to all other non-native instruments 😅. I always thought "I'm just hitting my one drum with my one stick, it's not very impressive looking for non-natives"🥲. But watching you guys say how those instruments aren't as easy as they look even with less drums or strings and whatnot...it made me feel better. I feel validated in my pride of native American drumming. Also, using our rattles! I have played the Native American drum and rattles. It IS more difficult than you'd think. Even more so for us actually. In my tribe, we aren't allowed to hit the center of the drum hide because it's seen as disrespectful. Our ancestors/grandma are in the center, so you'd be hitting them basically.
Dude you're really epic!
@@allinory 😅Thanks dude! 😁
As a percussionist, anything that shakes or rattles is a lot harder than it looks (ex. tambourine, maracas, etc.), it takes an incredible amount of control so please be proud of what you play!
As also a Native American I agree drumming can be hard because I’ve participated in one of my cousins drum groups and it can be difficult
Wow, that's awsome! What is your instrument's specific name? I'd like to look it up, the whole tradition and symbolism behind it is really interesting!
"A flute has no strings, therefore must be extremely easy to learn"
-DumbMojo
It is it, getting those high notes is difficult
@@ah_pim Idk if you're saying that it is extremely easy to learn, or you mistyped, but yeah. high notes are cancer.
as a flautist i have so much to say.... high notes, vibrato, reading FREAKING LEDGER LINES, embrochure shifts
It is difficult is what I am trying to say lol now I am turning off auto correct
It’s actually not that easy because if you want those high and I MEAN high notes then you have to blow hard across, but at the same time you can’t blow that hard or then it’s going to squeak and you have to stay steady and breathe right or then your going to have a head ache 😣 but yea dumb mojo is what their name is 🙄😬😂😂
"Ah yea the xylophone is pretty easy" _shows footage of a MARIMBA, being played with 4 MALLETS_ It even said marimba in the f***ing title card!! ._.
"Ah yes the tambourine is very easy" _shows footage of a beatring_ Beatring doesn't have a head! Tambourine does!
"Ah yes cymbals is easy" _shows footage of clash cymbals, one of the HARDEST percussion techniques to pick up for beginners_ ..
My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined.
No one understands how insanely difficult producing consistent, good crashes on crash cymbals is. It's super fucking hard and you usually only get 1 crash in a movement. It's probably the most underrated skill even by some percussionists.
Not only that, but they dont seem to understand that being a percussionist means you have to be able to play all of them.
@@JohnDoe-pj2vw Holy crap,how many percussion instruments are there?
Underrated comment right here. I have played percussion for twelve years. As soon as I saw the title of this vid I said, “well time to cry”.
Lamentable!
"the ukelele only has four strings so it's easier"
Watchmojo low key dissing violins AND bass.
Davie504 wants to know WMs Location!
Davie and TwoSet should just straight up set their differences aside and join forces to diss the sh*t out of WM in the name of all the musicians and instruments' honor insulted by WM.
DumbMojo is both NOT EPIC and LAMENTABLE
And the cello and viola my sister was like MMM CELLOS DESERVE BETTER THAN THIS
Ok a violin player is triggered here.
And cellos.... we ignore violas
Percussionist here who plays varsity marimba for high school Frontline:
When I was first learning, there is so much that goes into the sticking and mallet technique. You have to have your hands gripping the stick a certain way, hit the center of the bar (even with four mallets and with you’re perception of the center being warped with the angle) thinking about up stroking, not pushing the mallet into the instrument, prepping the hands over the next note, moving in the direction you’re playing, pulsing on the pulse marks to match the music, and so much more all while looking up at the other frontline players to match what they’re doing as well. Mallet instruments take so much time and work to master. During the summer, only the drum line and frontline sections have to take 3 hour practices each week, and by the end of it, you’re hands are blistering and you’re arms are sore. Don’t ever downplay percussion, frontline, or drum line, instruments for being seemingly easy to master. They’re not.
My sections practice 6 hours a week
I just joined front for indoor percussion season. We had two three hour practices and one six hour practice this week. My hands hurt so bad. Still really fun tho. We’re going to nationals later this year.
I'm in drumline (snare player), I got put on marimba for one of our concert pieces and my part was easy but man marimba is extremely difficult I have mad respect for anyone that can have that accuracy and precision.
This is like a high-school presentation made by a non-musician the night before it was due.
High school eleventh hour presentations are better..
Dumbmojo: “smaller instruments are easier”
Piccolo players: *facepalm*
Also, as a mellet percussion player myself, I would call myself average at xylophone and glockenspiel. I still take many hours to practice on single piece of music. Dumbmojo does not do their research!
idk thats not what they said but ok
Piccolo was pretty hard for me to pick up, I play flute so I was required to learn it eventually
@@tuxdraws8004 Dude playing high notes on the piccolo is so hard for me (the E flat, F above the ledger line and notes after) (;-;) For some reason my embouchure gets tight that I can't hit a clear note. It's so difficult since I'm still a beginner at the piccolo.
Me, a piccolo player:
**Plays a screeching noise till they die**
“There’s not much to the xylophone”
*proceeds to show image of a five octave marimba*
also rose wood lmao
The comment was correct, the accompanying footage wasn't. It''s all about the baseline. "Scaling" is another thing all together. Going from 2 to 4 is not twice as difficult with that instrument.
Dude I literally can't with Mojo
I just appreciate the fact that even Brett and Eddy know how hard it is to play a marimba.
By this logic, running should be the easiest sport actually. All you do is get up and run.
Yeah, running is just fast walking.
"Bruh, why aren't you running right now? You're wasting your time walking when you could be training to run. It's the eASiEsT sport, Of cOUrSE."
if you can walk slowly you can walk quickly
considering the way the reduce things every sport is the easiest sport because you just [do the win thing]
- kick some ball in some net
- throw some ball in some net
- drive a car in a circle
- hit a ball with a stick
- punch some guy in the face
- etc
Leter du*bmojo will make top 10 easiest sport because of your comment ,lol
I think this is right... run is easy, hitting a ball like in baseball is difficult
Friendly reminder that "the percussionist" is not a drummer, they usually play "anything that needs to be hit with something"
Well in that case a piano is a percussion instrument because you hit keys with your hands.
@@passingthetime_ piano actually is percussion, but not because you hit the keys with your hands. It’s because of the hammers hitting the strings.
@@nxyuu no, it isn’t. Because the strings are actually making the noise, it makes a piano a string instrument.
Edit: I just looked it up, and it’s considered both.
@@passingthetime_ a stringed percussion instrument
I'm a percussionists who's played in an Orchestra for many years. I've played all of the above percussion instruments in concerts and none of them are in any way easy. Frankly getting a basic beat going (which seemingly is what they're basing their video on) is far easier on drum kit than say bongos, or with Piano than Xylophone
when I was in band, we didn't have enough percussionists so the teacher had some flutes and clarinets play the instruments. This one kid was unlucky enough to play the triangle, and every sectional, the teacher spent half of it trying to get her to hold the triangle right, play the right rhythm, play the right tone, etc. Triangle isn't easy. You have to hit it at a precise angle to get the sound you want. 45 degrees is the sweet spot, but it depends on the piece you're playing and the conductor's preference. not to mention how stressful it was. the triangle's sound cuts through the sound of the band, so if you fuck up, the whole band stops and stares at you. there are also many sticks to hit the triangle with, and you have to use the right one to play the note depending on the dynamic. There are lighter sticks for piano, and heavier ones for forte. You also have to control the pitch, tone, and the amount of ringing, and know when the muffle it and when to let it ring.
THANK YOU
Of all the players in our wind band at school, the percussionists were the best musicians. And this was a good-quality band with Grade 8 players.
I just know it's hard cause a lot of peices for it (that I've heard) have so many rests and that must be abbouong to count
I knew it wasn't easy but holy crap that's a lot more to do than I thought.
I actually thought it was easy. That sounds tough though, thank you!
I think the mistake people often do is just because someone can transfer their skills and get an ok sound out of an instrument quickly it means it's easy. If you're a good percussionist then then you've already laid a lot of the ground work for tonnes of other percussion instruments.
It's like with language, English is easier to learn if you're a native speaker of another germanic language (Swedish, Dutch, etc.) than if your native language is Korean. Because the languages are related and you already have a lot of the foundation ready.
*DumbMojo:* * Says the ukulele is easy to play *
*Me, a ukulelist:* * expects TwoSet to agree with them *
*TwoSet:* * defends ukulele honor *
*Me:* THIS IS WHAT I LIVE FOR!!!
ukelele is literally easier guitar
I mean I'm a ukulele player and I agree with them lol
EXACTLY!!! I FEEL SO LOVED
Do you know Feng E?
Yeah... The ukulele is easy to play
😂😂
BRO IM INSTANTLY FRIENDS WITH YOU IF YOU PLAY UKULELE
"Of course it's easy to play any instrument badly" - DumbMojo in a nutshell
I played the “Screeching Drunk Tomcats version of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” very well on the violin after only a month or so of my grandfather, who doesn’t even play the violin that well, exasperatedly trying to teach me the violin. I never touched a violin after that.
I'm a percussionist. My instructor in high school made me learn every different way to play the tambourine. Then I had to learn a tambourine solo. That was the most difficult experience I've had.
Thumb roll gang
@@IETass Most underrated comment of 2020. If the head isn't waxed properly, or your thumbs too dry or too damp, you're screwed. You don't know unless you know.
*cue memories of hour long lessons of literally just thumb rolls*
Floor gang anthem
I.E. Tass THUMB ROLL GANG
I HAD TO DO A TAMBOURINE SOLO TOO. Honestly went into it thinking it wouldn’t be hard and probably unimportant, but during practice, my conductor was telling me how he wrote the tambourine solo to stand out from everything else and that it was one of the most important instruments in the piece and I was stumped 😂
I once played cymbals in orchestra (i was the pianist, but one piece had no piano so i was asked to do cymbals) and keeping track of 100 measures of rest was no joke. Percussionists, who have to play many different instruments, are AMAZING.
FR keeping track of rests and then miscounting 1 is the worst-
I am a percussionist and this is insulting at a level that goes beyond personnal
Same! At this point I’m furious!!
I'm not even a percussionist (I'm a flautist) and I'm offended
Same. I am a drummer and though I don't know much but that was unnecessary. She didn't even know what she was saying or the point she was trying to get across. She was repeating herself over and over again without giving an explanation
Same. Respect the percussionists! No wait, RESPECT ALL MUSICIANS!
That’s so true. I may be in my 1st year but dam it ain’t easy idk how my hands and feet are still alive considering how lazy I am
The real top ten easiest instruments:
10. All
9. instruments
8. get
7. really
6. difficult
5. at
4. the
3. highest
2. level
1. Kazoo
@っっ actually it isn't, you can buy original kazoos that are instruments
Omg this comment is gold😂
I was really confused as to why kazoo wasn't number 1 or 2 in the original list since drum like instruments depend a lot on rhythm which needs talent....
Kazoo though... Yah...
@っっ YOU ARE INSULTIBG MY WAY OF LIFE KAZOO IS LIFE
Kazoos are actually really easy. It’s probably the easiest instrument to play no matter what lol. Feel free to prove me wrong :)
Ah yes *A man of Classical Culture*
"Percussion is Easy"
Me, a Tabla player- Yeah, we'll see about that
Us taiko players will back you up.
Mokko Us Daff players will back you up as well
Any percussionist will back you up, it’s hard
Takadimi bro 🔥🔥🔥
TI DAK DA TA DA TI DI DA DAK
Anyone who plays recorder well knows it's extremely difficult. Between producing a pleasant tone, playing in the third register, constantly adjusting pitch, creating vibrato with finger shading, applying the many tonguing techniques, playing in both bass and treble clef, learning to transpose fingerings across F, C, and D instruments, and using the many extended recorder techniques, there's at least as much to deal with on recorder as on more modern instruments.
Facts. It is not easy, I would go into more detail but I'm tired so I won't
On the low notes you have to barely breathe at all and half holing consistently is a pain. There's a bit more to learn because the recorder was never revamped with keys like other modernized instruments like the clarinet.
Recorder player here. Low intermediate level. No way are the advanced, proficient, or pro levels attainable. No way!
Ukulele is easy to learn. Took me about 3 hours. And no, it's not because I've been playing guitar for 17 years. I'm just a prodigy.
i cant tell if you’re being sarcastic or not lol
@@luno1io129 I am lol
@@luno1io129 I mean, it did only take me a couple hours, but it's because I've been playing guitar. Not because I'm a prodigy lol
haha thanks for clarifying
@•°ms potter°• nope. I play ukulele. Just making a joke lol
As a percussionist, i would LOVE to have a “special talk” with whoever wrote that script
Technically the ideas and the list items are usually submitted by viewers, then voted upon to determine their placement in the list. WM writes the script but their viewer base is largely responsible for their content.
That's a really simplified way to put it, but it doesn't excuse their ignorance in many subjects.
When you do, please record it because I’m going to want to watch as you put her in her place because she is obviously clueless!
(Holds gun) I just want to talk to him
As a recorder player... same. But I think as a percussionist you are even more triggered...
Yes. I would like to talk to them too, I am a percussionist too
WatchMojo logic:
Instrument A is top easiest instrument because while difficult to master, it is easy to pick up
Instrument B is top hardest instrument because while easy to pick up, it is difficult to master
p r o p a g a n d a :b
I play the recorder and the clarinet (and a bit of sax). If anything, the recorder is the hardest at a higher level because of tuning, alternate fingerings, extended techniques that are essential at a grade 7 level, which isn't the same with the clarinet. Even though it was easier to get a sound out of the recorder, making it sound good was so much harder than the clarinet or sax
As a flutist, clarinetist, saxophonist, and oboist (who has played recorder to a decently high level before), yeah
Out of all of them, Oboe is definitely the hardest, both to start and to sound good at, followed by recorder. You have to find a way for the recorder to actually sound soothing and not like a kid's toy. You have to play well enough to not just sound good, but to fight the stigma.
Flute and clarinet are both harder to start but it takes less effort to sound good after intermediate level.
And sax is just easy. It should be the thing kids start on. It's substantially easier than all other symphonic band instruments, especially alto and tenor.
I could be completely wrong since I only play bowed string instruments, but I think that only matters if it can be better than sax or clarinet. A $100 instrument will be a lot more difficult to get a good sound out of than a $10,000 instrument of the same kind, and that isn't because it's harder, it's because the instrument is worse.
@@T4zchi Friend of mine took up the violin as an adult. He got a decent second hand violin rather than buying a "school version", so he actually sounded ok after just a few months. And after two years he had a really nice rendition of "Happy birthday". We got to try it and it was not that hard to create _one_ pure note, because it is a good instrument. The cheaper "school violins" kid get to learn on requires a master to sound even decent. (I believe, these guys have a video on the subject, if not, feel free to roast me.)
@@57thorns Yeah that's kind of what I was saying
Let's be honest here, all instruments are difficult to play if you want to play one professionally. Percussion, difficult. Woodwinds, difficult. Brass, difficult. Strings, difficult.
Basically, almost every instrument requires a different set of skills.
Yeah, but I think this video is just trying to get ppl with no music background to start an instrument with, and some are easier to start with in terms of understanding basics or producing a good sound..
A very particular set of skills, skills you acquire over a very long career, skills that make you a nightmare for people like DumbMojo.
@@ondrrejk kazoo can still sound sick tho
@@ondrrejkth-cam.com/play/PLlTTNxyBD5Np43flqKvYlhPXBwkPB2ogn.html *proof*
Requires different technique and skills
Okay, sure. I'm a classical orchestral percussionist who spent three years as the head of a world percussion ensemble. Let's get into it.
Xylophone - reading music and learning key placement is a big hurdle for beginners. Any tonal instrument will have this. For xylophone players, choosing the mallet you use is important because it's the only way you have to change the timbre. If you've ever wanted to spend hours researching plastics, resins, rubber thicknesses, yarns, and various types of wood, this is the instrument for you. Xylophones also have fairly narrow bars for each note while also being very horizontally wide. However, many musicians will perform on a venue-provided instrument rather than traveling with one, and there is no standardized size. You need to re-learn the distance between notes on the fly every time you play on a different xylophone, which can make it hard to build muscle memory.
Maracas - rhythmic accuracy on the maracas is extremely difficult because the weight of the beads inside will determine the time between when you move the maraca and when you hear its sound. Sharp, distinct sounds require precise wrist flicks, which take a lot of practice to learn to control the dynamics of. One of the hardest things to do on maracas is to create odd-numbered rhythm patterns, like two sixteenth notes connected to an eighth note. This is because the sound happens when the beads hit the edge of the maraca, so you need to get the beads high enough inside the maraca that they can come back down without making them go so high as to hit the back and ruin the rhythm, all while keeping it in time.
Cymbals - they're showing and talking about two different types of cymbal here. A pair of hand-held crash cymbals are hard to play properly because if you just clap them together like one of the monkey toys, you will profoundly crunch the sound. You need to hit them together and then separate them apart in one continuous movement so the sound can resonate, but if they rub together there will be a loud and unpleasant scraping sound. Quickly repeating hits at low dynamics without crunching the sound is one of the hardest things you can do on the instrument. The suspended cymbal requires an understanding of the mallet you use, and if your piece moves between distinct hits and smooth rolls, you will need to rapidly change mallets during the performance. Dynamics control on suspended cymbal is very challenging for beginners, as the choice of mallets and the size of the cymbal will affect how long it takes to reach different dynamic levels over the course of a roll, and good players will look at the dynamics a roll is supposed to begin at and understand their cymbal well enough to judge how much earlier than written to come in to create the composer's written effect.
Bongos - bongos have three main striking timbres, each with their own technique, and if you cannot play them all then you are not playing bongos. Bass is in the middle of the drum and can use the palm of the hand or the fingers depending on preference, and the challenge is to avoid a flat or deadened sound, which can happen if your hand stays on the drum for too long or if you hit too close to the dead center. Tone is on the edge, and is what people typically think of as playing bongos. Slaps are a higher-pitched sound that is often louder, played close to the edge. Getting a good slap sound requires a knowledge of the speed required as well as how to properly cup the fingers, and it is the hardest sound to produce on the instrument. It isn't uncommon for beginner bongo players to have swollen or dislocated finger joints or to experience fractured or broken fingers as they learn this technique, and many beginner bongos players will bind their fingers with medical tape to avoid injury as they learn.
Tambourine - tambourines combine the hardest part of the bongos with the hardest part of maracas. Tambourines have bass, tone, and slap techniques, and you can also shake them to get just the sound of the shakers without the drum tone. Slaps continue to be difficult, as is judging the timing of your shaking to produce an even, consistent, on-tempo rhythm. Depending on the region of music you're playing, tambourines also add finger and hand rolls. Finger rolls are also present in Turkish drumming and are easy to understand the concept of but difficult to keep steady and consistent because some fingers of the hand tend to be stronger than others. Hand rolls are a full-hand movement that comes from the wrist, and have similar issues with dynamic consistency and rhythmic evenness in addition to requiring a lot of stamina. Tambourines are also deceptively heavy, so developing the stamina just to hold it and keep it in motion for an entire performance can be challenging for newer players.
Triangle - any time you have a metal instrument being played with a metal mallet, you are moments away from a timbre disaster. The hardest part of a triangle is to avoid excessively abrasive sounds to keep it feeling light instead of clang-ey. Hitting a triangle off-center will tend to make it rotate on its string making it hard to play repeated notes in tempo, so there's a surprising amount of physical accuracy required. In more advanced repertoire, you can play a triangle with one hand and mute it with the other to create more rhythmic complexity, which is hard to get the hang of initially.
Preach
Hey thanks a lot man you're speaking for all of us. I was going to write out myself what makes me crazy about the percussion part but my English is just too bad!
There is just to much wrong in that mojo video especially the cymbal and triangle part drives me the most. I played Schostakowitsch 10 cymbals & TamTam and here in germany we don't have quality percussive stuff in highschool. So I learned the part at home without feeling for the instruments that I had to play, coming to meet the orchestra for one week of intensive rehearsing an just knowing when to play. After screwing up im the crash rehearsal, luckily there was a professional percussionist showing me the important things on my instruments and I can tell ist f**ing hard
They are comparing instruments though, not roles in an orchestra. Also, yes, any instrument can be hard, no-one ever disputed that, but is it hardER than other instruments? if you had to rank the difficulty of instruments, by a metric such as, how long would it take to sound acceptable to the untrained ear when playing standard repertoire, all the ones there, are probably less hard than most other popular instruments, which makes them easier. You can, for example, sound acceptable to the untrained ear in triangle instantly (you need to be able to count but even if you can't people might not notice as long as you play on the beat) wheras with violin or sax it would take much longer
Whao, learned so much from reading this! 🤯
wow I didnt know there wasnt a standardized size for marimbas and xylophones, I dont play them very much tho Im more of the drumset and hand percussion. Great information anyways, thanks.
What they fail to understand is that nobody plays "cymbals" or "triangle". You play percussion, which requires the player to quickly be able to switch and play instruments like marimba, timpani, drums, and all sorts of small percussion like triangle and tambourine. There is a lot to it and becoming an expert in all of them is very difficult and takes time.
Melodic percussion (xylophone,marimba etc) can be easy to pick up, yes hitting a note with a mallet isn't hard, but when you have to acurately play fast pieces or use 4 mallets it's extremely difficult. Every mistake is VERY noticable as you can't "hide" your mistakes in the masses like other instruments can do. You're on your own and if you miss, you bet that the conductor is going to give you dirty looks.
Small percussion might not be THAT hard technically, but for example there are some really challenging tambourine pieces, which require hard techniques that do require actual training and practice. No it's not as hard as string instruments technically, but often they are relying on you for tempo (especially in youth orchestra's) If you mess up and start going slightly off beat, you'll confuse everyone and mess up the entire piece.
Percussion also includes timpani. Quite difficult to master, especially if you have a challenging piece which requires you to tune timpani's mid piece. Sometimes you have less than a second to tune multiple timpani's. It forces you to actually plan before you play so you can set up everything beforehand.
Also percussionists always have to set-up up ALL their instruments way in advance, pack them up at the end, carry them to a van, load them into the van, bring them back to a storage location. We're always at the venue at least an hour before everyone else and also leave way later than everyone else. It's a lot of work, especially if you play in an unconventional location (like an outside location) where you can't use wheels, so you have to carry those heavy drums and ruin your back.
As a percussionist myself, I feel that on such a deep level! Thank you very much for showing the world what it means to be a percussionist🙏
theyre still individual instruments which is the point of the video
Hey, reminds me when I was playing Mega Man X. In this game, you collect special weapons that have different effects from defeating bosses. Each weapon has a function that it is easy to use on it's own, but you often have to switch between them. So I can feel for you by playing this game.
Eastern Europeans would agree that there are some really challenging tambourine pieces.
THANK YOU!
As a percussionist I’m actually going insane from this list. I’m fairly new to percussion (~2 years) and having played marimba (and xylophone for that matter) triangle, bongos, tambourine, shakers and cymbals, they are all shockingly technique based. They look super simple but often require super precise hand movements. For example, to get the proper sound from a shaker you need to ensure your doing the proper motion just rolling the beads inside isn’t playing it. Tambourine and triangle are more simple to do just a few small hits but they definitely get difficult when you have to do a bunch of repeated beats and keep in time. Also doing rolls for both of those are pretty hard, with triangle it can sound really messy if not done properly and tambourine there is a specific technique where you tightly drag your thumb around the edge to create a roll, it is hard to do (I still haven’t learned how yet 😢) Lastly, (I didn’t mean for this to be an essay whoops) cymbals are in the same area as triangle and shaker in the sense that getting a noise out is easier but it can sound reeeaaaallly messy if you don’t get the proper seal, motion, speed, mute when they crash.
That I you for those that have read my percussion rankings and thanks two set for appreciating the percussionists ❤
I'm a 15-year recorder player and I admit that the recorder is easier for starters because the blowing techniques is simpler than other woodwinds such as the flute, clarinet, oboe, etc, but if your going up to the Vivaldi concertos, sonatas, or Romantic music levels, it's real freaking difficult
Exactly! I’ve been playing the recorder for 8 years, and I’m doing it as one as one of my three instruments for my music A- level in two years time (I’m 13) and I hate that when I tell people I play the recorder, they immediately think I’m not a good musician. It’s about repertoire!
The blowing technique is easier but isn't it kind of harder in its own way? Like it's easy to make a sound, so you end up over blowing and squeaking and you need to have good control. I'm a flute player not a recorder one though, but that was my experience when I tried to play the recorder one time haha.
Ayy exactly!! Have been playing the recorder for 6 years now and it is not easy... I tried oboe once and it was not any harder... It is just the stigma of the recorder being a "School instrument" :/
@@aceatlasska4343 Exactly! That’s why many recorder starters ended up overblowing every note. It’s easy to make a sound, but when it comes to controlling, dynamics or phrasing, it’s as hard as other instruments.
Same! When you're 8 it is baby easy, but when you start taking it seriously it gets crazy difficult. Blowing at exactly the right speed and force. Recorder Gang, unite!
"And you well... Shake them."
And I just push keys on my piano.
And I put my fingers on the holes of my tin whistle or press buttons on a flute.
And I just move my slide on my trombone.
And I just press strings and strum them on my guitar
And I just press buttons on the french horn
And I just press keys on my clarinet
Showing a marimba while talking about the xylophone is basically like calling a cello a violin
As someone who has played recorder in symphonic band, it is not easy. the fingerings are similar to a saxophone, but it mostly requires changing your air flow like you would when playing trunpet to change octaves, as opposed to a sax having an octave key.
plus not to mention, anyone can make sound out of a recorder but it takes practice to actually achieve a GOOD sound like most wind instruments
well said
As a percussionist in an orchestra, you need to know how to play EVERY PERCUSSION INSTRUMENT YOU SEE
IT’S NOT THAT EASY OKAY?
LING LING GRANGER oh yeah you’re right haha, sorry I didn’t specify😅
I mean like every percussion instrument the orchestra has😂
WE know Jennifer!!!!!!
but...watchmojo never said that its easy to be percussionist/knowing how to play SEVERAl of percussion instruments, they just said that individually, certain percussion instruments are just easier to pick up and learn reasonably well, than other instruments. But obviously that knowing a ton of them all together is really hard
Calm down and hunt down my reply to other cry baby percussionists.
Yea like every instrument in the percussion family used in orchestra
Classical Singer: What about the voice? Is that easy or hard?
DumbMojo: The voice is an instrument?
YES! Though as a vocalist, I will say it is simultaneously the easiest and the hardest as most instruments were based on the voice. Everyone can sing, but there are very very very few operatic singers in comparison.
Precisely. Anybody has the ability to sing. Only a select few know how to master it.
Mojo: "anyone can sing! It's an easy instrument. But the mechanics are hard"
Cocobarbarian true it does sound that way I am just of a mind that all singing is beautiful. It is an expression of self, but operatic singing and other such professional singing is beautiful on another level
Don't give them ideas.. O.O
they literally showed a clip of the MARIMBA when talking about the xylophone, that itself is enough to show that they have no idea what they're talking about.
Both marimba and xylophone are actually a lot harder to learn and get used to as well. Even if you have piano/keyboard experience and know which notes to hit, you still have to practice holding and using the mallets, and getting used to four-mallet holds can be pretty painful and uncomfortable for your hands when you're a beginner.
"they have no idea what they're talking about."
Sums up literally every watchmojo video ever.
the rolling skills too. it needs to be smooth
And plus when you look at the notes, the conductor, and the keys it complicates things quite a bit.
I am working to controle the 4 mallets grib for the marimba
Ikr. I remember being told to play the marimba at a school concert and I was like wtf because I'm a pianist. I told the teacher that, but she still said that it's similar, even though the song we're playing is pentatonic and I have zero clue nor experience of playing the instrument. Truly sacrilegious.
they roast the xylophone (which stands out in any setting, orchestra, marching, anything) and proceeds to show a 5 octave marimba from what i assume is a vic firth video. i hate it when people cant tell the difference.
"Piano is also easy to play, just sit in a stool and hit those piano keys": DumbMoJo
Theres way more to learning piano than just "yeah press keys"
You have to learn everything.
@@neoagent3 I so agree
@@neoagent3 he is just saying it ironically, refering to the ukelele
That just... I’m triggered by this comment
@@PancakeTheKat sAME ;-;
Lady: "All these percussion instruments are so easy"
Me, a percussion captain trying to teach my freshmen and watching them fail for an entire two years before they somehow get an inkling of what they're supposed to be doing: "You betcha."
After two years, they wouldn't freshman, now would they? (Just a joke)
Exactly. I always see freshman join Drumline bc there "gONNa pLaY AN EasY InSTRuMeNt" then leave bc they can't play a sixteenth note on a bass one
@Aidan Bramwell didn't we all?
Really, the hardest part of auxiliary percussion when they ask you to switch from cymbals to bongos in a quarter note.
Literally took me months to learn proper 4 mallet techniques
Also, I ABSOLUTELY HATE WHEN PEOPLE REFER TO EVERY SINGLE KEYBOARD AS A XYLOPHONE
And I feel targeted watching this video
sorry for my ranting lol
As a percussion section leader, same
"tambourine is easy" go watch a video of a person playing tambourine in a samba or pagode song and then come back, I'll wait
Thumb roll. If they don't know that standard technique, they don't know what they are talking about.
Agreed.
@@Denverdarbuka Yes. I just got one recently and I couldn't figure out for the life of me how to do it.
@@Tyranitar66501 make sure there's a bit of wax or roughness to the skin, makes it much easier
@@Denverdarbuka Ok I'll try. I just don't want my hands blistered. And when I do standard rolls (not thumb) my arm gets tired. Am I doing this right?
They shows NEIL PEART, the GOD of drumming, for their “bongos” clip. I’m at a loss. He was well known for bringing and playing an entire percussion section to live performances, he was a fucking beast. I honestly would love to watch your guys’ reaction to Rush’s live performance of Xanadu from Exit… Stage Left, it’s a work of art, and all three band members are virtuosos in the rock community.
4:59
"just blow, and voilà, you're playing music."
"just grab a bow and a violin, pull the bow and voilà, you're playing music."
"And violà, you're playing the accompaniment."
Yup, just grab some music in alto clef & a "big violin" and... VOILA!!! You're playing VIOLA!!!
Screeeeeee!!!
Just sit down at a piano, press some keys, and violà, you’re making music!
4:34 I'm really triggered with this statement. I mean, I could be wrong but the basic notes for almost all instruments are just the same, yes. But to play a piece or a music, it needs time and practice. Seriously, mojo is a piece of crap that they just find stupid content on google and make a video. The stupider, the better.
"Precushion is easy"
Me a tabla player: the WHAT
its percussion mate.
Yeah, I know a guy who plays Tabla for like 15 years and still he is perfecting it. And he is just 20. A tabla prodigy.
Tabla is probably one of the most difficult percussions ever.
The thing I hate is the way these days no mainstream indian song uses tabla. And I personally think indian music is incomplete without it.
Gone are the days of 50's-60's when all of the mainstream compositions used tabla. It's sad.
@@rudranroy2109 I agree
@@rudranroy2109 That's because mainstream indian songs these days are just like the four-chord pop songs :D
As a music teacher of 15 years and a percussionist for 26, this was really hard to watch.
Xylophones have really small ideal strike zones and since the bars are different lengths and widths between Xylophones, you can't completely get it into muscle memory in addition, the parts are usually fast. You cannot hide even the slightest mistake as it is a very pronounced sound.
Marimba is that to the 4th power. While playing 4 mallet, you usually have 3 different hardnesses of mallets as an added layer of difficulty.
Maracas are easier than bongos by far. Getting those pieces inside to strike in time is hard as you have to move ahead of the strike.
Bongos have so many tones and touches needed in addition to fingers of steel.
Cymbals are a physical challenge, especially if you need to control crash length and dynamic. If you accidentally hit them straight on, they can suction cup each other, if the strap gets loose, you're gonna have a bad day.
Triangle, you don't hit it going down but rather as you're pulling up. They have 2 sounds, good and clear or rough and metallic, rolling is its own beast.
Tambourine, look up thumb rolls, arabic styles, etc.... its hard.
In percussion, usually its a one man show and everyone has a unique part, no one to support you.
Percussion instruments on this list are "easy" as in anyone can pick them up and make a sound, but they are SO idiotic because no instrument is easy to to play well. (Other than the kazoo lol)
THANK YOU. just today in orchestra we got to see one of the most famous percussionists in Latvia perform with our orchestra as a solo artist (with orchestra ofc) and the TECHNIQUE THERE OHMYGOD. when I tell you I GAGGED when she did the SMOOTHEST thumb roll on tambourine I GAGGED like-....that was so beautiful. (also this was the piece "'Concerto for Percussion and Chamber Orchestra, Op. 109''
The Marimba is easy to play though. I learned how to play several songs on it, while using all 4 mallets when I was only 8 years old, with only 10-20 total hours of practice.
@@acozybunny i call bs.
@@Denverdarbuka I do as well
triangle being number one is not suprising at all. people think its super easy because "oh you hit metal thing on triangular metal thing" even though something as little as putting a little velocity into each hit making it create a ding sound everyone thinks of makes it difficult already, but making sure you do the rythms right while watching the conductor and reading your music takes it to a whole nother level
You can “just shake them” IF you can move your hands to all the Latin dance rhythms...with syncopation...and polyrhythms...and accounting for the delay of the rattling material to be flung from one side to the other...which varies A LOT...but yeah, you can just shake them...
Yea. People will totally notice if youre off the tempo.
It's like saying:
Piano: You can just hit the keys.
Guitar: You can just strum them.
Flute: You can just blow into them.
Drum: You can just hit them.
Right? I already struggle with my kids shaker eggs...
IKR, I tried playing maracas once, I was like, oh YEAH imma pick them up and shake them and it will sound so cool. 1 out of 3 shakes made a real noise, the rest barely even made a sound.
@@stefanm.734 lmao, can't play La Campanella, just... hit the right notes, just do it. Why are you so bad.
As a percussionist over 4 years in learning, here is my 2 cents:
Marimba/Xylophone/Vibraphone: This is where I specialize. Been playing them for half my career. Shit is extremely difficult. Ask literally anyone for an explanation why.
Triangle: The first thing you need to learn before playing is how to hold it, which is very specific. Triangle beater control is something I still cannot do well, and rolling is an entirely different monster.
Tambourine: A third of playing this instrument is to learn to be still, another third of it is chops, a quarter of it is learning all of the hand techniques for striking it, and the other 9ish% is learning the hand technique for holding. This takes incredible hours of dedication to get down.
Maracas: I cannot say I have played maracas in a musical setting before, but I imagine it takes just as much, if not more control as a tambourine.
Hand drums: I don't even have to speak on this so much as a few sentences. I don't play bongos but I have played djembe. Getting the desired sound out of the drum (like all things) takes intense precision. Not to mention how much it physically hurts you to play.
Cymbals: As someone who has marched cymbals for parades I can say they are deceivingly heavy and zap your energy quickly. As someone who has played cymbals in a concert setting I can say they are deceivingly heavy and zap your energy quickly. There are a million different techniques and sounds you can get out of a pair of crash cymbals (assuming this video was ONLY talking about crash cymbals, and not ride cymbals, china cymbals, suspended cymbals, splash cymbals or bells).
This was a pathetic jab at an incredibly talented craft. Musician to musician I hope we can agree that this is a whole lotta bullsh
As a percussionist that has been playing 5 years mostly with marimba/xylophone/vibraphone, and crash cymbals in parades, I agree with this fully.
@@Ellsblue34 brotha from anotha directa
Agreed
The one thing I can say about percussion (as someone who's done it a small amount but is mainly a flutist) is that percussion is a lot easier to get a relatively good sound on to start. It doesn't require tuning (in most cases) and it doesn't require breath control, *but* it does require a lot more than other instruments in other areas. It's like they said, each instrument is a lot different, and while there's a lot more one can do as a beginner, those skills are incredibly difficult to progress afterwards. And, musician to musician, props to you for being able to do as much as you do because this shit is difficult, and it's really awesome that people do care about it. Flutist to percussionist, specifically, thank you to all percussionists for helping to keep us all in line in a band setting.
yea the cymbals also hurt your fingers like hell and they go numb very quickly, i also specialize in the same part as you and i completely agree
For the people who say first
*WHY AREN’T YOU PRACTICING*
I finished it before watching it:)
I sat on my guitar
well guess what your making it hard to practice
with your pieces!
Hey Fred, I’m a huge fan
As a percussionist, this video offended me to a whole new level. I mean like, come on. We literally have to learn and master the techniques of every single percussion instrument. Just think of it this way. You have to learn violin, viola, cello, and double bass in a few weeks because you have to play them all in your upcoming concert. Sounds challenging, right? Also, don't you just love how DumbMojo shows literal movie clips of some of the instruments as valid evidence? All I can say is, many thanks to TwoSet for supporting us percussion players.
Even their claim of “simply learning the feel and the notes of the instrument will take no time at all” is garbage. I started percussion about a month ago for my high school’s indoor percussion program (glockenspiel). I’ve had about 45-50 hours of rehearsal and no. I can rarely hit all the notes correctly, I’m only just able to look up from my board to make sure I’m with the other players, and my hands hurt constantly. Also I never expected the triangle to be as difficult as it is.
If percussion didn’t exist, i would’ve left band. I always use percussion to help me count, love you guys
@@nadia9526You're just bad
@@TotalMeltdown2 Actually I’ve kept with percussion and am doing quite well.
And who asked you, you don’t seem like you’re all the great at anything.
@nadia9526 I'm better than you'll ever be and that's a fact. Cope
As a unprofessional percussionist I can say that maracas and other shaker type instruments can be incredibly hard to learn. Keeping time is hard on any instrument, but on maracas, you have to keep time by feel, not visuals. This isn't even including anything but straight 8ths.
Gotta use the momentum to get the right rhythm and technique to get the right sound, not as easy as ppl make it seem😭
And when you’ve got larger piece filled maracas and you have to play staccato notes. It will never play right
Cybals or Marimba are Easy to learn?
@@Fraaatama as a cymbal player in marching band and playing marimba in 5 straight songs i disagree
lol
@@Fraaatama i'd argue that marimba is the hardest instrument in percussion, drums are definitely easier than mallets when your sight reading
"Harmonica is easy! JUst put in mouth and blow!"
You also gotta INHALE as well to get half the notes. It's literally a machine controlled by breathing, and your tongue is a part of the sound.
God, let alone bending and overblowing. Dear god it takes a while to just play single notes consistently. Also learning how to read sheet music on a diatonic instrument. Then chromatic harmonica is a whole different beast.
Yeah, I'm trying to learn harmonica and this shit is hard! Like it's easy to play happy birthday or camp town ladies poorly, but it takes work to play it well! What were they thinking?
For real, just getting a single note by itself took me weeks of playing at every stoplight. The only “easy” thing about a harmonica is that you can practice almost anywhere and carry it in your pocket. Still gotta out the time in to actually play it.
Breathing in sextuplets and 32nd notes would suck.
lol pls could they(dumb mojo) search up cy leo or just chromatic harmonica pls????!!! i mean, chromatic harmaonica can play 3 octaves!! also, ever heard of the chord harmonica or bass harmonica??? they are vey heavy and could take out someones head out!!! As a cromatic harmonica and chord harmonica player, im very offended. plus, cromatic harmonica has a whole seprate button to get sharps and flats! and dont even mention octaves and double stops.
"Percussionists, teach us why that comment was sacrilegious."
*I've got this one, Eddy...*
*...Finally, my time to shine.*
*{Inhales}*
I have been a percussionist for 7-years now, basically half my life, and I still have not "mastered" any of the instruments--despite playing them almost every single day. I dare you just to TRY the four-mallet grip and play a single chord repeatedly--I'd be MONEY you'd mess up.
Maracas aren't the hardest instrument, admittedly, but if you just "shake them," they won't sound musical at all--you need developed touch and feel to get them to sound the exact way you want them to.
Oh-ho-ho, crash cymbals... I'm gonna teach you a cymbal technique called a "sting" real quickly: When crashing the cymbals--the right way, with the right angle and approach--you're going to immediately jab those Captain America shields straight into your God-given ribcage and suck up the pain to mute the cymbals as fast as you can. Tell me how that goes.
Most people don't know how many different ways there are to strike a bongo, and most people can't even do one effectively or consistently--next time you hear one, just listen to all the different tones and resonances they are creating to create feel in the song. Tribes didn't just go "Oh, it goes 'bong', duhh"--NO, it can create many different rhythms and even be musically independent to sound good by itself.
Tambourine--okay, try a thumb roll--or just to create a consistent noise with it. Even all-state percussionists can struggle with thumb rolls because they're just not easy...
Lastly--triangle... One of my fellow percussionists played the triangle on "Also Sprach Zarathustra" (aka the 2001 Space Odyssey theme) and he legitimately was cramping so bad after rehearsals that it was hard for him to write, because rolling on a triangle corner for that long will make extended writing look like a break.
I've tried so hard to play four-mallet marimba, and that was an epic fail. I really wanted to get a percussion teacher, but then corona was like "lol nope"
Also, my friend lowkey kicked me from bongo duty because she knew I didn't have the experience to play hand percussion at that level, so I did a bunch of traps/aux. stuff. I learned so many things about different ways to hit a triangle. I also did a thumb roll once by accident and could never replicate it, rip
I still really want to get marimba lessons someday, it's such a cool and underrated instrument (I play violin/piano)
@@lifeontheledgerlines8394 Thanks, bud. I've always seen it this way--we as percussionists understand that you don't just "blow into a tube" and play advanced pieces, or "hit some keys" and play a composition on piano, so why does everyone think we just "simply hit stuff"...? Of course there's more to the story, anyone with training can make something look easy to some.
@@gabrielfrench8382 Yeah, why is it always percussion that people assume is easy? If there's one thing to know about playing instruments, or any skill really, it would be that anyone with skill can make it look easy, when in fact it's really not.
TL;DR
I’ve been a percussionist for 23 years. Agreed wholeheartedly with this. Dumb Mojo is
Clueless! Cymbals are a pain in the ass to learn really well, crash/choke well and sustain. Xylo with four mallets is a bear. Triangle- if you mess up by coming in a 1/8th of a beat late oh it is soooo audible 😂
I’m really confused as to why kazoo wasn’t number one
😂 there's nothing to say
This video is just the exact definition of SACRILEGIOUS
5th easiest instrument: *Recorder*
Lucy Horsch: *"Am I a joke to you?"*
"Lucie"
Luci
Kyrabel aWkWaRd because that’s not how you spell it either
Lol what about that kid who did krusty krab on recorder
@@potatopotato0715 he is just average I guess, but he is a funny guy
All instruments have different learning curves, to compare them is just plain stupid.
they have different learning curves. Different = comparable
They are all hard in different ways
It can be easy like if you know how to play saxophone, you will be able to play alto and bari sax as well as a recorder and song flute. Or at least that’s how it is for me
@Elijah Kim 김기성 Most instruments require some skill. At any level you should be challenging your self. If you have been playing guitar for 5 years, or piano for 5 years, you should still challenge your self the same. Just find the instrument you enjoy and practice.
As a marimba/xylophone player (and generally a percussionist), I am DEEPLY offended by the ranking video. I can’t even make myself try and see pas that and see why it is easy for those people 🙄
Marimba/xylophones are complex instruments, and they require the right sticks and right pressure to produce a good, resonating sound that can set the metal tubes under them echoing the note. Learning to read the music and play at the same time is quite hard, actually.
The sticking has to hit exactly on the note, (and of course, sight reading can be improved with practice) and in more advanced levels, the multiple sticks used to produce chords are even harder to coordinate-you’re basically holding a stick between your other fingers, and is very unsteady. To make the sticks balance and have the same pressure as the other one in your hand is proven, quite difficult.
the player also has to move around the keyboard to reach high and low notes. If you have a piece that’s quite long and has a large range of notes, it’ll be a lot of jumping around for you.
Since it is not a piano and pressing on keys, the pressure you hit the blocks with will determine the sound quality.
Don’t even get me started on rolls, flams, grace notes, double flams. They’re even harder.
As a level 5 ABRSM percussionist who started playing at 5 years old (I’m 14 now), i can confirm it’s not easy. Level 5 hasn’t even been the start of double sticking, and the repertoire just gets more complicated with easier polyrhythms and more fancy shmancy grace notes and note ranges. Double sticking is I think-level 6/7 stuff. I’ve been to concerts starring master percussionists and it’s so nice to see difference techniques used in their playing.
//
Edit:
I saw in the comment replies: if you try and save the note, it messes up the tempo.
That’s true-a block has a sweet spot that you have to get right to make a good sound. There are dead parts of the block (like where the string connects the blocks) that don’t make any good sound. There are sometimes quick parts in music that makes your sticks fly across the keyboard and a couple wrong stick placements resulting in dead notes can mess up the passage real badly.
Edit 2:
What I was emphasizing in the short piano paragraph was that piano keys are easier to make a sound because it is pressing down on a key that will lead to a mechanism to strike the string to make a note.
In percussion, you need to hit the key in a sweet spot (see edit 1)) that will produce a good sound. A piano key is already set at the spot where it needs to be hit, and it is only a matter of how loudly or softly the note resonates.
Edit 3:
There are over 100 percussion instruments and percussionists have to master most, if not all of them. Triangle, tambourine, bongos, drum kit, mallet, maracas, cymbals etc etc etc! They each have their own techniques, and to actually learn them all and remember them as well requires *patience* and *lots of practice*. To say that percussion is easy because it just seems like hitting things together is an understatement. Not to mention in orchestras, there are usually a shortage of percussionists, and the ones that are there are required to change instruments a few times in a piece. For example a triangle player might have to also play maracas, bongos and tambourine in a single piece. To switch between them and count on time while doing all that is quite difficult especially if it’s a hard polyrhythmic piece.
Sometimes percussionists are required to memorize the music, to (let the other instrument sections have the stands). Imagine memorizing a piece for 4 instruments. Yeah might seem easy playing 3 notes on the triangle in a last bar, but you saw what happened in the “Life As A Percussionist” video. You can miss.
Not. Easy.
Conclusion: percussion is not easy. As are all instruments in their own way and no one should judge the difficulty of instruments unless they’ve tried them all.
right! same here. it’s easy if you play with bad technique....
yes!
As a percussionist, I agree with you!
Boom! In your face Dumb Mojo
same. I play the violin and I don't think marimba is easy.
I played the vibraphone all throughout high school. Didn’t take me too long to get through the basics. My first year I only did the warm ups on the marimba and played the percussion instruments the rest of the year, but my second year I got to play the vibraphone and I had a bit of trouble because they immediately got me playing with 4 mallets and I had to move from chord to chord really fast. So, I had a lot of trouble learning how to move my mallets different distances and keeping making it intuitive to hit for different notes at the same time.
Overall, I would say that it isn’t too hard to learn the basics though, especially if your already familiar with piano playing.
I think the worst thing about these videos is that non musicians actually look them up for reference. I doubt anyone who worked on this video was an actual musician. I try not to imagine the poor kid who stumbled across this video and decided to play percussion because it was “easy,” and instead found themselves expected to learn ten or more different instruments.
I’m a clarinet and violin player, and percussionists are the people who I’m always most impressed by. In my school band, we had two or three percussionists, and in some pieces, each of them were expected to play about two to four instruments at the same time.
This is the truest thing i have ever heard. Trangle- easy Cymbal- easy Shaker- easy. Now try to play the shaker in 1 hand for 10 measures with the tringle in the other hand and then put them both down in 1 beat and pick up the sticks to roll on a cymbal without dropping anything. SOOO EASY!!!!! (drop a triangle on the ground and tell me your ears don't burn it interrupts the whole band and you are the most embarrassed you will ever be.
@@coreythecommonman4115 AMEN!!!
And the funny moment is when there is one percussionist missing to the rehearsal and you have to constantly Change instruments so that it isn't very noticeable. We're like 6 percussionist and it happens very often xd
Even in my school band, where there are 11 of us, we sometimes play 3-4 instruments. As I said in my comment, there is a reason why all those "percussion toys" are easier to play
DumbMojo really doesn't realize that not only does every Percussion instrument have their own technique, but percussionists have to be able to perfect every. single. percussion. instrument. Btw, there's like 100+ percussion instruments.
And no one plays just a single percussion instrument - that literally does not exist. Percussionists play all percussion instruments...
Sure, in High School, you can focus more on Drums, or Mallets, but in professional settings, you need to achieve virtuosity on every single percussion instrument.
The only possible exception to this is timpani, because timpani. I know my school offered a whole separate degree for timpani performance. That being said, I still had to learn how to play them to the same standard, so.
In HS, I actually mostly considered myself to specialize in Timpani (the only thing I was lacking in was mallet percussion), but when I got to university, I had to be proficient in everything.
To master violin u practice 40 hours. To master Bass you practice 69 hours. To master percussion you must practice 4.2 hours for each 100+ percussion instruments. Which means 420+ hours to master percussion
I don't play percussion but I've seen how in shows or concerts my band percussion switch on who plays what and it is just honestly impressive
Exactly!!
"We aren't saying these instruments are easy, rather they are simply easier to learn and play than others"
*Ah yes, the floor here is made out of floor*
“We’re not saying that these instruments are easy but like, they actually are, lol”
As yes, musicians make music.
The Axolotl Really, dude?! That’s absolutely insane!
more like "I'm not saying the floor is made out of floor, but the floor here is made out of floor"
I guess it really depends on the person. The first instrument I was introduced to was piano as a little kid, then I wanted to try electric guitar and I practiced and practiced and even took lessons but I just couldn’t do it as well as piano. Another friend of mine on the other hand, sucked at piano but was great at bass and guitar, and another was better at percussion and keeping rhythm.
Who was that harmonica player shredding an improv solo???
Twoset: “tennis is easy”
One minute later, an ad pops up: “tennis is easy, but find somebody to play with...”
LMAOOO.
Download Brave and thank me later xD
Is this the Simply Piano of tennis?
They're roasting percussion instruments but it's not like you just play one, you play all of them 😂 Also the xylophone is not easy
And like, the xylophone is not the same thing as the marimba.
True
Bring a percussionist myself, percussion is not easy, playing 4 instruments in one song at one of my concerts, plus the stress at being in one is not good
@@Bathorhem same, 4 mallets on a marimba has me quaking
This video hurt me a little bit more than I thought it would.
First of all:
Percussion is really underestimated.
Yes even a triangle is hard to play.
I’ve been playing the marimba for about two years and now started my third and only this year I started using 4 mallets. It ain’t easy. The amount of times you hit a wrong bar in the beginning is countless. Btw using 2 or 4 mallets isn’t the only way tho. We can go for 6 mallets in some pieces.
As a percussionist this discribes me: “I feel my heart crack”.
Yeah this video made me want to punch this channel into oblivion
Once you learn four mallet technique, going up to six is a lot easier compared to going from two to four. You got this!
you can do it tho 🥺 you're really doing well, keep up the good work mate
Triangle actually isn’t that hard
You're so right. Once I sas a dude playing with 8 mallets. I did not want to believe it. Sure, he wasn't really able to configure the mallets and stuff. And mostly it was for show off. But hey. I couldn't do it. And it was quite impressing
5:00 “you simply stick it in your mouth and blow.”
*that can be interpreted in other ways*
As a classical guitarist who started playing guitar after learning ukelele, I can say that it isn't easy. It took me 2 weeks to strum and a month to do melody playing.
I agree, I started classical guitar 3 years ago and still in pain to try to play Asturias and Recouerdos de la Alhambra
I'm a guitarist too. I remember being put on a technique adjustment period. 6 months only open strings and some notes
I thought ukulele was super easy for everyone. I played guitar first (never super good, but still somewhat good), and I got really good really fast. Everyone around me dunked on it, so I was just like “oh, haha, yeah it’s super easy.” Then after a while, I had them play it, and omg they were SO BAD. I think it’s just cause it’s smaller and easier for my hands to reach?
2 weeks? Fml, I give up virtually anything after a day or two of it not working
I am a guitarist I've started guitar a year ago I can play songs with cords but I struggle always with bar cords
*Me, who is struggling to learn four mallets on Marimba*
*Dumb Mojo:*
"ItS eAsY"
What grip are you using?
@@OliverHarrington I'm trying to learn Stevens grip, but I'm thinking of maybe trying Gordon Stout's Grip. Its a pretty obscure grip, but it feels comfortable to me.
@Kyle McDonald I would learn Stevens first. It’s pretty widely used and is good for pretty much everything. I only use Stevens grip and it pretty much does everything I want it to. Although it does feel very uncomfortable at first, you’ll get used to it after awhile. Changing intervals is pretty easy and it gives you a good, firm grip on both mallets. Once you’ve learned Stevens and tried playing a couple things with it, then you can start experimenting with other grips. That’s just my experience with 4-mallet - in the end you should do what feels right for you.
Same, I'm struggling to keep using my outside mallets continually for just warm up exercises.
@@kylemcdonald8180 Burton was my method of choice personally. Stevens was always a bit difficult. I'd recommend learning Stevens either way even if it's not the one you use the most.
As a woodwind instruments player, I wanted to throw my C# harmonica to people who made this list. As you said harmonica has so many little holes and position of your lips are highly important. For people who do not play harmonica, I can say that harmonica is not played just by blowing/exhaling. Basically exhaling creates sharp notes and inhaling creates flat notes. That means you have to control your breathe very well. That is not even all, harmonica is a highly polyphonic instrument and you have to learn all those ornamentations and consistency on each hole.
Recorder? I won't even comment about it. Seems that Dumbmojo is on duty.
mine is chromatic harmonica！yeah when I saw she said you just pick up and “wow” you can play music！
？？how about your intonation？and all others techniques？
Lets talk about bending on the harmonica real quick. Its easy right?😑
i think she should have to learn each and every one of these instruments and then play them in a concert hall solo.
also i play tenor and alto recorder with my high school music program (small school so no real orchestra or even band) and sure, a child can play a soprano recorder but even alto is long enough that it's hard to hit the holes right and make a non-tortuous sound. also i don't think she knows about the second octave which is super finicky and i struggle with after playing recorder for 5+ years. for her punishment, i sentence her to a year of instructing a bunch of first graders on the soprano recorder.
as a percussionist in a class of people who aren’t great or don’t try i want to say mallet instruments are easy to learn but hard to play correctly with the right technique. sure anyone can pick up a mallet and play twinkle twinkle little star but to hold the mallet correct, stroke right, roll, play dynamics, play with multiple mallets, etc. it becomes harder very fast. tldr easy to play incorrectly somewhat hard to play right.
@daph 71 I'm in a similar position to you in my school. Yeah, mallets are hard.
This is so true, I play marimba and one thing that is never perfect is technique. A percussionist never stops trying to improve their technique. Even the greats aren't perfect.
Lmao give a non-percussionist 2 mallets and they may not even curl in their index fingers. Many people play dead strokes if you just hand them mallets because no one thinks of the upstroke
Not a percussionist but I’m in band and I can say, percussion definitely isn’t the easiest thing in the world
As a percussionist who just did Two Mexican Dances for Marimba by Gordon Stout as my college audition, I was incredibly hurt when they called xylophone (which i won’t even begin to state how they showed a marimba when referencing Xylophone , I’m T R I G G E R E D). Watchmojo should be gotten rid of, plz.
I find it ironic that the commentator probably couldn’t play any of them and yet they’re just talking trash about them all
Yes, that’s probably exactly what they’re doing. They don’t even play the instruments! Sacrilegious
She’s just doing her job lol. Blame the guys who planned that episode.
Migs true. She wasn’t the one who wrote the script
She was pretty mellow, a lot of those instruments are easy to pick up, you can be "decent" at ukulele in a few days, you'll need a few months realistically before you get bearable in piano, violin, etc.
The commenter is most likely just reading a script please don’t come for her. She is just a voice actor
It’s always hilarious seeing non-musicians try and judge which instruments are “easy” or “hard”. To be honest, learning ANY instrument is hard. No matter which one you decide to learn, you will have to learn some form of notation, which is like learning to read in a different language. On top of that, non-musicians think instruments that are easy to get a sound out of automatically means it is the easiest, most user-friendly instrument, when in fact, it probably means that another aspect of playing is difficult. For example, getting the sound out of a piano or violin is incredibly easy. However, learning the technicalities of the instrument, like finger placement, can be immensely difficult. On the other hand, an instrument like a flute or saxophone is nearly impossible to get stable sound out of as a beginner, but once you nail down a somewhat decent tone and develop your embouchure, the learning curve of finger placement and technicalities is fairly linear. Each instrument is pretty unique and just because an instrument may be easy to get a sound out of, does not mean the instrument itself is in any way “easy”.
and the concept of guitar looks easy, but getting urs hands to do two compltley different things at once is incredbly difficult
the easiest instrument is the human voice. even newborn babys can make a sound with it. 😏
I mean yeah I don't think @TwoSetViolin cut WatchMojo enough slack. If you rate instruments by difficulty, you'll make people mad. But unless all instruments are equally difficult to learn, *something* is going to end up with the title of "easiest instrument." Now *obviously* there is a huge gulf between beginning on an instrument and the very top. Rythm can be difficult for any beginner. But the mechanics and breadth of possibilities are going to be different from one instrument to the next. A piano and guitar have more musical possibilities than maracas. Not to insult maraca musicians, there's clearly a lot of skill there, but there's only so much you can do with them, which seemed to be a running theme with the instruments they selected to their list.
Anyways it should have been titled "10 least difficult instruments" just to respect them.
Getting a stable sound out of a violin is not easy wtf are you talking about.
Isn’t the tuba another instrument that’s simple to produce sounds with but challenging in other aspects?
As a percussionists i feel personally attacked
What i often hear as a piano player:
"YoU jUsT hAvE tO pReSs A kEy!"
KT321- Music as a pianist, i often hear that kind of BS. Don't know why DumbMojo didnt place it here. It is quite hard, especially if you are jumping between octaves.
I always say to them "If it's soo easy Play fur elise" they attempt. They suddenly say "iM nOt a pIaNiSt i cAnT dO iT"
The Retro Egg yeah hate ppl who are not being honest like this.
What I hear as a percussionist: “Uh YoU jUsT hIt WiTh StIcK aNd SlAp WiTh HaNd HaHaHaHa Us AiR iNsTrUmEnTs ArE bEtTeR lOl LOL”
@@jacobbau8328 Have they ever heard of MARCHING BAND
I'M IN ONE
IT BURNS MY HANDS
IT'S DEATH
THEY DON'T KNOW THE PAIN
ALSO A DRUMMER
THE PAIN OF SPEED
THE BASS DRUM
WILL KILL YOUR FUCKING THIGHS
"If you can play it easy, then you caan play it hard"
Makes absolutely no sense 😎
If its vice versa then maybe it’ll make infinite more sense
@@twinmarcus2210 yeah haha true
LING LING GRANGER Hiii
"Cymbals are easy"
Shows a person playing crash cymbals incorrectly. There's a VERY specific technique to playing the crash cymbal. Not to mention that every cymbal (ride, splash, finger, suspended, tamtam, gong, etc) has multiple techniques that you need to know just to be competent.
As for aux percussion, the finesse and coordination needed to produce a good sound on those instruments consistently requires tons of practice. Then you have specific techniques with those (maraca roll, triangle role, triangle muting, tambourine roll, hell even figuring out where and how to hit the tambourine) that you need to practice on too.
Xylophone (or MARIMBA that they showed over and over) is obvs very difficult. As are bongos.
Kazoos can suck it tho
signed, a percussionist.
Don’t get me STARTED on marching cymbals
That's actually a pretty valid crash technique! Pretty sure that's a vic firth video, lol.
Amazing point, also showmanship is even more important on the more simply designed instruments you don't get into an orchestra by just hitting a gong. You need flare and showmanship to a degree. Make it visually appealing. (Assuming the orchestra is being watched)
@@_cynth_wave Yeah lol my old highschool teacher would show us the exact video the clip is from every year haha
Moral of the story: the skill floor does not define the skill ceiling.