Which Musical Instrument Is Right For Me

There's a basic trade-off to consider when choosing a musical instrument to learn.

It's this: either you get great control over each individual note, or you trade in some of that control for the ability to play multiple notes at once (called polyphony). There are pros and cons to each.

For example, with a flute there are so many ways to play each note... you can play it "breathily" or sharply, with vibrato, you can start softly then grow in volume, you can flutter your tongue for a ripply sound, you can overblow to get distorted overtones in there, you can "bend" notes into each other, the variety is limitless.

But the penalty is this: you can only play one note at a time!

At the other end of the spectrum you have keyboard instruments like piano, harpsichord, or the church organ -- the organ is sometimes called the "king of instruments" not just because of its size but also because you can easily play over a dozen simultaneous notes and numerous completely independent "voices" or melodic lines, enough to convincingly replicate an entire orchestral score. You have total polyphonic freedom; infinite variety in weaving different simultaneous notes and melodies and cross rhythms together.

And the price: virtually no control whatsoever how each note is played! It's just an on-off switch. You can play any individual note as well as the greatest organist in the world can. (OK a very minor point: in tracker organs you can press or release the key slowly to change the attack and decay characteristics of the note, and yes, there are pipe settings and swells for some crude macro-level control over the sound you're making, but no one would argue that these tools offer anywhere near the nuanced control of each individual note that you have on a flute or violin, say).

So the holy grail in musical instruments has always been to find some way to get the best of both, and tons of attempts have been made. I've always thought guitars were an interesting compromise, in that you can play several strings at once for some polyphony while still retaining some control over how each individual note sounds when you want it (more than a piano anyway, although still not as much as a flute or violin). For example, unlike a piano, a guitar can bend notes and add vibrato, but it still can't hold a note for an extended time or start softly then increase in volume, the way you could on a violin. And on the flip side, a guitar can't offer as many independently moving simultaneous notes as a piano can.

Harmonicas are also an interesting attempt, but I'd say they are pretty polyphonically weak; they defintely swing towards the note-for-note control end of the spectrum. But they're extremely portable!

Polyphony is more fun when you're playing by yourself because you provide your own accompaniment; note-by-note control is better when you're playing with a group, since others will provide accompaniment anyway. So in some sense I'd advise that your instrument should reflect your personality; loners and do- it-yourself-ers like me are probably better suited to instruments at the extreme polyphonic end, which are the keyboard instruments (piano, harpsichord, organ, accordion), whereas more sociable types, the kind who think "group study" sessions in college are useful, should opt for more note-for-note control instruments like the trumpet, flute, clarinet, saxophone, violin, or oboe, although the irony there is that you'll still have to practice your instrument alone unfortunately.

Drums are so far towards the "polyphonic" end of the spectrum that they really are in a category of their own, I'd say. They give you extreme rhythmic flexibility like no other instrument, and you pay an extreme price like no other instrument: so little note-for-note control, that you can't play any melody at all! Drums are tons of fun, and drummers can practice anywhere they go on any hard surface. They just have to accept that playing a simple tune like "Happy Birthday" is forever beyond their instrument's reach, and enjoy the funky rhythms they can play instead.

Another factor is whether you'd like to be able to sing along to your instrument... if you do, that rules out wind instruments like trumpets and saxophones and flutes. Piano or guitar would be better choices.

One more factor is portability; I always pity bass and drums players! Strangely, as a piano player, by playing the least portable instrument of all, in a way it becomes the most portable, because I'm not expected to bring my instrument at all... nothing to carry! But I do feel jealous when my friend Elan brings his guitar on a camping trip, and all I can do is sing (poorly).

But I'm a big advocate of just trying something and seeing if you have fun! Worst case scenario: $100 bucks wasted on a cheap instrument. Best case scenario: a lifetime of enjoyment. I like those returns!