Loading... What's a good instrument to start on for someone with no musical background?

My vote is the piano - but it's certainly not the cheapest or most portable instrument. It offers the benefit of visually displaying the octaves and helping you see as well as hear how chords are constructed. When you change keys, you see the difference in half notes (helpful for major vs minor keys). I agree with everything cdub77 said, and I also think Doc Snow's point about motivation is excellent. If your learner wants to play the trumpet, he or she may dread spending hours on the piano.

Because it is used to compose most music, the way it can help you visually learn skills and the fact it takes no development of the mouth muscles the way wind instruments, the piano is the perfect instrument for beginning musicians.

With no musical background at all, it would be best to begin with an instrument that allows you to easily see the notes you are playing, one at at time, and not have to learn any more than that at first. Those instruments would be either the piano or the guitar.

Both are large enough to easily see, and do not have to be held so close to the face that you cannot see what your fingers are doing. Wind instruments then, in my opinion, are better for people who already have at least the basics, so they can concentrate separately on learning breath control and how to push air into the intstrument for a pleasing sound.

Elementary schools tend to begin with recorders only because they are cheaply obtained. It is not really a very good beginner instrument, as any parent who has had to endure the shrill screeching of over-blown notes can attest..

There's truth in what cdub77 says. However, I'd say that the best instrument to start someone on is the one that motivates them. If you don't practice, you won't make progress, whatever the instrument might be--and the best predictor of practicing is *wanting* to practice.

I thinkj the ukulele is a good beginner's because it is easy to play.

I am not really a musician but I have play around with a lot of musical things and I think a Yamaha keyboard or any electric keyborad would do because some come with instructions and many instruments.

It would be cool to start out with an acoustic guitar. Learn some basic chords and practice more to learn the more advanced ones. You can bring it anywhere and play it whenever you want.

I thought everyone started out with the recorder?

That said, I think I was the only one so bad even on that instrument that I was asked to leave the music class and never return. Bit harsh on a 7 year old.

But probably fair.

Definitely the piano, you have the simplest beginning but also the greatest range of any instrument.

The drums...get a handle on the rhythm!

well i would say guitar cos i love it ,but had no idea of music before ,then with constant practice and few tutors from here and there you would grow with time.

If you're just looking to start on one instrument to get you into music before perhaps moving on to another, I would definitely say the Recorder. There's limited notes, so not too complicated, can learn to read basic music, and doesn't require much special talent. (As opposed to Piano and drums which requires good music capability to focus on two rhythms at once, or woodwind/ strings which take a lot of practice to get a nice sounding note).

I started out on the recorder, then took up the violin, before moving onto the flute. :)

Willingness and personal interest are important factors to learn a music instrument. Either as a casual or serious hobby, it is important to strive, persevere and improve on basic music skills. Every human being is created with individual learning pace. For example, a middle age person starting to learn the piano, may in fact improve faster as compared to a child. This is due to an individual's desire to excel. It is quite a subjective matter about which music instrument to choose for someone without musical background. As a professional musician / music instructor, i would say that all music instruments presents the beginner a certain degree of basic difficulties i.e tempo, groove, reading music, articulation, achieving motor skills, instrument terminology.

I hope my answer is helpful to readers logging to your question.

Keep the groove! & Cheers!