Learning an instrument is a fantastic way to escape every day life, even for a few minutes and is a sure way to impress your family and friends.

But a lot of people have the worry that they won’t be able to learn to play a musical instrument because they didn’t start when they were little or because it will be too difficult. In fact, anyone can start learning any instrument at any stage of their life, everyone is a beginner at some point in their lives.

To help you make the most amount of progress with learning a musical instrument in the least amount of time, here is a list of the top five easiest instruments to learn and why.

The top five easiest instruments to quickly learn your first tune.

1. Piano

Whilst the piano is deceptively easy at first, when you start to try to play more advanced music, you will realise that it become a LOT harder.
However, as an instrument to learn to play quickly, playing the piano or keyboard is effectively instant; in that you press a key and the perfect note plays for you.

You can learn a simple piano tune in less than an hour and even play some accompanying chords or harmonising notes with your left hand at the same time.

In an afternoon you can quickly learn a basic song to impress your family.

2. Glockenspiel

This may take you back to your days at school of fighting over who got to play the glockenspiel or the xylophone..

It is a super fun and simple instrument to learn to play. The glockenspiel  (pronounced “block-ench-peel”) is made of metal bars and produces a bright, clear and crisp sound.

It doesn’t take long to learn how to make sounds correctly and is just a matter of learning the order of the bars to produce a melody.

3. Guitar

Before any guitar players get offended, we would like to point out that playing anything more complicated on a guitar than a few simple chords and the beginnings of finger picking is extremely difficult!

But if you want your first instrument to be one that doesn’t cost a lot of money and to be able to feel a sense of accomplishment in the first afternoon then a guitar is perfect.

(Trust me – I once bought a flute, and spent literally the whole afternoon trying to work out how to put it together correctly! Never mind starting to play it.)

Tuning the guitar is pretty easy as there are a tonne of free apps that basically tune the guitar for you as they are able to tell you when you reach the correct pitch through listening to the speaker on your phone.

4. Harmonica

Again, playing more advanced music on the harmonica is more difficult and something you learn over time.

But with regards to the harmonica being an easy instrument to learn, you can order your first harmonica, open it straight from the box and stat playing. With no lessons or knowledge or written music needed.

Most people will automatically play the harmonica in chords when they blow into it, due to the spread of the mouth over the harmonica. This is fine and will assist in making whatever you try to play sound even better right from the start!

5. Bongos

This may seem like an odd choice, but there is something extremely satisfying about playing rhythms played on the bongos. You don’t need musical experience or knowledge and can start simply start drumming away to your favourite music.

The bongos are a great way to develop good sense of rhythm and are the perfect instrument to start with before going on to learn to play the drums later on without feeling overwhelmed as a beginner.

A decent set of bongos does not cost a lot of money and is a really fun thing to get out at family gatherings to show of your drumming skills!