The easiest instruments to learn

The ranking

1. Ukulele

Time to a real song: the first sitting.

Four advantages compound. Nylon strings under low tension need almost no finger strength. Four strings rather than six means less to fret and less to mute accidentally. A 13.6 inch soprano scale puts everything within easy reach. And crucially, C major is one finger and F is two.

The trade: range. Four strings and 12 to 18 frets is a genuinely limited instrument compared to a guitar or a piano. For strumming and singing that ceiling is high enough for a lifetime; for anything melodic it arrives.

2. Keyboard

Time to a real song: the first week.

Press a key, get the correct note. No intonation, no fretting, no bowing, no embouchure. The barrier between intention and correct sound is lower than on any other instrument, and the layout makes music theory visible in a way nothing else does.

The trade: two hands doing different things arrives quickly and is genuinely hard. It is easy to start and the difficulty curve steepens sooner than the ukulele’s does.

3. Three-string guitar

Time to a real song: the first sitting, for a child.

A Loog uses standard guitar strings and tuning on a 20.4 inch scale, so a major chord is one finger across one fret. Everything learned transfers to a six-string, which makes it a genuine stepping stone rather than a dead end.

The trade: it is explicitly transitional. A player will move to six strings, and if they are already ten or older they should skip straight there.

4. Drums

Time to something satisfying: minutes. Time to a real groove: weeks.

Nothing to tune, no intonation, no finger strength. A satisfying sound on the first hit, which is unique among the instruments here.

The trade: two of them. Limb independence — four limbs doing different things simultaneously — is genuinely hard and arrives immediately after the easy part. And an acoustic kit is very loud, which for many households rules it out entirely.

5. Six-string guitar

Time to a real song: three to six weeks.

The most popular first instrument and not among the easiest. Steel strings hurt for two to three weeks, chord shapes need three fingers placed accurately, and the F chord traditionally requires a barre that takes weeks of hand strength to build.

The trade, in its favor: it has the largest repertoire, the most learning material, and the most social utility of anything on this list. The hard first month buys a great deal.

6. Violin

Time to a real song: months.

The honest outlier. A violin has no frets, so every note’s pitch depends on finger placement to within a millimeter or two, and there is nothing to tell you when you are wrong except your own ear — which is not developed yet. On top of that, bowing is a separate skill with its own learning curve, and the two have to be combined.

The trade, in its favor: the ear training is unmatched, because the instrument forces it. And the beginning being hard does not make the instrument bad — it makes it a poor choice for someone who needs an early win. Sizing comes first regardless; see beginner violins.

What easiest actually buys you

Time to a first song, and that is worth more than it sounds.

The reason beginners stop is that the early period is unrewarding. An instrument that gets someone to a recognizable song in week one has removed the main risk. An instrument that takes six weeks has to be carried through those weeks by wanting it badly enough.

Which is why “easiest” is the right criterion in some situations and the wrong one in others. If someone specifically wants to play guitar, the hard first month is fine because the wanting carries them. If someone is not sure, or is buying for a child, or has quit an instrument before, the easiest option is the one most likely to still be being played next year.

If you are still deciding, our four-question guide works through the practical constraints, and the ukulele versus guitar comparison covers the most common version of this decision in detail.