Difficulty of learning musical instruments

[Pseudo Statistic]

Does anyone know where I might find a rough guide of how difficult it is to learn different musical intruments?

I guess I'm specifically interested in the fiddle.

I know music theory, I can read music (at least, if given indefinite time) and even mangled a trumpet in high school, but have never shown any aptitude (or, frankly, interest) in music. My artistic talents are visual.

I guess it also depends on the complexity of the musci I want to play.

Advice?

I think every musical instrument is easy to learn, but hard to master.
For example, I took up the electric bass less than a year ago.
I consider myself pretty alright; it wasn't hard to learn.
However, I'm no Billy Sheehan (not yet, anyway).

 

[yushiyang]

Keyboards do not produce sounds. Strings and pipes produce sounds. It is the type of sound it produces that classifies it. The piano is a string instrument, the organ is a wind instrument.


Of course, it depends on whether you are asking the listener or the player. To the player, piano and organ are interchangeable.

Actually, it depends on how you classify it.

In orchestras, you have strings, winds, brass, and percussion. these instruments are classified by the how they are played, not how sound is produced.
Since piano is not an instrument in an orchestra, piano is not classified in this manner, and is, instead, referred to as a solo instrument (you can chuck it under keyboard though).

If you're talking about instruments generally though, it's usually much safer to use the following system:
idiophones- produce sound through vibration of the instrument itself
membraphones- produce sound through a vibrating membrane (drums and such)
chordophones- produce sound through vibrating strings (includes piano and harpsichord)
aerophones- produce sound through vibrating air (wind and brass and pipe organ)
electrophones- produce sound electronically.

this classification is much clearer, as you can use it to classify instruments that do not appear in the standard western orchestra.

 

[Pythagorean]

I've played violin, guitar, piano, and accordian.

Violin is definitely the most difficult instrument of that list with piano being the easiest in terms of coordination

piano is the most difficult to write music for though since you can play 10 notes at once on it.