Is the trombone the hardest instrument to play?

Answer 1

It's hard to figure out how to approach this question, but here goes:

Brass instruments change from note to note by combining two different techniques--making the length of the tube longer (making the pitch lower) and by overblowing the tube to make the air vibrate at a higher spot on the harmonic series (making the pitch higher).

The other brass instruments lengthen the tube using valves; when you push a valve down, the air is diverted through an extra piece of tubing. The Trombone lengthens the tube by means of the slide. It's the only orchestral or band instrument that does this, and I think it's safe to say that it is harder to learn the exact spot of each position on the trombone slide than it is to learn which buttons to push on the other instruments.

But the other part--overblowing the tube to produce higher notes--is arguably harder on the French horn, because the horn's usual playing range is higher up on the harmonic series than that of the other brass, and the higher you go the closer the different harmonics get together. That makes it harder to pick out the right one, considerably more so than on the trombone or the other brass.

Now which part is harder? I'd have to say that I've heard more beginning students struggle with the French horn than with the trombone. The Oboe and bassoon also seem to be harder to learn, or even to get a decent sound from. And the strings have the same challenge as the trombone--they have to develop muscle memory to know exactly where to put their fingers down on the strings for the different notes. I think I've heard more out-of-tune beginning violinists than out-of-tune beginning trombonists, or maybe they were worse out of tune. There's probably something to be said for the relative difficulty of fine motor skills (hitting the right note on a violin string) and gross motor skills (moving a trombone slide to the right position).

All that said, at a more advanced level the trombone presents some issues that the other wind instruments don't. Since the trombone often has to move the slide to change notes, it can be challenging to make a clean transition from one note to another without smearing, especially at a fast tempo. The other instruments just push different buttons.

And above all, though some instruments are harder to learn at the beginning, any instrument is challenging to play really WELL!