Are you curious to know which instruments are most popular?

Perhaps you want to learn one of them yourself, or you want to encourage your children to try one of them out?

10 Most popular Music Instruments

1 – Piano

The piano is the most popular instrument in the world, at least if you count all digital pianos and keyboards as well. The keyboard layout makes learning the instrument, and how music works, easier for both kids and adults new to music instruments. 

The digital piano keyboards also has the huge advantage of being able to adjust the volume, as well as even play with headphones. 

2 – Guitar

The guitar (both acoustic and electric) is an instrument that is always high on the top lists of people’s favorite instrument they would like to learn. The great advantage of the guitar is that it is fairly easy to get started on if you just focus on learning chords.

And then you can learn to strum the chords while singing along with the melody. The acoustic guitar is fairly quiet, and the electric guitar can be played with headphones connected to the amp.

3 – Bass

If you prefer the low deep notes, and love groove and rhythm, but still want to play a melodic (pitched) instrument…then the electric bass is a very popular choice.

The bass (electric or acoustic) is always in need in any band, and in studios for songwriting and music production. And it’s very cool too!

You can practice quiet with an amp and headphones just like an electric guitar, and it’s a great instrument to simply start playing along to any song, since it’s fairly easy to find a suitable bass line for the music.

4 – Saxophone

One or the most popular lead instruments, which is capable of adding great expression and emotion into the melodies you play. It’s also fairly easy to learn for beginners, and is used in a lot of genres of music.

The only downside is that it is very loud, and there is no real way to mute (reduce) the sound level. So be aware of that if you have neighbours that may be annoyed.

5 – Clarinet

The calmer brother to the saxophone, meaning that it is part of the same instrument family (single reed instruments in the woodwind section). By “calmer” I mean that it is more mellow and laidback in its tone. Deeper and more pure in sound, and doesn’t get into those bright leads that the saxophone does.

A great advantage of the clarinet is that it’s both quieter than the saxophone, and also easier to play in the lower dynamics and lower range notes.

6 – Flute

If we count all flute types in the world, this is by far the most common instrument in the world. However, there are probably 100’s of flute types, and by “flute” most people think of the standard concert flute that’s played in the orchestra.

When you learn how to produce the sound (embouchure) on the flute, it is a beautiful instrument with a very clear and pure sound. It’s also fairly quiet, but can get piercing when you play the higher range.

If you want to learn the flute, it is almost always recommend to learn the recorder first. Which is easier since it has a mouthpiece, plus much cheaper. But since the fingering is very similar, once you learn the recorder, it’s an easy transition into the concert flute.

7 – Violin

The bowed strings family is one of the most expressive instruments ever made, only really beaten by the human voice. But, this also makes it one of the hardest instruments to learn.

If you are prepared for the many hours of practice where you will make extremely bad and annoying sounds, while being frustrated that it seems so hard, the reward will be an instrument that truly sings with beautiful emotion.

8 – Trumpet

The smallest and highest range member of the brass section, but with a sound that is both noble and beautiful. It is a very loud instrument, but in contrast to the saxophone you can actually put a  “mute” into the bell of the trumpet that drastically reduces the volume when you practice.

The embouchure and buzzing is the tricky part of playing any brass instrument, but once you learn that, the trumpet is a joy to play. And it is capable of great dynamic range and expressive playing.

9 – Ukulele

This light and happy sounding instrument, is basically like a “baby guitar”. It’s very easy on your fingers and hands compared to the guitar though. And since it only have 4 strings, the chord shapes are much easier to learn.

Plus the light size makes it extremely portable so you can take it with you anywhere. And it’s also a very quiet instrument, that you can play without worrying about neighbours complaining.

10 – Harmonica

It is so small that you can practically have it in your pocket with you anywhere! And the small size and low air requirements make it very easy to get started on for beginners. It’s also diatonic in most cases (which means tuned to 1 key), which makes it even easier to learn.

And of course it’s one of the cheapest instruments you can get. And even so, if you learn it well you can add surprisingly much emotion into playing it, with vibrato, bending etc.

Drums & Percussion

What about percussion instruments? Well, I have chosen not to include any non-melodic instrument on this top list because most of them are so easy that you don’t really need months or years to learn them. 

For example, anybody can pick up a shaker and start shaking along to the groove. Or some bongo drums or other hand drum and bang some beats with your hands.

The exception to this “easy mode” of single percussion instruments is a complete drum kit. However, even though many people would love to learn drums, it is not in fact that common. Mainly because it is simply way too loud. And secondly because it takes so much space.

If you do want to take up playing the drum kit, there are however modern electronic drum kits that you can try.