Music & Performing
The instrument and the practice setup matter more than any app or course. These beginner guides cover what to buy for your first six months on a guitar, piano, drums, violin, or ukulele — plus the small things most beginners skip (a tuner, a metronome, the right strings) that quietly decide whether you keep playing.
17 guides in this family
Clarinet
The clarinet is one of the most rewarding instruments to start — versatile across classical, jazz, and folk, with a tone that's warm and immediately recognizable. The first weeks demand patience while your embouchure develops, but the path from first squeak to first real song is shorter than you think. Here's what to buy and what to skip.
Read the Clarinet guide →Photo by Pierre Goiffon on Unsplash
Flute
Welcome to one of the most portable, versatile instruments around. A solid beginner flute costs less than you might expect, you can be making real music within a month, and the gear path is refreshingly simple. Here's exactly what you need — and just as importantly, what can wait.
Read the Flute guide →Photo by Akbar Nemati on Unsplash
Trumpet
Whether you played in your school band twenty years ago or you're starting from scratch, the trumpet is one of the most satisfying instruments to learn — once you get past the first few weeks of squeaky, airy frustration. Here's what you actually need to buy, and just as importantly, what to skip until you know you're sticking with it.
Read the Trumpet guide →Photo by Priscilla Du Preez 🇨🇦 on Unsplash
Mandolin
Mandolin is one of the most rewarding folk instruments you can pick up, and also one of the most confusing to buy. Before you spend money on the wrong body style or a hundred-dollar bag, here's exactly what a new player needs — and what can wait.
Read the Mandolin guide →Photo by Matt Seymour on Unsplash
Cello
The cello is one of the most rewarding instruments you can start as an adult — and one of the most confusing to buy into. The student market is flooded with cheap outfits with unplayable setups, and the rent-vs.-buy decision is genuinely complex. This guide cuts through it: what a real beginner cello costs, which brands you can trust, and exactly what you need on day one.
Read the Cello guide →Photo by Adi Goldstein on Unsplash
Saxophone
The saxophone is one of the most rewarding instruments an adult can pick up — a month of practice and you're playing recognizable melodies. The gear advice is the problem: cheap knockoffs flood Amazon, stock mouthpieces need replacing immediately, and nobody tells you that a $70 mouthpiece upgrade matters more than a $200 horn upgrade. Here's what actually matters.
Read the Saxophone guide →Photo by Jens Thekkeveettil on Unsplash
Harmonica
The harmonica is the cheapest way into music that actually works. You can carry it in your pocket, learn your first song in an afternoon, and be playing real blues within a month. The confusing part is picking your first one — diatonic or chromatic, C or A, Hohner or Lee Oskar — and this guide cuts through all of it.
Read the Harmonica guide →Photo by Mihail Tregubov on Unsplash
DJing
DJing is one of those hobbies where the first purchase defines your entire first year. Pick the right controller and you're mixing tracks within a week. Pick wrong and you're fighting software bugs, underpowered hardware, or gear you'll outgrow in three months. Here's what to buy first — and what to hold off on.
Read the DJing guide →Photo by Matty Adame on Unsplash
Swing Dancing
Swing dancing is one of the few hobbies where showing up is most of the hobby. The community is magnetic, the music makes you move, and you'll be social dancing with near-strangers after your very first class. Here's what you actually need — and why real dance shoes are the one purchase you should never skip.
Read the Swing Dancing guide →Photo by Matias Eduardo on Unsplash
Bass Guitar
Bass is the instrument everyone feels but nobody notices — until it's gone. The good news: it's one of the more forgiving instruments to start on. Four strings, wider frets than guitar, and you can be playing real songs within a week. The catch: like electric guitar, a bass is silent without an amp. Here's the complete setup, minus the gear you can skip for now.
Read the Bass Guitar guide →Photo by Krisztián Reischl on Unsplash
Violin
The violin has a fierce reputation for being the hardest instrument to start. That's partly earned — but the first three months are much more manageable than the internet makes them look, especially with the right gear. Here's what you actually need, the rent-vs-buy question answered honestly, and why sizing matters before you buy anything.
Read the Violin guide →Photo by Denny Müller on Unsplash
Drums
Drums are one of the most satisfying instruments alive — the moment a beat locks in and your body knows the groove before your brain does is something no other instrument replicates. You don't need a massive kit or a soundproofed room to start. Here's exactly what a new drummer needs first.
Read the Drums guide →Photo by Josh Sorenson on Unsplash
Digital Piano
An acoustic upright piano costs $3,000+ and weighs 400 pounds. The good news: a $500 digital piano with weighted keys plays close enough that no beginner will outgrow it for years. The trick is buying the right one — not all 'digital pianos' are actually pianos.
Read the Digital Piano guide →Photo by Elias Lobos on Unsplash
Electric Guitar
An electric guitar is a four-piece system: the guitar, an amp, a cable, and a tuner. Skip any one and the whole thing fails. The good news: a complete starter rig — guitar, small amp, cable, tuner, picks, strap — is around $400 and will hold up for two solid years of playing.
Read the Electric Guitar guide →Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
Ukulele
The ukulele is the most beginner-friendly instrument in the popular music canon. Four nylon strings, a tiny body, simple chord shapes you can play with one finger. The trick is buying a real ukulele instead of a $20 toy that won't stay in tune for an entire song.
Read the Ukulele guide →Photo by Les Taylor on Unsplash
Acoustic Guitar
The good news: you don't need an expensive guitar to learn on, and you don't need lessons to start. The bad news: most beginners quit because they bought a $50 plywood guitar that physically hurts to play. Buy one decent instrument, a clip-on tuner, a pack of picks, and you're set for the next two years.
Read the Acoustic Guitar guide →Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash
Music & Performing glossary
Words you'll hear in your first lessons, on every gear forum, and in the tuning room behind the stage. The vocabulary's worth a few minutes; it makes everything else easier.
- Action
- Distance between the strings and the fretboard on a stringed instrument. Lower action is easier on the fingers but more prone to fret buzz. Adjustable on most guitars.
- Capo
- A clamp that closes off all six strings of a guitar at a given fret, raising the pitch. Lets you play in any key using the same chord shapes — a beginner's best friend.
- Chord
- Three or more notes played together. The vertical building block of harmony; major and minor are the first two flavors every beginner learns.
- Fingering
- Which fingers go on which keys, frets, or holes. Bad fingering plays a passage once; good fingering plays it fast and clean over and over.
- Intonation
- How accurately the instrument plays in tune across its full range. An out-of-intonation guitar sounds fine open and gets steadily sourer as you move up the neck.
- Metronome
- A clicking device — physical or app — that holds a steady tempo. The single most-skipped, most-essential beginner practice tool.
- Mode
- A scale built from the notes of another scale but starting on a different one. Dorian, Mixolydian, Phrygian — the source of every "that song has a vibe" you've ever felt.
- Riff
- A short, repeated musical phrase. The earworm hook of a song — the four notes of "Smoke on the Water" are a riff.
- Scale
- A sequence of notes that share a key. Practice them daily and chords stop being random shapes — they're notes from a scale, stacked.
- Tab / tablature
- Beginner-friendly notation showing which string and fret to play, instead of standard notation. Trades rhythmic precision for accessibility; how most self-taught guitarists learn.
- Time signature
- Two numbers at the start of a piece showing how many beats per measure (top) and what counts as a beat (bottom). 4/4 is most pop and rock; 3/4 is a waltz.
- Tuning
- Adjusting strings (or any pitched instrument) to the correct pitch. Start every practice session with this; an out-of-tune instrument trains your ear wrong.