What is the Recorder of the string world? The dumb-as-rocks, easiest beginner instrument? Lute? Mandolin? Harp? =P
Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
Well, recorder is not an easy instrument, takes long time before one can play decent music on one. I don’t understand why it is used as an instrument for children, tinwhistle would be much better.
But if you are looking for an easy instrumentI would suggest Ukulele, guitar or why not fiddle (it’s not that difficult). If you really are looking for something difficult, take a sitar.
/Anders
Tenor banjo and mandolin are easy to play basics on, but difficult to get good at. The same is true of any instrument. Good instruments can be pricey, so I’d try out a couple of different species in a store - even if you don’t play yet - just to see what feels comfortable and natural to your size of body and hands.
I have played guitar, bass guitar, tenor banjo and mandolin. I’m currently selling off everything but the mandolin in order to buy a better one, so obviously that’s the instrument I find most enjoyable.
Whichever you decide on, seek advice on models/makers. There are few things that do more to hinder a beginner than a bad cheap instrument.
Good luck 
mountain dulcimer!
You can play it as “simple” (with a wooden dowel stick, called a noter, only fretting on one string and letting the rest drone) to as complictated (full chords, embellishments, hammers and pulls) as you want.
I can teach a child to play a song in 5 minutes. I can teach an adult in 10 - it takes the first 5 to convince them they CAN play.
Take a look around our site (in my sig line), there’s lots of information, MP3s, and a link to a great builder that has a VERY good quality student dulcimer…
What kind of music do you want to play?
Do you want to play melody or accompaniment?
Do you intend to sing to your own accompaniment?
Good point, Martin.
I really want to play Melody, since I can’t sing worth a damn.
I was by no means dissing the recorder - it happens to be a favorite of mine (I have a very nice pearwood alto) but was instead referring to its simplicity and its uncanny trait of being prolific, cheap, and decent sounding even AT cheap levels. (Tin whistles aren’t prolific. :p)
Well, given that definition, you DEFINITELY don’t want a harp! A decent, playable instrument…one that you can learn and grow with… is NOT cheap (don’t even think about buying one of those awful Pakistani harps!). On the other hand, you can start making pretty sounding music on a harp relatively quickly (actually, it’s rather hard to make a harp sound truly bad), though, like any instrument, it takes years of practice to really get good at it (she says as she continues to wrestle with the left-hand part of “Scarborough Fair”).
Redwolf
In regard to if you will play with others . . . what instruments do your friends play? Out of all the instruments you mentioned, the guitar is the most common. I know all kinds of guitar players—acoustic, electric and bass. I didn’t really want to play the same kind of instrument as everyone else I know—it helps to like an instrument that adds something new to playing with others. But that’s not what interested me in the mandolin.
I got interested in the mandolin because of it’s unique sound and how often I hear it in irish and trad tunes. I also like the fact that you can use it well for gospel, bluegrass and more. So if my musical interests change over time, I still have an instrument that I can enjoy for a lifetime. My interest in the mandolin was similar to the whistle. It was an instrument that caught MY attention and a desire grew inside me to try it. And the more I learned about it, I realized that there are enough different styles of mandolins with different tones (just like whistles) to offer many choices.
My advice would be, if you can, do what I did. I borrowed a mandolin from a friend just to make sure it wasn’t a passing thing. I played it for over a month, but it didn’t take that long for me to realize I could play it and with time could become proficient enough to enjoy playing it. I recently bought a mandolin, but only after trying out different instruments in local stores and doing a little research online. The one thing about mandolins is that you kind find dirt cheap ones made overseas on ebay that aren’t worth buying. As Buddhu said, a bad cheap instrument can lead you to the wrong conclusion.
Oh, and I wouldn’t pick an instrument based on the “dumb as rocks” comment. I don’t have experience playing a stringed instrument ·unless you count 2 weeks of lessons when I was a teenager). You might keep yourself from discovering an instrument you would really enjoy learning. If you’re like me, music and the instruments you learn and play is a lifelong endeavor . . . .
autoharp is pretty easy to make music with… the hard part is tuning it…
I would tend to agree on the mountain dulcimer and fiddle. In both cases, a decent beginner’s instrument can be had without breaking the bank, and the fiddle isn’t as difficult as many people claim (once you learn how to hold the dratted thing, you’re halfway there).
I’m thinking about breaking into String Instruments.
Stock up on hide glue and clamps first! 
Seriously, guitar. Everything can be played on it, there is ample instruction available, and you can get a fair one cheaply enough to find out if you like it well enough to invest time and real money in later.
seriously, you might think about taking up the bass.
you can start with just two notes per key (root-fifth), and if you get even halfway decent at it, everyone will love you – if you actually get good at it you might be able to quit your day job…
p.s.: stay away from the mandolin. it will ruin your life.
Not exactly the most portable of string instruments, however.
'Course, come to think of it, harps aren’t exactly highly portable either…
Redwolf
one reason bass players get so much work… nobody wants to schlep the doghouse to the gig.
ok - so do like I do - play a bass mountain dulcimer!!! 
yikes… what’s the scale length on that thing?
actually - it’s quite small - 25 3/4 " VSL
I do have one that’s over 29" VSL, but it’s got TOO much sustain.
Maybe if harp logs in, he can add his 2 cents worth, since he made the 25 3/4" one…
I took clarinet lessons back in grade school, with guitar & piano lessons since then…but I can’t play any of them. I do play a dulcimer though. As my sig line says I play it mostly for my own amusement…I have no intention of trying to make a living from playing one
But on a dulcimer, unlike many other instruments, you start out with the melody of the song, which IMO is the easiest way to play and in the beginning gives the most satisfaction. You can hear the song, as opposed to just strumming a chord over and over again.
I do hear a lot of people say that dulcimers are very limited, but all I do is tell those folks to get themselves a couple of good Dulcimer CDs to hear what can really be done on it. (Or listen to the sound clips on Missys website)
Another advantage to a dulcimer is the physical ease of playing. When it sits in front of you, you play with your fingers pointing down, like on a piano. With a guitar, banjo or mando, you have to stretch your hand around the neck while trying to locate the right frets and keep your other hand in the right strumming position. All while twisting your neck to see where everything is. Just watch some of the contortions a new guitar player goes through to see what I mean.
(now, before someone breaks out a flamethrower for that last sentence, I am not, repeat not knocking anyone who play those instruments… God Bless ya all! I am just relating to my own personal experience and what I have heard from others. That is, a dulcimer is easier to get going on than some other stringed instruments)
Mountain Dulcimers have also evolved a lot of the past few decades. Bass and baritone models, resonator and banjo heads etc etc. Lately the biggest change is the switch to a fully chromatic fretboard from the earlier diatonic style.
The MD also has gotten away from just being a folk music instrument, appearing more and more in main stream music.
My daughter was telling me about seeing a MD on stage at a Toby Keith concert when I asked if she was sure it was a dulcimer. She threw that look at me which is reserved for the times she thinks her old dad has lost it (again) and said “Dad! I know what a dulcimer looks like!!”
In regards to the bass dulcimer, yes, it can be made with a shorter fret scale. In fact most dulcimers made nowadays are using scale lengths much shorter than 30 years ago. The shorter scales make playing chords easier
JMHO…YMMV
not to hijack the thread (okay, just a little bit), but what is the range on a bass dulcimer – what’s the lowest note, basically? same as a string bass?
Dale says I have to talk about music if I don’t want to suffer a spontaneous account deletion. (I mean, he didn’t say that to me personally, but I heard ominous tones in the New Policy that could affect me directly.)
So in the interest of continuing to argue with harpmaker in the political forum, here’s my two bits.
Go get some fiddle / banjo / guitar / mandolin albums (J. P. Cormier will get you three for one, and Cathal Hayden gets you two.) Listen to them drunk, and go buy the instrument that gets you giddiest.
They’re all as difficult or as easy as you want them to be, but regardless of which you pick you’re going to be spending a LOT of time with it if you ever want to be any good, so you might as well get an instrument that gets you excited.
I object to the characterizations that fiddle is “easy”. It’s easy enough now that I’ve been at it seven years, but at the beginning it was like holding a cat that had been stabbed in the eye right up next to my ear. There’s nothing like the sound of a badly played fiddle right next to your skull to discourage practice.
Guitar, mandolin and banjo at least have frets and assault the person sitting across from you with your lack of skill, rather than your own left ear.