I'd recommend the ukulele! There are only four strings and, once you learn a few basic chords, you can play a lot of songs. Of course, the more advanced chords will require more practice. There are plenty of great YouTube channels that can guide you (One Music School, The Ukulele Teacher, Bernadette Teaches Music).

I think it's worth it! The nice thing is that you don't have to read sheet music in order to play. There are plenty of free chord charts that are available online. Also, purchasing a decent beginner ukulele will only cost $40-$60. I know this can be pricy for some folks (I say this as an extremely frugal person) but I think it's more affordable than other instruments. Good luck and have fun!

Starter instruments:

Ukelele for strings

Penny whistle for wind instruments (no clue why schools use recorder), followed by harmonica

Bells for chromatic percussion (what many call a xylophone, but xylophones are made of wood).

And eventually an electric piano to really learn music theory. But this isn’t a place to start unless you have a professional teacher or you grew up with a piano in the house.

From those instruments you can branch out to pretty much anything.

Start by listening to music and trying to pick out the melody, then try to play along to it. Start with simple songs and expand as you feel comfortable. Play around with the instrument to see what sounds good and bad to you. Have fun!

I have played guitar for over 20 years and I fully recommend guitar.

You can get a decent instrument for about $100. Don't get one a Target or Best Buy for $100. Those are toys. Get one at a real music store. Yout probably have locally owned used instrument shops. Those are your best bet for finding a quality instrument for a very low price.

Because guitar is so popular, there is an unlimited amount of free learning materials online. You can find videos on YouTube to learn the basics like how to strum and how to press frets. Once you can make sounds come out and feel somewhat comfortable moving your fingers around on the fretboard, watch a YouTube video to learn to read tabs. It's easy. You can learn in one day. You don't need to read music. That's a waste of time unless you want to play professionally. You can always learn that later if you decide to go down that path. Every song you have ever heard of has free tabs on the internet. ultimate-guitar.com even has many songs where you can press a play button and hear the tab. It makes learning very easy.

What do you mean by "tried to have some folks teach me"? Because I think piano/keyboard is a great foundation, but I also think that a lot of people benefit from someone with actual teaching experience -- especially, assuming you're an adult, someone with experience teaching adults. Just because someone knows how to play themselves, even if they're really good, doesn't mean they can teach someone else.

What's your goal ?

I would say bass guitar for a few reasons

• Just like regular guitar, there is a wide range of pricing you'll find playable instrument for 150 EUR, and high end instrument for 3000 EUR, don't get me wrong the cheap guitar won't sound as good as the fancy one, but it'll be sufficient to start, moreover, the price of a professional grade guitar is the price of playable violin

• It's a rhythmic instrument which is fundamental in many genre, from electronic to jazz. with stuff to play from the beginner to expert level.

• Even a simple bass-line is a great improvement for many band. There isn't a market for a mediocre guitarist, even in amateur bands, but a mediocre bassist who can plays root, fifth on time would find a band. And if you can play a couple of walking bass over a chord progression you can do many stuffs.

The consequence is that in many genre you don't really hear the bass, the way the music is written hides the bass under the keboard/guitar/voice but without it the whole band would collapse

Piano/keyboard is super easy, use a marker to write the notes on the keys and then it's just doing what any YouTube video tells you to do.

Harmonica. I’m serious. You can started with a decent harp for $25 and carry it in your pocket for whenever the mood strikes you.

You have some options.

Firstly, remember that learning music is basically learning a new language. So be patient.

Piano/keyboards are great because of low-cost of entry. You can find second-hand instruments in all sizes (25 key up to 88 keys) on Craigslist or Reverb for as low as $50. If it has MIDI or USB, you can hook it up to your computer and control endless downloadable virtual instruments - and/or record it easily to write songs.

It’s an ideal instrument to learn theory. I recommend getting a roll of masking tape and labeling all the keys until you memorize them.

Guitars are more fun, IMO. They’re portable. You don’t have to learn as much theory to get started and it’s certainly less formal. Some of the best guitarists around don’t really know what they’re doing - they’re just feeling. You don’t get a much of that with piano.

Guitar is all about awkward hand positions and building muscular memory around that. I never know what note I’m playing half the time when I play guitar - I just know the positioning.

The downsides is maintenance. Guitars require tuning before playing, changing strings periodically, etc. There is a higher cost of entry. A lot of new players buy terrible quality cheap guitars with unchanged strings and get discouraged by the poor sound and feel.

Ukeleles are generally cheaper and it’s easier to get a good sound. They work similar to guitar and you can figure out the basics fairly quickly.

The simplest answer: one you enjoy to play and can afford.

Keyboard / piano: pretty easy to start with, can't do much wrong when you hit the right keys. Guitar: portable (especially acoustic), can start playing with tab notation, but to get something descent out of it requires practice en knowledge of several techniques, including muting the un-played strings. (this one eluded me a long time, I knew I did something wrong, just not how to solve this)

I'd say look around in thrift stores, garage sales, flee markets,... any place that has used items in abundance and see what fits the budget and sparks interest. (or go over to a store and test a few to see what feels good to mess about with).

Here the collection of instruments consists of:

• several keyboards (fixed sounds) and synthesizers (adjustable sounds) I started with piano/keyboard
• guitars (2 acoustic, 1 electric, 1 electric bass) I started with 1 acoustic as I wanted to learn it without having to spend loads on equipment 1st. Now messing about with the bass. Now actively trying to get to grips with it with teh help of BassBuzz on youtube. (how to setup the instrument helped a lot making the use a lot more enjoyable)
• french horn Saw it as challenge when found as a garage sale cheap, it still is. I wanted to get sound out of it, never managed that.
• trumpet again, garage sale find, managed to get it functioning correctly and get sound out of it. Not sure if I could call it a note though.
• clarinet Guess what, garage sale. The case caught my interest, was curious, bought it cheap, but the mouthpiece is damaged. Need to think about either fixing it and accepting the challenge or keep it as decoration.
• small violin Looks like a decoration item, looked like the real thing, never managed to have it working without getting the idea the strings would snap. (one already snapped)
• harmonica and flute 1st was given, latter bought, but a cheap one, so it sounds off key. (both almost never used, no fun with them... yet)

I have to admit, most was collected pre internet-explosion, so prior to the craze to 1st check what others ask for items before prizing. (pushing prizes up a lot)

UV-visible spectrometer. You'll wow your friends with ppt precision on coloured solution concentrations (with the appropriate calibration curve)

Get a tin whistle, they cost nothing, are simpler than a recorder to play, and they sound great. You can find books or videos that will help you learn to play quite quickly.

Look up “Seagull Merlin”. It’s a stick dulcimer, dulcitar thing. You play it like guitar. Strummed or finger picked. The beauty is it’ss fretted in a way so that it plays “Do Re Me…” which makes it super easy and fun to play things by ear. You’ll have a blast. Cheap too.

I think you should try piano in a way that works better for you. Piano is not too difficult, you press a key and a tone comes out. Keyboard will let you get so many different sounds, too, and keyboard is fun to play with other instruments or alone.