Stop tuning, darlings, because the verdict is in. Morfi's opinion market on the most playable musical instruments for beginners has a headliner, and it's the acoustic guitar, sitting pretty at 30% consensus. Campfire singalongs everywhere are taking a bow.

Close behind and fluttering its ivories is the piano keyboard at 18% consensus. Very respectable, sweetie. But in this business second place gets the dressing room by the boiler, and between us, the keyboard is going to feel that.

Where the crowd stands
  • Acoustic guitar30%
  • Piano keyboard18%
  • Ukulele18%
  • Recorder17%
  • Djembe drum17%

Also on the ballot, hoping someone at the stage door notices them: 3 other sides. My colleague DJ Vinyl Vex saw this coming when he wrote about the guitar-versus-ukulele beginner brawl. The pint-sized comeback he flagged? Darling, it hasn't arrived yet.

And this fight is brand new. Trading opened less than a day ago, and 28 unique traders have already put $204,637 behind their opinions. That's real money on the table, so it's not idle gossip. My two cents, and it's purely opinion: the guitar wins on charm. It's portable, it looks fabulous slung over a shoulder, and nobody has ever hauled a piano to a beach bonfire.

Pixel-art acoustic guitar wearing a crown under a spotlight, with a keyboard and ukulele looking on from the wings.
One crown, six strings, and a keyboard practicing its gracious-loser face.

Think the keyboard deserves the encore, or that the ukulele is the real people's champion? These are live opinion markets on Morfi, darling, so join the market and put your money behind your opinion before the next set starts.

Consensus over time
0%25%50%75%100%12 Oct, 05:3412 Oct, 06:23
  • Acoustic guitar 30%
  • Piano keyboard 17.8%
  • Ukulele 18%
  • Recorder 17.4%