Music is awesome. Playing music is awesome. Playing music with friends is super awesome. Playing music with friends while backpacking is the awesomest. One problem though, your guitar is not exactly a light instrument. In fact, most instruments are just too cumbersome and annoying to deal with on a backpacking trip. Luckily for you though there are plenty of pack friendly instruments. So without further adieu I give you the best of backpacking instruments.

Mouth Harp (Harmonica)

Let’s start with the classic shall we? The mouth harp has been the vagabond favorite for good reason. It fits in a pocket and with enough practice has a lovely sound to it.

Washburn Rover Backpacking Guitar

It’s thin, it’s light and it doesn’t sound bad. If you look up videos of this little guy in action you’ll find that it sounds very blue-grassy banjo-ish. It plays just like a normal guitar only it travels much much better.

Armenian Duduk

It’s small. It’s unique. It creates awesomely epic music. Big sound from a little instrument. Just listening to one of these bad boys sends shivers down my spine.

The Ocarina

This is another one I hadn’t really heard of until recently. The ocarina is a really cool looking little flute type instrument. It comes in a variety of shapes and sizes. It is also really easy to learn.

Xaphoon

A xaphoon is basically a tiny sax with a big attitude. It’s pretty much the recorder’s much cooler older brother. So for those of you with a blues-ier side I think this may be right up your alley.

Drum Sticks

Carrying around a pair of drumsticks makes the world your drum set. With a good sense of rhythm and a bit of creativity you can create pretty sick beats anywhere. Another plus to this basic instrument is that they are easy to play with another instrument as well.

The Thumb Piano

It’s name is pretty self explanatory. It makes a sweet little delicate sound and is relatively easy to learn. Most importantly it’s a tiny little baby piano you can play with your thumbs. How cool is that?

The Ukulele

Next we have an instrument near and dear to my heart, the ukulele. Ukuleles are one of the easiest instruments to learn and have a happy go lucky sound. They are smaller instruments making them not too much of a pain to strop on to a backpack.

The Jawharp

We saved the strangest for last, the jaw harp. Okay I admit that it’s cool, but damn this instrument is crazy weird which is precisely why I like it. This is probably the most unique on this list and well if you want to know why just watch this kid kill it (starting at the 00:38 mark)

Safe travels and jam on!