Which instrument is easier to learn: Piano or Guitar?

[krazzypanda]

guitar is easy to learn but hard to master

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

From talking t oa guy at work, Piano is way better to learn because you can learn theory alot better. He said that if you learn Piano, you can learn anything else you want later on.

 

[BD2003]

Guitar has a pretty steep learning curve. If you cant get past the starting hump, forget about it.

 

[Descartes]

Originally posted by: Fritzo
Piano is 10x easier than a stringed instrument. That is because the keyboard is laid out in a logical repeating pattern. The guitar is tuned to an open E, so the notes are laid out in a way that does not make sense at first. Also, your fingers have to be conditioned to hold strings down- which is painful.

I disagree. All you're really describing are different attributes to different instruments. True enough, your fingers/hands do have to acclimate to the strings; however, they have to acclimate to the keys on any quality piano. When I switched to a Yamaha baby grand, I felt like I had tendonitis for weeks. The action is exceptionally heavy, and it makes playing more active pieces very difficult at first.

I've played the violin for about 13 years, and I don't see the point about the "logical repeating pattern" in the piano. It's not so logical if you don't understand it, and the same goes for any stringed instrument; in fact, piano can be even more challenging for the simple fact that you often have to maintain melodies with each hand. Playing the guitar or violin, it's really quite possible to simply forget about the hand that hits the strings/moves the bow, and instead you just focus on the one hand that plays the notes. Granted, after a while you don't really *focus* on either, but you get the idea.

I have to go back to what I and a few others have said: The piano gives you a greater return for your time investment initially, but over time they all balance out. String instruments require a lot of initial investment just to play anything worthwhile.

Either way, if you don't put time into either, you will never learn. If you don't put about an hour a day into either, you will never be "good".

Agree.

 

[The Pentium Guy]

I'd pick up a guitar and learn. There's nothing wrong with learning more than one instrument at the same time. At least with guitar you can learn songs by tabs (so the notes are much easier to sightread).

 

[AbAbber2k]

Same as everyone else said. You'll NEVER be good if you put no effort into it. I use to be GREAT at piano (no false modesty here), but I stopped playing because I didn't have any passion for what I was playing. To this day I wish I'd never given it up. If I put myself to the task I'm sure I could be good again but like I said... it'd require effort. Right now that effort is going elsewhere and it just isn't a priority.

 

[Fritzo]

Originally posted by: Descartes

Originally posted by: Fritzo
Piano is 10x easier than a stringed instrument. That is because the keyboard is laid out in a logical repeating pattern. The guitar is tuned to an open E, so the notes are laid out in a way that does not make sense at first. Also, your fingers have to be conditioned to hold strings down- which is painful.

I disagree. All you're really describing are different attributes to different instruments. True enough, your fingers/hands do have to acclimate to the strings; however, they have to acclimate to the keys on any quality piano. When I switched to a Yamaha baby grand, I felt like I had tendonitis for weeks. The action is exceptionally heavy, and it makes playing more active pieces very difficult at first.

I've played the violin for about 13 years, and I don't see the point about the "logical repeating pattern" in the piano. It's not so logical if you don't understand it, and the same goes for any stringed instrument; in fact, piano can be even more challenging for the simple fact that you often have to maintain melodies with each hand. Playing the guitar or violin, it's really quite possible to simply forget about the hand that hits the strings/moves the bow, and instead you just focus on the one hand that plays the notes. Granted, after a while you don't really *focus* on either, but you get the idea.

I have to go back to what I and a few others have said: The piano gives you a greater return for your time investment initially, but over time they all balance out. String instruments require a lot of initial investment just to play anything worthwhile.

Either way, if you don't put time into either, you will never learn. If you don't put about an hour a day into either, you will never be "good".

Agree.

??? A piano keyboard is laid out in C ---so the white keys start at C and then you just go up the scale- D E F G A B...etc. You could basically play anything along with a band that is playing in C and it'll fit. They usually teach you that first, then start adding in the sharps to learn the scales (1 sharp in G, 2 in D, 3 in A, etc). The fact that everything is in a line really makes the learning process easy.

On a guitar, you have effectively 6 "keyboards", each one tuned differently. It's not a linear process to memorize notes and scale patterns, and the fact that your finger position determines if the note will even sound or not complicates things even more. On top of that, the fact that your fingers are going to hurt for the first month or two...it's a very difficult instrument to pick up. I think my statement is sound.

BTW- I was able to pick up the keyboard after a few days, but I've been playing guitar for 24 years now.

 

[Platypus]

I learned music from piano, classically trained for 13 years before getting bored with it and moving to teaching myself the guitar and bass.

Piano is definetly a lot harder I think, after learning it, the guitar was extremely simple. I don't think it would be nearly as easy the other way around.

 

[Triumph]

Coming from someone who plays both (albeit not very well): Easier to learn well enough to play a song that people can enjoy & recognize? Guitar. Easier to become proficient? I'm not sure, but probably easier on guitar than piano. Piano played well is truly an amazing thing.

 

[fustercluck]

How do you all force yourself to practice? Isn't it a huge pain?

I would probably have practiced 3 times as much by now if I had my own place to live, so people wouldn't keep telling me to stop playing or interrupting and asking me to play them something. I always use headphones when I play, but there is still a lot of noise from pressing the keys...maybe too much, i've always wondered if this keyboard was defective in that way, maybe I'm just striking the keys too much.

 

[IntrinsicValue]

I'm guessing those who say learning piano is "easy" are either extremely musically gifted or are not clasically trained. I'm also guessing they mostly play guitar, so want to make it sound much more difficult than it really is.

As stated, yes it's easier to pick up BASIC piano - but playing real piano takes a lot more time and effort than a guitar. If you want to learn a DIFFICULT stringed instrument, try the violin.

 

[Midlander]

Having played both, I would say guitar is easier to learn and master.

The biggest difference is that with piano, your hands don't move together. The beats and patterns can be completely different in the two hands and then switch back and forth. With guitar, you position your left hand and play the note(s) with your right and then move on.

Of course, that's just my opinion. :beer:

 

[0roo0roo]

just lots of practice, you have to do it every day. took lessons as a kid, and thats how it works, lots of drudgery really.