Guitar or Piano???

Dimple said:
I can play a chord of C on a guitar and each time can sound a little bit different and of course you've got two hands that have to do it.
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Playing the piano does require using 2 hands, doing different things. Strumming on a guitar feels very natural to me. Playing 2 handed on a piano requires another level of thinking.

Oh and


Progress report, twinkle is starting to come along, taking me 50 minutes. I reckon another 50 minutes of playing and I might be able to play it start to finish without pauses. I'm taking a rest though (I have a injury to my tendons in my left hand and need to take it easy)
 
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I've learnt both and I personally think piano is more difficult than guitar. Fair enough if you don't agree as you have your own opinions and I also have mine.

I also mentioned that guitar is a portable instrument which may also be good thing for the OP if he wants to bust out some tunes on the move :D I certainly would prefer to lug a guitar around than a keyboard.

If I was to take up playing an instrument again it would most definitely be guitar.
 
Trifid said:
So this

(bottom 2 lines)

is easier then this?
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That's a bit of a meaningless comparison as there are easier piano arrangements of Twinkle Twinkle than that and much harder guitar ones. I could link a one handed piano arrangement and a guitar one with full barre F chords, but that would be equally daft.

Personally as a mere beginner at both, I find piano considerably easier at the beginner level, though I don't think it should really factor into the decision much.

To expound a little, I find guitar harder as a beginner because I can play a song comprising of only three chords but still have it sound rubbish as one finger wont quite be close enough to the fret wire, or one finger will accidentally be muting another string, or another finger might not be pressing quite hard enough. Or I might not lift my fingers from the strings cleanly and the tone of the note will alter as I do it, which seems to be a constant source of frustration for me with the D major chord. Plug into an amplifier and every little mistake is also amplified.

Not to mention how awkward and unnatural some of the chords feel.

With the piano I just feel like there's less that can go wrong and I don't get frustrated by unwanted dissonance from the sustain of an open string and other such unwanted sounds.

Of course I'm not qualified to say how either instrument compares for me at higher levels, so I wont. I have no doubt they both take massive amounts of practice and dedication.
 
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From doing my grades in Piano and Theory, it can be tough, I honestly dont see how you can just sit at the piano and try and learn it off the cuff if you want to be really any good at it. You would need structured step by step lessons to learn.
Guitar I could see being easier to learn yourself.
But its like people saying learning to play the drums if more difficult, its not, itsjust a different type of practise.
And thats all good players are, hours and hours of practise and passion.
 
cu3ed said:
From doing my grades in Piano and Theory, it can be tough, I honestly dont see how you can just sit at the piano and try and learn it off the cuff if you want to be really any good at it. You would need structured step by step lessons to learn.
Guitar I could see being easier to learn yourself.
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I just can't see why you think this?
So grade 8 piano is a lot harder than grade 8 guitar?
Anybody would think grade 8 piano would be equal to playing a Mozart piano concerto but grade 8 guitar is like playing Wonderwall by Oasis.
 
Dimple said:
I just can't see why you think this?
So grade 8 piano is a lot harder than grade 8 guitar?
Anybody would think grade 8 piano would be equal to playing a Mozart piano concerto but grade 8 guitar is like playing Wonderwall by Oasis.
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I base this on knowing a LOT of VERY good players that play locally that picked them up and was able to play by ear, but cant read a sheet of music Could they be even better if they had learned their grades and done a more structured teaching course, who knows.
The core of what I said the you edited out, was its a different instrument, its like saying any other instrument it easier. more difficult than another...well..maybe not the Triangle.
And your playing Mozart ( if you choose) but about the 4th/ 5th grade.
My point was, you need practise and a love of that instrument, or youll never be really good at any of them.
But then theirs the more obvious things, picking up a really cheap guitar is different to picking up a cheap piano, space, noise etc.
 
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cu3ed said:
I base this on knowing a LOT of VERY good players that play locally that picked them up and was able to play by ear, but cant read a sheet of music
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Actually I agree with you on this.
When playing with keyboard players every single one of them have wanted the sheet music or to be shown the basics of a song where in the old days a guitarist got on with it.
I suppose I've recently done something similar - lets take a song like Burn by Deep Purple.
I learned the guitar parts by listening to the record but I've decided to learn the keyboard parts and so put on Guitar Pro to watch the Keyboard View playing it (which is a bit similar to getting the notation out).

Another thing I've noticed in the last 42 years of gigging.
Most keyboard players tend to stick to just the keyboard and never cross over where most guitarists will be able to batter out a tune on a keyboard.

I will stand by my statement that if you are a total noob and you want to learn an instrument then you are going to get further a lot quicker with a keyboard.
Some will even show you exactly what to play by lighting up the keys.
 
Maybe this is the reason for the disagreement - you're referring to a keyboard, not a piano. A keyboard is fairly easy to play yes, and as you said some keyboards will show you how to play a song by lighting up the keys - that's how I learnt to play Pathetique and Canon.

A piano is different to a keyboard. Now I don't know the proper piano terms but things like pressing a key lightly/heavily, joining the notes to playing short staccato notes and use of the pedals etc is not something you can usually do on a standard keyboard, unless it's one of those digital pianos or something.
 
To give a serious response, surely pick the instrument that's more predominantly featured in the music you listen to. Seems a no brainer to me.
 
MisChief said:
Maybe this is the reason for the disagreement - you're referring to a keyboard, not a piano.
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Like you have already said there are plenty of weighted keyboards out there with extension pedals.
It is still easier to learn a melody with one finger on a weighted keyboard than it is to learn it on a guitar where you have to press the note down to make a noise and pluck it with the other hand.
This is a no brainer that you have already agreed to but for some reason you think as you advance it becomes harder on a piano.
 
Dimple have you even played a piano before? Like a proper piano, not a keyboard?

Edit: anyway, be it piano or keyboard - have you tried playing anything more advanced than Twinkle Twinkle Little Star?? It not just about how easy it is to learn an instrument, it's also about how well you play it.

Now I know you're an experienced musician etc, but it's not as if I don't have any experience myself and you're being just as "snobbish" as I am by continuing to disagree.

I think guitar is easier than piano. It's just my opinion. I'm sure the OP will do more research and decide for himself anyway.
 
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Dimple said:
Like you have already said there are plenty of weighted keyboards out there with extension pedals.
It is still easier to learn a melody with one finger on a weighted keyboard than it is to learn it on a guitar where you have to press the note down to make a noise and pluck it with the other hand.
This is a no brainer that you have already agreed to but for some reason you think as you advance it becomes harder on a piano.
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What about the left hand? The Bass notes?

You don't need to worry about the bass at all with the guitar. That's for another person entirely in your band. You do in with the Piano.
 
Dimple said:
It is still easier to learn a melody with one finger on a weighted keyboard than it is to learn it on a guitar where you have to press the note down to make a noise and pluck it with the other hand.
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I'm sure it is, but then you don't play the piano with one finger. Even the most basic of pieces have multiple fingering in the right hand, with completely separate accompaniment in the left hand. Reading through your posts, it's coming across that when you're talking about playing the piano, you are actually referring to playing a keyboard, is that right? As in the left hand only does chords or single notes?

In all honesty, I think it will come down to an individual as to which is easier to pick up. The mechanics of how both are played are very very different. Whilst the guitar may be more intuitive to one person, the piano may just click much easier with another.
 
MisChief said:
Dimple have you even played a piano before? Like a proper piano, not a keyboard?
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For four decades

Raymond Lin said:
What about the left hand? The Bass notes?
.
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You are completely missing the point.
The OP wants to know which acoustic instrument is the easiest to start with and at this moment in time what you do with your left hand doesn't matter.
Within minutes I can show a beginner the very easy notes over an octave on a keyboard but showing the same notes on a guitar will cause confusion.
Within minutes I can get them playing a C chord, Am, F, G, Dm and Em without moving a muscle.
Keeping their hand in exactly the same position they can be playing Look Back in Anger by Oasis in 30 minutes which is what I get them doing.
I would need months to show a beginner how to play those chords on a guitar.

Also as lessons advance with left handed bass runs you are now not thinking about guitarists like Tommy Emmanuelle who also play 2 (sometimes 3) parts at the same time.
You're also not thinking about those piano players (keyboards with weighted keys whatever) who go on stage and because the bass end is being played by a bass they only need their right hand while the left hand touches knobs here & there.
OK, I'm not a 'real' piano player but I've got away with basically one hand for 4 decades playing semi professionally/professionally to audiences.
There seems to be this snobbish attitude that if somebody wants to learn the piano then they must mean they want to know all their scales and playing advanced concertos where most people just want to knock out a tune.
 
Dimple said:
The OP wants to know which acoustic instrument is the easiest to start with
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For the record, I never asked that.

All I wanted to know what your guys opinion was, I don't care how long it takes, how hard it is just opinions on what people have learnt and other things.

Basically Im swinging towards the keyboard and Im looking at a MIDI that I can connect up to various learning platforms on my computer.

Such as Synthesia

Looking at this too: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=317819927&pf_rd_i=468294
 
Dimple said:
You are completely missing the point.
The OP wants to know which acoustic instrument is the easiest to start with and at this moment in time what you do with your left hand doesn't matter.
Within minutes I can show a beginner the very easy notes over an octave on a keyboard but showing the same notes on a guitar will cause confusion.
Within minutes I can get them playing a C chord, Am, F, G, Dm and Em without moving a muscle.
Keeping their hand in exactly the same position they can be playing Look Back in Anger by Oasis in 30 minutes which is what I get them doing.
I would need months to show a beginner how to play those chords on a guitar.
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Ah, so you are talking about keyboard. Fair enough, I'd completely agree that it's easier to learn that than a guitar. Keyboard != Piano however. Going on from Don't Look Back In Anger, remove the chords and introduce a piano bass line instead. How long do you think it's going to take to learn that? Don't forget pedalling. And dynamics.

Given the sheet music, I can play pretty much any keyboard piece with little to no practice. There is absolutely no way I can do this with the same piece but for piano.

Dimple said:
OK, I'm not a 'real' piano player but I've got away with basically one hand for 4 decades playing semi professionally/professionally to audiences.
There seems to be this snobbish attitude that if somebody wants to learn the piano then they must mean they want to know all their scales and playing advanced concertos where most people just want to knock out a tune.
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I'm certainly not insinuating that, and there's no snobbish attitude from me. If you can learn to play a piano without having to learn your scales, arpeggios, and whatnot then great :)
 
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