Piano or guitar?

[BananaNirvana]

I love music - I listen to it morning, noon and night and sing along to anything! 😄

However, I never learnt to play an instrument and I have such a yearning to do so 😄. So I’m thinking either piano (keyboard rather than buying a full on piano!) or guitar. I’m in my mid 50s, can’t read music, have no idea what I’m doing. May be able to afford some lessons but thought I might start with YouTube.

Can it be done? Which instrument is easier to learn? Should I start with lessons or can I self teach? Do I have to have lessons?

Musical people, and non musical people, come share your stories! I’d ultimately like to grade! 😄

No instrument is easy to learn. Guitar is portable but everything is based around the piano. Which do you like more?

I think I’d prefer piano tbh - but agree that the portability of the guitar does appeal!

I tried piano and guitar self taught and guitar was so much easier, I ended up selling my keyboard. Just in terms of learning the notes and the sheer amount of free resources, and the simplicity of it to begin with I just found it so much easier. I basically would use sites like ultimate guitar, find a song I want to learn and use their tabs to see where I should put my fingers type thing, so didn’t have to read music

I play both.
Guitar is easier to teach yourself and if you don’t read music you can use tab teacher yourself 3 chords and some strumming patterns and your away.

It depends what music you want to play as well.

Which do you prefer? DD1 learnt guitar badly and DD2 got as far as taking grades in piano. Of the two the piano was less painful to hear practiced. We bought a weighted keyboard that could sometimes be played through headphones so probably why it was a less painful experience..... Glad, for your neighbours' sake that you're not contemplating the violin. God daughter learned that and it was a truly vile-din for what felt like a very long time 😁

Have a look at a course called The Singer's Piano - great way to learn piano. I hope you have brilliant fun, whatever you choose!

Guitar is quite easy to learn on your own and once you know the basic chords you can knock out a tune quite easily.

You can learn keyboard rather than piano. I did this when I was at school. It wasn’t hard to quite quickly be playing things that sounded decent. I remember learning Take On Me by A-ha for one of my exams and it was brilliant fun! As opposed to learning piano when you play “pieces” that are two notes repeated over again called things like “Hopping” 😕

What do you want out of your music making? In my experience with guitar you can quite quickly learn to play a few chords so you can strum along and sing, without having to read music. You can also play along for fun as part of a band with a fairly basic level of ability. Piano requires you to play different notes with each hand so if you want something you can sing along to or play to/with others you'll really need to read music and get to a more advanced level to keep up. However, if you just want to play at home for your own enjoyment and don't want to sing along I think you piano can be a more rewarding instrument if you are willing to learn to read music.

Start with a keyboard. Guitar is quite physically challenging because of how you have to hold and press your fingers. Nothing is easy to learn though. You need lots of patience and practice.

The easiest instrument to learn is the recorder. That's why it's used a starter instrument in schools. You can teach yourself with a book and you'll learn to read music at the same time. Then once you've got it, move onto something else.

Oh this is great! Thank you - just what I needed to hear! I’ll stop looking at keyboards on eBay now 😂

Thank you 🥰

If you want to quickly play chords to accompany singing, guitar (or even easier, ukulele).

If you don't sing and want to play the melody plus something around it, go with piano/keyboard.

I have more joy from acoustic instruments and specifically strings and winds vibes, others see fun in being able to change the artificial instruments on keyboard.

Some romantic toons, soft rock, I don’t really know tbh 😄

Oh god no - I used to be a teacher and have heard kids practicing the violin 😳😳😂

Thank you 😄

Thank you - I’d like to think that I can make some progress initially to keep me going 😄

I was thinking keyboard simply for space initially - and in case it’s not something I keep up with and we end up with a massive piano gathering dust in the dining room 😬😬😄

This is really interesting - thank you. The piano definitely appears to be harder to learn. I want to serenade my husband 😂. I’d really just like to play for fun - would like to sing along too as I do like to sing, but only really for my own enjoyment and for a bit of a challenge.

That’s interesting - I’m quite tall with long arms so hoping holding the guitar won’t be too tricky! 😄

I get your point but I absolutely loathe the recorder and don’t think I could bring myself to learn it 😂. It’s an awful noise even when played well 😬

This is really helpful - thank you. Think I’m going to try guitar. Might approach my son’s old guitar teacher and see if he’s brave enough to take me on 😄

@BananaNirvana having big hands and long bendy fingers helps with guitar! And piano actually. I can't play either but guitar is physically much harder as my DH is a musician and did try and teach me a few times. Why not try both?
Some Keyboards you can get now are like synthesisers and you can make beats and stuff.
Totally go for it!