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! 😄

Oh that’s interesting! I’m so conflicted now 😄😄

thank you 🤩

I don't agree about guitar being physically much harder. (I play both, but guitar on much higher level). If you play anything more complicated (even just full chords) the distance between your fingers on piano is much bigger.

Choice of the specific guitar can be relevant though, having stronger instrument with higher strings can be uncomfortable (and totally unnecessary). I prefare spanish type with nylon strings, easier to touch and nicer tone.

You can get smaller scale guitars if you might struggle with a full size one.

My DS started with a basic guitar now has three (did have four but we recycled one to the charity shop)
You can wall mount or get a stand for a guitar so easier to store its the amp that takes up space 😀

Do you know what you want to play? I learned piano when I was young. Tried guitar when DC2 got one but I didn’t find it easy. If you are just playing chords, you can easily do that on the piano without reading music. A lot of songs can be played with a a four chord pattern. Changing between CFGAm is not harder on the piano than the guitar surely? If you want to sound really good on the guitar, it can’t be just four chords and singing over the top?

However, if you are taking about playing the kind of piano pieces that you sit ABRSM exam with, that’s a totally different thing. If you want to accompany other instruments, you can’t do it with a guitar because all the accompaniment I have found are written for the piano. I have picked up playing again to accompany my DC on the violin and trumpet for example.

All I would say is pick something you enjoy. DC violin teacher has three adult students in her Christmas recital. Don’t let people tell you you can’t learn it.

Actually a PP made a good point about singing. I don’t want to sing. So guitar isn’t easier I found because to get to the point where you can play a melody and fill it with enough layering and sound is not simple. There is also not a lot of sheet music or guitar tab written that way.

On the other hand, there are tons of piano scores written that way. Melody plus bass. I think you can get to grade 3 piano with a few years of study. It’s the level of a lot of easy piano arrangements.

I'm a piano teacher so am biased, but just wanted to say that adult pupils who have got pretty good at a single stave instrument in the past (ie only one line of music to read, often singing, flute or violin) can find it really tough to transition to reading two lines (ie one for each hand in piano).

Don't know if that applies to tab for guitar or not, but it's happened so many times with musical adult pupils. I have to take them back to complete basics so their reading of the left hand can catch up with their much faster reading for the right hand. They then find what they're playing really bland until they can read both staves pretty evenly and get v frustrated.

My advice would be to try piano (definitely weighted and full size keys at the very least, whatever you get) first, but as others have said, depends what you're looking to get out of it. Enjoy it whatever you try!

I too love music and decided to teach myself to play the guitar.

I had the benefit of having played the violin since age 8 and got a degree in that plus piano, so I knew my way around music.

Why don't you try both?

The guitar will be easier - my approach was the draw out the six strings of the guitar on an A4 pad, just with a ruler and pen, then draw the fret lines on it - then look up the basic chords, C G D E A minor etc - draw them out on the guitar fretboard I had drawn - then work out how to play one chord (first finger goes there, second finger goes there) - then play from one chord to the other.

In the beginning I could not play music - twenty minutes of this per day and I could play three chords - going round and round those three chords - trying to make the shapes in time to the beat (down load a free metronome on your phone, set it to a slow beat and play the chords to the beat - NEVER sacrifice the beat for the notes / chord!! - but I digress - on my first day of playing the guitar, I drew out the diagrams for G, C, D, Aminor and E minor - and those are the chords for Pink Floyd Wish You Were Here.

To play the guitar you don't have to know much about music - why it works, what about it makes it work - you just play shapes - yo add a new shape every now and then and slowly your repertoire becomes bigger.

To play the piano, I would recommend you buy books and study them - My First Piano Book Sort of thing and try to understand theory. If you are that interested in music it would be good and it is not hard. Its simple.

But get started its the best hobby out there. I started over twenty years ago now and it has been the best thing ever. Plenty of times I have been frustrated by my playing and just found the next song to study and before long, inching along, I have made so much progress. I silence rooms now and have done some recording.

Good luck and I hope you really enjoy it.

Changing basic four chords is similarly easy on piano and guitar.

And of course you can accompany other instruments with guitar, you use the chords signs and decide yourself what rhytm and style fits the piece. You can get sheet music for guitar and other instrument as well, not as much as piano, but it does exist, many people share their versions of popular songs and so on.

My cousin is a guitar teacher and in her school the teachers just write down the music for beginner guitarist - pick up a song, decide in which tune it fits guitar the best, and write down melody, bass, some notes around which nicely fit there, according to the level of their students.

It might be harder to search for such music, but it is definitely possible

@eightIsNewNine there are no chords signs. You will have to work out your own accompaniment for the guitar. I’m talking about accompanying the kind of music you learn with music lessons, that’s what my DC are doing their violin and trumpets in. I’m sure you can work out an accompaniment for the violin on the trumpet but it isn’t the same as just reading what’s written and available to purchase. I mean composers have worked out arrangements for all sorts of instruments

For example, my DC are doing these ones
https://www.musicroom.com/fiddle-time-joggers-piano-accompaniment-book-oup9780193562134
https://www.musicroom.com/easy-winners-arr-peter-lawrance-trumpet-solo-bwp0124pa

Just examples of how standard learning repertoire have piano accompaniment (and usually another with the same instrument for the teacher).

I can also work out the melody and add chords on the piano but is the same on the guitar and I wasn’t comparing that.

Piano is probably harder but my dad (who played piano & guitar) always said if you can play piano and read music, you can apply it to most instruments.

Electric drum kit! 😎

Not dismissing guitar by the way in case anyone got the wrong idea from my posts. I saw this guy live in the summer and he’s amazing. Gnossienne is written for the piano originally by Satie, but Jack Hancher’s performance of it is beautiful.

A YouTube link to it performed live

I tried with these youtube videos as was a great choice of tunes to try.

I also tried with a keyboard but my short stubby fingers seem inherently impossible to do either.

Good luck. Being able to play music is a terrific skill.

If anyone can recommend a piano/keyboard tutorial would much appreciate.

www.andyguitar.co.uk/?

I play both but guitar is my main instrument now. Try both, focus on the one you enjoy the most, because 99% of accomplishment in music is down to practice. I'm the first to say I'm not the world's most talented musician - few people are! My teacher always says that 99% of people can master an instrument if they practice. Something to consider is your hands. I have quite long hands with long fingers and hypermobile joints, which is great for stringed instruments but not so much for piano because of the position you play in most of the time. I can do a lot of reaching for chords on a fretboard, and also I can pin the bottom E string with my thumb and still use my fingers on the top strings. But on piano you spend a lot of time with your fingers semi tucked under, especially as a beginner, so having long hands and fingers can actually be more awkward.

Another vote for the guitar.

Learning any instrument takes time and patience whether it's a guitar or piano. Unless all you play on the guitar is some simple chords I'm not sure why some are saying it's easier to learn than the piano. Learning to play bar chords, memorising many different chord variations on different frets etc I would say is equally as hard as things you learn on the piano.

However reading music is a different skill. Lots of fantastic musicians both guitarists and pianists don't read any music but if your aim is to take grades then it's something you need to learn how to do and obviously in that regard the piano is harder because you have two parts to read at the same time.

Thank you so much everyone - so much food for thought, and some great tips too! Some of the music chat lost me a bit so maybe that’s where I need to start, beginning to understand all the music terms. I’ll keep you all posted. Both DC tried and gave up with learning instruments because neither could be arsed to practice so I know this is going to be a big thing for me to master, getting the hours in!

I’m a trained musician, though neither piano nor guitar is my main instrument. I love the piano but after something like 15 years of lessons my entire youth, plus many hours spent struggling, practising and paying for lessons as an adult, I’m still nowhere near proficient at it - if it gives an indication, I can play hymns at an old folks’ home and also some pieces in the grade 5-7 range, but given I’m professional level (so vastly above grade 8) on two other instruments, that’s frustrating.

I learned guitar as a teenager and it was much easier, especially if you just want to learn some chords to accompany songs, which can be done via tab so you don’t even need to read music for that. If you want to do some more serious stuff then you can learn classical guitar, which can be quite beautiful and is still, I swear, easier than trying to make two hands and at least one foot do different things on the piano! And don’t get me started on organists - they must be superhuman …

That’s really interesting @CapaciousHandbag as I don’t have any musical background at all so sounds like piano might be a bit of a challenge 😄

I've always wanted to learn Piano, I recently treated myself to a weighted Yamaha keyboard second hand and then a Flowkey subscription. So the keyboard connects to my tablet and you get feedback from your playing. I complete the online lessons, if you keep pressing the wrong keys it tell you, you play along to get the tempo correct. You start playing actual pieces quite quickly alongside the lessons and its fun. I'd highly recommend. I was doing brilliantly while I had the time to practice, but you do need to practice and I have young children. We also have drums and guitars in our house, drums seems to be easiest to get something going quickly. Guitar the kids are learning at school, but very slowly.

And that’s interesting - thank you. Does it store away easily? We don’t have space to leave it out 😄

Just to add something I wish I'd known earlier: electric guitar is a bit easier than acoustic because the strings are closer to the fretboard, so you don't need to apply as much pressure with your fingers. You can also get very small amps with headphone jacks if you don't want to disturb the neighbours.