Flute, guitar or piano?

[Iwishiwasagiraffe]

My dd is 9 and in year 4. She already does singing lessons and will take her grade 2 next year. She has a good musical ear but not incredible concentration. However she copes fine in her 20 minute singing lesson and enjoys it. She wants to learn a musical instrument in year 5 and is torn between piano, guitar and flute. We have an electric piano with weighted keys in the house. I have some knowledge of it because I did grade 4 piano a million years ago but my sight reading is dreadful now. I have no experience of guitar or flute.

does anyone have any recommendations of the best instrument for her? She loves singing so I was leaning toward piano or guitar so she could sing and play. Any advice gratefully received!

Guitar or piano, both are sociable instruments that will be fun to have basic competency,

It depends what opportunities there are for playing locally. Is there a music service beginners’ orchestra or wind group? Or a guitar group of some kind? What groups will her prospective senior school have? Or will her music essentially be a solo pursuit so to accompany herself?

If a solo pursuit, to go with singing - and maybe form a band with friends - then guitar. If serious about music, as a solo pursuit - piano is an excellent foundation. If, on the other hand, any orchestral or wind groups exist - go with flute. The motivational power of group music making is not to be underestimated.

Piano is the most versatile and you already have one to practice on. Any genre of music works on piano.

Does your daughter show an interest in your piano?

Does she have any experience of tinkering with a guitar?

Has she shown any interest in woodwind?

Is she learning to read music in her singing lessons? Does she want to play in an orchestra? Has her singing teacher any thoughts on the matter?

My views: piano is harder as you have to learn to coordinate the two lines of music. But that gives you a wonderful springboard for learning other instruments. Piano tends to be a more solitary instrument as well.
Guitar is very flexible in terms of style of music, it's portable, she can play with friends. But it can make your fingers sore unless you practice v regularly and toughen them up! And if she learns tabs rather than notation on the guitar, that won't necessarily help with other musical learning.
Flautists can play interesting tunes both solo and in an orchestra. Breath control can be tricky to start with but it may well be that her singing experience will help with this, and vice versa.

(My experience : started with recorder. Went on to get grade 8 piano. Also learned violin, viola during my teens and sang in various choirs, inc on tv. Self taught flute to about grade 4-5 level. Tried to play guitar but never really gelled with it. I now learn clarinet, about g6-7 level currently. All views above are from my own experience!)

Whichever one she likes the sound of the best and depending on what type of music she wants to learn about.

Flute is going to lead more in the direction of classical and orchestral music. Piano is suitable for all types of music. So is guitar, but the classical repertoire isn't very varied and the "great" composers of the past didn't write for guitar.

But flute or piano only if you can afford lessons. It is possible to teach yourself guitar if its just strumming she wants to do.

She would be learning with the music service that come to school and they do have an orchestra. Her senior school doesn’t have any music groups that I’m aware of, just music gcse. I would like her to join an orchestra if she enjoyed it. I think she is quite musical.

Flute is one of the most popular orchestral instruments, so there is more competition for orchestra places even at school, I have read.

Wow that’s impressive how many instruments you can play! She plays on the piano sometimes, making up her own tunes. She also has a cheap guitar that never stays in tune and likes to play on that and sing along to it. I’m not sure where the flute idea came from. They did learn the p buzz in school and performed with other schools in a big orchestra so possibly from that.

from what you’ve said I’m leaning toward piano encouraging the piano.

Having already shortlisted what you'd be happy with, I'd let her choose the one she likes the sound of most. She will spend many hours at it, so better for her to feel like it was her choice.

We're having similar conversations at the moment. As others have said, flute is a good option if your DD would like to join an orchestra. We were also thinking about portability, as DD will have a bit of a walk to secondary school when she starts, so I suggested maybe not something massive. Partly for selfish reasons, but I don't really want to end up being a cello taxi!

Well, if you already have a piano, in many ways that's the easy option!

And if she then wants to move on to other instruments, learning the staves and theory for piano will stand her in good stead for whatever else takes her fancy.

Piano provides an excellent musical foundation as you can see every note and how it relates to every other note, laid out right before you, so really handy for musical understanding and theory. And you need to learn 2 clefs too.

I am a singing teacher so of course can play piano OK but desperately wish I’d been allowed to learn at your daughter’s age (wasn’t allowed to copy my piano-playing sister! 🙄). Grade 2 is fab for a 9 year old, well done her! I have a few 9 year old singing students who also do piano, it’s a great pairing.

Please let her try them all out and go with the one she prefers.

I can’t afford for her to try all 3 unfortunately

Piano is great to learn to read music and get the hang of scales etc because it is easy to translate notes on the page to keys. But it is less good for the orchestra.

My dd did piano for 4 years (grade 4) and then dropped it in favour of saxophone, but the piano gave a great grounding in music generally.

Depends on her preference and musical ambitions.

If she is likely to take Music at GCSE then being able to play the piano helps massively when it comes to composition.

If she is interested in being in orchestras then flute is a good choice.

DD (Y11) is mainly a singer, but plays the piano and both electric and acoustic guitars plus uke.

Guitar is very hard on the fingers for the first year or so, you need to practice a lot to get past that. DD stopped playing it after the first year due to that and switched to piano. Then took it up again nearly 2 years ago and it's definitely her preferred instrument now.

Piano tricky because you have to follow two lines of music.

All sound reasonable in the beginner stages.

Maybe try some out and see what she likes best?

Thanks all. I will have a chat to her about what she would like to do re joining an orchestra when she’s older.

Hi,
I am a professional flute, piano, recorder & singing teacher based north of Newbury. I would advise piano or flute. The flute is enjoyable to learn and uses only the treble clef notation, which she will use when sight-singing. The piano uses the treble and bass clef but is nice to learn with the added bonus of learning to read notation at the same time as learning to play the piano.
If she is interested in lessons please let me know.. see my website. Misspmusicteacher.comor email on : [email protected]
Best wishes
AP.

Piano would be better really if only for learning sheet music in both treble and bass clefs, which you don't with other instruments. It is also a good instrument for fiddling about and composing.

I wish I'd had a better teacher (we moved house when I was 13 and had trouble finding a teacher in the new town), and that I'd persevered with it, to be honest.

Piano to go with her singing. So versatile and sounds great at whatever level she gets to.

the orchestra - perhaps she will sing with it in a choir etc? Or switch to something like percussion to join in? Flute can be very popular so hard to get into orchestras if that is your main reason

I am going to say NOT piano. I learned piano and felt it was a shame I could never play in an orchestra or group - of course you can accompany others but you have to be quite good for that and I never was, but you can be quite a low level at other instruments and still be part of a group or orchestra. I encouraged DS to do a different instrument - he chose flute at the same age as your DD, and now aged 17 just did his first paid gig as part of a band/mini orchestra, loves his music, composes, is doing music A Level and has taken up piano as a second instrument of his own accord.

Professional pianist here.

Piano & guitar are "harmony instruments", and piano has even more polyphonic possibilities (capable of playing many lines of music at the same time). This provides a level of "self-sufficiency", no need for accompanists - you can enjoy practising and playing the music as is. It also offers a practical understanding of music theory. Piano is probably best for this, as all the notes are laid out in front of you visually. Guitar is a beautifully sensitive instrument - just your finger/nail and the string... I find it enchanting.

I can always hear the difference between students who have learnt on an electric/acoustic piano. The piano is an organic instrument, much more than just pushing a button, even with weighted keys, dynamic levels, electric pedal etc. There are so many ways to strike the keys, handling and taking joy in the sound, that an electric instrument just can't reproduce. Even a poor quality upright instrument would be better. You can find them often very cheaply, or for free, on local marketplaces. Someone is always moving house and won't have space etc. You can also find small uprights which will fit into small spaces, if that is a concern.

Flute will give her more opportunities to play in bands and orchestras, which is a real joy. With singing, she already has the opportunity to participate in choirs.

Why don't you take some trial lessons on each instrument? Maybe attend some concerts so she can hear the possibilities of the instruments?

DD(17) started the flute in year 4, passing G8 last year with zero practice last year. She was G8 standard, when she played G5-level pieces for GCSE music. She needed to pass G5 Theory (done as an afterschool club for 2 terms) to sit the subject. Being able to play the piano or guitar would have helped her with composition, but she managed to get a "9" without.

A flute is very portable (if walking to school). The sound doesn't travel too far and can sound okay after a couple of months. A student flute is about £300 (think we used a Yamaha 211 up to grade 6). We bought one secondhand from the firm that services her teacher's flute.

Did she enjoy the pbuzz lessons at school and is there a brass teacher? The flute is a very popular instrument and if she loves the sound it makes she should definitely go for that. Learning a brass instrument opens different doors; trombones are played in orchestras, jazz bands, brass bands and concert bands and trumpets are similar (albeit not in brass bands - they have cornets instead). If you are in a brass band area you may well find your DD could be taught a brass instrument very cheaply through a beginners band, often with an instrument provided on loan. In my experience, there seems to be a particular shortage of girls playing trombone so I'd encourage anyone who enjoyed the pbuzz to take up the trombone.

DD started piano at age 6, but really wanted to be part of some kind of social ensemble playing like her guitarist brother. She took up percussion and now plays in our local brass band, 2 bands at school and a local wind and!

DS started ukulele age 7, moved onto guitar 18 months later, now 16, working for G6. Plays in a local "guitar orchestra" , rock band, folk band and has taught himself bass and piano.

Guitar can be very social and very versatile. Piano is excellent for understanding music theory and basic musicianship, but less oppurtunity for social playing.