Is piano easier than a guitar in terms of learning and ease of play? It is a common question that has constantly been at the center of arguments between several instrumentalists. There are several answers to this question, but it all depends on a person’s preference.
Anyone who has played both instruments will tell you that learning the piano and guitar can be challenging. The truth is a person’s age will determine which is easier to learn and play.
The guitar is the easiest instrument for adults because they will not find learning about songs from a beginner’s stage.
On the other hand, the piano will be elementary for a younger person or student to play because they do not have to deal with strumming right-hand patterns and gripping guitar fretboards. It will interest you to note that playing the piano and guitar allows for the unlimited challenge, growth, and advanced stages.
This article will carry out a profound comparison between playing the guitar and playing the piano. We hope that when you are done reading this article, you will choose or decide which instrument you think will be easier to learn how to play.
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Is Piano Easier Than Guitar? Side By Side Comparison
Few features distinguish playing the piano and playing the guitar. However, the layout of a piano is very different from that of the guitar, which shows in every single note being played.
A single note you play on the piano corresponds with a single key, but a single note on the guitar can be linked on multiple strings. Thus, a piano offers clear sounds no matter how hard you press the key, but a guitar requires pulling strings hard, or you get a buzz.
A pianist needs to learn about chord inversions so he can easily transition between chords. Still, a guitarist works with a fretboard shape instrument, making it easy to transition smoothly between chords.
Finally, you can learn the strumming patterns and chord shapes on a guitar so you can play your favorite song, but a piano requires being taught by an instructor as playing it can be very challenging. So now, let us look at some of the side-by-side comparisons between a piano and a guitar.
Side By Side Comparisons
Factor 1 – Easier For Learning Songs
What I mean by easier learning songs is a person’s ability to play an instrument’s chord while singing along. Going by this explanation, you will agree that it is much easier to learn about songs while playing the guitar rather than playing the piano.
Guitar students will quickly learn about strumming patterns and chords, and since several pop songs use various chords, a guitarist will find it easy to learn about songs while playing the guitar. In addition, creating a chord shape on the guitar means you can’t play a wrong note as the chord will produce desired sounds.
Pianists are likely to learn about chords quickly, but they start by learning the fundamentals from a teacher, and these fundamentals include learning about playing scales and note names before learning about chords.
They find it difficult to make smooth sound chord progression once they learn about chords because they ought to use chord inversion. A pianist might look at his fingers more than a guitarist if he doesn’t learn about chord inversion because of the large gaps between chords.
Factor 2 – Layout Type
The way piano keys are arranged makes sure they have a simpler layout, but this is hardly found on a guitar’s fretboard. So instead, you will find five black notes and seven white notes on a piano, and the five black notes are arranged to follow the same pattern.
It is a cluster of two notes followed by three notes, and you will get a higher pitch sound when you move to the right. Moving to the left produces a lower pitch sound, and all of these make learning scales and other concepts very easy on a piano.
Guitar layouts are very complicated compared to a piano’s layout. Even though you have just six strings on a guitar, all of these strings can produce several pitches.
It makes playing a scale on a guitar a zigzag pattern across strings and frets, while all you have is a linear pattern when playing a scale on a piano. Many guitarists will lack the knowledge of individual notes, but they will learn about chords as shapes.
It tells you that learning about classical and jazz songs can be accomplished while playing the piano, but the guitar only helps you learn about your favorite songs.
Factor 3 – Beginner Technique
The first one to two months is the stage we refer to as the beginner stage when playing an instrument, and this is the stage where you get to practice techniques for about fifteen minutes.
The early beginner piano stage involves using both hands while playing, and notes will sound very clearly regardless of how hard you strike them. At this stage, learning how to play the guitar is very challenging, and let’s explain it below;
- You will get a buzz at the early beginner guitar stage if the strings are not pressed hard enough.
- Your fingers will hurt badly from playing the guitar until calluses are developed.
- Strumming or plucking with the right hand requires extra coordination while placing your fingers using the left hand.
Below is a list of challenges you will face when at the early beginner technique piano stage
- You will find it hard in navigating through a wide playing surface
- It won’t be easy to play using both hands independently
The challenges that come when you are in the early beginner technique guitar stage include;
- Not enough gravitational help
- It requires more subtleties to gain control
- Having proper finger placement and good grip
Factor 4 – Easier For Children
So many tutors who teach children how to play the guitar and piano prefer teaching kids aged five to ten, and kids are likely to hate the soreness they feel when they press on a guitar’s strings.
Kids will also have challenges with coordination when learning how to play the guitar as both hands are designed to perform several duties. Learning how to play the piano, on the other hand, is easier because it requires playing melodies with one hand.
Kids will not feel any finger pain when learning how to play the piano, so you can introduce your child to the ukulele when teaching them how to play the guitar. Ukuleles are described as baby guitars as they possess four easy-to-press and closely spaced strings.
Factor 5 – Easier To Self-Teach
Do you think it’s easier to self-teach playing the guitar or playing the piano? It is easier to self-teach using the guitar than using the piano, and you can learn a strumming pattern or a couple of chord shapes because they are straightforward to recognize.
Learning how to play the piano will take a longer process, so you ought to have a guide or a tutor when learning how to play the piano.
Sharing music on a guitar is easy because of its portable design, and it is easier to take outside for events or small gatherings, especially in small spaces.
Interestingly, you can play the guitar among a group when people are conversing, but sharing music on the piano can be challenging. A piano is large by size, making it the center of attraction anywhere it is kept, and it is impossible to wheel a piano to the center of a group.
It means you will not be able to play the piano in the center of a group while conversations are being held, and this tells you that the portability of a guitar makes it very easy to share music.
Factor 7 – Easier To Maintain
Guitars are easier and cheaper to maintain, and pianos are designed to hold thousand of tension in their strings. On the other hand, guitars will hold hundreds of tension in their strings, and it costs about one hundred to two hundred dollars to tune a piano.
On the other hand, a guitar only requires a few minutes to get tuned, and re-stringing a guitar might cost five to ten dollars. Re-stringing a piano costs hundreds of dollars.
Overall Comparison
From the points we have noted above, you can tell that maintaining a piano is very costly compared to maintaining a guitar. However, the self-teach, portability, and ease of playing the guitar make learning easier than the piano.
It is easier at the beginner stages, but the piano will be a better option if you are more interested in classical music. Kids can learn how to play the piano even at a tender age, depending on what fascinates a child.
Piano Or Guitar – Which Is More Attractive
Stereo-typically, people who play the guitar are more attractive than people who play the piano. However, a recent study showed that nine out of ten people found guitarists to be very attractive, and they believe people who play the guitar are likely to woo a mate more than a person who plays the piano.
When talking about learning how to play the guitar, there is a particular guitar that you will find very easy to play.
The easiest guitar you can learn how to play is the acoustic steel-string guitar, and steel-string guitars are known as the most common acoustic guitar of all. This is because the steel-string guitar has a tone, but electric guitars, on the other hand, require hooking up to function, and they do not feel comfortable when held.
One frequently being asked is if one can learn how to play the guitar and piano simultaneously.
It is a bad idea to learn to play the piano and guitar simultaneously if you have about forty-five minutes to practice a day. You will not be able to progress learning both instruments with just forty-five minutes of your free time.
But you might benefit from learning how to play both instruments simultaneously if you have more than forty-five spare minutes of your time every day.
In general, the piano is the right instrument to provide you with the music theory concept and understanding you will need when going into the world of music.
You will find it easy to learn the guitar after finding your feet with the piano, so you should consider learning the guitar first if you prefer pop music or are interested in learning about both instruments.
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Are Pianos And Guitars Similar?
The piano and the guitar are similar instruments because they belong to the string family, but this can be unclear because a piano has lots of keys, and you can see the strings on the guitar.
When you hit a note on the piano, a hammer gets engaged, which strikers a string found right inside the body of a piano. A guitar is known to have only six strings, but a piano is likely to have about two hundred and thirty strings.
Guitars and pianos are similar because they are considered chromatic instruments. It means both instruments have the capacity to produce sounds on a chromatic scale.
However, you might not know what a chromatic scale is if you are yet to begin musical classes, and learning about music theory is probably the last thing on your mind right now.
Conclusion: Is Piano Easier Than Guitar
It is still okay because learning how to play an instrument makes it easy to switch to another instrument when necessary. What this means is if you learn how to play the guitar, you will find it easy to switch to learning how to play the piano and vice versa.
It should be enough to take away any form of pressure you have on you because learning one of these instruments right now will make it easy to learn another of it much later. So when choosing between a piano or guitar, the best option remains to go for the instrument that really gets you excited.
The instrument that gets you excited is where your joy and happiness lie, and you will not find learning how to play such an instrument difficult.
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