which would be harder to learn?

Question

without formal training.. keyboard or guitar?

i can already read music so thats not a factor... i already own a guitar and can buy a keyboard so thats not a factor.. based on difficulty and challenges of each instrument, which would be most difficult to learn without training?

Answer 1

guitar

Answer 2

Guitar is more difficult to learn. Here why...the piano is laid out visually so that once someone you decipher the position of each note and understand the concept of registers, you are able to build with relative ease on that base of knowledge. Every “C” note is located at the left of the group of two black keys; every “D” note is located in the middle of two black key; every “E” not is located to the right of the two black keys, etc. Each pitch, in each register, occurs only once on the keyboard. (Here, I'm assuming that one has the ability to learn to read the notes on the musical staff by themselves, which has to be done regardless of the instrument utilized.)

On the guitar a student will discover that the same pitch is repeated in several places on the guitar. A student will is required to learn the notes in each position (fret) from scratch, or at a beginner level, until he has mastered all the positions. If students never learn all the positions, they never progress to an advanced level of play. This takes about 7 - 10 years of study.

On the piano, because the keyboard layout is immediately familiar, the same thing can be accomplished two to three years.

Answer 3

Wow, others say guitar. I've always found guitar easier to learn than playing the piano. But then, I don't know if people would say keyboarding and piano-ing are very similiar.

If this helps, you go from beginner guitar to intermediate guitar in about two weeks if you take a class. Don't even bother getting a beginning guitar book, because I skipped about 2/3s of it and just learned from the last few pages.

Answer 4

Who ever said the guitar is harder to learn than the piano is only fooling themselves. The piano is the hardest instrument to master. There's so many intricacies about playing the piano.

First the guitar is laid out just like a piano. Every fret is a semitone, just like the piano (semitone between each note).

Second, the piano can produce millions of colors the guitar can't and one has to have independence in both L.H. and R.H. to master the piano. Each had has to be completely independent, and then we can add the three pedals. The feet have to work independently of the fingers.

Third, why are their more "learn to play guitar books on your own" then there are piano? Because it's plain simple. You can learn to do chords, scales, and pieces on guitar in matters of weeks, but to do the same thing on the piano can take years to master.

Fourth - the most difficult music in the world is composed for piano. I don't see any Liszt Transcendental Etudes written for guitar. Most rock and pop guitarists use the same chord progressions over and over but in different keys, and if they want, they can cheat and use a capell to transpose for them. No such a thing for the piano.

I can write thousands of more reasons why... who wants to challenge me?

Answer 5

The guitar would be harder to learn, as you have to tune the strings as well as be able to pick them for the right sound.
A piano as you can select the melody quite easily if you have an ear to do so...
Many people can play the piano by ear without any musical knowledge.

Some people can play a guitar too, but they create their own harmonies with strings tuned to themselves and it can sound weird to others...

The Suziki Method of Music teaches you to listen and follow the teacher and can be effective...
http://www.suzukiassociation.org/

Answer 6

It depends on your build and mental state. Guitar would be harder physically. If you have thin fingers, guitar strings may be too thick and hurt them. You'll also have to hold the guitar, which can be heavy for women. Keyboard is more complex mentally. More lines (melodies) to keep track of at once.

Answer 7

i don't know about keyboard, but it takes a lot of practice to play the guitar. but it's not that hard! i learned how to play by myself, and now i gotta tell ya... I'm pretty good at it! get a nice book or website and it gets a lot easier...

i found some websites that may be useful

Answer 8

Without any help they are both as hard as each other.
If you get formal training they still both take a loth of work and without it it is twice as difficult.

i know this because i play piano and have had formal traing.
then i tried to learn guitar without any help and found that it was really difficult so i asked my school music teacher she could help me.

Answer 9

keyboard, you'll have to read the base and treble cleff at the same time, figure out all the rhythms and still have trouble since you'll have to learn everything about the keyboard in order to know where the fingers will have to go.

Answer 10

My guess would be keyboard.
It seems a much more complex instrument, plus there are way more guitarists than keyboard players.

Answer 11

guitar requires alot of practice if your not going to get lessons, but its easyer in the long run because you use chords insted of notes, so as long as you can remeber chords your good to go. otherwise its best if you learn the keyboard.