Is the guitar easier or harder to learn than the piano?

1. 80

   kereeves3posted 11 years ago

   Is the guitar easier or harder to learn than the piano?
   
   I took four years of piano lessons when I was a kid, and I've always regretted quitting.  I really would like to get back into it, or even try to take up the guitar.  But they few times I have picked up a guitar, something just doesn't click.  Help!

   replyreport
2. 86

   Hezekiahposted 11 years ago

   For learning just chords I would say the guitar is much easier. Also guitar is much easier to play while singing at the same time.
   Once you start improvising / experimenting and learning more complex chords, the piano begins to get a little better for that. The reason being is that with a little theory, one can count keys and work out new chords and the correct scales without having to memorize them. This because more difficult on the guitar as chords are very difficult to work out by counting strings / frets etc.

   replyreport
   1. 80

      kereeves3posted 11 years agoin reply to this

      That's interesting, bc I feel that playing chords on the piano is much easier!  I can sit at the piano and play chord after chord, just messing around.  Maybe I just need to play the guitar long enough to get some good calluses going.

      replyreport
3. 76

   teboposted 11 years ago

   I think guitar is much easier than piano because you can learn a few chords and play a song. The piano is a different story. You need to learn each note on the keyboard and learn to read left and right hand notes - much more detail.With guitar you need to be able to strum with a good rhythm.

   replyreport
4. 96

   EricDockettposted 11 years ago

   I've played guitar and bass for a long time, and I play a little piano.  Like you, I took piano lessons when I was a little kid then quit.  Then I picked up the guitar when I was around 12 years old. 
   
   In my opinion, both instruments are as difficult as you want them to be.  You can learn some basics and get by on either, or you can immerse yourself in study and become an expert on either.
   
   I think there are way more resources for people starting out on guitar, particularly the use of tablature for learning songs.  To learn songs on piano you usually have to known how to read music.  So in that sense maybe guitar is a little easier.  but be aware that music theory is the same for both.  The relationships of the notes on the piano are simpler to visualize because the they are all in a line, but once you understand how the guitar's tuning works you'll see a direct connection between the piano keyboard and the guitar fretboard.
   
   If you want to learn guitar my advice would be to learn to tune the thing, pick some easy songs you like, look up the tab online and start trying to learn them.  This will get you started learning some basic chords without getting bored.  At the same time, research left and right hand technique, scales, music theory, etc, and you'll begin to understand how it all applies to the guitar.  Before you know it things will click well enough! :-)

   replyreport