learning guitar as a 2nd instrument

[CP]

This is my first time over here. I posted this on the keyboard forum, and figured maybe I should have posted it here first:

 

How many of you play both the guitar and keyboard? I been taking piano lessons the last 2 1/2 - 3 years, and I'm going to start taking guitar lessons this week. I will continue to take piano lessons also. Went out and bought my wife a Valencia accoustic-electric guitar. She is going to start taking classical lessons on the guitar, and I will take it at the same time. Compared to the piano, is the guitar more difficult to learn? If so, why. Also, what's the most difficult part of playing guitar?

 

I will appreciate your answers. Thanks.

[MarshallGibson_6]

The guitar is easier to learn than the piano, which might be easier to learn than the violin, you can start violin at a younger age with custom neck sizes. After you're comfortable with your knowledge of the chords, scales, riffs, it's a lot of fun. Rock and roll lick clich-ays are a must to learn. The most difficult part of the guitar is ...

[michael saulnier]

I think guitar and keys are "differently" hard.

 

On the one hand, keys don't require much physical skill to smoothly play a note. You press a key, hard or soft... and the tone sounds "as good" as anyone else, even with folks with more experience.

 

There's also only "one key = one note", meaning if someone tells you play "middle-c" or any other note... it's easy to find and play.

 

Guitar takes a little physical ability just to correctly fret and pick a note. You eventually have to build up calluses on your fingers, learn where to "fret" a string, how to move your fingers to make chord shapes and use enough control to get them to ring out properly... and more.

 

There's also multiple places to play notes on a guitar... making it a bit confusing sometimes.

 

In some ways guitar can be "easy"... for example once you know the basic "barre" chords and learn how they "slide" up and down the neck... you can pretty easily play chord progressions.

 

This is NOT an easy question... but personally, I think it's fun to know how to play BOTH instruments...

 

Why not?

 

guitplayer

[D_dup3]

I think the basics have been covered but I'd add that both the guitar & piano are the most developed of European harmonic instruments.

The linear piano arrangement is clear in locating notes whereas the guitar, as Guitarplayer mentions, the sort of "note grid" of the guitar offers a choice (or demands the question) of which position at which to play notes for ease of execution of particular pieces.

Also the timbre of the guitar (at least the acoustic---especially nylon strings) is more attenuated as you ascend pitch than on the piano (where you have no position choice anyway), & can factor into positioning.

 

The guitar can give you some different ideas harmonically by the various ways you can approach construction & execution of chord forms.

[NMcGuitar]

Guitplayer pretty much hit the nail on the head.

I'm a guitarist who plays a little bit of keys, and the thing is I just find them so very different. Not necessarily harder/easier, just different. I especially find using keyboards helps me a lot when writing music because it causes me to think differently.

So I think it's a great idea to learn both. Good luck!

[KenElevenShadows]

They're both different, and easy in their own way. They both reward you with a fairly easy learning curve at first, but of course you can spend 5+0 years and never learn enough on either instrument.

 

I am classically trained on piano, but now primarily play guitar in a rock band (atmospheric rock, sort of like Radiohead).

 

What's the most difficult part of playing guitar? Learning the notes, I suppose, or fretting the note properly and getting a good tone out of it. Obviously, much of the tone of the guitar comes from the guitar itself, but so much of it also comes from your hands. And maybe another difficult part, at least for me, was getting the wrist that holds the pick to relax more while picking.

[CP]

Thanks alot guys for the responses. I am really looking forward to starting my lessons tommorrow.

[69tele]

I play both to "giggable" std and I would say guitar is more difficult.

 

Whilst with piano you have to deal with two indepedent hands with guitar I feel learning to fret notes is more difficult whilst on the piano you can play simple tunes straight away.

 

On the other hand my sister has recently learnt guitar and she is a classically trained pianist.

 

In a few months she is already playing rhythm parts with the band ....

 

Then again she has bought a James Burton Tele and Buddy Guy Sig Strat in the last six months so that kinda helps !

 

Ernie

[alcohol]

For rhythmic playing I prefer the guitar. In general, a guitar can give a satisfactory accompaniment with the least effort. For a solo instrument the piano is much easier to play. Classical piano is much easier for me than classical guitar. Jazz piano and bebop is just right there to see. I can't play bebop on guitar at all. The blues is not a problem with on guitar. For playing song heads, I prefer to have my guitar player take the lead or substitute for a sax player than myself on keys because I feel the guitar offers a greater range of articulation for melody.

 

I've been playing piano for 42 years and guitar for 8.