# Single line or multi line?



## breakup (Jul 8, 2015)

Not sure which thread to post this in, so I'll post it here. 

I've been thinking about this for awhile and I have been wondering which is considered to be more difficult, or is there no difference. On the Piano I play both hands and multiple lines of harmony, along with the melody. On the trumpet I am only playing one line of music whether it be melody or harmony. Is one considered to be more difficult musically, or is each difficult in it's own right. I am aware that string instruments like the violin do occasionally play 2 lines together, and organs and other keyboard and similar instruments play multiple lines at the same time.


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

You don't have to hold the piano when you play it, nor worry about playing in tune. So there are trade offs. Expectations are higher for pianists as well. No one writes four-part solo trumpet music (I don't think).

Ultimately, music is written to challenge the very best performers, so it all probably evens out. But piano is great for beginners because you don't have to worry about being in tune, and can easily play full songs yourself nearly right away.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

breakup said:


> Not sure which thread to post this in, so I'll post it here.
> 
> I've been thinking about this for awhile and I have been wondering which is considered to be more difficult, or is there no difference. On the Piano I play both hands and multiple lines of harmony, along with the melody. On the trumpet I am only playing one line of music whether it be melody or harmony. Is one considered to be more difficult musically, or is each difficult in it's own right. I am aware that string instruments like the violin do occasionally play 2 lines together, and organs and other keyboard and similar instruments play multiple lines at the same time.


Most instruments have their own difficulties to overcome. Orchestral string instruments are also (usually) single line instruments. But unlike the piano, the notes you play are not fixed and are subject to constant intonation problems. This makes string instruments much harder to play from a "playing in tune" perspective.


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## breakup (Jul 8, 2015)

GreenMamba said:


> You don't have to hold the piano when you play it, *nor worry about playing in tune*. So there are trade offs. Expectations are higher for pianists as well. No one writes four-part solo trumpet music (I don't think).
> 
> Ultimately, music is written to challenge the very best performers, so it all probably evens out. But piano is great for beginners *because you don't have to worry about being in tune*, and can easily play full songs yourself nearly right away.


I would agree that this is true 99+% of the time, but there are rare occasions when a piano goes out of tune and needs to be corrected. In that respect I am definitely the "odd man out". My piano is acoustic, was built in 1911, and is at the age when it is in need of a lot of attention to keep it in tune. I checked the pin block and it is in really good condition so my problem was with the wood drying out. I was having frequent problems with a pin letting go and a string was out of tune. After the first one, my piano tuner told me to get the tools and learn to do it myself, because it was going to happen more often than I could afford, He would be happy to come out each time and re-tune it, but he could see it happening a lot. For the pins I got some Pin-tite by Schaff and have had to tune the piano less often, and the pins no longer just let go. So I would agree that normally a piano player doesn't need to worry about being in tune, but In my case I am usually listening for keys that have slipped out of tune a little. Usually I stop my practice and spend some time tuning the piano.


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## LHB (Nov 1, 2015)

In terms of being able to play the instrument, a piano is the easiest for a beginner to learn. Anyone can bash out Twinkle Twinkle Little Star on piano, but trying to play Twinkle on a violin would be much harder due to having to know how to hold, bow and finger the instrument, not to mention that playing with good tone would be much harder on a violin than a piano. However, the hardest music for the piano is much, much harder than the hardest music for violin, due to the piano being able to play much more complex music than violin. Pieces like Richard Barrett's Tract and Xenakis' Synaphai have passages with 10+ voices, while the violin can only really play 3 or 4 voices at most.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

Not to be pedantic, but I think the ideal question would be which serves the music the best in context, not which is harder. While I have great respect for a virtuoso performer, no amount of shredding ability replaces a phrase delivered with feeling.


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