# Switching Instruments



## Guest

I've played guitar for 45 years (I'm 57 now), and about 30 of it has been classical. I'm getting a little burned out on the guitar and am considering giving it up for the piano. I can read music, my fingers have pretty good independence (I can play some very difficult guitar pieces, including a transcription of Bach's Chaconne), so I'm wondering how realistic it is to attempt an instrument change at my age. Would it take forever to be able to play some easier Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, etc.? I know everyone learns at a different rate and it would depend on my dedication, but is this dog too old to learn new tricks?


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## hreichgott

So far, my adult piano students who have switched from classical training on another instrument have progressed quite quickly. The beginning stages can be a little frustrating since it's been a while since they were beginners on something -- accepting being a beginner is important, but it tends not to last that long.


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## Guest

Thanks, that's encouraging! So, we're talking a month or so before I could play Busoni's transcription of the Chaconne?  Seriously, though, I know the mechanics are entirely different, but I assume my musical background and finger facility would be advantageous.


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## tdc

I am also attempting to learn piano later in life, after starting on guitar and it is coming along slowly. I have found a guitar background is helpful, but am still finding the over-all process fairly challenging. I think it is a slow process for me mostly because I am still more committed to the guitar. If you are giving up practicing guitar all together for a while it will be easier to make rapid progress on piano.


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## Praeludium

As long as you're studying with a good teacher, I don't see why it wouldn't be fine.

The most frustrating thing about learning the piano (at 18, began music at 14/15 and classsical guitar at 15/16) was the independence of the hands.
I began directly with two-parts inventions by Bach (so that's maybe why), and it was a real torture. Even one year later, after having worked on 4 two parts and 1 three parts inventions, I'd probably still have to do a quite long and tedious work before playing even a two parts invention, even though playing it HS would be ok very quickly.
When you come from an advanced classical guitar background, struggling like that on simple things can be tiresome. But once you (and I !) get over this learning period where everything new is difficult, it'll be amazing.

Also, the hands work quite differently from an instrument to another. I was quite stunned at how much different manners there are of using the hand/arm/wrist/fingers/etc. in order to produce a differente tone, articulation, attack, etc. That's something we do not have in guitar, where the movement range is quite restricted. That's another world and it's quite difficult to get used to it at first (but very interesting !)

I'm currently going through a simillar phase (not burnt out with the guitar but terribly attracted to piano/organ and their repertoires, while there's only 24 hours in a day !). I want to continue the guitar while getting proficient at keyboards though (nails and time are the big problems)..
Good luck with your choices !


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## kv466

Do it! And trust me, you're gonna start missing your guitar soon and will probably pick it back up only to get even better than you've ever been. Best of luck on your piano efforts. I will only ever be seen encouraging the playing of multiple instruments! I'd rather communicate a little with various and many languages than only be fluent in and the master of one.


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## Guest

Haha, I might, but I doubt it. I just don't enjoy the instrument or the music for it anymore.

So, can someone recommend a good beginner piano book for adults? I figure I can teach myself a few basics before paying for lessons.


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## Head_case

Kontrapunctus said:


> Haha, I might, but I doubt it. I just don't enjoy the instrument or the music for it anymore.
> 
> So, can someone recommend a good beginner piano book for adults? I figure I can teach myself a few basics before paying for lessons.


Oh no...!

I learnt piano in school but never enjoyed it. I play flute, and it probably took a few years to be able to play Bach Partitas and sightread most pop/jazz/rock stuff.

I'm just learning guitar now. About 2 weeks :lol:

The calluses are a new experience but I still can't sight read. I'd like to be able to play classical music on the guitar, although I'm not sure I want the discipline and hard work that went into flute playing - maybe just to mess around with and relax.

What is it that made you lose interest in the guitar? Will you get it back? I find the piano the most boring tedious logical scalar instrument ever invented. You will lose the glissando techniques and the intimacy that comes with playing so closely with an instrument which you hug.


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## Guest

^ Pretty much what I said in my previous post.


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## Head_case

Oh dear. 

To think of all of those 45 years of guitar enjoyment, suddenly gone plonk into piano :/


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## hreichgott

Praeludium said:


> I began directly with two-parts inventions by Bach (so that's maybe why), and it was a real torture.


Do not start with the two-part inventions. Everyone underestimates them. They are maybe late-intermediate repertoire. Begin with beginner pieces. If you must have Bach, then the Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach is good (late-beginner) once you've already learned to play a few short and simple pieces with a melody against a repeating accompaniment pattern or chords.

Mikrokosmos book 1 is another good one, different approach, works on independence of the hands from almost the very start in incredibly simple pieces.

Denes Agay's "Easy Classics to Moderns" is a good book to have on hand for an adult beginner, although the definition of "easy" can vary greatly from one piece to the next.


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## Praeludium

I understand what you say about the two-parts invention, and I agree. 
I was unable to give a perfect rendition of them, of course, but they helped me to do huge progress, so I absolutely do not regret. I had the luck to get a good teacher soon enough, so I didn't take any bad habit as far as I know. That said, my teacher, on the top of giving me various etudes, made me work on even harder pieces (Haydn sonata hobXVI:48. I only got to the end of the exposition, and a bit under tempo lol) 
Cortot recommended to work on pieces above your level in order to progress quickly, even if you couldn't play them well enough for a recital or whatever.
Moreover, playing "real pieces" helped me tremendously to really get interested in piano. (and it's not like I started with a Liszt etude lol)

Anyway, I just wanted to say I understand your point and agree to some extent, but absolutely do not regret what I did 


I loved to work on Bartok too. It was another piece above my level (From the diary of a fly) but I was able to play it properly at an audition. Anyway, this helped me to do huge progress. My teacher told me she thinks Bach and Bartok are two excellent composers to learn piano : they get your ears and your head work as much as your body (and it's not easy for the body either !), Bartok being non-tonal on the top of that.
In a broadcast with Philippe Cassard, Dominique Merlet (former teacher at Paris CNSM, Geneva HEM, now teaching at Salzburg Mozarteum) said he gave a lot of pieces by Bartok and Prokoviev to his students because (amongst other things of course) there was a huge variety of different attacks, many of them being very quick.
Maybe I should learn to make my point with less words : I second hreichgott about Bartok (and modern composers in general), even if I'm just a little student without much experience of the instrument;


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## hreichgott

It's true that working on pieces that are too difficult will help you progress quickly. As long as you don't get discouraged  I have to say that with students I prefer to give them music that they can be successful with and play beautifully. That's really great that Diary of a Fly started out as being "too hard" and then you had a successful performance!


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## Jaws

Kontrapunctus said:


> I've played guitar for 45 years (I'm 57 now), and about 30 of it has been classical. I'm getting a little burned out on the guitar and am considering giving it up for the piano. I can read music, my fingers have pretty good independence (I can play some very difficult guitar pieces, including a transcription of Bach's Chaconne), so I'm wondering how realistic it is to attempt an instrument change at my age. Would it take forever to be able to play some easier Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, etc.? I know everyone learns at a different rate and it would depend on my dedication, but is this dog too old to learn new tricks?


I am an adult starter on oboe (second instrument) starting a bit younger than you are now, but still managed to overtake lots of music students who started at school and were at conservatoire. So from my experience age has nothing to do with it. Forgot to mention I am not a beginner now, and I have managed a technique that is extremely difficult to do, that most oboe students never get to do.


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## Guest

Jaws, that's encouraging. However, after much soul-searching I really don't think I have the patience to start a new instrument now. So, I think I'll stay with the guitar.


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