# Piano or Guitar? which is more harder to master?



## Davzon

One thing that I've been thinking about it which instrument would be the hardest to play? I know most people will say the instrument they play is hardest, but I'm thinking it comes down to piano and guitar. For me I think piano is much more harder, cause for guitar players they can use capos and just play the same thing they were doing before but a few frets up. Piano, however you can't do that you have to transpose everything either up a major 3rd or a minor 3rd, either way much more harder in my point of view. I hope everyone is having a nice day.


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## Marisol

Davzon said:


> Piano, however you can't do that you have to transpose everything either up a major 3rd or a minor 3rd, either way much more harder in my point of view.


You lost me with that statement.


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## norman bates

Davzon said:


> One thing that I've been thinking about it which instrument would be the hardest to play? I know most people will say the instrument they play is hardest, but I'm thinking it comes down to piano and guitar. For me I think piano is much more harder, cause for guitar players they can use capos and just play the same thing they were doing before but a few frets up. Piano, however you can't do that you have to transpose everything either up a major 3rd or a minor 3rd, either way much more harder in my point of view. I hope everyone is having a nice day.


about the guitar, you are considering the technique of the left hand that is relatively easy (if we don't consider complex legatos). But try to find one guitarist on earth who is capable to masters the right hand techniques at the same time for classical, flamenco (rasgueados, alzapua, etc), country (chicken picking), metal (palm muting, sweep, alternate picking, tapping), jazz (cascading harmonics) gipsy jazz (that requires a completely different use of the pick). It's impossible. I can't think of anybody who is capable to do it.


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## Mesa

What's harder, windsurfing or knitting?


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## neoshredder

Piano is harder. But guitar is harder initially until you get the technique down.


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## Arsakes

I think Guitar is harder, because you have to play it in a less comfortable situation and you have to change the chords yourself. You're completely comfortable while playing Piano.

Flute (Recorder) is a hard instrument to learn. The way you need to put your fingers on the holes isn't much comfortable (I think instruments like Oboe and Trumpet are easier at this aspect). Also if your blow is too calm or harsh, the outcome is Falsch.


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## Ingélou

Have a nice day yourself! 

It may be harder to sound good on a guitar when playing classical pieces. You probably get more satisfaction sooner from the piano. Once you're past the initial stages, they are both hard & I don't care to speculate which is harder. I love Mesa's comparison of windsurfing & knitting!


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## Taggart

Mesa said:


> What's harder, windsurfing or knitting?


Knitting while windsurfing?


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## maestro57

Taggart said:


> Knitting while windsurfing?


Taggart, I was doing just that last week! It's easy.

....

I think piano is more difficult than the guitar.


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## schuberkovich

Piano is harder. The increased emphasis on counterpoint and polyrhythms across hands is the main reason.


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## MagneticGhost

Taggart said:


> Knitting while windsurfing?


Knitting while windsurfing playing the piano with your toes, the guitar with your teeth and humming the National Anthem!!!


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## norman bates

schuberkovich said:


> Piano is harder. The increased emphasis on counterpoint and polyrhythms across hands is the main reason.


counterpoints and polyrhythms are used also on guitar.


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## schuberkovich

norman bates said:


> counterpoints and polyrhythms are used also on guitar.


Forgive me if I am being ignorant as I don't really know much guitar music, but often at a fairly basic level on the piano, one has to have multiple lines going in one hand, and sometimes five across both hands, and as far as I know, guitar rarely has to match that.
As shown in this (which is not a complex piece): 



 In addition, the hardest piano music to me seems to eclipse the difficulty of the hardest guitar music.


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## Davzon

I think that's what I was getting at, there is more to read for Pianists bass clef and treble clef, Guitars only need to read one staff at a time. I also think if Piano was more easy then scales would be played faster than what guitar players can play them, but everything seems to fit under their hands. Pianists have to jump and jump all over the place. Of cause at some point you just get used to know certain chords on music. what I mean be major 3rd up or minor is that if you are in the key of C major, and you go up a major 3rd you'd be in the key of E major and if you were to transpose up minor 3rd you'd be then in the key of Eb flat major.


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## norman bates

schuberkovich said:


> Forgive me if I am being ignorant as I don't really know much guitar music, but often at a fairly basic level on the piano, one has to have multiple lines going in one hand, and sometimes five across both hands, and as far as I know, guitar rarely has to match that.
> As shown in this (which is not a complex piece):..
> In addition, the hardest piano music to me seems to eclipse the difficulty of the hardest guitar music.


you are confusing the harmonic complexity of a piece with the technical difficulty of the instrument. It's clear that a pianist can play ten keys at the same time, while a guitarist has only four fingers (or five, if we consider the thumb used by jazz guitarists for instance) to play chords. But try to do a rasgueado on piano. And is a violin even easier because usually you play only one or two notes? 
By the way, today a lot of guitarists use techniques like tapping to play exactly like a piano, but on guitar.




Ok, Don't look at the face of this guy


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## LordBlackudder

piano is easier for me.

it takes a few seconds to learn the c major scale on piano but a few days on a guitar.


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## Davzon

I'm thinking instrument wars pmsl! I guess everyone is going to say something different. Cause everyone has their own mind, I think at the end of the day looking at all the post it's mainly down to people's coordination. Some are good at different things, To be honest I picked up guitar easy but I guess cause I played piano and I know my theory.


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## TheBlackCat

I've been playing the guitar for six years and I taught myself a few relatively easy pieces on the piano (which took me extremely long time).
I find piano more difficult to me because I'm used to use both of my hands to play the same notes (hold the string and pluck), whereas on the piano you play different ones. I also got confused by the f clef, but I suppose I could get used to it after a while.
I think however that for a person who plays only one of the two, guitar would be more difficult to master. As Norman said on the previous page, guitar has many playing styles and mastering one doesn't make you good on the other. Also, while on the piano you have to read two clefs, on the guitar each note can be played in more then one place and many times you have to find where to play them, knowing the other notes (or the piece might not be playable). That makes fluency on first readings very difficult.
Without practice, you have to know to get good sound on the guitar and especially with fast pieces it might not come out very well at first while with the piano you always get the sound by pressing the keys (I don't know about the pedals, they might be difficult). You should as well know to play overtones (artificial and natural), legato, vibrato and many other techniques for different styles. You should make sure your nails are at the right shape if you use them (which you should for classical and flamenco, and I'm still a bit troubled with that), and if you play too much your fingertips might force you to stop.
While piano has very complex pieces which I'm sure are very difficult to play, overall I think guitar pieces are more demanding, if you aspire to play exquisitely (and non-technically).


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## jani

Well isn't it clear, inorder to master piano you just have to practice enough, inorder to master guitar you have to sell your soul to the devil.


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## Taggart

jani said:


> Well isn't it clear, inorder to master piano you just have to practice enough, inorder to master guitar you have to sell your soul to the devil.


No, that's violin especially Paganini. Robert Johnson tried, but didn't have to.


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## norman bates

TheBlackCat said:


> You should make sure your nails are at the right shape if you use them (which you should for classical and flamenco, and I'm still a bit troubled with that)


nails are so annoying for guitar players. Here's a question for you and for those play both instruments: how can you play piano correctly with your right hand if you have long nails?


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## Mesa

I play both for a horrendous amount of time daily, i've just had to learn to fingerpick with no nails whatsoever and sometimes use a thumb pick. The upside is it increases accuracy of fine finger movements and when using a thumb pick your basslines are lovely and prominent, downside is with the amount of sweat my hands produce (thanks, genetics and vast amounts of caffeine!) my fingers absolutely blast through guitar strings, coated or otherwise.


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## norman bates

Mesa said:


> I play both for a horrendous amount of time daily, i've just had to learn to fingerpick with no nails whatsoever and sometimes use a thumb pick. The upside is it increases accuracy of fine finger movements


really? I've played without nails only when I was starting so I don't know, but I've always read people who say that while without nails you have definitely a better sound on the other side to play fast pieces is much more difficult.


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## Pantheon

I believe to a certain extent in depends on the repertoire, more specifically which genre of music you play.
If you're the minimalist/rock type, then piano is certainly much easier. 
But if you're going into classical music and jazz, then I think that piano is harder to certain extent owing to the separate rhythms and patterns played by the L/R hands. 
But playing both instruments is a pain, I must admit. 
All in all I think starting off with the guitar is harder, but playing the virtuoso pieces on the piano are often harder.


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## norman bates

Pantheon said:


> I believe to a certain extent in depends on the repertoire, more specifically which genre of music you play.
> If you're the minimalist/rock type, then piano is certainly much easier.
> But if you're going into classical music and jazz, then I think that piano is harder to certain extent owing to the separate rhythms and patterns played by the L/R hands.


it's another simplification. Actually to improvise in chord melody (using a melody over chords) is one of the most difficult thing a guitarist can do. Maybe the most difficult.


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## mtmailey

PIANO IS HARDER because you play with both hands often with polyrhythm which is not easy to do.It is not easy to master also.


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## norman bates

mtmailey said:


> PIANO IS HARDER because you play with both hands often with polyrhythm which is not easy to do.It is not easy to master also.


you can do it also on guitar (but it's harder)


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## DeepR

Guitar is much harder to learn in my experience.


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## Guest

schuberkovich said:


> In addition, the hardest piano music to me seems to eclipse the difficulty of the hardest guitar music.


There are some pieces for guitar, both original and transcriptions, that are just as hard for the guitarist as "Scarbo" is for the pianist. Nicholas Maw's "Music of Memory" and Jorge Caballero's transcription of Bach's Chromatic Fantasy & Fugue come immediately to mind.


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## neoshredder

DeepR said:


> Guitar is much harder to learn in my experience.


Much easier to play fast though once it becomes second nature to you. But music reading on guitar is a pain.


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## realdealblues

I don't think you can truly master any instrument because you will always be a slave to it.


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## Jord

I've played guitar for about 7 years, Piano about 2 - 3,from experience Piano is far easier to play things that sound better than if you was on your own with guitar, i'd say mainly because you can get really big textures, bass, melody, everything on piano whereas guitar you'd have to practice and be good at what you do to get the same out of the guitar, the way the guitar is set out is really simple, you can get very good on the guitar without knowing theory, guitar is very easy because of being able to learn 1 position for every single chord and using that up and down the fretboard in each key but piano is laid out much simple than guitar, whereas piano i doubt i'd be able to play without theory, piano it seems that learning scales and getting an average speed are part of learning to play but it's still hard to get your playing to a very fast speed, whereas guitar it isn't, from learning to play guitar i'd say it's harder to play fast because of synchronizing your picking hand with your fretting hand, piano is much harder in the way that there can be much more going on at once rhythmically and when i first started i found it very hard to play different stuff with each hand

from my experience i'd say piano is easier to start out and learn but to master there seems so much more you can do with the piano

Edit:
After posting this i thought that it would be harder to learn piano pieces on guitar than guitar pieces on piano


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## playpiano

1000000000% PIANO! hellooo you have to read 2 clefs and play multiple notes at once, yes it is the easiest to actually produce a sound out of but its totally different to master the piano. You need the ability to play fast and memorise very long and difficult pieces, so yes definitly the piano without a doubt.


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## norman bates

playpiano said:


> 1000000000% PIANO! hellooo you have to read 2 clefs and play multiple notes at once, yes it is the easiest to actually produce a sound out of but its totally different to master the piano. You need the ability to play fast and memorise very long and difficult pieces, so yes definitly the piano without a doubt.


the only reasonable thing you've said is that you have to read two clefs. On the other side, you have to play multiple note at once also on guitar, you play fast also on guitar. By the way, I'm not saying that the guitar is the harder of the two, I'm just saying that comparing the two instruments at very high level does not have much sense, because there are too much differences.
Think of this: if you play just two notes on a piano, you have to press two keys and that's it.
If you play two notes on a guitar, you can have palm mutings, muted notes with the left hand, slides with fingers, slides with a slide, bendings, natural harmonics, hartificial harmonics, hammer ons, pull-offs, bending harmonics, touch harmonics, tapping, tapping with slide, tapping with bending, tapping with a pick, whammy bar, vibrato, (and there are different kinds of vibrato), and you can pick the note with a pick, with a thumb pick, with the thumb, with picado, with your nails, with alzapua, rasgueados, slapping it like on a bass, with an e-bow (that request another set of techniques), etc... you have to choose if you use alternate picking or sweep or circular picking, you have to decide even how to hold your pick. And every single thing requests study, and those techniques can be combined. I could go on.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde

I play both, I found piano technique a _lot_ easier to learn and also I found that piano playing requires less thinking of where your fingers are. When a guitarist plays, s/he has to think about two very different ways of using each hand and indeed different ways each finger works at once. I read somewhere that when a guitarist plays they have to think about where the left hand fingers just came from, what they are doing now and what position they need to be in immediately after that note and this is harder on guitar than other instruments, piano included. Also, maintaining fingernails and having good tone and colouristic control and musicality are vital things that a guitarist must understand and there are more ways to do all these things than the equivalent on piano. In terms of playing fast, each hand on a piano do the same thing to play fast and the only thing that the pianist really needs to think about is keeping each hand together and moving the fingers and position of the hand at the right time. Guitarists have to think about the attack of flesh and fingernail on the string with the right hand, whichever order of right hand fingers should be used, shifting and hand shapes of the left hand and keeping these different RH and LH techniques going at the same pace so it doesn't get sloppy. There's a lot more a guitarist has to think about than a pianist.


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## DFALRUITAE

Piano is hard in its own way. It is hard because you have to combine your left and your right hand to play sometimes completely different melodies. Guitar is the same. Mastering the chords will only take you a month or so. So will changing them fast enough. But mastering the different stokes or if you are playing songs,classical guitar,can take longer. The same as piano - combining the two hands together.


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## Praeludium

What are we talking about ?
Guitar vs. piano in the classical tradition ?
Jazz guitar vs. pop piano ?
etc.

Anyway, I learn both at the conservatory - I've been learning the guitar for much longer than the piano -, and I think they're just different.
The right hand of a great virtuoso classical guitarist such as Jorge Caballero, Paul Galbraith, David Russel or Pablo Marquez (if you want to look them up on YT) is a little miracle of precision, relaxation, power, economy of movement, etc.
On the other hand (ha, ha, ha), the left hand of a classical pianist who plays Ravel's Concerto pour la main gauche seule is also something very rare and amazing.

The fact is : _all instruments are difficult, in all genres of music, as long as you're talking about virtuosos._

One thing could be judged objectively about the difficulty of this or this instrument : how hard it is to make it as a professional musican, or to get into a top school, etc.
Objectively, it's probably harder to enter the Paris CNSM (National Conservatory) in piano than in bassoon or theremin.
It's also harder to make it as a full-time professional musician (without teaching) in the classical guitar world than it is in the classical violin world : classical guitar isn't an orchestral instrument, a church instrument and it is still largerly ignored by many classical music listener because there isn't much well known repertoire for the instrument in the classical, romantic and early modernist eras.
So, you can judge this kind of difficulty.
But I don't see how you're supposed to know if Ravel's Gaspard de la Nuit for piano is harder or easier than Murail's Tellur for guitar. Or if Berio's Sequenza for bassoon is harder or easier than Bach's Prelude&Fugue BWV552 for organ.

We shouldn't waste time with questions like that (I just did that !).


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## observerofdumbpeople

Davzon said:


> cause for guitar players they can use capos and just play the same thing they were doing before but a few frets up. Piano, however you can't do that you have to transpose everything either up a major 3rd or a minor 3rd, either way much more harder in my point of view. I hope everyone is having a nice day.


It's obvious you don't know what you are talking about. First of all, a good guitarist doesn't use a capo for things to be easier, he uses it to be able to do things that otherwise would be impossible. Before yapping nonsense, learn about the guitar instead of making ridiculous statements. On piano you have all the notes neatly laid out, on guitar you don't, plus the same note is found in several different locations. The guitar is basically a fretted violin with 6 strings that you play without bow.

On guitar you have direct contact with the string, and that means that you have to be aware of micro adjustments at the tip of the fingers, because it's not easy to learn to get a good tone with no buzzes.

I have played guitar for about 17 years and piano for 10. On guitar it's necessary to simplify textures and part-writing, but with your left hand the classical guitarist does what a pianist does with two hands, just in miniature. Even top notch composers were guitarists, Berlioz, Paganini, Tarrega, etc. The piano and the guitar are two different worlds, that's all. But they still meet at some point.

It's easy to yap about how things are easy while just doing your quick little theory thing in your mind for 30 seconds


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## observerofdumbpeople

neoshredder said:


> Piano is harder. But guitar is harder initially until you get the technique down.


Rubbish. It only works for 'shredding'. That's not classical guitar. Trust me, I have been both. Learn proper classical guitar, i.e. as a miniature polyphonic instrument, along with sight reading. 'Shredding' is easy in comparison. And very hyped.

I was a 'shredder' myself, so I am 200 per cent sure I am right


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## Guest

observerofdumbpeople said:


> It's obvious you don't know what you are talking about. [...] Before yapping nonsense, learn about the guitar instead of making ridiculous statements.


It's obvious that your winning way with words will endear you to those whose opinions you wish to challenge, promoting an atmosphere of conviviality and friendship, and increasing our collective store of knowledge.


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## observerofdumbpeople

schuberkovich said:


> Forgive me if I am being ignorant as I don't really know much guitar music, but often at a fairly basic level on the piano, one has to have multiple lines going in one hand


 I am amazed at how many people talk without knowing what they talk about.

On guitar, you basically have to do with the left hand, what you do on piano, only in 'miniature'. The thing about guitar notation is that it LOOKS deceptively easier than on piano. 
And if you listen to classical guitar playing and you detect no polyphony, my friend, I'd be seriously questioning the way I hear things. Classical guitar music has at least two different 'lines', and you have to play both with ONE hand, as the other is needed just to pluck the strings. And you are using only four fingers of one hand.

The problem is, the guitar has a lot more LIMITATIONS than the piano. Again, one hand is out, as it's needed just to pluck the strings. And of the fingers used for the left, the thumb is out too, as it's needed to be behind the neck.

On piano you play a part with your right hand, a part with your left. On guitar, you have to translate that into 1 hand, and only four fingers. The index and middle fingers might fret the notes of the accompaniment, and the ring and little fingers might fret the notes of the melody. And the fingers of the right hand has to deal with BOTH parts. In classical guitar, almost always plays at least TWO parts.

People who think that the guitar is 'easier', have no clue. You have easy repertory on guitar and you have the difficult too, just like on piano. Ever thought of that? Have a look at repertory such as Bach's lute works, which has been adapted to guitar as faithfully as possible. Bach regarded the lute, basically a guitar, very highly, to him it held a spiritual significance. Try to learn to play a work by masters from the Renaissance and Baroque, like John Dowland ,Luis De Narvaez or Santiago De Murcia. Before thinking 'I am Bravo! I play piano, not toys like the guitar' try to learn any of the repertory mentioned. It would not really take any less work than to learn to play Mozart's repertory on piano.

As for the sight-reading, guitar is written on one clef not to make it 'easy', but because on two clefs it would be a complete mess, as several additional signs are used to indicate in which position and on which string the note has to be played. On piano you don't have to deal with any of that, you have the notes laid out in front of you. Middle C is middle C. End of story. Middle C on guitar, is, yeah, which one? There's several of them, found on different strings and different position. You might think , well, who cares? But no guitarist or composer thinks like that, because otherwise the arrangement would be stupid and very difficult or impossible to play. And whenever you see these signs, you have to shift your hand in different positions. The guitar arrangement has to be written by making all these details cohesive. On piano you just choose a key, on guitar you must choose a key that makes it possible to render an arrangement that makes sense, technically and musically. There need to be additional signs like on which position and on which strings the notes have to be played, and again, good guitar music is always polyphonic, I ain't talking about Bob Dylan.  The guy who said that 'guitarists just use a capo' said something so stupid, sorry to say. It's meaningless. Have you ever seen a classical guitarist that, in the middle of a piece, says to the audience: 'sorry, I am switching key, so I need to change the capo position'. ?

The capo in classical guitar isn't used to make things dumb-easy, it's used to solve problems that would make the arrangement pretty much impossible to play, for example if you have a pedal note and you are playing two parts, you need an open string for the pedal. Without the capo, you'd have to have fingers long 7 inches to solve all these problems.

Your ring and little finger might play a part, and the other remaining fingers play another, exactly as you do on piano with two hands, but on guitar it's in 'miniature' because you are only using one hand, and only 4 fingers of it. The fingers of the right hand, because pluck different PARTS, need to play different rhythms. That's still polyphony, only, again, in miniature. Often you have to jump between different position in the middle of a phrase, which on piano NEVER happens. On piano there's no need to break a phrase, on guitar you often have to do that as the register is much more limited.

Do some research and learn some guitar, otherwise refrain from talking nonsense, like the majority of people here. I have played both guitar and piano for years. The piano can be as easy or as difficult as you want, and so is for the guitar, but no beginner grabs an guitar and gets a decent tone out of it. On piano you press a key and make a note, on guitar you'll have to wait a lot longer before seeing decent results, which on piano are achieved faster.

As for the 'shredders', don't listen to what they say, they know nothing about classical guitar playing, which is worlds apart from how the guitar is used in popular music.

And you know what? I do agree that the piano has TITANIC repertory, like Franz Liszt's. No one can argue with that. I am a pianist too and I am always awed by it's incredible potential. But the guitar has it's own world too, very much hidden from pianists. On guitar you have this kind of equivalent monster repertory too, for example works by Francisco Tarrega such as 'Recuerdos de la Alhambra' or almost anything by Dowland, or the concertos and works by virtuoso Mauro Giuliani, which requires the most exacting technique.

Now, 'Recuerdos' might just be an excellent tune compared to a monster work like the Hammerklavier Sonata, but it's all actually very easy to understand why . On piano, the means are much bigger: enormous extension, you don't have to 'waste' an hand just to pluck strings, you play a note directly. You can even use the thumbs of both hands. The composers have taken advantage of these means. On guitar, because of the many limitations compared to the piano, you have to think 'smaller'. You are forced to. But it isn't EASIER, because of the very limitations. Also, the fingers are in direct contact with the strings, and to get a good tone or to avoid string buzzes and noises, you have to do a lot more work than pressing keys.

Apples and oranges, simple as that  It's like saying that being a good football player is easier than being a good Formula 1 racer.

But the all question of this thread is not anywhere as dumb as when people start to compare a composer to another to say who's best, for example, was Bach better than Handel?

Oh man, please someone shoots me. Composers and instruments are all unique, they all have their distinct idiosyncrasies. Isn't that enough?

Anyways, sorry I had to take it off my chest.


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## observerofdumbpeople

Mesa said:


> What's harder, windsurfing or knitting?


Windsurfing. But I agree with the meaning of your analogy, although it wasn't the most potent.


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## MrPatrick9514

Ok...do you even have an idea of how crazy and difficult playing Chopin Rachmaninoff or J.S Bach is on the classical piano?!!!I am a classical pianist so stop saying childish things I always hear from 7 year olds!Seriously same polyphony as a piano?Are you even serious?The whole range of the piano is the biggest in all instruments of an orchestra!(maybe except from the organ I'm not sure).So you think that it's easy to produce a proper tone on a piano?Then you will never...ever be good as a classical pianist...to produce a perfect tone on the piano is extremely difficult...especially when playing repertoire of the romantic period like nocturnes or Chopins etudes!Why do you think the best classical musicians ever existed had the classical piano as their favourite instrument?Just for its range?Or because it was one of the greatest challenges they ever faced to master it?A small 6 string instrument will never have either the expressiveness or the range and techniques an instrument with hundreds of strings and 88 keys plus 3 pedals has!Just understand that it's pure mathematics!People have even got insane because of the difficulties of some pieces on the classical piano...and it's takes so much patience to master it's ridiculously difficult techniques...just imagine 88 keys with so much distance between them and everything must be played simultaneously,with control and at some times in insane tempo!Chromatic scales octaves enormous chords in which your hands almost always are small(Rachmaninoff) insane polyphony(Bach) not even compared to the guitar...it is a small orchestra and that is why an orchestra conductor always cooperates with a pianist it never indicates him what he should do...he has his own orchestra...a pianist is just a slight step behind a conductor!Just then respect the piano as I do the classical guitar for its beautiful tone...and ofcource difficulty...But by its physics it cannot have the technical difficulties involved on a classical piano...it's just impossible by its nature...and respect the opinion great composers and pianists had for piano as their favourite instrument(Rachmaninoff,Chopin,Mozart,Bach(although later viola became his favourite),Scriabin,Liszt Leopold Stokowski,Leonard Bernstein,Hebert Von Karajan.)


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## Xenakiboy

Piano all the way!!

No competition


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## tdc

They are both difficult. I have spent more time doing classical guitar in my life and the challenges are great. To simply obtain the right nail shape and surface in order to attain a proper and consistent tone with all fingers of the right hand in all situations can take years. In fact after about 10 years of doing it I can say I still have not mastered this basic aspect of playing. One can get around this perhaps by playing with no nails, but it will be a sacrifice of dynamics. All the top tier classical guitarists I know use nails.


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## Casebearer

I think piano is more difficult because:
- you can never leave the house and take it with you
- it's much bigger and heavier
- it's more lengthy so it's much easier for composers to compose fysically unplayable pieces
- it's black and white only (maybe nice for colourblind people)
- you need someone else to tune it for you
- a good one raises your mortgage

Sorry, I've been working too hard this week...


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## diwa130

*Absolutely right*

Creating sounds on a piano is absolutely trivial, while any other instruments , strings and of course guitar, require a substantial training and physical efforts. I play classical double bass, but also cello, guitar and piano. Clearly the piano repertoire is large and full of very difficult pieces, but even a very easy guitar etude can be extremely challenging for a beginner compared to a piano beginner. The two keys required to read music for the piano, are not a big problem, I often find alto and tenor keys in double bass and cello works. To make a sound on such instruments and using a bow require an effort that piano player don't have the faintest idea. On guitar, besides the usual difficulties of sound production similar to strings (but easier because the guitar has frets), there is the condensation on one hand of the positions of two hands of the piano, plus the production of the sound using the right hand. It is true that the piano requires hands independency, but the patterns are the same for bass and treble. Also, hands independency is required on guitar, strings and many other instruments and patterns are very different not only between right and left hand, but also on the fingerboard. A real mess compared to piano. Every new piece I study on the bass, I need to carefully study fingering and bowing and fast passages are often a nightmare because of the large extension of the fingerboard on the bass and the considerable difficulties to stay in tune without frets. All problems that are totally unknown to piano players. I don't want to undermine the difficulty of the piano, but just keep in mind this. A kid playing piano at home is less subject to desire of being "killed" by his parents, compared to someone studying the violin , viola, cello etc. Before parents can enjoy the beauty of a violin sound, it will take several months (or years), on a piano , well it is immediate. Just think to twinkle twinkle ... on a piano from a beginner and the same on a violin ... you'd like to bang you're head on the wall. :lol:



observerofdumbpeople said:


> I am amazed at how many people talk without knowing what they talk about.
> 
> On guitar, you basically have to do with the left hand, what you do on piano, only in 'miniature'. The thing about guitar notation is that it LOOKS deceptively easier than on piano.
> And if you listen to classical guitar playing and you detect no polyphony, my friend, I'd be seriously questioning the way I hear things. Classical guitar music has at least two different 'lines', and you have to play both with ONE hand, as the other is needed just to pluck the strings. And you are using only four fingers of one hand.
> 
> The problem is, the guitar has a lot more LIMITATIONS than the piano. Again, one hand is out, as it's needed just to pluck the strings. And of the fingers used for the left, the thumb is out too, as it's needed to be behind the neck.
> 
> On piano you play a part with your right hand, a part with your left. On guitar, you have to translate that into 1 hand, and only four fingers. The index and middle fingers might fret the notes of the accompaniment, and the ring and little fingers might fret the notes of the melody. And the fingers of the right hand has to deal with BOTH parts. In classical guitar, almost always plays at least TWO parts.
> 
> People who think that the guitar is 'easier', have no clue. You have easy repertory on guitar and you have the difficult too, just like on piano. Ever thought of that? Have a look at repertory such as Bach's lute works, which has been adapted to guitar as faithfully as possible. Bach regarded the lute, basically a guitar, very highly, to him it held a spiritual significance. Try to learn to play a work by masters from the Renaissance and Baroque, like John Dowland ,Luis De Narvaez or Santiago De Murcia. Before thinking 'I am Bravo! I play piano, not toys like the guitar' try to learn any of the repertory mentioned. It would not really take any less work than to learn to play Mozart's repertory on piano.
> 
> As for the sight-reading, guitar is written on one clef not to make it 'easy', but because on two clefs it would be a complete mess, as several additional signs are used to indicate in which position and on which string the note has to be played. On piano you don't have to deal with any of that, you have the notes laid out in front of you. Middle C is middle C. End of story. Middle C on guitar, is, yeah, which one? There's several of them, found on different strings and different position. You might think , well, who cares? But no guitarist or composer thinks like that, because otherwise the arrangement would be stupid and very difficult or impossible to play. And whenever you see these signs, you have to shift your hand in different positions. The guitar arrangement has to be written by making all these details cohesive. On piano you just choose a key, on guitar you must choose a key that makes it possible to render an arrangement that makes sense, technically and musically. There need to be additional signs like on which position and on which strings the notes have to be played, and again, good guitar music is always polyphonic, I ain't talking about Bob Dylan.  The guy who said that 'guitarists just use a capo' said something so stupid, sorry to say. It's meaningless. Have you ever seen a classical guitarist that, in the middle of a piece, says to the audience: 'sorry, I am switching key, so I need to change the capo position'. ?
> 
> The capo in classical guitar isn't used to make things dumb-easy, it's used to solve problems that would make the arrangement pretty much impossible to play, for example if you have a pedal note and you are playing two parts, you need an open string for the pedal. Without the capo, you'd have to have fingers long 7 inches to solve all these problems.
> 
> Your ring and little finger might play a part, and the other remaining fingers play another, exactly as you do on piano with two hands, but on guitar it's in 'miniature' because you are only using one hand, and only 4 fingers of it. The fingers of the right hand, because pluck different PARTS, need to play different rhythms. That's still polyphony, only, again, in miniature. Often you have to jump between different position in the middle of a phrase, which on piano NEVER happens. On piano there's no need to break a phrase, on guitar you often have to do that as the register is much more limited.
> 
> Do some research and learn some guitar, otherwise refrain from talking nonsense, like the majority of people here. I have played both guitar and piano for years. The piano can be as easy or as difficult as you want, and so is for the guitar, but no beginner grabs an guitar and gets a decent tone out of it. On piano you press a key and make a note, on guitar you'll have to wait a lot longer before seeing decent results, which on piano are achieved faster.
> 
> As for the 'shredders', don't listen to what they say, they know nothing about classical guitar playing, which is worlds apart from how the guitar is used in popular music.
> 
> And you know what? I do agree that the piano has TITANIC repertory, like Franz Liszt's. No one can argue with that. I am a pianist too and I am always awed by it's incredible potential. But the guitar has it's own world too, very much hidden from pianists. On guitar you have this kind of equivalent monster repertory too, for example works by Francisco Tarrega such as 'Recuerdos de la Alhambra' or almost anything by Dowland, or the concertos and works by virtuoso Mauro Giuliani, which requires the most exacting technique.
> 
> Now, 'Recuerdos' might just be an excellent tune compared to a monster work like the Hammerklavier Sonata, but it's all actually very easy to understand why . On piano, the means are much bigger: enormous extension, you don't have to 'waste' an hand just to pluck strings, you play a note directly. You can even use the thumbs of both hands. The composers have taken advantage of these means. On guitar, because of the many limitations compared to the piano, you have to think 'smaller'. You are forced to. But it isn't EASIER, because of the very limitations. Also, the fingers are in direct contact with the strings, and to get a good tone or to avoid string buzzes and noises, you have to do a lot more work than pressing keys.
> 
> Apples and oranges, simple as that  It's like saying that being a good football player is easier than being a good Formula 1 racer.
> 
> But the all question of this thread is not anywhere as dumb as when people start to compare a composer to another to say who's best, for example, was Bach better than Handel?
> 
> Oh man, please someone shoots me. Composers and instruments are all unique, they all have their distinct idiosyncrasies. Isn't that enough?
> 
> Anyways, sorry I had to take it off my chest.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese

the really question is which one gets the babes- I gave up piano at an early age- fast developer


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## Kjetil Heggelund

Yes, the babes...Where are they? Played classical guitar for over 30 years...I did get married though 
...oh, this is in the non-classical music...


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Just put a pick up and a wah wah pedal on it - usually does the trick

So what styles of non-classical music are we comparing here Elton John vs jimi Hendrix or is it Rick Wakemann vs Robert Fripp


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## Kjetil Heggelund

What's up with the babes?


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese

If I have to explain it, then its not your thing


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