Guitar v. Piano: Which one is the best fit for you?

Here at North Main Music, we get this question often from prospective students and their parents: should they first learn to strum sweet serenades on the guitar or tickle the ivories? The answer is anything but black and white (insert piano keys pun here.) Piano and guitar are both suitable to most music genres and are equally up to the challenge of accompanying a vocalist. Yet at the same time, these two instruments couldn’t be more different. So, which one is the best fit for you or your child? In an ideal situation, one would get a solid foundation in both piano and guitar in order to know for sure, but we can help make your guess an educated one.

Learning Curves—Guitar v. Piano
The guitar and piano learning curve are not the same. After your first piano lesson, you could very well walk away with a simple tune like ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’ under your belt. By contrast, the only thing you’ll walk away with after your first guitar lesson is probably sore fingers. Guitar can be uncomfortable at first. Between the sorta wonky wrist position and the hard-to-press strings,it can take up to two weeks before you’re not shaking out your burning fingers every 5 minutes.

Jump to three months or so from your starting date: With practice, you will have made steady improvement on the piano. You can play a handful of simple songs, but coordinating both your hands is a little like patting your head and rubbing your stomach at the same time. It may be a little while before you can comfortably accompany yourself.

After three months on the guitar, your fingers haven’t been getting sore for a while, and you’re equipped with a handful of chords. You can strum, with some confidence, a huge repertoire of basic rock songs, and at least 10 Bob Dylan songs. You’re not shredding, but you could do a campfire proud.

After about a year-and-a-half of diligent practice, piano and guitar start to even out again. You can pound out enough chords in C and G Major to play some of your favorite pop songs on the piano. Maybe you’ve got a sonatina or two under your belt. More intricate passages are still tricky and require time and effort. They always will.

After a year-and-a-half of furious practice on the guitar, you’re kind of bored with strumming, and you’ve moved on to lead guitar passages and fingerstyle. That can keep you busy for, oh, the next ten years! Intermediate to advanced guitar progresses in much the same way as intermediate to advanced piano.

Portability and Space
This pro v. con is a no-brainer. Hands down, a guitar is more portable and space-effective than a piano. Get an acoustic guitar, and you can take it almost anywhere. Get a piano, and you can barely take it up the stairs (with an army of burly gym rats). You can, of course, remedy the portability problem by getting a keyboard, but you’ll still always need a power source. This one goes to the guitars.




Start-up Costs
While it may be true that guitars are less expensive than pianos, a beginner guitar costs about as much as a beginner keyboard, and really, a keyboard is all you need when you first start piano lessons. Since there’s no need to break the bank buying the best equipment in the beginning, both instruments get a point for this topic.

Theory and Ear Training
It can be easier to conceptualize melodies on the linear piano than on the nonlinear guitar. What does linear vs. non-linear mean? There is only one way to play each unique note or frequency on a piano. There’s only one middle-C, one C above middle C, etc. On the other hand, the guitar has around six ways of playing the very same pitch. When playing by ear on a piano, if pitch in a melody increases, your hand necessarily moves to the right. When playing by ear on a guitar, if the pitch in a melody increases, your hand might move toward the body of the guitar or to an entirely different string.

Now one for the guitars: Some people find it somewhat easier to conceptualize harmonies and chords on a guitar than on a piano. This is because the piano is divided in a somewhat arbitrary way with black keys. It is fairly easy to understand music theory in the context of one key (C-Major) on the piano, but the way the keys are arranged obfuscates the fact that harmonic progressions are simply distances and relationships between chords. It’s easier to demonstrate these relationships with chord shapes on the guitar.

Accompaniment and Vocal Type
Piano and guitar are both quintessential for vocal accompaniment, but they lend themselves to different types of voices. Because they are loud and bright, pianos can sometimes drown out the beautiful mellower types of voices. Pianos sound great with voices that might be described as soulful, clear, salient, bright, or virtuosic. Guitars can accompany any type of voice, but acoustic guitars complement voices that might be described as darker, soothing, airy, or “folksy.”

So, there you have it. We hope that this Guitar v. Piano list gives you some food for thought as to which instrument might be suit your musical interests and current lifestyle. If you have further questions, you are always welcome to contact us at 603-505-4282 or email us at northmainmusic@gmail.com.



Inspired by and adapted from this article on mollymusic.org.

The 5 Easiest Instruments for Adult Learners

Are you an adult interested in learning how to play a musical instrument, but nervous about getting started? We've compiled a list of some of the easiest instruments for adult learners that we teach at North Main Music.

It’s a commonly held misconception that learning to play a musical instrument as an adult very difficult, if not impossible. The myth that one must pursue music lessons early in life in order to master the craft has kept many capable adults from exploring their musical potential.

As the saying goes, it’s never too late to learn! In fact, there can be some advantages to learning music as an adult. Adults are much more independent and self-motivated than kids who may be pushed by their parents to take music lessons. With the right help, guidance, and motivation, any adult can excel at playing a musical instrument.

If you’re not sure where to start, here are five of the easiest instruments for adults to learn.


1. Ukulele
Inexpensive to buy, highly portable, and super fun to play, the ukulele is one of the easiest instruments to learn. With just four nylon strings (instead of the guitar’s six), you can quickly pick up simple chords and play some of your favorite songs within a few weeks. When you learn ukulele, you also gain many fundamental skills that will make it easier to graduate from the ukulele to the guitar, should you decide you want to explore a new instrument in the future.


2. Voice

Everyone can sing something. Most adults usually have some level of vocal skill coming in to lessons and tend to underrate their own ability. One of the best things about having your own voice be your "instrument" is that your instrument is always with you and you can practice it anywhere--while driving, in the shower, walking your dog, etc. 





3. Piano

Beginner pianos or keyboard are inexpensive, but to some, the piano may seem complicated — after all, you need to learn to coordinate both hands at once — but it’s actually one of the easiest instruments for adult learners. Because the notes are all laid out in front of you, it’s easier to understand than many other instruments and good for your mind because you are reading music from day one of your lessons. Plus, though you may play wrong notes sometimes, you can’t ever play out of tune the way you can with other instruments. Moreover, due to its popularity, you’ll have no shortage of useful learning materials when you choose piano as your instrument! 



4. Guitar
There are some great advantages to learning the guitar as an adult. First, the guitar takes some hand strength to play, so it is not a suitable instrument for most small children to learn. Second, many adults have had some prior experience with guitar lessons as older kids or teens, and therefore guitar lessons, in some ways, can be liking "riding a bike" and feel like you are picking up where you left off all those years ago.


5. Drums
For sure, learning to play the whole drum kit is difficult. It's also not a requirement for taking drum lessons. You can start your lesson with just the snare drum and add additional pieces as you become more comfortable and confident in your playing. 


Learning how to play a musical instrument as an adult is not as intimidating as it may sound. While the options listed above may be some of the easiest instruments to learn, there’s no need to limit yourself! You are always welcome to take a 30-minute introductory lesson in any instrument that may interest you to get a feel for it.

Whatever instrument you pick, excelling at music will eventually feel easy and natural, just as long as you’re genuinely engaged in your lessons, practice regularly, and have a dedicated teacher who will nurture your inner musicality along the way. Check out the talented and caring instructors at North Main Music and start becoming the musician you’ve always dreamed of being!



This article was inspired by/adapted from this article on takelessons.com


Photo credit: Doug Guarino

September is a great time to start music lessons

We've all been doing our best to ignore the ridiculous "back to school" ads that started in July this year. But with Labor Day less than 2 weeks away, there's no hiding from it anymore: The back-to-school frenzy has officially begun! This is an exciting time for kids, especially if they’re hitting a milestone, like moving up to middle school or high school. With the start of a new school year also comes the start of after-school activities and sports, so now is a great time to talk with your kids about prioritizing their list of desired activities and deciding what makes the most sense for your family's busy schedule. If your child has expressed an interest in music, or will be in a band or orchestra program in school this upcoming year, you might be wondering about private music lessons. But is September really a good time to get started? Definitely!

The Tampa Bay Music Academy blog posted an article about why September can be a great time to start lessons, and they bring up some great points! Here’s an excerpt from their list:

1. Capitalize on the back to school spirit. Kids are excited about starting something new. It’s time for a change, and beginning piano lessons while back-to-school fervor is in full swing will help students begin with a positive outlook.
2. Improve performance in school. Numerous studies show that music lessons improve student performance on standardized tests, especially in math. Music education is a great complement to traditional classroom learning, because it uses both the creative and the spatial-temporal parts of the brain at the same time.
3. Build self-confidence. Just as sports can build self-confidence by helping kids learn to overcome challenges and develop new skills, learning a new instrument can accomplish those same goals. When a student successfully performs that difficult piece in his first recital, his confidence gets the same boost it does when his team wins the basketball game.

Continue reading the full article here.

Can you think of more reasons why now is the best time to get started with music lessons? Leave them in the comments!

This article was adapted from a blog post by takelessons.