I Wish I Could Play The Piano...

[Jetfire]

I can play the guitar & bass...well enough to write music I guess...but I really want to play the piano...maybe it is my love for Tori Amos but I like the way alot of songs sound on the piano. Does anyone play? Is it hard?

 

[RoJoHen]

I want to play the piano, too!

 

[Kestra]

It's not difficult. I played the violin from kindergarten on and hated it, and then my mom noticed I was playing on our piano in my spare time. So I started taking formal piano lessons and man was that easier than the violin. Just about the only thing that set me back was getting used to bass clef, but really I did most of it on my own.

 

[ThankQ]

You don't have to wish, just start playing it.

 

[JonathonWally]

Buy a keyboard and watch youtube vids for lessons

 

[Jetfire]

^^
Ok the other thing I need to wish for is a piano.



Or I would just start playing.

 

[Kommander]

Comparing any instrument to any other instrument: In some ways it's easier, and in other ways it's more difficult. Any musician will tell you that their instrument is the hardest to play and that others are easier. That's all bullshit that comes from ego. All instruments are easy in some ways and more challenging in others.

Piano is easier than guitar or bass in that pressing a key to play a note is easier than holding a string at a fret with one hand and plucking the string with the other. Piano is more difficult because most of the time you're playing both lead and rhythm at the same time whereas with guitar/bass you're doing one or the other.

The only way to know if you're cut out for paino (or any other instrument, really) is to try it. Take some lessons. If you like it, keep going. If not, go back to guitar or try something else.

 

[jamestyler]

I found piano easier to pick up, but learned playing the guitar more quickly for the above reasons.

I'd also agree it's hard to know unless you do it. For me it was just a case of figuring it out as I go (never took either seriously) and with everything, required a lot of practice.

 

[Tom Riley]

I've also always wanted to learn to play the piano. My step brother had an electric one back when we first moved in with them, and I used it all the time and was able to teach myself some basic songs by ear (single part, no chords, haha), but then it broke and my dad and step mom never replaced it... now, 5 years later, my younger step sister takes one keyboard class in school and they buy her one for her birthday back in november and she hasn't used it... But of course I'm away at college so I can't get any use out of it... What is that, irony?

 

[Zulu Romeo]

I found piano easier to pick up, but learned playing the guitar more quickly for the above reasons.

Generally, a guitar is easier to pick up than a piano... and easier on your back too.


But seriously, I started off on the piano which was easy to learn, but eventually very hard to master, and after a while I started to lose interest. Interestingly, my interest in the violin grew stronger at this time, and it's my preferred instrument of choice.

I did try the guitar recently too, and found it surprisingly easy to learn. Some of the chord progression theory also consolidated everything I learned from playing the piano and violin too, and made it more interesting from a classical Greek point of view, at least.

 

[thestrangequark]

It's one of the great things about stringed instruments (including piano), that if you can play one you can play them all. After learning cello as a child I was able to pick up the mandolin, violin, and piano. Whether you can play them well is another matter. I'd bet you'd pick up piano quite easily, but, as Zion said, mastery is difficult.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

It's one of the great things about stringed instruments (including piano), that if you can play one you can play them all. After learning cello as a child I was able to pick up the mandolin, violin, and piano. Whether you can play them well is another matter. I'd bet you'd pick up piano quite easily, but, as Zion said, mastery is difficult.

Well, it's not quite as simple as that. The hand positioning for the cello (both for the fingerboard and the bow) is subtly different to the violin, but then again the same could be said about the violin versus the guitar (classical versus modern left hand and plectrum versus freehand picking). But yeah, the principle is similar.

As for picking up the piano... that's a three-man job at least.

 

[Lindley]

I played violin when I was little, piano through middle school, and trumpet through high school and college.

I never really excelled at any of them, but I would say that trumpet was the least annoying.

 

[Smiley]

I took piano lessons from about age 5-14, but a lot of the early teaching was music theory combined with the scales and arpeggios. Since you already play guitar, you already know most of the notations.

One of the difficulties of playing piano is the need to play a song four or more times to learn it the first time: right hand, left hand, both hands, and additional runs to master the tempo and dynamics. Playing the saxophone or singing, I only have to worry about one note at a time. However, the joy of playing the piano makes up for the effort of practicing.

 

[kustirider2]

The piano is a quite difficult instrument. I have played since I was 10 and I taught myself. My mom used to play it and she helped me when I was just beginning but now I play better than her.

It just takes a lot of practise, time and effort. For 3 of those years I was perfecting a piece that I played by ear and now I'm writing my own compositions. When you really get into it, it isn't too difficult.

Good luck if you do begin! It's a truly amazing instrument

 

[snakespeare]

Are you a Mac user? A friend told me the other day that iLife '09 version of Garageband has piano lessons built in. I've got a sweet USB keyboard, and iLife is pretty cheap. I want to play piano better, too. Maybe I should upgrade.

 

[Pegaritaville]

Piano is more difficult because most of the time you're playing both lead and rhythm at the same time whereas with guitar/bass you're doing one or the other.

Which is why I failed miserably at piano- I could never seem to get my left and right hands to do different things. I went through four piano teachers and never got past the "chopsticks" stage. Ended up playing (and hating) trombone instead.

 

[Starbreaker]

I never really excelled at any of them, but I would say that trumpet was the least annoying.

It only has three buttons!

I had to learn to play without braces, with braces, and then without them again. It was crazy.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

I never really excelled at any of them, but I would say that trumpet was the least annoying.

It only has three buttons!

Incidentally, one instrument I never managed to learn how to play is the spoons. Never had the hands for them.

 

[Lindley]

Oddly enough, reduced button count doesn't actually make it easier....