Learning Piano or Guitar

Guitar makes you seem like you have a midlife crisis. Piano makes you seem cultured. Your move

Both are pretty different instruments (obviously). Which ever one you choose, try to focus on the theory portion. This skill is transferrable to which ever instruments you decide to pick up in the future and will help to make sure you truly understand what you're playing rather than simply memorizing chords, scales, etc.

I play both. I would recommend piano first and there are few reasons. First, u will learn how to move ur fingers independently and will be very helpful later. The keyboard of a guitar is a piano put horizontally, so, learning the piano will make you better understand scales and chords and notes progression. That is my opinion.

Piano if you want to appear more cultured, guitar if you want to become a babe magnet.

Jokes aside, I used to play the piano years ago and it requires more dedication and time compared to a guitar. If you're busy and want to pick up an instrument in your free time, I'd go with the guitar.

I play both, played piano as a kid for a number of years, switched over to guitar, played that for a few years, now am going back as an adult and trying to get better at piano again.

Guitar is easier to just pickup and learn to play a few simple songs. You don't need to know how to read music, learning from tabs is pretty easy, and once you learn the fingerings for a few chords your can play songs and feel like a pro.

Piano will require much more work in the beginning, but the foundations you'll gain will setup you up much better to learn any other instrument down the road. Piano, in my opinion, is also a much fuller instrument meaning you can play it by itself and it can sounds great. It's harder to do this on a guitar unless you're going to play and sing.

While I'd usually recommend Piano, for someone working in Finance, especially at an analyst level, its going to be extremely difficult for you to put in the time necessary to pick it up. The learning curve is steeper and you'll most likely end up getting discouraged and quitting. Guitar on the other hand you could put in 10 min a day and get to a point where you can play songs you like and that will probably be more rewarding. I'd start with Guitar and if you find that you're enjoying playing it after a year or so and want to get more into music switch over to piano.

I'm a life long guitarists and I can say without a doubt that it is the most fun and soulful instrument one can play. The ability to bend notes allows one to truly express themselves in a way other instruments do not. Also, it is an extremely experimental instrument: various tunings, effects pedals, etc. I disagree that it is An easy instrument to learn... in fact probably one of the hardest to master as there are an obscene amount of techniques.

That being said, I also play a bit of play isn't a and it is a gorgeous instrument. By far the best if trying to truly understand music theory. Not as big of a panty dropper though.

I would tend to agree with mrharveyspecter. But I do think your decision would come down more to whether you just want to learn how to play some basic stuff or if you want to build a better base of knowledge to work off of in the future. The former would suggest guitar given the above reasons. The latter would suggest piano. Don't get me wrong though, you can get into deep theory with guitar just as easily as you can with piano. But many (maybe most) people that casually play the guitar, emphasis on casual, are not going to really know that much theory and so their skills will be limited. If you pick up the piano first, you can dig into more of the mechanics of music right off the bat. One specific point I want to make there is that with piano you will learn both the treble and bass clef and will have to be able to read them and play them at the same time. That develops more skill, in my opinion, than simply playing the guitar and learning treble clef. Plus if you learn the piano first, those skills are transferable to another instrument if you decide down the road that you really want to play guitar, or something else. I learned the piano first when I was a kid and then switched to bass guitar/upright. The piano experience was invaluable though because it made learning the bass much easier and allowed me to progress much more quickly than most people. It also helped me later down the road with bass when I started to play solely jazz and really get into the theory. Your call though. Just depends on what you're looking to get out of it.

Playing piano is something I wanted to do for a long time. After I graduated in 2014 I found a teacher and started taking lessons. Hard to always keep up with practice. Been 3 years and I'm at a grade 6 level now, which I think is somewhat decent.

Been playing guitar for 16 years and I highly recommend it. As others have said, it’s pretty easy to get to grips with the basics but it’s possibly the most versatile instrument there is in terms of play style, music style, composing etc.

Loving metal helps as well :)

Type of guitar doesn’t really matter but I find Vs the best to play in terms of comfort and playability - particularly Jackson’s. I’ve also owned Fender Strats and Gibson LPs but always go back to Vs.

A crappy $200 guitar is more than enough to learn on but once you’re hooked I recommend you upgrade to something decent - $750-1,500 - don’t bother spending above that.

With guitar you can play so easily in an apartment, just plug it into a cheap audio input (Apogee Jam for example), whack on the headphones and off you go. GarageBand / Logic Pro + EzMix/Amplitube are your friends.

100% guitar

You are too old to ever be truly amazing at any instrument, no matter how long you play. The thing about guitar that is amazing is that you can get to beginner status within a few months if you practice the basic chords. This gives you the motivation to stay with it longer. You will NEVER master the guitar, not even close. If you've been playing diligently for ten years or more you will barely scratch the surface. Yet, you'll be able to play a ton of songs. Make sure you incorporate singing into your chord progressions early....you will keep Rythym and changes better with singing. It becomes natural real quick. I feel that if you don't do it early, it is significantly harder later on to incorporate it.

Also, the guitar is mobile. You can play it on the couch drinking beers and watching tv or whatever. You'll get better with just that with songs making them automatic. Using a pick or fingerpicking should all become automatic with reps.

Let's not forget that most cool songs are played on the guitar. You might be stuck playing Billy Joel or classical if you pick piano.

Either way, make sure you develop your 'ear', I would consider that the most important thing. Once you can distinguish notes easily, you can pick up songs or another instrument much easier than if you can't 'hear' the notes.

Honestly, just picking up any instrument is the right thing to do. It's a challenge that keeps you humble and shows how you can progress with hard work. Life lessons abound.

I am learning Piano now. Started a couple months ago and it's extremely fun. I have a guitar because I bought it thinking I would play, similar to you. If you like Piano more then go with it. Ignore all the comments about "babe magnets" I personally know an incredible number of people that play the guitar which makes it less of babe magnet. Playing performance level piano on the other hand will amaze everyone (but takes 100x longer than leaning guitar). At the end of the day they are both really cool instruments, so you can't go wrong.

For starters you should identify what styles of music you want to play. If you are thinking metal in any way then you should probably rule out piano. If you are thinking classic rock, guitar will still be the dominant choice 95% of the time. Also, as others have pointed out it could also depend on whether you want to take a dive into theory. Piano will definitely be easier to learn theory on. To say one will be easier than the other is a toss up. If you listen to Hendrix and Slayer then learning piano may not interest you as much as guitar. The level of interest in the instrument should increase your enjoyment and make learning more enjoyable.

Also, how far do you want to take it? Obviously, it is a life long pursuit, but do you want to truly master an instrument? Or do you want to play some songs? For just playing some songs guitar is the winner. Playing master pieces on both will impress people regardless of the instrument. I have observed that people take more notice with guitar as guitarists do not generally take things to that level.

I personally have seen plenty of people play piano at parties and it is there. I have grabbed a guitar in an empty room and the place has gone silent. The pianist could be playing Bach and I would just be noodling.

I don't know why, but intuitively, I'm so drawn to the piano. I have 2 guitars and thought I would save the money and play guitar.

I don't want to go back and forth so I really need to make up my mind, but I'm seriously thinking about buying a digital piano. I'm just siting for winter break before committing, I'm swamped atm.

Piano is not as easy as Ehmerica accidentally makes it sound. It is considered one of the toughest instruments to learn and master, guitar is considered one of the toughest to master too. Based on the many replies here it sounds like what amazes people depends on the group your with. Piano amazes all my friends, including those who play guitar and tour nationally, guitar doesn't as much because everyone plays it so it's not quite as special. On the other hand Ehmericas experience is the opposite which makes complete sense too.

Your thought process sounds very similar to mine. I was split between the two, but liked Piano a lot more. I purchased a guitar years ago because I thought it would be easier to learn since all my friends knew how to play it. Anytime I sat down to play it the sound wasn't my thing. The guitar ended up stuffed in the closet getting little to no use for a few years. Recently I acquired a keyboard and whenever I press some keys I feel relaxed. The enjoyment I get from 'tickling the ivory' encouraged me to keep practicing. The one downside to Piano is that everyone will recommend you get a teacher and start off learning classic to truly understand and master piano. This can be hard in the work environment we operate in.

A few really cool songs that I should be able to play by the end of this year. Played 100% on piano

Ballade pour Adeline -

Clair de Lune - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvFH_6DNRCY

There are plenty more but if you listen to those and think 'I really wish I could play that' then Piano may be right for you.

Update: Began with the piano instead of guitar!

The piano always attracts me every time I listen to it, and felt that I'd be cutting myself short playing the guitar, something I was not as interested in.

Been less than a week, but I'm loving it so far!