Is The Piano Or Guitar Easier To Learn For Beginners?

As someone who’s been a pianist for a long time, I’ll admit there’s probably a little bias here. But I hear this question so often that I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about it and trying to answer it as honestly as possible.

I’ve been playing in a band for the last 10 years, and people constantly ask me whether piano or guitar is easier to learn. The more I get asked, the more I realize there isn’t a simple yes or no answer because each instrument has its own learning curve. Some things come easier on one than the other, especially in the beginning stages.

In my experience, piano is usually easier as a first instrument. You press a key and it produces a clean, clear note with very little effort. On guitar, you have to build finger strength, learn proper pressure, and avoid muting other strings just to get a clean sound. That extra physical barrier tends to make guitar more frustrating at first. However, as you get further along, piano often becomes more complex, especially when both hands are working independently and you start reading more advanced music.

I recently spoke in great detail about the difficulty of learning the piano in full detail here.

Piano Vs The Guitar

One Hand VS Two Hands

When a student starts to learn the piano, they will most likely be taught one hand at a time. You can’t really do this with a guitar because you need to use both hands in order to play chords or notes that aren’t just open. For younger students, the piano is easier because they can start to learn songs pretty quickly.  With guitar, you need to get your fingers strong enough before you can begin to play songs.

This is discouraging to kids and even adults because it is human nature to want to be able to as much as you can as fast as you can.

Tuning

You don’t have to worry about tuning a keyboard or a piano. With the guitar, you have to learn how to master this quickly, unless you want to wait until your once a week lesson. This is another thing that makes it just a little bit harder to play the guitar.

Kids like to be able to just sit at their instrument and not have to worry about tuning it before they can play it. It almost acts as one more obstacle for the musician.

Reading Music

I believe it is harder to read music than it is to read tabs. Most piano instructors will provide a very solid foundation when it comes to this whereas guitar instructors won’t usually focus on this as much. This is where learning the piano becomes harder in my opinion.

The instant gratification of hearing a noise makes piano initially easier, but as you go further in your studies, I believe the piano becomes more complex. Playing crazy different rhythms with each hander is no easy task and it becomes a huge obstacle that ultimately breaks a lot of pianists.

A lot of the more difficult classical or jazz pieces require the pianist to split their brain and understand different rhythms. You don’t really need to do this on the guitar as you’re not playing notes with both hands really.

Should I Start My Child With Guitar Or Piano?

I believe that you should start them with the piano at first. Get them excited and into music in the beginning. The piano is also arguably the best base to have to learn other instruments because you learn music theory with it. I am amazed by how many guitarists or drummers that don’t really have any music theory knowledge.

When you play in bands you will want to find people with a music theory background because they ultimately understand music more fully. When I was younger, a lot of guitar players I knew had no idea what chords they were playing or how to figure them out. I would say, “hey this chord progression is,” and they would have no idea how to play it.

With piano, you’re forced to know what you are playing and what notes make them up. Guitarists won’t always know what notes are in a certain chord or what singular notes they are playing since they have a full fretboard.

Acoustic VS Electric

Acoustic guitars definitely have the reputation for being a little bit more difficult to play than electric as the strings can be harder to hold down. With this being said, beginner acoustic guitars are usually similar to the price of electric guitars, so price shouldn’t be much of a concern.

Comparison Table

Which Is Harder To Learn Between Piano & Guitar?

I believe that the guitar is harder to learn as a beginner. The guitar requires you to build up calluses for chords and this usually takes some time.

What are your thoughts on piano vs guitar? Do you have experience that you can share with either instrument? Let me know below!