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Does playing guitar help if I wanted to learn piano???

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(@greenstuart)
Estimable Member
Joined: 19 years ago
Posts: 59
Topic starter  

I don't read music but wondered whether having more dextrous fingers would aid me in playing piano.
I've always wanted to play piano but I'd never fit one in my house...


   
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(@simonhome-co-uk)
Prominent Member
Joined: 20 years ago
Posts: 677
 

hmm...I wouldnt think so. Only one hand would benift and theory is generally clearer on piano. I'd say its the other way round,


   
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(@jewtemplar)
Reputable Member
Joined: 19 years ago
Posts: 186
 

Although finger dexterity is a good thing, I think it would interfere with proper piano method. The strumming hand's motions are too large to transfer well, and the fretting hand's motion's too small. Also, reading music is even more important for piano, since there exists no compact and intuitive notation like tab for it.

~Sam


   
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(@noteboat)
Illustrious Member
Joined: 21 years ago
Posts: 4921
 

Will it help with dexterity? Not really. The finger motions on piano you can describe as 'push down' and 'spread'. On guitar, it's more 'forward and back' - the 'push down' part isn't really comparable, because on the guitar you'll only push down 1/8" or so; on the piano you'll do 5-6 times that. And the only 'forward/back' on the keyboard is to reach for black keys, which is a bit different mechanically. The finger movements on guitar are also almost completely confined to one hand, where the piano requires both to do the same motions.

Will it help you play piano? Yeah, maybe. Any musical experience makes a second instrument easier to pick up.

I agree it's the other way 'round. Learning piano from a good teacher will make you a better guitarist. My personal experience: I'd played guitar for several years before studying music in college, where I learned theory and basic keyboard skills as part of the core curriculum. I was in my later 30s when I decided to do some serious study on piano.

I'll skip over the teacher search part, except to say there are plenty of bad piano teachers out there. Eventually I found a good one, a retired concert pianist.

For the next five years I studied with him weekly. I became pretty decent at the piano, playing Beethoven concerti and Rachmaninoff preludes and whatnot. But what I really got from him was a musical approach I hadn't gotten from years of guitar lessons. He brought 70 years of musical experience to the table, and the benefit of hundreds of years of pedagogy for the instrument. He unlocked a lot of intangibles about music for me.

I haven't kept up the piano - I achieved the goals I'd set, and decided the practice time (about 15 hours a week) couldn't be justified, since I make my living with guitar. But he undoubtedly made me a better musician, which in turn made me a much better guitarist.

I still hear his voice in my head sometimes when I practice guitar, and I think about how I can apply what it's telling me.

For developing skills as a musician, I would encourage you to study an instrument with a long history of musicianship, and find a teacher steeped in the tradition. Good teachers in piano, violin, flute, cello, etc. aren't just teaching you to play the instrument - they're training you to interpret the music. I learned a lot about how to play guitar from the guitar teachers I had... but they didn't know the same stuff the pianist did, perhaps because the guitar is a much 'younger' instrument.

Guitar teacher offering lessons in Plainfield IL


   
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(@steve-0)
Noble Member
Joined: 20 years ago
Posts: 1162
 

I agree with Noteboat: I don't think learning piano will help you technically with guitar but it definitely makes understanding theory and music in general a bit easier. The thing I enjoy most about piano is the fact that since both hands can play two parts, you can see how bass and melody parts come together (it's possible to do that on guitar too, it's just alot easier on piano). Also you can play a chord with one hand and a melody with another, so if you're working on modes and improvisation and don't want to have to play with another guitarist or record yourself playing chords, piano is another option.

Steve-0


   
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 Nils
(@nils)
Famed Member
Joined: 20 years ago
Posts: 2849
 

I agree with everything that has been said. Going from piano to guitar is in fact easier. Went through that with my daughter to various other stringed instruments.

And the biggie is that carrying the guitar around in no way gives you the strength you will need to carry the piano from party to party :lol: Now electronic keyboard thats another story. I have a couple of them and the cases are heavier than the board.

Nils' Page - Guitar Information and other Stuff
DMusic Samples


   
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(@cmoewes)
Estimable Member
Joined: 20 years ago
Posts: 111
 

One observation I might make is that I learned piano as a child (20 some years ago) and now that I am taking guitar lessons I am having trouble learning my notes. More specifically, I am having trouble learning which notes and on what string and on what fret are respresented by which notes on the standard musical notation. I find that, like learning a second language, I translate the note (say the F in the lower space on the treble clef) into the piano key three white keys up from middle C on the keyboard and then translate that into the d string on the 3rd fret. Its the problems people have with languages where they internally translate the foriegn word into their native language before they have comprehension of what it means.

I am trying hard to overcome it and learn to play guitar "fluently" as a natural language.


   
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(@sapho)
Estimable Member
Joined: 20 years ago
Posts: 133
 

My first thought was 'it's the other way around' too. Piano skills will help with guitar skills. I like to play a simple melody outline on piano - the same melody on piano as I play on guitar and then compare them. It broadens the listening experience. It can never hurt to broaden your musical skills but I would think that percussion skills would help a guitarist free up your sense of rhythm and tempo.

Portamento - The ability to move from a wrong note to the right one without anyone noticing the original mistake.
Harmonics - The buzzing sound that string instruments make.
Impromptu - A carefully worked out composition.


   
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