Encouragement for those who need it.

[SixStringMadman]

In the time I have been playing the guitar, I have realized something. The guitar is one damned hard instrument to pick up and play.

Unlike other instruments such as saxaphones, flutes, etc. which require only opening and closing valves, on a guitar you must run your fingers all over to hell and back along a surface measuring about 3.5 - 4 square feet in surface area with millions of different combinations of playing patterns.

The same with any stringed instrument for that matter. But, to their credit, a good Sax or Flute player has been at it a long time to get good (and it sounds great, too), but still. :) Perhaps I am slightly bias? :D

I have to say I get more satisfaction from playing the guitar than any other instrument I have played, bar none.

Just thought I'd share that with ya. :)


SixStringMadman

[dave]

that is a pretty ignorant thing to say about flutes and saxes. Ive played the sax for 6 years and it is by far more complicated than picking up a guitar and playing it. They shouldnt even be compared. Same with flutes, clarinets, etc.

[smfulla]

well there it goes someone got offended.
I respect that the sax is a hard instrument. But so is a guitar. Guitar is the easiest instrument to get wrong. It's probably (I don't know about all other instruments, but) like the easiest instrument to get an injury from.

[Dann]

I dated a girl who was chair in her college orchestra on the Flute and the piccalo. She worked her ass off!

One other thing I have found. I have only been playing guitar for about 8 months, but I don't know one guitarist (including my former teacher) that can read music and apply it to the guitar. I am not saying that this is bad, because I know some people who can tear up the fretboard. It is just an observation. When I was dating this girl, all of her friends who played and instrument was able to read standard notation. Is guitar the only instrument that has a 'tablature'? If anyone knows I would love to know the answer.

Thanks,

[Dann]

I meant to say 'first chair'.........

must read before submitting.......must read before submitting.....

[barbietta]

Okay, I've played the piano and the guitar, and I can say I think guitar is harder without a doubt. For me, anyhow. Guitar requires such an incredible amount of precision, and is very unforgiving. If your finger placement is off by just a hair, it sounds horrible. Pressing keys on a guitar is a much bigger target! :)

[slaughteredsoul]

I played the 'recorder' in school...does that count?:D
damn,it was easy to play...compared to the guitar it's a kid's game. But you can't deny that guitars are cruel..(they even have forums for them:p ) i'm forever wondering if i'll ever be a 'good' player.
well i always wondered about something and i guess this question would go here: does anyone know if drums are easier to play than guitars? of course you can see this from different ways but in general,what do u people think? cause i have this thing for drums but i can't even play the guitar right,and i don't want to jump from one (difficult) instrument to another.

[gck]

hmm... I play three different instruments except the guitar, which are piano, organ and violin.

1) Playing *something* on a piano is really easy, playing really good, however, demands for LOTS of practice! It just depends on how good you want to be: you can teach someone a boogie or whatever on the piano in less than 2 hours, but it will take years until they are really good.
2) Organ is hard, because you also have footpedals (I'm talking of organs in churches, don't know other types. I've just played on one for a months or so, until I decided I didn't like it and went back to plain simple piano again).

3) Violin is also really hard, because it's an instrument of which you can't get ANY nice sound at first!! I mean, on a guitar, everybody can strum the open strings and it sounds at least nice, but did you ever hear somebody playing violin for the first time :)

4) Don't mean to offend anyone, but I think that a guitar is a rather easy instrument to learn if you do everything right. I don't mean it's easy to become a real expert, but everyone can learn some chords and strum them. If you go into depth, guitar is incredibly hard to play, but the simple things also sound good. (Hope the last few lines made sense!)

[55'gibby]

"the guitar is the easiest intrument in the world..... to play badly"

-Andre Segovia

I play guitar, bass, piano, dobro, mandolin, violin... to play any instrument well take gobs of hard work and practice. As far as I know guitar is the only instrument with tab. I can read standard notation and apply it to the guitar.... but tab is much easier.

[Xero13]

Piano is definitly the easiest to play, I play it myself.
But I think that voilin could, possibly be harder than a guitar (well but the looks of it anyway :confused: ...

[eische]

hey guys, why do you argue that hard on a thing so obvious: Every instrument has it's own way of being hard or easy to be learned. Sometimes it is just the way you look at it, meaning, whether you feel for it and therefor are more tolerable to endure the harder sides.
I, for example, always thought singing would be easy, like: everyone has a voice, so if you're able to speak, you're able to sing - until I focussed more on it..........

So Slaughteredsoul: if you feel an urgent need towards drums and you feel the beat inside you - try. Maybe like many other now famous drummers you start with playing »spoons«, use pans and buckets to get a first impression if you are able to hold different beat-speeds with your seperate hands simultanously......

and Dann: as far as I know tabulature was made especially for the needs of a guitar and is not used for any other instrument. And even though you can play guitar only with tab-knowledge (ok, every instrument could be learned only by ear, I know, I know), I think it is useful to know standard notation as well - it will give you a further look inside musical theory, too.

[smfulla]

hey slaughteredsoul
you asked for a personal opinion right? well I think it's harder to play drums than guitar. But like eische said. Some people just have a talent for things. And you might be one of those people who has a talent for drums. A good way to practice if you don't have a kit is to play the game 'Percussion Freaks' It's this arcade game that has a drumkit thing set up. And beats fall down the screen and as they hit a line you have to hit the right part of the kit. It's like those dancing games, but for drums. It's really cool. I spent like 20 bucks on it when I went into town one day.

[slaughteredsoul]

Hey you guys are probably right,i should go for it huh?:)
Smfulla,that game,lol i SUCK at it!! There's also one for guitars,and that one is pretty easy at first,but the drum one,i got nowhere!i spent something like 20 dollars too trying to get to the second level...waste of money...