what’s easier guitar or piano
Monday, August 17th, 2009what’s easier guitar or piano
Piano or Saxophone?
My friend and I have been discussing this for awhile. I’ve played piano for about 5 years, and can play everything from classical Bach to a Green Day song ( I can also play bass drums, guitar, and recorder). She’s been playing Saxophone for about 4 years, and mostly plays what are called “Stand Tunes” ( for band, a.k.a, Land of a Thousand Dances, We Will Rock You,Iron Man…) and according to her a piano looks very complex and hard. I personally think that a Saxophone with so many buttons and rules for blowing, and not to mention spit flying everywhere, would be more difficult to play.
We asked our band director ( I should add that he can play both, but failed his Piano Class) and he declared that Saxophone was much easier. Again, asking a friend who plays Piano, oboe, flute, guitar, and maruma, she claimed that Pianos were much eaiser to play than woodwinds.
So what’s your expirience with them?
Well, well. I played the saxophone (Alto, tenor, and baritone) throughout middle and high school, and I’ve been a pianist for twenty years.
The two instruments naturally present different challenges. Great saxophone performance requires dexterity of the tongue and strong, well placed lip muscles, as well as good lungs of course (do NOT smoke if you play a wind instrument!). In addition, it requires digital dexterity as well. All the great jazz saxophonists
had great fingers – Cannonball, Parker, etc.
On the other hand, the piano, as Horowitz remarked, is an orchestra unto itself. Many of the great Brahms compositions for the piano are symphonies in all but name. Thus, a pianist must have a really good sense of voicing and dynamics, and of course facile technique. I really think it is an unanswerable question. Best of luck to you in all of your musical endeavors.