Learning how to play a musical instrument can be an exciting challenge. For many, it’s not an easy endeavor, but it’s worth it to be able to create and share your art with loved ones, crowds, or just to play it for yourself. The two most popular instruments played in the United States are the piano and guitar, but how do these instruments compare in terms of difficulty?
Guitar is generally easier than piano as far as reading music, playing songs, and self-teaching go. However, navigating the layout of a guitar is harder than learning the layout of a piano. Both instruments require proficiency in challenging techniques.
In the rest of this article, I’ll discuss the factors that should be considered when determining which instrument is more challenging to play and explain my verdict for each category in detail. I’ll also discuss the pros and cons of playing each instrument to help you determine which one is better suited to you and your interests. If you’re a music lover and want to pick up an instrument but aren’t sure which one is right for you, keep reading!
Related: 11 tips for playing guitar and piano together, will guitar calluses affect your piano playing, and how to keep a guitar from slipping off your legs. New to this topic? Start with our self-taught guitar roadmap.
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Is Guitar Harder Than Piano?
Guitar has a harder layout to navigate than the piano; however, reading music, playing songs, and self-teaching tend to be easier for guitar players than piano players. Both instruments are technically challenging.
When determining how hard the guitar is compared to the piano, the following factors must be taken into consideration:
- Layout
- Reading music
- Playing songs
- Self-teaching
- Technique
The following table summarizes each instrument’s challenges, or lack thereof, in each of these categories:
| Category | Piano | Guitar |
| Layout | Simple layoutOne repeating pattern for keysMusical alphabet repeats itself linearlyPlayer is able to see what they’re doing | More challenging layoutScales are not linearMore challenging for players to see what their fingers are doing on the guitar’s neck |
| Reading Music | Requires fluency in reading music on the Grand StaffTreble and bass clefs | Can use guitar tabs instead of standard musical notationMore visual and easier to understand than the Grand Staff |
| Playing Songs and Singing | Typically need to learn more musical theory to make chords and chord progressions sound goodMore challenging instrument to sing along with | Many songs require just a few chords and mastery of a strumming patternWith practice, the strumming pattern becomes mindless, which makes singing simultaneously easier |
| Self-Teaching | More difficult to self-teach because of the theoretical knowledge requiredDifficult to teach oneself how to read music | One can easily teach themself a few chords and a strumming pattern, and this could enable them to play several different songs |
| Technique | Easier technique in the beginner stageIn intermediate and advanced stages, both hands may be required to perform complicated fingeringLarge surface area | More challenging technique in the beginner stageOnly one hand is required to perform complicated fingering |
Let’s discuss each of these factors in greater detail.
Layout
Even though a piano has more strings than a guitar, the guitar has a more complicated layout that makes learning scales more challenging. Additionally, beginners may struggle with the physical demands of the instrument.
Pianos have a simple, uniform layout, in which each octave contains seven white notes and five black notes. Some pianos have more keys than others, but the keys are always organized in the same way: a group of two black keys, a gap, and then three black keys. This pattern repeats itself across the entire length of the keyboard. As the notes go further to the right, they get higher in pitch, and the further to the left, the lower the pitch.
The musical alphabet, A through G, is repeated over and over again on the keyboard. This means that you can always determine which note a key represents as long as you can determine one note.
Typically, beginners focus on being able to find “Middle C,” which is the key that is directly in the middle of the grand staff. Like all C keys on a piano, Middle C is located to the left of a group of two black keys. Once one finds Middle C, they can determine which notes all other keys on the piano represent.
This linear layout makes playing scales simpler compared to scales on other instruments, such as the guitar. The notes on scales follow each other from left to right, just with different uses of the accidental keys, which are the black keys that represent a sharp or flat.
The simple layout of pianos also makes them easier to play physically. If a piano player has a suitable piano for their physical size, they shouldn’t struggle to reach notes. Furthermore, playing the piano doesn’t require much physical strength, just a bit of hand flexibility.
In contrast, the layout of a guitar is much more challenging to learn, despite a guitar only having six strings compared to a piano’s two hundred. The fretboard of a guitar is complicated to understand, although, with enough practice, patterns begin to emerge that make learning easier.
Guitars have six strings, and on each string, there is a sectioned part on the neck. This is called a fret. Plu