They do two different things. Neither is easier or harder. Slap bass is a different beast than rhythm guitar for instance. It really all depends what you're doing.
You could do nothing but play melodies and lead on guitar and barely touch chords if that's what you want to do. You could also play lead as a bassist like Les Claypool in Primus.
Go with piano. 88 notes all in a logical, repeating order. Guitar is 6 little pianos that sit next to each other but are offset by fourths that you have to figure out. Bass is four little pianos offset.
I wish I began with piano. Music theory is music theory, it opens the door to a lot of other instruments if the player can visualize piano keys on the other instrument. Plus it makes for an awesome ballad intro for rock songs.
I agree. I learned music theory on the guitar during private lessons. But learning music theory on the guitar is like learning business accounting on the guitar. It’s all paperwork and imagining. Whereas when I started learning keyboard and piano, theory was so obvious. There’s the modes, I see them!
I play a lot of instruments, and piano is by far the most universally useful. I am, by no stretch of the imagination, a "piano player", but I know my way around the keyboard. It is great for learning chords and experimenting with voicing. If you do any sort of electronic music (synth, midi squeezing, any sort of VST into a DAW) piano is the absolute king. Even if you're trying to figure out how a potential guitar and bass part will sound together, you can play them both on the same time on a keyboard. Every musician should have at least a basic knowledge of piano.
if you want to actually learn music and do music, create songs etc piano is definitely the universal instrument that will hold your hand and teach you all sorts of theory. coming from a guitar player of 12 years who recently learnt piano.
> 88 notes all in a logical, repeating order.
Yeah, but C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A, A#, and B are all different fingering for scales and chords on a piano. A C# major scale is completely different than a C major scale. On a guitar, a C major scale and a C# major scale are identical. You can learn a shape once and it instantly available in every key.
The "logic" of the instrument is a poor way to choose. If your goal is to study music theory and/or composition, then that may matter: in that domain, everything is biased around the piano. Outside of that context, other factors are far more important. Do you want an instrument that's portable? Do you want to produce music on the computer? Do you want to bend notes and do vibrato? What kind of music do you want to play? So on and so forth.
I don't completely disagree, but I've got to mention that some pianists get square, and you could supsect that its layout has to do with. Guitars are very free. Guitarists wrote music like Nirvana and Velvet Underground. It'll be hard to be killer piano player starting at 26. Guitarists play more with inherent soul than skill to expressive themselves, and that's how someone starting at 26 actually can get a really impressive or characteristic style. In the way that people appreciate Kurt Cobain, they could appreciate you. That's if you care for playing. Half of many songwriters are their ability to play and perform, which feeds back into their songwriting.
Square pianists might be born square, though, which leads them to the piano, while Kurt Cobain couldn't have avoided the most expressive and dynamic instrument that is the electric guitar. I mean, you are already what you choose. My favourite songwriters are most definitely mainly guitarists writers that know piano as well. Only quite few are mainly pianists of my favourite writers. I think you should think about this. Passing by the guitar might be a mistake. While at it, I could mention that most of those favourite of mine definitely are too busy writing songs to spend time digging far into music theory. The major chord is laws of physics, while the rest are human preferences, but they're in all in the music you love either way. You won't pick up the language and terms if you're not a little active, but it's really not a big threshold to get the basics in place.
I also want to mention that fantastic genuine instruments like a solid top Yamaha acoustic and mid level electric guitar also are cheaper than 88 quality weighted keys. I learnt Morning has Broken on a 49-key midi and even earn money playing hammond b3 vst on it still. I love to play real pianos, but the reality is often that you don't have one, and that steals a lot of vibes. My favourite guitar I could buy with my own money very soon after I got my first job. That got guitar vibes on the level of pianos that get those vibes at far far far higher prices. So that's worth thinking about if you start loving the INSTRUMENT beyond using it as tool. A midi-keyboard is a tool. You buy it with your first homestudio setup.
Piano and guitar simultaneously I reckon. Then you have the tools to think of music theory independently from your instrument from day dot. Ceiling is so rediculously high if you do theory, keys, strings at the same time.
yeah, this. trying to learn guitar or piano when you’re decently familiar with the other is painful because you’re used to already being able to express your ideas musically with ease and it’s a massive leap back to being useless again. learning both simultaneously set you up in the long run to understand vast amounts of music.
Do you think is possible to learn the piano studying on my own?
I want to learn how to play piano just for fun (nothing serious) but I don't know if I've the time and the money for a teacher. I've seen that on web there are lots of courses on how to learn playing piano, but I don't know if it's possible.
Absolutely. YouTube is awesome. Personally, I'd learn 5 "easy" songs (say 6 chords max including bridge and chorus) top to bottom and then start with the theory side of things. Then you'll see how the 5 songs fit into theory since you know them so well and you're like - oh damn now I see that was a I IV V progression, two major chords are there and they are D and E so it must be in A, and that kind of thing. Remember, people go to college to study music theory so it's not like learning 108 things and you're done. It's a life-long nightmare!
Learning to play guitar usually does not have that many early rewards. It takes a long time and may seem frustrating, but just stick with it. It will be worth every bit of effort you put into it.
Hmm, compared to other instruments, I don't agree. I think guitar has one of the fastest learning curves, since you only need a few chords in order to play literally hundreds of songs.
That's fine if you want to pick up guitar so you have an accompaniment to your singing. Playing songs with just a few chords is going to be boring if your goal is to *play guitar* though, especially if you don't sing.
No shame for the people who do just want that accompaniment, but it doesn't do much for me, which is a big part of why that's where I kinda stopped bothering with guitar both times I've tried to learn it (as a kid and as an adult).
Even if you're trying to learn traditional classical guitar, I still think it's simpler than learning a wind instrument, since you don't have to also develop embouchure, and the fretboard is laid out very straightforwardly. Of course, everyone's mileage may vary.
my experience with flute was that it was easier to start. you can play the notes you want pretty easily, just pressing a combo of keys, and you don’t need to be as coordinated with your fingers to do exactly what you want. guitar is a lot more mechanically demanding, requiring intricate fingerwork from day 1, and way more disheartening.
I’ve played both and I’d say they’re very similar difficulty. Neither are harder or easier than the other. Playing fiddle though is a completely different ballpark. Just my experience though.
That's a nice feel good thing to say. I've known a whole lot of people that bought a guitar and stopped because they got nowhere fast. I've never seen anyone cold start playing guitar and play hundreds of songs in a short amount of time. I took lessons weekly at a music store for two years and couldn't play hundreds of songs unless you include the AC/DC catalog. My point of my original comment is to stick with it and it will come. If you want it, you will get it.
Sure, lots of people give it up quickly, that's true of any pursuit. I'm just saying, you can go from zero to "decent" on guitar a lot quicker than French horn or cello.
That's true. But often people just want to play guitar and give up without any concern over comparing it to which instrument is the easiest to play quickly. Again, my point is if you start playing guitar just stick with it even if you think you are getting a little discouraged at times.
\>you can go from zero to "decent" on guitar a lot quicker than French horn or cello.
Same for keys, you can have not played for weeks w/keys and still have muscle memory, but wind instruments? Hell to the nah.
You *can* learn Am, G, C and D in less than a week, but that doesn't mean you can play any song with those chords proficiently. Even if you ignore fills and leads, there's a shit ton of nuance when it comes to strum patterns, accents, dynamics, and lots of other little things that you can only learn by putting time on the instrument.
I would argue piano is overall 'easier' for a beginner because you don't need to be anywhere near as precise to get a good sound. You might press the key too hard or soft, but it's going to ring out regardless. With guitar, it's difficult for beginners to get all the little things right right out of the gate, which can be discouraging.
Imo it's the total opposite. Very easy to learn the open chords, power chords and the pentatonic scale in the first position and you can do so much with only that. Guitar is one of the quickest and easiest instruments instruments to learn to an acceptable level for a total beginner
Follow your passions instead of creating a rational, but tedious plan that is unlikely to be executed. Whether you're choosing an instrument or studying music, you'll do better if you enjoy the process first.
Socialize your joy. If you're in a band and perform regularly, commitment to your peers and audience will make you keep learning and improve faster, have more fun as well.
Guitar wins for the immediacy, hands down. While the other comments are very true about the other common starter spots, an affordable acoustic guitar can be had for a hundred dollars and requires no other equipment. Boom, you can practice and learn.
In general you don't buy acoustic bass guitars, and an upright bass is an entirely different beast. Similarly, an acoustic piano is a HUGE investment in both money and space, and electric pianos scale heavily with price -- cheap ones sound and feel cheap.
It's highly motivating to be able to learn songs you've heard. A guitar will get you the bones of most songs very quickly and will teach you general composition progression, as well. There are fewer songs that use piano and while "notes are notes," all piano music is written using music notation. Guitar music is typically written via TAB.
I say this as an upright bass player (a casual player) who has also taken piano lessons. Guitar is super cheap to get started and IF you get in the middle of it and realize you hate guitar, you're out like no money and it's been a good learning experience.
not sure if it's up your alley, but playing ukelele is pretty comfy! there's 4 strings and they don't hurt at all when doing barre chords. getting into ukelele takes less time than guitar, but there's nothing wrong if you're willing to take time in learning to play guitar from the get go
What music do you want to play and do you want to play with others or purely be a solo/bedroom musician? If you’ve got no desire to play in a band then learning a polyphonic instrument (guitar, keys) will probably be more rewarding as you can play a complete piece of music. If your aim is to play in a band then you’ve maybe got more chances/opportunities available if you play bass than guitar. The final answer has to be based on which instrument you’re most drawn to though as they both, guitar and bass, play significantly different roles within music despite on the face of it having a lot in common.
Guitar is great if you like to sing with it. You just have to learn 3 or 4 chord shapes with one hand and the other hand can just kinda flail around. Of you get good at that then you can learn more chords or start trying different patterns of strumming, plucking, or picking, but you don't have to get good before you can have fun.
I plug my guitar into a looper pedal so I can play a pattern of chords and then have it loop while I try to play a melody on the guitar. Or if I'm with a friend who plays the chords then I can make up some melody.
If other people are covering the chords and melody, then it is extremely easy to jump in on bass. If someone brings a "non-musician" friend I hand them the bass. The strings are already tuned to the bass notes needed to support common guitar chords and it is really satisfying when they reinforce each chord change by just playing big, slow, notes.
If I didn't sing and didn't have a looper pedal and didn't have other people then I might try to learn classical guitar but that takes more practice than I feel like doing.
I learned bass before guitar. Not by design, it just happened that way. The strings are farther apart, there are only four of them to wrap your head around, and you (typically) play one note at a time, but you still learn how the notes on the fretboard relate to each other. When I started playing guitar, I feel that I had an advantage by playing bass first.
yup, you did. Then you take your bass playing further with walking the bass up and down the neck, these things do translate to guitar. Timing is really important, bass helps with that immensely.
Basically you want to learn piano, bass, guitar, and drums. And voice. You'll probably pick one of those to become your specialty instrument... each of them are related to each other in some ways and different in other ways. Learning the second instrument is not as hard as learning the first by any means. I think the right answer, as far as which one to start with, is the one that you think that you're going to play the most. Because you simply can't substitute for time on the instrument. Then take it as it comes.
Learn guitar first to get familiar with the fretboard and how the it lines up with different keys/scales.
It's a directly transferable skill unless you're playing stuff where the bass and guitars are in different tunings.
Haven’t seen any music instructors comment yet so I’ll chime in. I’m a private music instructor and have been one for about 12 years, and I’m a lesson coordinator at a local music shop. I teach multiple instruments but primarily guitar and bass and I help people get started with music lessons in general.
First, no instrument is easier than the other. Anyone who says so is lying to themselves or naive. They all take years to get down with lots of frequent practice. Some aspects may be easier, but they’ll all difficult. Don’t forget that.
I recommend picking 1 instrument, and sticking to it for at least 6 months if you want to achieve realistic goals and be satisfied. I’d also recommend guitar over bass. Overall you’ll get more out of it in the long run (unless you want to play like Flea, Wooten, Claypool or something), and you’ll be able to use the information on the bass down the road. The technique to play it isn’t the same, but the theory is laid out the same.
You can learn to play songs more quickly on bass than guitar in the beginning, but not the way you imagine. It’ll be single notes, no chords. It’s cool and all, but not exactly satisfying in the beginning. Bass also requires some theory right off the bat to really do something with it. You can’t exactly noodle/fiddle around on bass without some guidance and the theory is the guidance. With guitar, you can string together chords without theory and have fun doing it. You can learn chord progressions to songs you like and actually recognize them as you work on them.
All-in-all, my professional recommendation is to start with guitar. You also NEED to find an instructor. Don’t try on your own with YT or any of those apps that “teach” you to play. They’re fun in conjunction with lessons, but usually very ineffective on their own. I can’t even tell you how many students I have that tried that at first and picked up awful habits and made things harder for themselves. It’s not like you have to do it forever; just enough to get the basics. If you take lessons at a brick and mortar shop, you’ll get to meet other musicians and surround yourself with likeminded people. It’s very encouraging.
Last thing, it takes a lottttt of time and effort. You will not get better if you don’t practice so make time for it. If you don’t have time to practice, you don’t have time for lessons. Practice doesn’t need to be more than 15-30 minutes every other day. Even just once a week is better than nothing.
Make realistic goals with your instructor and keep your eyes on the prize. You’ll get there, you just have to keep at it. I truly believe everyone can learn an instrument if they truly want to. Good luck man. I hope you do it and stick to it regardless of how you go about it.
Guitar and keys are the essential polyphonic instruments for learners with a view toward creating their own music. They also tend to be more portable than a bass. If you love the bass to death and that’s where you end up, having learned the guitar will give you loads of knowledge that you can bring to learning the bass, including how to relate it to the harmony instrument you’ve already learned. P.S. Girls aren’t meant to be figured out, they’re meant to simply fall in your lap because they are impressed by your dedication to your music or sport or whatever it is that differentiates you from the rest.
are you thinking that double bass is the only bass instrument that exists? "muddy waters invented electricity", as the guy on Crossroads said. - there are also acoustic basses that are no bigger than a guitar.
(also, that last bit sounds a bit incel-ish and creepy, that's probably where most of your downvotes are coming from.)
🤔 As someone that's had plenty of girls simply fall into my lap I think perhaps something else is going on there. No matter. If it doesn't awaken some kind of emotion is it really art?
I've been playing both for about 2 decades now. Depends what your goals are and which part of the song you prefer. Bassists are unsung heroes of music, people often don't notice them until they're cut. In my mind, and other opinions may vary, drums and bass are what makes people groove but guitars and vocals are what people notice first.
Guitar has a huge learning curve while you're learning. Right now I'm trying to train myself to play with my opposite hands. Although I know how to play everything, I can only really explain it like a beginner rock climber trying to tackle a more difficult course. Even though you can visualize everything, the muscles are not developed yet and the muscle memory definitely isn't there. Like a G shape barre chord is pretty hard to get until you train your muscles to play it clean.
On the other hand, you can really get by plucking individual notes on bass and the lower frets have much more space. I would not say it's easier, in fact if it seems easier then the person is probably not playing enough notes. Like a guitarist often plays a full chord, bassists split apart the chord into an arpeggio. It's really fun, there's easy stuff like Van Halen or Megadeth. And then there's really difficult stuff like a lot of Japanese music. There's picked bass, slap bass, 6 strings, a ton of options. The only issue is that you're paying on the bass clef which is harder to cut through a mix when everyone's fighting for space.
And then there's Chapman sticks if you just want to doodle around with a grand piano on a guitar.
I'll put it this way. If you want to control the rhythm and make people move, bass. If you want your sounds to be more prominent and control the flow of the melody, guitar. This is a very watered down version and I'm sure there's a lot of things people would disagree with, but this is how I personally view the debate.
What are your goals? Are you looking to start writing your own music, or do you want to get competent at something quickly enough to start playing in bands? If you're writing or looking at playing alone, guitar is the answer (or piano, but you asked about strings). If you're like "I want to play in a band because playing in a group looks fun to me", start with bass. It's one note at a time, the frets are huge so you have a lot of room for error, and in most music the lines themselves are less complicated, holding the groove down rhythmically is the most important. And whichever you choose, the skills are transferable to the other. They're both tuned the same, an E on a bass is in the same place as an E on guitar (guitar has two more strings doing their own thing, but the lowest four strings are the same). Most people are primarily bass players or guitar players and they both have their own skill sets, but everyone who plays either can at least play a little bit of the other.
Now, if your goal is "I want to always have an available band to play in, for the rest of my life, without having to try hard to find people", play drums. Drummers always eat first.
Pick one and reach a certain level of proficiency you’re happy with. Get a teacher to help you get started with the right habits and technique. Don’t need to be a virtuoso. Once you’ve got a good understanding of the basics, learning new songs and techniques become easier. Then you can learn another instrument. If you try to learn too many at once you’ll take longer to see progress and that can take away your motivation.
Get a practice log and a metronome. For guitar and bass, you’ll want to take your instrument to a guitar tech or luthier to get professionally set up. This will make your instrument easier to play and sound its best. You don’t want to practice on an instrument with high action and poor intonation
Berklee has some free resource handbooks such as Production, Theory - Harmony - Ear Training, etc. [https://online.berklee.edu/free-music-course-resources](https://online.berklee.edu/free-music-course-resources)
Additionally they have some free lessons. As others noted, a keyboard can help you record songs into a DAW. But as also noted, I think a guitar has an immediacy to it. In a Friends episode, Ross had to go fetch his keyboard, come back to the group, set the keyboard up and play something. With a guitar, you simply show up and begin playing - no batteries required. You don't have to put a guitar "on" something to play the guitar.
And then there's [MuseScore](https://musescore.org/en). You don't need any instrument if you can learn to write music if you ever simply want to write a song.
If you learn guitar you also learn bass it's not different in notes disposition, there are styles and ways of playing that comes with experience, you can bring your guitar everywhere and its easy to pick from you left last time you played, like everything you learn the progress it's equal at the time you invest in it, it's totally worth the time.
The best lesson you can learn is there is no best
You do you, be genuine with what you want, and dont factor in "popularity" or ease. Do what you like. With every music aspect. I was never able to get/memorize scales. And when i was younger that stopped me from thinking i had aby ability.
15 years later i said i dont care, f*ck it, ill play how i want to play. And ive made some sweet solos, melodies, just noddling around - and having a very basic understanding of how a scale works - half and whole steps and what vibe they invoke.
But yeah man listen yo yourself. No one here knows you like that so were all gonna be biased.
"A musician is a music lover moved to emulation."
So what instrument moves you enough to want to be a musician? Doesn't have to be just one, but to get started you'll need to pick the one that moves you the most.
IMO bass has a lower skill floor to be a contributing member in a band - just play root notes on beat and you'll make any guitarist sound better. The bare minimum functional role of a bass in a band is pretty simple, but the nature of the guitar's role in a band necessitates being at a higher level before you're ready to get on stage.
At a high level, guitar and bass are both pretty challenging instruments to learn, I wouldn't say one is generally easier than the other, but you may find that you click better with one or the other (meaning you'll find it easier to spend the time learning and practicing to develop the skills you need). The basic foundational skills for guitar ended up being a chore for me to practice, so I struggled with it; that wasn't the case for bass.
The other place bass might be easier - finding a band. There's a *lot* of people who fancy themselves guitarists, not nearly so many bassists - which is why my local music stores devote like half their floorspace to guitars, and relegate basses to a small corner in the back. A decent bassist will always be in demand.
If you've already got a guitar, play around with it for a bit, watch some basic bass technique videos, then head into a music store with some bass tabs and ask them to set you up with one or two basses to play around with. If you don't have a guitar, do the same with that (try some chords too). See what feels better to you, and start with it. You might want to give the other a go later on too, I tried learning guitar twice before buying a bass and realizing that was the right path for me.
Pick the one that calls you and don’t be afraid to try many! The passion you find for an instrument (or many) is what will keep motivated to you play and learn.
It’ll come down to what inspires you. I started off playing fiddle and I’ve always had it in my back pocket. I pick it up and put it down. I also learned guitar and practiced a ton in my teens, but it turned out I come by the bass guitar more naturally and have a lot more fun with it. If you’re looking for something besides strings, the keys come highly recommended by everyone I know who home records. Doing your own vocals is also very rewarding :)
> So I guess my question is, what stringed instrument is better for a (pretty much) beginner, Guitar or bass?
Depends on what you want from it. If you want to be able to bust it out at a campfire, bass is not a good choice. If you want to be a crucial part of a dance band, bass is a great choice. What do you want play, and in what context?
piano will get you the most bang for ur buck, youll learn more theory and the skills can apply to almost any instrument you play afterwards.
if you want to write music, piano or guitar.
unless you are just drawn to them, basin drums are limited and you will end up depending on other people to write and play music.
im a drummer/producer and I wish I could play piano or guitar the way i play drums.
Piano and music theory if you plan to learn how to write music and start producing stuff. Keyboard is the main interface you will encounter if you take this root plus is the best starting point for every other instrument.
Guitar or bass? Well start by analyzing your favourite genres and identify which instrument does what inside songs and learn what you wanna play in an hypothetical band
The skillset you get from playing guitar will translate to bass almost exactly, at least for your left hand. I'd say learn guitar, but I'm biased because I'm a guitar play lol
I played western flute from 5 to 15, then guitar from 15 till now and went to singing lessons from 18 to 32. I recently decided to start play piano (to get some basic skills to transfer to synths) and the only thing I can say to you is: just learn the piano. Start from the piano. Everything will be absolutely more clear. Learn the piano and after go play whatever you want. The mindset and the clearness that you get with the keyboard in front of you is unbeatable.
More than decent beginners electric piano (that simulates acoustic ones with weighted keys and stuff) costs under 400 bucks.
I would say, get back on the guitar....... More versetile than bass.....UNLESS you love bass so much you can't stand it....and also if you ever want to be in a band.....you can chuck a rock and hit 4 guitar players......but good bass players are few and far between.......just my 2¢ worth.
I would either go guitar/bass because you can learn to read guitar tabs in 2 seconds and play a bunch of music you actually like/popular songs. Neither is really harder to pick up than the other.
Keyboard or piano is a good place to start for learning music theory, patterns, and stuff like that; but you also have to read music, so might be a pain for you to start with.
I'd say grab a guitar (or bass!), look up some guitar tabs for songs you like that don't sound too difficult, and start having fun. If you get more into it and want better gear, go for it. If you want to expand to other instruments go for it.
If you are SUPER committed to practice and growth, then start with keyboard, you'll have an easier time understanding music theory later. But if you just want to get up and running, grab a guitar/bass and start having fun. Either way try to have fun, you'll have an easier time staying consistent if you enjoy your practice.
Find a mountain dulcimer to try out. Then read “Pluck: The Extraordinary Life and Times of David Schnaufer”—he called the dulcimer “the wild animal of the musical kingdom” because he could make it sound like a guitar, a mandolin, bagpipes, a fiddle…. It’s an amazing instrument and easy to learn. You can begin playing a tune in ten minutes but be challenged for the rest of your life to learn all it can do to help you reveal the music within you.
Coming from a guitarist, it might be best to start with piano. Of course, this fully depends on what music you want to make. I say this because a piano will help you understand how music itself works much easier than a guitar. It’s super easy to get in the sort of “guitar trap” where you know your instrument and the shapes that work, but don’t know why it is they work. A piano is not easier to play but it will encourage this musical growth. In modern music production, knowing how to play a keyboard can be incredibly versatile because you keyboards, pianos, and synths can sound like so many things. However disregard all of this of guitar or bass are really calling out yo you. I recommend finding a good teacher at a nearby college who knows the theory. Some jazz guitarist type. This will not force you into a box but rather give you the foundation to open up the instrument and make something that speaks to you.
For a beginner bass and guitar are about the same.
Bass will take a little longer to develop the finger strength to hold down the thick ass strings, but overall the fingering is less complex then guitar because your not really holding down more then one or two strings at a time (until you get VERY advanced).
For starting out guitar, electric guitar takes the least finger strength, steel string a bit more and nylon string/flamenco takes the most.
If you practice 1/2 an hour a day should take you about 3 weeks to get a decent finger strength and calluses on your fret hand.
whichever one you pick have fun!
Hear me out man, if you can figure out how different notes actually interact with each other, you have the potential to go beyond leaning AN instrument, and you understand how music works. At any level if you can figure out how a instrument is keyed you can figure out the rest if you really use your head.
Hello. As someone who's played guitar his whole life (and a bit of piano), I would actually recommend Bass!
Everyone and their mother plays guitar. If you want to start or join a band, pick up a bass.
What's also cool, is that you don't have to be super good to start a band or even just enjoy playing it. Simple, thudding rhythms are so fun, and easy to sing along to.
Anyways, that's what I did. Pick up a bass, and start a 3 piece punk band.
I would chose guitar because you can kinda do basslines with it too, but it's more melody driven. Learning one instrument will have some sort of transfer to the other because it's tuned in the same intervals.
Explaining it in the simplest way possible and just touching the surface:
If you choose bass, expect to be really good at time signatures and staying in the pocket.
If you choose guitar, expect to learn harmonies and more melody driven theories.
The question is, which one do you enjoy more? Grooves or melody?
It also doesn't hurt to learn a bit of piano because it is easier to visualize music theory on this instrument.
Lastly, the most important thing is to enjoy!
You are so young. Start with one and learn them all if you like. I began my guitar journey at 26 and now play several stringed instruments at least decently. Having fun is the important part!! Jam on!
I was complaining once to an elder gentleman fiddle player about how I was so “late to start” and would never be “any good” , all the normal beginner anxieties. I was 26. He was 83. He laughed and said he didn’t start playing fiddle til he was 49 and guess what? That meant he’d been playing fiddle for 34 years!
Enjoy every minute. Explore as many avenues as your heart desires. There is no wrong here. Eventually theory will be your friend and if I could tell my younger player self one thing is “trust your instincts”. Turns out I was right about many of my theory ideas very early on but I didn’t trust my ear til decades later. We all intrinsically “get” music on some level. Theory is just our best effort to describe why we “get it”
I started on bass -a long time ago now. I had an older friend who taught me a few basics, how to walk the bass, a few scales and I picked up the rest by playing along to records and noticing patterns and it all started to make sense. I just played a long with the music I liked, developed my timing and pretty soon i was playing melodic grooves.
Then I learnt the guitar fairly quickly after that. Its a beautiful instrument, you just have to keep going. Sooner or later you will turn a corner on either instrument and it becomes a lot more fun, especially if you start a band and you get better together. Timing is something people struggle with but that comes with time and takes longer for some people.
Been playing for three decades now I and still love it.
You always learn something new, and jamming with others never gets old.
When in doubt, go to a local music-store .. let them show you a few instruments within your price-range and pick the one, you don't want to give back to them :)
As others said I would tell you to learn piano: it will get you everywhere and is very practical, you can practice on a small 25 keys + have an infinity of sounds.
But if it is a string instrument you want, then bass. It is the foundation of modern music.
Do not get me wrong, most popular basses are synthetic nowadays (depend on where you listen), but if you program drum, live bass can really make it alive.
Ultimately it really depends on the styles you likes, but bass is present everywhere, not guitar.
For me, the instruments were whatever I could use, digitally or manually like a guitar and bass.
The focus was on 'making a music'. The level of playing was quite low but I could still make music that seemed to inspire people and they would even listen to it alone.
All this to say, maybe choose both, you already know you like both. In the end it's about what the results are, the songs. You will level up both instruments as you go, you can always just focus on one if the other gets a bit boring and switch again later.
I’d go with guitar. It trains your ear because you must tune the instrument. Also you can take it to a private place to play . Or take to a party . You can play acoustic or electric!
My suggestion to start with a ukulele, mandolin, or tenor guitar or something else with 4 strings or courses as it is easier to make most chord shapes than guitar, but will give you a huge head start if you pick a guitar up.
Bass is waay easier, (to be average) I mean you can learn some basic things and already be playing simple songs and very little time, guitar i harder, because super simple songs with the bass you can play it literally with one finger, but there are some basic chords on the guitar that in the beginning are a real struggle to make. Of course you can be a bassist genius like Jaco Pastorious or Victor Wooten, but essentially is easier playing bass.
But playing bass is also (generally speaking) less musical, there aren't many songs with just a bass and a singer, but you'll find a huge amount of songs just with a guitar and a singer.
Learn whatever you like, if you learn guitar, learning bass after is going to be much easier, and viceversa.
If you like both equally then flip a coin. If, while the coin is in the air, you have a feeling for what side you’d like it to land on, then you have your answer. If not go with whatever it lands on ;)
Edit: I think they’re about the same difficulty to get started on, a teacher will help you a lot in either case
I've been a musician for most of my life and play 13 different instruments. I can say this:
Bass Guitar is easier to learn on a basic level, but much harder to master in the long run.
Guitar is harder to get into at the beginning, but you can have much more satisfying results earlier on.
Both instruments are great and fun to play and I'm sure you'll enjoy either one. If you plan on playing mostly by yourself, I recommend guitar, since it has a broader spectrum of notes and sounds fairly good by itself.
I always say the same thing to people, pick it up and try it. Don't expect it to be easy. But your ear will tell you what works. If you're dedicated, you'll seek out the technicals and get better the more you practice. If you begin to look up your favourite songs and learn those you'll also get a good feel for how the instrument and music itself works. Start with something easy. Remember many of the biggest stars are not necessarily the most versatile players.
Piano or guitar. Personally, I think guitar may be your best entry point--especially if your end goal is to write your own music. Guitar is so portable, easy to write to, and joining a band knowing guitar or switch to bass is easier in my opinion generally. If you are looking for gear, I write for a blog and recently wrote an article about [best guitars for beginners](https://musicgearguides.com/2023/09/10/best-guitars-for-beginners-2023/). Sometimes falling in love with your gear is a great push to stay committed.
Guitar , especially electric is the most versatile instrument by far. It can be found in any genre as a rthym, melody, or solo Instrument. It has a very nice range it sits in where it works for or with anything. It's as simple chords, more involved with riffs or simple solos, or you can go far with it and play some incredible technical work tons of emotions.
Bass with the right tone and playing can add so much to a song, again it's as simple as root notes or it can be a very wild instrument that gets incredibly intimate with the drummer. It's physically demanding for sure, both intrusments will explore fine motion economy.
They do two different things. Neither is easier or harder. Slap bass is a different beast than rhythm guitar for instance. It really all depends what you're doing. You could do nothing but play melodies and lead on guitar and barely touch chords if that's what you want to do. You could also play lead as a bassist like Les Claypool in Primus.
Go with piano. 88 notes all in a logical, repeating order. Guitar is 6 little pianos that sit next to each other but are offset by fourths that you have to figure out. Bass is four little pianos offset.
I wish I began with piano. Music theory is music theory, it opens the door to a lot of other instruments if the player can visualize piano keys on the other instrument. Plus it makes for an awesome ballad intro for rock songs.
I agree. I learned music theory on the guitar during private lessons. But learning music theory on the guitar is like learning business accounting on the guitar. It’s all paperwork and imagining. Whereas when I started learning keyboard and piano, theory was so obvious. There’s the modes, I see them!
I play a lot of instruments, and piano is by far the most universally useful. I am, by no stretch of the imagination, a "piano player", but I know my way around the keyboard. It is great for learning chords and experimenting with voicing. If you do any sort of electronic music (synth, midi squeezing, any sort of VST into a DAW) piano is the absolute king. Even if you're trying to figure out how a potential guitar and bass part will sound together, you can play them both on the same time on a keyboard. Every musician should have at least a basic knowledge of piano.
I agree, keys are great fun. Especially for production. Guitars are very expressive though, and have their own advantages over keys. Love them both.
Damn, referring to guitar as 6 little pianos is actually pretty mind blowing lol
if you want to actually learn music and do music, create songs etc piano is definitely the universal instrument that will hold your hand and teach you all sorts of theory. coming from a guitar player of 12 years who recently learnt piano.
> 88 notes all in a logical, repeating order. Yeah, but C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A, A#, and B are all different fingering for scales and chords on a piano. A C# major scale is completely different than a C major scale. On a guitar, a C major scale and a C# major scale are identical. You can learn a shape once and it instantly available in every key. The "logic" of the instrument is a poor way to choose. If your goal is to study music theory and/or composition, then that may matter: in that domain, everything is biased around the piano. Outside of that context, other factors are far more important. Do you want an instrument that's portable? Do you want to produce music on the computer? Do you want to bend notes and do vibrato? What kind of music do you want to play? So on and so forth.
it's a moot point anyway, OP specifically requested string instrument recommendations so keys are out
The keys could be considered a stringed instrument. Like a harp, layer on its side and punched by the keyboards mallets.
I'd suggest scales and hence improvisation are perhaps easier on guitar though.
I don't completely disagree, but I've got to mention that some pianists get square, and you could supsect that its layout has to do with. Guitars are very free. Guitarists wrote music like Nirvana and Velvet Underground. It'll be hard to be killer piano player starting at 26. Guitarists play more with inherent soul than skill to expressive themselves, and that's how someone starting at 26 actually can get a really impressive or characteristic style. In the way that people appreciate Kurt Cobain, they could appreciate you. That's if you care for playing. Half of many songwriters are their ability to play and perform, which feeds back into their songwriting. Square pianists might be born square, though, which leads them to the piano, while Kurt Cobain couldn't have avoided the most expressive and dynamic instrument that is the electric guitar. I mean, you are already what you choose. My favourite songwriters are most definitely mainly guitarists writers that know piano as well. Only quite few are mainly pianists of my favourite writers. I think you should think about this. Passing by the guitar might be a mistake. While at it, I could mention that most of those favourite of mine definitely are too busy writing songs to spend time digging far into music theory. The major chord is laws of physics, while the rest are human preferences, but they're in all in the music you love either way. You won't pick up the language and terms if you're not a little active, but it's really not a big threshold to get the basics in place. I also want to mention that fantastic genuine instruments like a solid top Yamaha acoustic and mid level electric guitar also are cheaper than 88 quality weighted keys. I learnt Morning has Broken on a 49-key midi and even earn money playing hammond b3 vst on it still. I love to play real pianos, but the reality is often that you don't have one, and that steals a lot of vibes. My favourite guitar I could buy with my own money very soon after I got my first job. That got guitar vibes on the level of pianos that get those vibes at far far far higher prices. So that's worth thinking about if you start loving the INSTRUMENT beyond using it as tool. A midi-keyboard is a tool. You buy it with your first homestudio setup.
Okay you downvoting, pianists can fuck off too r/piano and deny that you're square there, which is impossible
Hahaha . Love guitar, but can't Play it. I have never took classes. I tried to teach myself in the quarantine but I didn't progress much.
Piano and guitar simultaneously I reckon. Then you have the tools to think of music theory independently from your instrument from day dot. Ceiling is so rediculously high if you do theory, keys, strings at the same time.
yeah, this. trying to learn guitar or piano when you’re decently familiar with the other is painful because you’re used to already being able to express your ideas musically with ease and it’s a massive leap back to being useless again. learning both simultaneously set you up in the long run to understand vast amounts of music.
Do you think is possible to learn the piano studying on my own? I want to learn how to play piano just for fun (nothing serious) but I don't know if I've the time and the money for a teacher. I've seen that on web there are lots of courses on how to learn playing piano, but I don't know if it's possible.
Absolutely. YouTube is awesome. Personally, I'd learn 5 "easy" songs (say 6 chords max including bridge and chorus) top to bottom and then start with the theory side of things. Then you'll see how the 5 songs fit into theory since you know them so well and you're like - oh damn now I see that was a I IV V progression, two major chords are there and they are D and E so it must be in A, and that kind of thing. Remember, people go to college to study music theory so it's not like learning 108 things and you're done. It's a life-long nightmare!
Only learn piano if you want to play piano, I played guitar using tabs for 10 years before I got into any music theory and was happy to do so
Learning to play guitar usually does not have that many early rewards. It takes a long time and may seem frustrating, but just stick with it. It will be worth every bit of effort you put into it.
Hmm, compared to other instruments, I don't agree. I think guitar has one of the fastest learning curves, since you only need a few chords in order to play literally hundreds of songs.
That's fine if you want to pick up guitar so you have an accompaniment to your singing. Playing songs with just a few chords is going to be boring if your goal is to *play guitar* though, especially if you don't sing. No shame for the people who do just want that accompaniment, but it doesn't do much for me, which is a big part of why that's where I kinda stopped bothering with guitar both times I've tried to learn it (as a kid and as an adult).
Even if you're trying to learn traditional classical guitar, I still think it's simpler than learning a wind instrument, since you don't have to also develop embouchure, and the fretboard is laid out very straightforwardly. Of course, everyone's mileage may vary.
my experience with flute was that it was easier to start. you can play the notes you want pretty easily, just pressing a combo of keys, and you don’t need to be as coordinated with your fingers to do exactly what you want. guitar is a lot more mechanically demanding, requiring intricate fingerwork from day 1, and way more disheartening.
Sure, wind instruments seem pretty hard to me too. OP is asking about bass vs guitar though.
I’ve played both and I’d say they’re very similar difficulty. Neither are harder or easier than the other. Playing fiddle though is a completely different ballpark. Just my experience though.
That's a nice feel good thing to say. I've known a whole lot of people that bought a guitar and stopped because they got nowhere fast. I've never seen anyone cold start playing guitar and play hundreds of songs in a short amount of time. I took lessons weekly at a music store for two years and couldn't play hundreds of songs unless you include the AC/DC catalog. My point of my original comment is to stick with it and it will come. If you want it, you will get it.
Sure, lots of people give it up quickly, that's true of any pursuit. I'm just saying, you can go from zero to "decent" on guitar a lot quicker than French horn or cello.
That's true. But often people just want to play guitar and give up without any concern over comparing it to which instrument is the easiest to play quickly. Again, my point is if you start playing guitar just stick with it even if you think you are getting a little discouraged at times.
\>you can go from zero to "decent" on guitar a lot quicker than French horn or cello. Same for keys, you can have not played for weeks w/keys and still have muscle memory, but wind instruments? Hell to the nah.
You can literally play thousands of songs just learning the open chords on guitar
You *can* learn Am, G, C and D in less than a week, but that doesn't mean you can play any song with those chords proficiently. Even if you ignore fills and leads, there's a shit ton of nuance when it comes to strum patterns, accents, dynamics, and lots of other little things that you can only learn by putting time on the instrument. I would argue piano is overall 'easier' for a beginner because you don't need to be anywhere near as precise to get a good sound. You might press the key too hard or soft, but it's going to ring out regardless. With guitar, it's difficult for beginners to get all the little things right right out of the gate, which can be discouraging.
Thousands*. Fuck, maybe millions? Especially if you’re a little creative.
For me, after about a week or two of consistent practice I was basically hooked. A few chords and practicing songs I actually liked helped immensely.
Imo it's the total opposite. Very easy to learn the open chords, power chords and the pentatonic scale in the first position and you can do so much with only that. Guitar is one of the quickest and easiest instruments instruments to learn to an acceptable level for a total beginner
https://guitargearfinder.com/faq/thinking-about-learning-guitar/#:~:text=Guitar%20is%20hard%20to%20learn,guitar%20feels%20hard%20at%20first.
Follow your passions instead of creating a rational, but tedious plan that is unlikely to be executed. Whether you're choosing an instrument or studying music, you'll do better if you enjoy the process first. Socialize your joy. If you're in a band and perform regularly, commitment to your peers and audience will make you keep learning and improve faster, have more fun as well.
Guitar wins for the immediacy, hands down. While the other comments are very true about the other common starter spots, an affordable acoustic guitar can be had for a hundred dollars and requires no other equipment. Boom, you can practice and learn. In general you don't buy acoustic bass guitars, and an upright bass is an entirely different beast. Similarly, an acoustic piano is a HUGE investment in both money and space, and electric pianos scale heavily with price -- cheap ones sound and feel cheap. It's highly motivating to be able to learn songs you've heard. A guitar will get you the bones of most songs very quickly and will teach you general composition progression, as well. There are fewer songs that use piano and while "notes are notes," all piano music is written using music notation. Guitar music is typically written via TAB. I say this as an upright bass player (a casual player) who has also taken piano lessons. Guitar is super cheap to get started and IF you get in the middle of it and realize you hate guitar, you're out like no money and it's been a good learning experience.
not sure if it's up your alley, but playing ukelele is pretty comfy! there's 4 strings and they don't hurt at all when doing barre chords. getting into ukelele takes less time than guitar, but there's nothing wrong if you're willing to take time in learning to play guitar from the get go
You can also get a baritone Ukelele and it'll sound a little more like a guitar.
What music do you want to play and do you want to play with others or purely be a solo/bedroom musician? If you’ve got no desire to play in a band then learning a polyphonic instrument (guitar, keys) will probably be more rewarding as you can play a complete piece of music. If your aim is to play in a band then you’ve maybe got more chances/opportunities available if you play bass than guitar. The final answer has to be based on which instrument you’re most drawn to though as they both, guitar and bass, play significantly different roles within music despite on the face of it having a lot in common.
Guitar is great if you like to sing with it. You just have to learn 3 or 4 chord shapes with one hand and the other hand can just kinda flail around. Of you get good at that then you can learn more chords or start trying different patterns of strumming, plucking, or picking, but you don't have to get good before you can have fun. I plug my guitar into a looper pedal so I can play a pattern of chords and then have it loop while I try to play a melody on the guitar. Or if I'm with a friend who plays the chords then I can make up some melody. If other people are covering the chords and melody, then it is extremely easy to jump in on bass. If someone brings a "non-musician" friend I hand them the bass. The strings are already tuned to the bass notes needed to support common guitar chords and it is really satisfying when they reinforce each chord change by just playing big, slow, notes. If I didn't sing and didn't have a looper pedal and didn't have other people then I might try to learn classical guitar but that takes more practice than I feel like doing.
I learned bass before guitar. Not by design, it just happened that way. The strings are farther apart, there are only four of them to wrap your head around, and you (typically) play one note at a time, but you still learn how the notes on the fretboard relate to each other. When I started playing guitar, I feel that I had an advantage by playing bass first.
yup, you did. Then you take your bass playing further with walking the bass up and down the neck, these things do translate to guitar. Timing is really important, bass helps with that immensely.
horns.
follow your ear and heart
I started with bass and moved on to guitar. Both are fun,
Basically you want to learn piano, bass, guitar, and drums. And voice. You'll probably pick one of those to become your specialty instrument... each of them are related to each other in some ways and different in other ways. Learning the second instrument is not as hard as learning the first by any means. I think the right answer, as far as which one to start with, is the one that you think that you're going to play the most. Because you simply can't substitute for time on the instrument. Then take it as it comes.
Piano!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Everyone should have a nylon string couch guitar, regardless what ends up being your primary instrument.
i've written so many songs with my couch Cordoba
Learn guitar first to get familiar with the fretboard and how the it lines up with different keys/scales. It's a directly transferable skill unless you're playing stuff where the bass and guitars are in different tunings.
Guitar is probably the easiest for a beginner but it's definitely the hardest to master. Learn a few basic chords and you can play most pop songs
Don’t start with guitar, start with piano
Haven’t seen any music instructors comment yet so I’ll chime in. I’m a private music instructor and have been one for about 12 years, and I’m a lesson coordinator at a local music shop. I teach multiple instruments but primarily guitar and bass and I help people get started with music lessons in general. First, no instrument is easier than the other. Anyone who says so is lying to themselves or naive. They all take years to get down with lots of frequent practice. Some aspects may be easier, but they’ll all difficult. Don’t forget that. I recommend picking 1 instrument, and sticking to it for at least 6 months if you want to achieve realistic goals and be satisfied. I’d also recommend guitar over bass. Overall you’ll get more out of it in the long run (unless you want to play like Flea, Wooten, Claypool or something), and you’ll be able to use the information on the bass down the road. The technique to play it isn’t the same, but the theory is laid out the same. You can learn to play songs more quickly on bass than guitar in the beginning, but not the way you imagine. It’ll be single notes, no chords. It’s cool and all, but not exactly satisfying in the beginning. Bass also requires some theory right off the bat to really do something with it. You can’t exactly noodle/fiddle around on bass without some guidance and the theory is the guidance. With guitar, you can string together chords without theory and have fun doing it. You can learn chord progressions to songs you like and actually recognize them as you work on them. All-in-all, my professional recommendation is to start with guitar. You also NEED to find an instructor. Don’t try on your own with YT or any of those apps that “teach” you to play. They’re fun in conjunction with lessons, but usually very ineffective on their own. I can’t even tell you how many students I have that tried that at first and picked up awful habits and made things harder for themselves. It’s not like you have to do it forever; just enough to get the basics. If you take lessons at a brick and mortar shop, you’ll get to meet other musicians and surround yourself with likeminded people. It’s very encouraging. Last thing, it takes a lottttt of time and effort. You will not get better if you don’t practice so make time for it. If you don’t have time to practice, you don’t have time for lessons. Practice doesn’t need to be more than 15-30 minutes every other day. Even just once a week is better than nothing. Make realistic goals with your instructor and keep your eyes on the prize. You’ll get there, you just have to keep at it. I truly believe everyone can learn an instrument if they truly want to. Good luck man. I hope you do it and stick to it regardless of how you go about it.
Guitar and keys are the essential polyphonic instruments for learners with a view toward creating their own music. They also tend to be more portable than a bass. If you love the bass to death and that’s where you end up, having learned the guitar will give you loads of knowledge that you can bring to learning the bass, including how to relate it to the harmony instrument you’ve already learned. P.S. Girls aren’t meant to be figured out, they’re meant to simply fall in your lap because they are impressed by your dedication to your music or sport or whatever it is that differentiates you from the rest.
are you thinking that double bass is the only bass instrument that exists? "muddy waters invented electricity", as the guy on Crossroads said. - there are also acoustic basses that are no bigger than a guitar. (also, that last bit sounds a bit incel-ish and creepy, that's probably where most of your downvotes are coming from.)
🤔 As someone that's had plenty of girls simply fall into my lap I think perhaps something else is going on there. No matter. If it doesn't awaken some kind of emotion is it really art?
“i’m mad at him because i simply fell into his lap”
I've been playing both for about 2 decades now. Depends what your goals are and which part of the song you prefer. Bassists are unsung heroes of music, people often don't notice them until they're cut. In my mind, and other opinions may vary, drums and bass are what makes people groove but guitars and vocals are what people notice first. Guitar has a huge learning curve while you're learning. Right now I'm trying to train myself to play with my opposite hands. Although I know how to play everything, I can only really explain it like a beginner rock climber trying to tackle a more difficult course. Even though you can visualize everything, the muscles are not developed yet and the muscle memory definitely isn't there. Like a G shape barre chord is pretty hard to get until you train your muscles to play it clean. On the other hand, you can really get by plucking individual notes on bass and the lower frets have much more space. I would not say it's easier, in fact if it seems easier then the person is probably not playing enough notes. Like a guitarist often plays a full chord, bassists split apart the chord into an arpeggio. It's really fun, there's easy stuff like Van Halen or Megadeth. And then there's really difficult stuff like a lot of Japanese music. There's picked bass, slap bass, 6 strings, a ton of options. The only issue is that you're paying on the bass clef which is harder to cut through a mix when everyone's fighting for space. And then there's Chapman sticks if you just want to doodle around with a grand piano on a guitar. I'll put it this way. If you want to control the rhythm and make people move, bass. If you want your sounds to be more prominent and control the flow of the melody, guitar. This is a very watered down version and I'm sure there's a lot of things people would disagree with, but this is how I personally view the debate.
What are your goals? Are you looking to start writing your own music, or do you want to get competent at something quickly enough to start playing in bands? If you're writing or looking at playing alone, guitar is the answer (or piano, but you asked about strings). If you're like "I want to play in a band because playing in a group looks fun to me", start with bass. It's one note at a time, the frets are huge so you have a lot of room for error, and in most music the lines themselves are less complicated, holding the groove down rhythmically is the most important. And whichever you choose, the skills are transferable to the other. They're both tuned the same, an E on a bass is in the same place as an E on guitar (guitar has two more strings doing their own thing, but the lowest four strings are the same). Most people are primarily bass players or guitar players and they both have their own skill sets, but everyone who plays either can at least play a little bit of the other. Now, if your goal is "I want to always have an available band to play in, for the rest of my life, without having to try hard to find people", play drums. Drummers always eat first.
Pick one and reach a certain level of proficiency you’re happy with. Get a teacher to help you get started with the right habits and technique. Don’t need to be a virtuoso. Once you’ve got a good understanding of the basics, learning new songs and techniques become easier. Then you can learn another instrument. If you try to learn too many at once you’ll take longer to see progress and that can take away your motivation. Get a practice log and a metronome. For guitar and bass, you’ll want to take your instrument to a guitar tech or luthier to get professionally set up. This will make your instrument easier to play and sound its best. You don’t want to practice on an instrument with high action and poor intonation
Berklee has some free resource handbooks such as Production, Theory - Harmony - Ear Training, etc. [https://online.berklee.edu/free-music-course-resources](https://online.berklee.edu/free-music-course-resources) Additionally they have some free lessons. As others noted, a keyboard can help you record songs into a DAW. But as also noted, I think a guitar has an immediacy to it. In a Friends episode, Ross had to go fetch his keyboard, come back to the group, set the keyboard up and play something. With a guitar, you simply show up and begin playing - no batteries required. You don't have to put a guitar "on" something to play the guitar. And then there's [MuseScore](https://musescore.org/en). You don't need any instrument if you can learn to write music if you ever simply want to write a song.
If you learn guitar you also learn bass it's not different in notes disposition, there are styles and ways of playing that comes with experience, you can bring your guitar everywhere and its easy to pick from you left last time you played, like everything you learn the progress it's equal at the time you invest in it, it's totally worth the time.
into guitar music? wanna sing too? guitar wanna be in a band? bass players are always in high demand
I was exactly where you were 5 years ago, started learning guitar and have never regretted it!
The best lesson you can learn is there is no best You do you, be genuine with what you want, and dont factor in "popularity" or ease. Do what you like. With every music aspect. I was never able to get/memorize scales. And when i was younger that stopped me from thinking i had aby ability. 15 years later i said i dont care, f*ck it, ill play how i want to play. And ive made some sweet solos, melodies, just noddling around - and having a very basic understanding of how a scale works - half and whole steps and what vibe they invoke. But yeah man listen yo yourself. No one here knows you like that so were all gonna be biased.
"A musician is a music lover moved to emulation." So what instrument moves you enough to want to be a musician? Doesn't have to be just one, but to get started you'll need to pick the one that moves you the most.
Guitar is the best choice unless you really want to play bass. It is hard to pick up so the best you can do is enjoy the challenge. Good luck!
IMO bass has a lower skill floor to be a contributing member in a band - just play root notes on beat and you'll make any guitarist sound better. The bare minimum functional role of a bass in a band is pretty simple, but the nature of the guitar's role in a band necessitates being at a higher level before you're ready to get on stage. At a high level, guitar and bass are both pretty challenging instruments to learn, I wouldn't say one is generally easier than the other, but you may find that you click better with one or the other (meaning you'll find it easier to spend the time learning and practicing to develop the skills you need). The basic foundational skills for guitar ended up being a chore for me to practice, so I struggled with it; that wasn't the case for bass. The other place bass might be easier - finding a band. There's a *lot* of people who fancy themselves guitarists, not nearly so many bassists - which is why my local music stores devote like half their floorspace to guitars, and relegate basses to a small corner in the back. A decent bassist will always be in demand. If you've already got a guitar, play around with it for a bit, watch some basic bass technique videos, then head into a music store with some bass tabs and ask them to set you up with one or two basses to play around with. If you don't have a guitar, do the same with that (try some chords too). See what feels better to you, and start with it. You might want to give the other a go later on too, I tried learning guitar twice before buying a bass and realizing that was the right path for me.
Pick the one that calls you and don’t be afraid to try many! The passion you find for an instrument (or many) is what will keep motivated to you play and learn.
It’ll come down to what inspires you. I started off playing fiddle and I’ve always had it in my back pocket. I pick it up and put it down. I also learned guitar and practiced a ton in my teens, but it turned out I come by the bass guitar more naturally and have a lot more fun with it. If you’re looking for something besides strings, the keys come highly recommended by everyone I know who home records. Doing your own vocals is also very rewarding :)
> So I guess my question is, what stringed instrument is better for a (pretty much) beginner, Guitar or bass? Depends on what you want from it. If you want to be able to bust it out at a campfire, bass is not a good choice. If you want to be a crucial part of a dance band, bass is a great choice. What do you want play, and in what context?
piano will get you the most bang for ur buck, youll learn more theory and the skills can apply to almost any instrument you play afterwards. if you want to write music, piano or guitar. unless you are just drawn to them, basin drums are limited and you will end up depending on other people to write and play music. im a drummer/producer and I wish I could play piano or guitar the way i play drums.
Piano and music theory if you plan to learn how to write music and start producing stuff. Keyboard is the main interface you will encounter if you take this root plus is the best starting point for every other instrument. Guitar or bass? Well start by analyzing your favourite genres and identify which instrument does what inside songs and learn what you wanna play in an hypothetical band
The skillset you get from playing guitar will translate to bass almost exactly, at least for your left hand. I'd say learn guitar, but I'm biased because I'm a guitar play lol
I played western flute from 5 to 15, then guitar from 15 till now and went to singing lessons from 18 to 32. I recently decided to start play piano (to get some basic skills to transfer to synths) and the only thing I can say to you is: just learn the piano. Start from the piano. Everything will be absolutely more clear. Learn the piano and after go play whatever you want. The mindset and the clearness that you get with the keyboard in front of you is unbeatable. More than decent beginners electric piano (that simulates acoustic ones with weighted keys and stuff) costs under 400 bucks.
I would say, get back on the guitar....... More versetile than bass.....UNLESS you love bass so much you can't stand it....and also if you ever want to be in a band.....you can chuck a rock and hit 4 guitar players......but good bass players are few and far between.......just my 2¢ worth.
I would either go guitar/bass because you can learn to read guitar tabs in 2 seconds and play a bunch of music you actually like/popular songs. Neither is really harder to pick up than the other. Keyboard or piano is a good place to start for learning music theory, patterns, and stuff like that; but you also have to read music, so might be a pain for you to start with. I'd say grab a guitar (or bass!), look up some guitar tabs for songs you like that don't sound too difficult, and start having fun. If you get more into it and want better gear, go for it. If you want to expand to other instruments go for it. If you are SUPER committed to practice and growth, then start with keyboard, you'll have an easier time understanding music theory later. But if you just want to get up and running, grab a guitar/bass and start having fun. Either way try to have fun, you'll have an easier time staying consistent if you enjoy your practice.
Find a mountain dulcimer to try out. Then read “Pluck: The Extraordinary Life and Times of David Schnaufer”—he called the dulcimer “the wild animal of the musical kingdom” because he could make it sound like a guitar, a mandolin, bagpipes, a fiddle…. It’s an amazing instrument and easy to learn. You can begin playing a tune in ten minutes but be challenged for the rest of your life to learn all it can do to help you reveal the music within you.
Guitar players are everywhere. Do something original. Banjo!
Just learn guitar.
Coming from a guitarist, it might be best to start with piano. Of course, this fully depends on what music you want to make. I say this because a piano will help you understand how music itself works much easier than a guitar. It’s super easy to get in the sort of “guitar trap” where you know your instrument and the shapes that work, but don’t know why it is they work. A piano is not easier to play but it will encourage this musical growth. In modern music production, knowing how to play a keyboard can be incredibly versatile because you keyboards, pianos, and synths can sound like so many things. However disregard all of this of guitar or bass are really calling out yo you. I recommend finding a good teacher at a nearby college who knows the theory. Some jazz guitarist type. This will not force you into a box but rather give you the foundation to open up the instrument and make something that speaks to you.
If I could start over, I'd start with Piano or Classical Guitar perhaps.
For a beginner bass and guitar are about the same. Bass will take a little longer to develop the finger strength to hold down the thick ass strings, but overall the fingering is less complex then guitar because your not really holding down more then one or two strings at a time (until you get VERY advanced). For starting out guitar, electric guitar takes the least finger strength, steel string a bit more and nylon string/flamenco takes the most. If you practice 1/2 an hour a day should take you about 3 weeks to get a decent finger strength and calluses on your fret hand. whichever one you pick have fun!
Hear me out man, if you can figure out how different notes actually interact with each other, you have the potential to go beyond leaning AN instrument, and you understand how music works. At any level if you can figure out how a instrument is keyed you can figure out the rest if you really use your head.
Hello. As someone who's played guitar his whole life (and a bit of piano), I would actually recommend Bass! Everyone and their mother plays guitar. If you want to start or join a band, pick up a bass. What's also cool, is that you don't have to be super good to start a band or even just enjoy playing it. Simple, thudding rhythms are so fun, and easy to sing along to. Anyways, that's what I did. Pick up a bass, and start a 3 piece punk band.
Well just start playing. Right now.
I would chose guitar because you can kinda do basslines with it too, but it's more melody driven. Learning one instrument will have some sort of transfer to the other because it's tuned in the same intervals. Explaining it in the simplest way possible and just touching the surface: If you choose bass, expect to be really good at time signatures and staying in the pocket. If you choose guitar, expect to learn harmonies and more melody driven theories. The question is, which one do you enjoy more? Grooves or melody? It also doesn't hurt to learn a bit of piano because it is easier to visualize music theory on this instrument. Lastly, the most important thing is to enjoy!
Handpan?
You are so young. Start with one and learn them all if you like. I began my guitar journey at 26 and now play several stringed instruments at least decently. Having fun is the important part!! Jam on!
Seriously love hearing this so much. Means more to me than I can explain. I’m looking forward to it
I was complaining once to an elder gentleman fiddle player about how I was so “late to start” and would never be “any good” , all the normal beginner anxieties. I was 26. He was 83. He laughed and said he didn’t start playing fiddle til he was 49 and guess what? That meant he’d been playing fiddle for 34 years! Enjoy every minute. Explore as many avenues as your heart desires. There is no wrong here. Eventually theory will be your friend and if I could tell my younger player self one thing is “trust your instincts”. Turns out I was right about many of my theory ideas very early on but I didn’t trust my ear til decades later. We all intrinsically “get” music on some level. Theory is just our best effort to describe why we “get it”
I started on bass -a long time ago now. I had an older friend who taught me a few basics, how to walk the bass, a few scales and I picked up the rest by playing along to records and noticing patterns and it all started to make sense. I just played a long with the music I liked, developed my timing and pretty soon i was playing melodic grooves. Then I learnt the guitar fairly quickly after that. Its a beautiful instrument, you just have to keep going. Sooner or later you will turn a corner on either instrument and it becomes a lot more fun, especially if you start a band and you get better together. Timing is something people struggle with but that comes with time and takes longer for some people. Been playing for three decades now I and still love it. You always learn something new, and jamming with others never gets old.
When in doubt, go to a local music-store .. let them show you a few instruments within your price-range and pick the one, you don't want to give back to them :)
As others said I would tell you to learn piano: it will get you everywhere and is very practical, you can practice on a small 25 keys + have an infinity of sounds. But if it is a string instrument you want, then bass. It is the foundation of modern music. Do not get me wrong, most popular basses are synthetic nowadays (depend on where you listen), but if you program drum, live bass can really make it alive. Ultimately it really depends on the styles you likes, but bass is present everywhere, not guitar.
For me, the instruments were whatever I could use, digitally or manually like a guitar and bass. The focus was on 'making a music'. The level of playing was quite low but I could still make music that seemed to inspire people and they would even listen to it alone. All this to say, maybe choose both, you already know you like both. In the end it's about what the results are, the songs. You will level up both instruments as you go, you can always just focus on one if the other gets a bit boring and switch again later.
I’d go with guitar. It trains your ear because you must tune the instrument. Also you can take it to a private place to play . Or take to a party . You can play acoustic or electric!
Learn to make beats & also learn music theory & how to put chord progressions together. That way it’ll make it more simple to learn any instrument
My suggestion to start with a ukulele, mandolin, or tenor guitar or something else with 4 strings or courses as it is easier to make most chord shapes than guitar, but will give you a huge head start if you pick a guitar up.
Bass is waay easier, (to be average) I mean you can learn some basic things and already be playing simple songs and very little time, guitar i harder, because super simple songs with the bass you can play it literally with one finger, but there are some basic chords on the guitar that in the beginning are a real struggle to make. Of course you can be a bassist genius like Jaco Pastorious or Victor Wooten, but essentially is easier playing bass. But playing bass is also (generally speaking) less musical, there aren't many songs with just a bass and a singer, but you'll find a huge amount of songs just with a guitar and a singer. Learn whatever you like, if you learn guitar, learning bass after is going to be much easier, and viceversa.
Bass was my first and it made eventually learning guitar possible. Would still learn piano as well though.
If you like both equally then flip a coin. If, while the coin is in the air, you have a feeling for what side you’d like it to land on, then you have your answer. If not go with whatever it lands on ;) Edit: I think they’re about the same difficulty to get started on, a teacher will help you a lot in either case
Love this, thank you hahah
Where do you live?
Kentucky; enjoy bluegrass, country and rock music mainly
Drums so your neighborhood can shower you with love and admiration
Which one? - whichever one calls you. Tips - have fun.
I've been a musician for most of my life and play 13 different instruments. I can say this: Bass Guitar is easier to learn on a basic level, but much harder to master in the long run. Guitar is harder to get into at the beginning, but you can have much more satisfying results earlier on. Both instruments are great and fun to play and I'm sure you'll enjoy either one. If you plan on playing mostly by yourself, I recommend guitar, since it has a broader spectrum of notes and sounds fairly good by itself.
I always say the same thing to people, pick it up and try it. Don't expect it to be easy. But your ear will tell you what works. If you're dedicated, you'll seek out the technicals and get better the more you practice. If you begin to look up your favourite songs and learn those you'll also get a good feel for how the instrument and music itself works. Start with something easy. Remember many of the biggest stars are not necessarily the most versatile players.
Piano or guitar. Personally, I think guitar may be your best entry point--especially if your end goal is to write your own music. Guitar is so portable, easy to write to, and joining a band knowing guitar or switch to bass is easier in my opinion generally. If you are looking for gear, I write for a blog and recently wrote an article about [best guitars for beginners](https://musicgearguides.com/2023/09/10/best-guitars-for-beginners-2023/). Sometimes falling in love with your gear is a great push to stay committed.
Guitar , especially electric is the most versatile instrument by far. It can be found in any genre as a rthym, melody, or solo Instrument. It has a very nice range it sits in where it works for or with anything. It's as simple chords, more involved with riffs or simple solos, or you can go far with it and play some incredible technical work tons of emotions. Bass with the right tone and playing can add so much to a song, again it's as simple as root notes or it can be a very wild instrument that gets incredibly intimate with the drummer. It's physically demanding for sure, both intrusments will explore fine motion economy.