Piano

Piano is the one of the most popular instruments for beginners, and in many ways it’s an ideal choice. It’s unique, in that it can produce rhythm, melody, harmony, and even counterpoint at the same time! That’s pretty much every fundamental musical concept there is. Other instruments can only handle one or two of these functions at a time. As such, piano lessons can give you a really solid foundation in how music works, and nearly every accomplished musician I know has spent some time studying it.

Pros

• The layout of the piano makes it easy to understand; every note is represented visually by a single key, and they’re all laid out in a straight line. In this way it’s much more straightforward than many other instruments.

• The piano is a polyphonic instrument, meaning it can play more than one note at a time. This allows a pianist to play chords, or groups of notes played together, and counterpoint, in which two or more different musical parts work together to create a composition (a pianist does this by playing different parts with the right and left hands; bands, orchestras, and producers do it with separate instruments and sounds). This is incredibly useful in music education. From the beginning, piano students learn harmony through chords and rhythm and groove through counterpoint; woodwind and string players don’t, and have to study them separately.

• Learning piano is affordable (you can buy a perfectly acceptable starter keyboard for $100-$200), and because it’s so popular there’s a huge range of instructional and songbooks to choose from.

Cons

• All of this functionality and potential has a drawback; piano can be hard. Students have to learn to read sheet music, and young learners can become easily bored and frustrated with it. But a good teacher can go a long way towards making the process easier, and even fun! (I do this with apps, games, and stickers!)

• In general, the learning curve for piano is steeper and longer than other instruments. Students have to learn a lot of different things and may have to play for quite a while before they can play the songs they want to. Other instruments like ukulele and percussion are more accessible and allow students to play songs much more quickly.

what to expect

• Piano lessons will give you a comprehensive grasp of the fundamentals of music and how it works. It’s also one of the most beautiful and expressive instruments ever made. It’s hard work, though, and it may take you a long time to sound the way you want.

• If you want a physical and intellectual challenge and enjoy long-term skill building and improvement, you’re going to love it! If you’d rather just pick an instrument up and start playing songs quickly, though, you might be better off with a guitar or better yet, a ukulele to start with.

• In spite of its universal popularity as a beginner’s instrument, piano can be especially challenging for kids. We all have a friend or five who took piano as a child, got frustrated, and gave it up. Piano can be terrific for children as young as four years old, and I highly encourage them to give it a try, but it’s not for everyone. Often it can harder than kids or their parents expect. I’ve had plenty of students start on piano and then move on to another instrument like uke that’s more fun and less demanding, and there’s nothing wrong with that! In the long-term, the most important thing is for young learners is to develop confidence, competence, and positive associations with music, and they can do that with whatever instrument they choose.

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