Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Teachers Forum How would you feel if your students want to play guitar too?

I am an adult male student with a young family. I've had to cut back my lessons to every other week with my current piano teacher because of the way our schedules work out. It's a long story but basically she teaches only at night and I work at night so our schedules align every other week (it's actually more complicated than that with kids and a working spouse but you get the point). Anyway, I was thinking of taking up guitar lessons on the off week. I have a guitar teaching friend that has a very flexible schedule. I should have no problem scheduling a guitar lesson with him during the day on the off week that has no piano lesson. As piano teachers, would this annoy/worry/anger/threaten you or would you be pleased to see a student reach for new limits? I think that guitar instruction may benefit my piano playing too. Thank you.

I'm not a teacher (well I do give occasional lessons to cousins, but that's different than being a professional). But I will say that ANY music teacher worth having should be enthusiastic about any other musical pursuits their students may undertake. I know my own teacher is highly supportive of me taking up other instruments.

+1.

The only thing I would add is if you are taking classical guitar, then most classical guitarists will tell you you must grow long nails on your right hand (Basic incompatibility with piano). If you will be using a pick, then there will be no problem. Guitar will give you a different angle on what you are already doing on piano.

I played classical guitar with short nails, which is a compromise. It gives a mellow sound without the crispness and affects the plucking technique. But I imagine the OP is thinking of folk guitar where you strum using a pick. Folk guitar in particular gives you an understanding of chords. You use your wrist in a flexible way in the RH, which you also need on piano and most instruments. But the type of freedom you have at piano, where the whole arm mechanism from shoulder to fingertips should be mobile (not locked up), isn't there. I don't know if it affects piano playing.

You should discuss your plans with your piano teacher, maybe.

That's a good point about long nails, but generally if any of my students want to learn another instrument I always encourage them to do so. It can enhance their musicality, rhythm (if they want to learn a percussion instrument) and improve their ability to compose/arrange music.

How will you deal with practice time? Will learning a new instrument mean that the time usually allotted to practicing the piano be diminished?

Your teacher's attitude (if any), nail length, and any other details can be coped with. You have an urge to try guitar. So, of course, you MUST try it!

In the longer run, one or the other may take over. One may present more performance opportunities. You may not have enough practice time for both (though an upcoming performance seems to magically produce sufficient practice time!) Or you may become a pianist/guitarist. Do you sing as well?

You do not need to look for reasons NOT to try!

This is a very important consideration. At early levels, of course, practice time is not a problem for most people because it doesn't require a lot of time to progress. As you get better, however, more time is needed to continue progressing. Maintaining two instruments can get quite time-consuming, so you'll want to think about that given your current schedule.

Another thing that I've noticed on the AB forum is that there are some posters who complain about pain when playing either piano or guitar because they do both. I don't know if that is an issue that is common, but I've seen it enough times to wonder. So just be careful that you pay attention to signals your body is giving and make sure any pain, fatigue, soreness, etc. are addressed by both your piano and guitar teachers should they arise.

I have had numerous students who take or have taken guitar lessons.

One issue that comes up is that the fingering scheme for the two instruments is different. Finger #1 for the piano is the thumb, but for the guitar it is the index finger, aka #2 for the piano.

This has caused some confusion.

Does anyone have an idea why this might be so in those cases?

Thank you for all the reply's. I'm not really thinking of classical guitar with finger picking but more folk and rock with the pick. As far as practice time goes, I probably will be splitting the time between the two instruments, though most practice will still be piano related. The person I'm planning on going to for guitar lessons is very aware of stress injury's related to the instrument. When he plays he holds his guitar more like a standing bass which allows his wrist to remain nearly straight and prevents long term injury. He said it doesn't look as cool, but he plans on being able to play to very old age. I'll follow his example. I'm most excited about learning a new approach to music that can also be applied to the piano. I want to be able to jam with my friends but at the moment my bag of tricks is quite limited. My piano teacher teaches strictly classical and doesn't really know how to improvise herself. I believe guitar lessons will help teach me improvisation on both instruments and hopefully make me a better musician overall.

My concern would be I believe you would build up callouses on your finger tips and I would find that undesirable for playing the piano....but understanding chords and changes would be a plus.

rada

That's not been a problem for me. The finger-numbering thing is a huge problem, however.

Good luck with both instruments!

I think it is great. I teach piano, voice, and guitar. Each instrument has its pros and cons regarding playing skill. Improvisation is a great way to learn about your instrument. I teach improvisation in my studio. Good luck. Have fun. Thanks for sharing.

Has this been addressed? Not being a guitar player myself, I can't speak to this personally, but it does raise a concern with the vast difference between playing guitar and piano. Is this a problem and if so, how does one deal with it?

I personally do better if I focus on one instrument at a time. If I wanted to study guitar I would probably stop piano lessons.

OTOH, I have had students who also took guitar lessons. They were not doing much work with piano before starting guitar, and it continued after they started guitar. It's just slow progress when they do that.

What's to address? Is there some preconception that doing one thing in one way should hinder you from doing another thing in another way?
The human body is generally considered to be a multi-function mechanism. I frequently use it for two quite different purposes, and all before breakfast!

Look - this guy WANTS to learn guitar while continuing with piano. We're not in the business of telling him not to, surely?

I have had a few guitar students take piano lessons, and some of them have had a lot more tension in their fretting hand (usually the Left), than their right hand.

The only explanation I have as an observer, not an expert, is that these students have one or both of these situations:

1. A guitar(s) with the action excessively high. This means that the strings are too far away from the fretboard, and thus it takes excessive effort to press the strings to the fretboard. This is often caused by leaving the guitar idle for lengths of time with the strings tight.

2. Players with improper fretting hand technique, so they have poor control/strength to squeeze their left hand/fingers to fret notes. This is exacerbated by playing bar chords, where all the strings are squeezed to the fretboard with a finger.

I am not a guitar player, but I do work with several guitar teachers on a day to day basis, and have discussed this several times with them, and they all say that teaching relaxed fretting technique is a big part of their job.

So to the OP, I would say exactly what I would say to a prospective piano student: "Get a Good Teacher"!!!

I play guitar. The type of right arm action required for guitar varies hugely from one genre to the next, from one player to the next. So one guitarist holds their pick like this, the next holds it like that. Strumming requires whole fore-arm movement and wrist rotation, unlike rock picking which is much more a small wrist side-to-side motion. Either way, the focus is on efficient movement and relaxed shoulders, not that different from piano in principle.