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I've always wondered if it is easier to learn another instrument once you've gotten reasonably proficient at the piano. The practice from reading notes, memorizing, and matching specific notes and chords to certain keys must play some role in playing other instruments right? I would really like to hear the thoughts of people who play instruments other than the piano (even if they learned the piano later).

Thanks.

I do think piano does help with other instruments. As a voice teacher, students who play piano have less trouble learning songs (yes, SONGS because they are SUNG...ok, back OT :p ) as they can not only get their notes themselves on the piano, they can also play the accompaniments on their own to get a better idea of how the whole thing comes together. I always recommend my voice students take lessons in some other instrument for the reading factor alone, but piano is ideal since voice students have to work so closely with pianists on a regular basis.

There are pluses and minuses. I took up the clarinet at the age of 14, and it definitely helped that I could read music, sight-read easily, and was familiar with the basics of music theory. However, there were things that I did not know how to do - my piano training did not sharpen my ear to the point where I could tell that a note was just a leetle out of tune, I had trouble maintaining a flowing melodic line (on a piano, once you press a key it's over; on a clarinet, you can control the loudness of the note throughout), etc. I think that overall, it was definitely a plus, though.

I am learning the theremin now, and facing the same issues, except more so as far as staying in tune is concerned.

it sure helps with the organ. I've easily dabbled in other instruments, probably because i know how to read music. .. it all makes sense so much more easily.

That is so cool.

All the great 18th century keyboard players were also violinists. Mozart, believe it or not, was a better violinist than pianist. I think it shows in the demands he sets in his keyboard works.

I started on piano only. I remember being tested once for pitch, and I think I was unable to tell a C from an F#.

In 7th grade I wanted to join the band, and only tuba was left so I chose it. I was a weak tuba player, though I was first chair in 9th grade, but in 10th I switched to euphonium, and from that time on I was 1st chair in every ensemble I was in, including my college wind ensemble.

Sometime later I was tested again and was able to recognize any pitch on the piano.

Brass is a HUGE help in developing the ear, because the valves do almost nothing in the high register. It's almost like singing, except you buzz the lips instead of vibrating vocal cords.

In college, I went for an initial exam in sightsinging and passed the whole two year course in advance. I was able to sing tone rows.

In general, the worst sightsingers were singers who ONLY sang. But the best were often pianists who also sang or played wind instruments, stringed instruments, and so on.

The piano is THE instrument for seeing how everything is laid out, the best possible background for theory (or any keyboard instrument), but by itself it is not nearly as powerful overall as playing another instrument (in addition) that demands fine control of pitch and all sorts of things that we as pianists have no control over. Also, wind and string players have to develop the ability to bend to the needs of other players, which pianists do not necessarily have to do.

(For instance, the same player who seems just fine playing alone in a lounge might be the worst possible keyboard player in a jazz ensemble, not only because of trying to play everything, stepping all over the leads and bass player but also from lack of the special feel for rhythms in an ensemble.)

And before singers get angry at me, some of those singers who couldn't pass a sight-singing test to save their lives had superb ears. They just had nothing physical to link to, and that made looking at notes in a score and "turning them into pitches" a lot harder.

The voice itself is THE most difficult instrument, and anyone who can sing very well in tune and can duplicate what s/he hears has all the raw talent you need for anything the ear needs, in my opinion.

Oh, I forgot the main point: most DEFINITELY, the piano or any keyboard instrument makes playing other instruments easier. It just doesn't automatically guarantee success.

My progression through instruments was violin, voice--and then piano. There is a fundamental difference in tone production.

Violinists and singers work the tone all the way to the end of the tone. They may think ahead to the next tone, but they cannot physically get off the tone, and prepare for the next.

For the pianist, once the key is struck, there is nothing more that can be done with the hand, other than to sustain. It's all over, and the pianist is able to take nearly all of the weight off the key, and physically prepare the hand for the next key.

For years I was digging my hands deeply into the keys well after the tone was struck--all to no avail--resulting in a sluggish quality to my piano playing.

Tomasino

It's all over? What a fatalistic approach! Surely one can look forward to... the release of the note? And you get a choice of releasing it with the hand, or the foot - such an abundance of riches!

I used to be unconcerned with the release of the note, until I started studying the harpsichord and organ; there, the release can be crucial.

I've taken that approach to the piano, and have discovered that - yes, there is life after the key has been struck.

PS: one of my favorite things to do is to release the damper pedal while still holding a chord; I may pedal several times until the chord fades away. It has the effect of accelerating the diminuendo of the chord.

I've played the bagpipes in the past and dabbled with the lute, self taught with both after learning piano after a fashion as a child. I found both pretty easy to learn. The idea of learning to play a violin (no frets, no holes, no keys!!!) scares me to death.

Chopin, whose father played the flute and violin and whose "piano" teacher was primarily a violinist, learned to play the violin as youing boy and as a teenager once improvised beautifully on someone else's cello but there's no indication he ever touched either instrument after he left Poland.

How scandalous!

Quoting whippen boy
No, whip, I do know about sustaining or not sustaining, and the affect of a slow or a quick drop of the dampers, either by finger or pedal. In fact, I've written about this in other threads.

But it has little to do with the point I was making here.

Tomasino

I wouldn't be so sure.