Which is harder: Violin or Piano?

Question

Well, I play violin, and I say its harder to play, but my friend says piano is harder, which I know it is not. I may sound bias, but violin is actually much harder. You must have proper formation, bow control, clean notes, and then theres vibrato. I don't know much about piano though...I know there are foot pedals....and do you have to tap the keys harder or lighter?

Anyways, I would like to know your opinions on which is harder to play, understand, etc.

Thanks

Answer 1

Well on piano the they sounds will sound louder if tapped harder and the sounds will sound quieter if tapped softly. I think the violin may be harder to play but I'm not sure I've never played it and dont know much about it, i play piano.

Answer 2

piano because there are so many scales and chords and notes to learn. its never ending learning. violin would be hard too though.

Answer 3

any instrument is can become very difficult in the end, but I would say the most difficult one to start off is the violin. There are a lot of right techniques you must learn like how to hold it, stroke it, etc. When you start off, it would sound like c**p and can be very discuraging while on piano you can start off learning chords right off the bat, plus songs like mary had a little lamb. Also, you may even develop bruises around your neck or shoulder (saw it somewhere) on violin.

Answer 4

violin is WAY harder, you have to get it in tune where in the piano it is automatically in tune when you hit the key.

Answer 5

Both instruments pose unique technical challenges and there is literature written for both instruments which can only be played well and musically by only a small fraction of musicians.

Listen to this incredibly difficult Bach piece for violin performed by a great violinist:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFdbQtu2A...

Then listen to a famous transcription of the same piece transcribed by Busoni and performed on the piano.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GC1cS7gQ...

Answer 6

ever heard the screeching of a beginner violinist?  

BRUTAL.

Having played both violin and piano, I would say violin is harder, simply because of what you mentioned

The foot pedals on a piano aren't hard to use at all, you just hold them down or you don't, and for how hard you hit a key, it's the same as how hard you press down with the bow.  There is no such thing as vibrato with the paino so a lot of ppl are off the hook for that one.  Vibrato and shifting make it sound so rough if you're not practised.  The other thing is with violin, ppl can tell you made a mistake as soon as you make it, especially in an orchestra.  One bow out of sync, and the person in the back row can tell, one finger a quarter of an inch out of place and the whole group sounds off.

Piano, you mostly play by yourself, or with other ppl not playing the same instruments or parts, so one note off can be brushed off as part of the song...

Answer 7

PIANO, violin is WAYY easier then violin, trust me.Piano is the hardest instrument you could play. Piano is all about techinque, one hard thing about piano is that you have to play one thing with one hand, and another completely different thing with the other hand, and thats just the basics where i'm at, and for those that think that you just hit the keys harder to make it louder, WRONG its all about technique!!

piano is ALOT more than just reading the notes and playing them pressing the keys, the chords can be VERY HARD!! coordinating your hands VERY HARD!! alot of people dont know what they are talking about, i mean the piano only has 7 keys, all the other keys are just different pitches which makes it really hard.

Answer 8

violin is harder. But piano you just need to know your notes.

Answer 9

I would say that the violin is a more complicated instrument to learn that a piano.  however, after a certain level, both instruments can become complex in the notes.  for example, certain pieces require you to move your fingers all up and down the eighty-one keys on a piano which is a little more difficult than correct finger placing.  however, the violin can be difficult because you don't have much space to move around.  I guess it's more geared about personality, though i would learn towards your argument.

Answer 10

piano is super way harder

violin its hard because you arm gets tired

but paino is way harder to learn

so many keys

Answer 11

The Piano is in my opinion, the easiest instrument to play.

It doesn't blister your fingers at first, it doesnt take the carefullness and precision that it takes to position your fingers on a fretless fretboard, it doesn't take the fluency that it takes to slide a bow up and down on the strings.

Well I play guitar and piano, and I know the piano is way easier to learn than any stringed instrument.

Answer 12

Violin is much harder, but you should play the viola.  Its just better!

Answer 13

violin - i play the piano, flute, guitar, and drums, and i know the violin is hard to play! it looks like it, and yeah...! my sister plays it, and... wow. it's hard!

edit: to the guy above me - violin isn't hard because it uses ur arm! there's much more to it than that! flute's not hard just because it uses ur arm! u get used to it!

Answer 14

my cousin said piano is but she has been taking violin for like 8 years

Answer 15

You can't make an assumption because you haven't played piano. In my opinion, they require really different techniques and so they're hard to compare.

Piano:

-Chords. Tons of them. Inversions, minors, sevenths, all kinds of add-ons....really insane amount.

-Separate cleffs. Timing them together correctly can be tricky, especially with stuff like jazz. I think there's more theory stuff to get through.

-Pedals, and yes sometimes the music has instructions to be louder or softer by how hard you hit the keys

But every instrument is difficult to get GOOD at. You get sore in different parts of the hand. I play guitar and piano, they both have totally different challenges. I picked up piano more quickly, but that was my second instrument and that makes it easier. Also I wasn't six, like I was when I started guitar =)

Answer 16

Well, since you have a background in music, piano is so easy. I know firsthand because as a violinist, I decided to learn piano because its a great instrument to advance your knowledge of theory on. It was so easy to learn. What your friends aren't considering is that even though you're hitting notes with two hands, and shifting is a little more bulkier, in violin, you are using both hands in different ways. With different ways come different techniques. All in all, violin makes piano look like you could do it in your sleep.

Answer 17

Violin

Answer 18

hey i guess violin is the harder one.am a piano player and i noe that all it requires is fast and good movement of fingers.my friend plays violin and i noe its d**n tough.now,u cant call me bias.can u?

Answer 19

First off learning to play any instrument is difficult but the violin is more difficult to learn to play than the piano.

With the piano you have to learn to read both treble cleft (what violins read) and bass cleft (what cellos read). The hands move in similar motions up and down the keys. You do use your feet for sustaining notes and a vibrato if you will.

The violin is much more difficult for several reasons. When playing the violin you are doing two different things at once, bowing and finding the notes. Where you put your fingers depends on the notes (on the piano the notes are in front of you and you don't have to find the pitch). Also with the violin there are many different finger positions and of course shifting.

All in all the violin is extremely difficult. Congrats on playing it!

Answer 20

Violin is much harder than piano. Get your friend to play Middle C. Easy, right? Then hand over your violin and ask your friend to play the same note. See how long it takes.

Answer 21

Violin.

Answer 22

Piano is easy to pick up. Yeah yeah yeah, everybody else will say that there are too many keys, but really there's just sets of ABCDEF and G throughout the entire set of keys. Really all that you need to know to start out is where middle C is. It's in the middle of the piano, left of the 2 black keys.

But on the other hand, yeah there are a lot of keys. And you do have foot petals, trills, and dynamics. But it's really not that bad.