Why Piano Should Be Your First Instrument
Picking your first musical instrument can be very challenging. Instruments are often expensive, and you probably don’t have the time or money to try all 1,500+ of them (or even the three that your buddy has). So, if you’re like me, you may find yourself overanalyzing your options to a ridiculous degree. Are my fingers too short and fat to play guitar? Will the violin be too difficult to learn since it doesn’t have frets? Do I have a big enough lung capacity to support the sound of the mighty tuba? These are valid questions, but if you get too caught up in the What Ifs, the decision can be overwhelming to where you give up on learning any instrument at all.
Certainly, every instrument has its challenges, and your specific body shape might make some instruments easier to play than others. But one instrument that just about anyone can play is the piano. Sure, people with long, slender fingers might have an advantage by being able to reach wider intervals, but that doesn’t mean people with other hand sizes can’t still make a great sound!
Pianos are designed in a very linear way that makes them easy to understand. Every note has its own key, and you won’t find the same note in multiple places. The low notes are to the left and the high notes are to the right, with each key in order from low to high. The piano keys are uniform in size, making it easy to get a feel for where the notes are, in contrast to many stringed instruments where the space between notes gets progressively smaller as you go up the fretboard.
Piano is one of the most versatile instruments. It works great as a solo instrument or for playing with others. Regardless of what type of music you like, a piano is probably involved in some way. Even if you prefer the sound of other instruments, MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) allows a digital piano to sound like just about any instrument you want it to (although some MIDI instruments sound better than others!).
Piano is a great foundational instrument that will help you with any other instrument you want to learn. There is a reason all college music majors are required to learn to play piano, regardless of what they want to specialize in! It’s one of the easiest instruments to learn the basics of music on, and it can produce such a great sound all by itself. If you’ve never tried to learn piano, I highly encourage you to do so!
