The Relatable Musician 8

If there is an ignorant thought that annoys me a lot, it's the fact that people think that guitar is the easiest instrument to learn.

Ignorant people think "Oh, if I just put my fingers in these places on the fretboard and strum, I'll magically make music!  It's so simple!"  

Unfortunately, it's not that simple.  A guitar is actually pretty complicated to learn notes on as a beginner.  It takes a while to memorize the note names of all the frets... and then there's alternate tuning of the strings, and the use of capos.  Granted, you can easily learn a basic E minor and A major chord in ten minutes.  But to be able to play more than that, it takes quite a bit of work.

Typical piano used for note names

The instrument always used for visualizing notes in the music world is the piano.  Why?  It's easy to see the notes on the keys of a piano.  No one is going to teach basic theory to beginning musicians using saxophone fingerings.  That's just too complicated.  The piano has the note names in ascending and linear order.  And to us, that is the simplest way of visualizing notes.   

The good thing about guitars is that it's practically the same concept.  If you play a string, it plays one note.  If you press your finger down somewhere on the string and strum, it plays a different note.  And the closer you move the placement of your finger to your picking hand, the higher the note.  Similar to a piano.  However, the hard part is that there are five other strings using the same concept, and they all don't start on the same note.  When you strum a chord on a guitar, you are playing six notes that fit in the key you're playing in.  You strum six individual notes that harmonize together for that lovely sound that everyone wants to hear around the campfire.  If you want to play a G, you have to place your fingers in such a way so you play G, B, D, G, D, G (In that order).  But of course not not a lot of people know that.  They just put their hands in a shape of what they are taught is a chord, and strum.  No more thought given.

 That's why a lot of people decide to pick up the guitar and put it down after a while.  They don't know how complicated it gets after learning all the easy chords in the key of G.  They learn that there are actually inversions of a chord, and that bar chording is pretty hard on the hand.  

So to all of you who are thinking of learning an instrument: don't pick one because it's simply easy.  Granted, there are some instruments that you can pick up the basics faster.  But to become good at an instrument takes a lot of work.  Even if it seems simple, like guitar or percussion (trust me, percussion has some tough rudiments).  Whatever you pick, make sure it appeals to you.  And once you learn all the basics, stick with it!