Learn the guitar or piano first?

J

JMD_Music

New member
I was wondering which instrument you all thought would be better to learn first, the guitar or the piano? I'm determined to learn an instrument, as that would definitely help when it comes to production.

I want to make Pop/EDM music.
 
It's more practical to learn the piano as you probably eventually will get a MIDI controller and use that one while producing.
But it's also important to consider what you yourself want to learn first.
 
Yeah I own an Akai MPK49, but I love the sound of the electric guitar, so maybe once I get the feel of a piano, I'll dabble into that.
 
JMD_Music said:
Yeah I own an Akai MPK49, but I love the sound of the electric guitar, so maybe once I get the feel of a piano, I'll dabble into that.
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I play guitar exclusively these days, but I started learning on the piano many years ago. If the goal is to learn music to help your production (how chords and melody work in actual music), you don't really need to learn a shit-ton of technique beyond the basics. My suggestion would be to hunt down a jazz or gospel piano player (or someone with who performs a variety of music beyond classical) and in the interim, pick up a real book, queue up a bunch of tunes on YT and get learning. All the chord progressions and melodic ideas you will pick will elevate your production and help you express yourself. How could it not?

A simple tip that helped me bullshit my way through jazz tunes-when reading lead-sheet chord symbols, for example: A-7b5 [A minor 7 flat 5 or A half-dim 7], play the root and third of the chord in bass (your left hand) and the fifth and seventh with your right hand.
 
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Self taught guitarist... Took a few months of bass lessons and asked tutor to 'not hold back' on theory... Result was that both my guitar and keyboard skills improved drastically.
I don't think the instrument you pick is overly important as the concepts are pretty much universal. Just play something.
 
for what you suggested, piano since most other devices would need a cable to plug into an interface if they were real guitars so midi piano keyboard.
 
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