Keyboard versus Guitar

Hearing Billy Joel's music starting around age ten hooked me on piano for life. I dabbled with guitar in my teens, but I've always been much more of a pianist than a guitarist.

I've always thought of the piano as the mother instrument at the center of all music with its spread of 88 keys perfectly laid out as a reference point for all instruments. As a player, the bing of a key strike mesmerizes me. I understand it is simply a hammer hitting a string, but it sounds like something above and beyond that--something unique.

But that hammer strike separates that pianist from the strings. The many moving parts between the keys and the strings result in the player only being able to manipulate the strings indirectly. This results in an instrument with limited dynamics.

The guitar, on the other hand, is just about opposite the piano in this regard. A guitar player directly manipulates the guitar strings with both hands simultaneously. With one hand, he can bend notes, slide down the strings, hammer on, and pull off. With the other hand, he can strike the strings with a single pick, a pick attached to each finger, his fingernails, or his fingertips themselves. He might slap the strings rhythmically. Because of these possibilities, the guitar is an extremely dynamic and versatile musical instrument.

But there are hot sounds to be produced by piano keys too. The 1960s to the 1980s gave us some lovely electric pianos. The Fender Rhodes electric piano may be the most dynamic of these new instruments. More than just the pitch changes as one moves up or down the keyboard and more than the volume changes when you hit a key lighter or harder. Herbie Hancock describes the Rhodes as having many colors that can be brought out. The Wurlitzer electric pianos, too, have a color all their own. Yamaha CP models also expanded the range of sounds a keyboardist could produce. And throughout, organs evolved--particularly the Hammond, which became a fixture of much of the rich music being produced as the century wrapped up with synthesizers able to create any sound imaginable.

Now every keyboard sound ever produced is available through relatively affordable digital pianos and keyboards. I don't think you can have one electronic keyboard for everything, though. A piano, for example, needs to have key action that is vastly different from what you would want for a Hammond organ.

But the rich evolution of keyed instruments still doesn't result in parity with the guitar, because the directly string manipulation, to me, can't be surpassed by any keyboard. In addition, the guitar is simply a friendly instrument. A teenager can buy a guitar for a hundred bucks, learn to play, and bring it to college with him. Pianos are expensive. Often they are just there, already in the household. College is a prefect time to let one's piano skills atrophy because the instrument stays with mom and dad.

Sure, you can bring a portable keyboard to college, as I did, but it wasn't the same as the piano I left back home. And there never was a good way to set it up in my dorm. My guitar traveled several times between my dorm and my parents' house, no problem.

Another advantage of the guitar is that it can be enjoyed by players with a huge range of skill levels. You can learn a handful of chords and strum your way to years of enjoyment while the next guy is a virtuoso. There is a larger hill to climb before getting anywhere on the piano.

But I love the piano because I am a pianist, while I recognize the magic of the guitar.