Pianos more versatile than Guitars??

[griffith9]

we all know we can't compare genre or instrument, and music was wrtten for each instrument for a reason. I play guitar/flute/harmonica a little bit. my main is guitar.

but when we're talking versatility, isn't piano much better at EXPRESSING musically?

Piano has so much more range.
A guitar piece can be done with only ONE hand of a pianist, as much as i don't like to admit..

I've always thought guitar can mean more, because it's a string and not a key. You can slap,bend,pick... whatever.

Keys can't have a Yngwie Vibrato, can they?

but then I realized all those fancy tappings and everything are only imitating pianist "hammering" piano keys.

sweep picking? the musical expression can be done better(?) and with ease on the piano also...

and Piano can cover chord and melody at the same time easily, when
some guitar pieces struggle a lot to do that(arppegios) though it can be just as beautiful.


with guitar solos, it's difficult to throw chords in(though jazz guitar does it a lot), with piano solos, it's just really natural, almost effortless.

Complicated walking bass(JOE PASS) can take a lot of efforts on the guitar, but almost too easy on the piano


If we're talking versatility, is piano more versatile than guitar??

PIANO > GUITAR??

[Zoola]

With the advent of electric keyboards, I would say that piano is a more versatile instrument. That being said, the two are very fundamentally different instruments, so play what you like best. (me = piano)

[suzumebachi]

piano? guitar? saying one is more versatile than the other is, in my honest opinion, stupid as hell.

no offense.

[OverCoat]

Depends on the musician.


End of thread [please].

[Splunkle]

I would say that each is more versatile in their own way. Sure you can do all that fancy buiness on a piano, but you can't do a slide, can you? How about one of those thingos with the stick that stretchs the string?

Yeah, btw, I am by no means a pro guitarist.

The point is, each instrument has its strength and its weaknesses. The trick is to utilise that, eh?

[Yoozer]

we all know we can't compare genre or instrument, and music was wrtten for each instrument for a reason. I play guitar/flute/harmonica a little bit. my main is guitar.
Then why do you make an attempt to compare anyway?

Vanilla does not somehow negate chocolate.

It's very simple. You can't make a statement like that without at least a bit of a nuance.

Guitars are designed to be held in your hands. They are designed with your hands doing 2 distinct things - plucking or pressure. All semitones are not adjacent like a piano; it depends on the position of the string. Furthermore, the guitar is a string instrument but derives its sound from plucking or strumming (2 distinct methods of excitation), while a piano only offers you hammers.

In terms of expressiveness neither rules above the other, albeit that the guitar offers some possibilities that a piano doesn't - vibrato, different methods of excitation, harmonics. A guitar allows the player to move freely while a piano restricts it.

Playing a 7-note chord on a piano (which you can't do on a 6-string guitar) has nothing to do with expressiveness. Being able to strum or pick which changes the sound does. Sustaining notes while playing more of them without altering or cutting off the previous ones has nothing to do with expressiveness - bending the strings so you get a smooth pitch drop or rise has.

I still don't get the meaning behind the actual question; then again, I rarely understand the gist of most of your questions.