[mattparlane]

If you are interested in learning /music/ and not just learning the /guitar/, I would strongly encourage you to start on the piano.

I started on the piano and moved to the guitar later, and I've now realised that the piano gives you such a good musical grounding, so much better than the guitar can. There's nothing quite like having it all laid out in front of you. It's the only way that things like sharps and flats make sense, it doesn't make much sense on a guitar and that makes musical theory difficult to learn.

[amelius]

I find the piano quite illogical. Playing a chromatic scale requires to jump from white to black keys. The guitar with its "basic" strings is actually much closer to the underlying physics (and thus mathematics), imho.

[snarfy]

This might be true from a physics standpoint, but it's not from a musical standpoint. The vast majority of all western music was composed on a piano first. It really does help to know it when learning any western music. Even the chromatic scale on a guitar doesn't accurate represent the physics. It's still based on sqrt 2^12 mathematics, not natural waves. If you want true temperament it looks more like this:

http://www.truetemperament.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/sl...

[analog31]

In my view the "logic" of any historical instrument emerges as you gain experience. You eventually reach a stage where you can think and hear the music in your head, and it comes out of the instrument. At this point, the pianist finds "shapes" of their hands, that correspond to what they want to play. So in a sense the arrangement of the keys is a kind of memory aid.

[bluGill]

A mandolin is probably the most logical in this area. Tuned like the violin, but you get frets and don't have to learn the bow.

[trgn]

Yes and no imho. The piano is a beast of an instrument. It's an accommodating instrument to play something fairly simple fairly fast, but then there's an enormous wall to climb up on. It's really difficult to be a good self-taught piano player, the learning curve is steep beyond the basics.

Also, playing beginner piano doesn't practice your hearing as much as a stringed or wind instrument. I think it's important for beginners to learn to listen to what they play and adjust their intonation accordingly. Guitar, even though fretted, really does requires players to listen intently to pitch and tone from day one.

I'd say music theory and harmony - broadly speaking - makes more sense on a guitar, than it does on a piano. Solfege, yes, that does make more sense on a piano, but imo most amateur musicians really don't care about that particular approach to music education. And for rock&roll and country/blues, it's really not all that important either.

Apart from all that, yes, of course, piano is an amazing instrument, but much harder than guitar in the mid to long run.

[otterpro]

I've taken lessons when I was in kindergarten and when I was in High school, but it has never been an easy instrument to learn. I'd say piano/keyboard easier than violin, but much much harder than a guitar. The 10,000 hours might not be enough to master piano, if you're starting as an adult beginner. However, you can definitely learn to play chords and simple melodies on piano. One thing to note, if you are a developer/programmer, be careful as piano has the same risk of getting carpel tunnel syndrome, so consider the ergonomics, and also don't overplay on piano. PS: I wish there was an ergonomic piano.