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I get it–you don’t want to spend months practicing the wrong instrument! Guitar and violin are both complex and beautiful instruments, which one is easier to play?
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Violin Vs Guitar: Which Is The Best?
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The consensus is that guitar is an easier instrument to learn than violin, and that it takes more practice time to get to a performance-worthy level for the violin than the guitar. Violin is more difficult because of its lack of frets and its complexity in playing techniques.
So why is guitar considered an easier instrument than violin? Let’s dig into the particulars and maybe you’ll find out which of these instruments you’d rather learn.
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So, I’ll be upfront. Whether something is easy or hard to learn is kind of… subjective. Guitar may be super hard for some violinists, and violin could be almost impossible for some guitarists!
I decided to do some research on this, and asked several multi-instrumentalists which was harder, and out of 8 people who played the violin all 8 said that the violin was harder to learn.
What’s a fret? A fret is a bar that is perpendicular to the playing board of a guitar. If you press a string down, the fret acts as a fulcrum, making it easier to push the string down to a specific length. The length of the string defines the pitch as it’s played.
Fiddle Vs Violin
A trained violinist doesn’t think about the location of the notes, they are simply there, memorized by thousands of hours of practice.
For a new beginner, there is no obvious visual (without the help of training stickers) that tells you where to push your fingers to make all the notes.
For a guitar, the frets are an obvious and easy way to distinguish one note from the other, making it much easier for a guitar teacher to tell a student “play the F# on the first string!”
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Every string on the violin requires a different angle from the bow. Getting the perfect angle each time on each playing position takes lot of practice. Furthermore, the pressure in which to apply to the strings from the bow is another tone factor, as is the location of the bow on the strings.
For guitar, although tone quality can vary from player to player, things are much simpler. A guitarist simply has to pluck or strum the note cleanly. This means plucking the note you want (and no others), and pressing the string right behind the fret with enough pressure to prevent buzzing.
Although you can play the violin pizzicato (where you pluck the strings), the main way to play the violin is with a bow.
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As I’ve mentioned before, bow technique is complex and not as clearly defined as guitar or piano. It requires expert teaching in order to learn how to make the violin play beautiful music beautifully.
However, the guitar has the benefit that it can be played in multiple ways (strumming, plucking via fingerpicking or via plectrum). With strumming perhaps being the easiest of all.
Strumming means to scrape across the guitar strings. Many open chords you strum all the strings at once, which is not a very complicated technique. This means that a beginner can actually play the chords of a song within as little as a month of practice.
Differences Between A Violin And A Guitar
So, I just wrote several reasons why the guitar is an easier instrument to learn then the violin–but being a beginner at the guitar or being a beginner at the violin is different than mastering the instrument.
At that point, all bets are off. You can spend a lifetime learning the complexities and intricacies of the guitar or the violin. They are both rich instruments that require years of constant practice to achieve expert proficiency.
Some people may have a longer road than others, what might take someone 6 months to achieve might take another 2 years. With solid practice and a good teacher you can achieve more faster.
Why Do People Assume Violin Is Harder Because It Doesn't Have Frets? Don't You Just Get Used To Where To Place The Fingers? Wouldn't A Guitar Be Fretless If You Didn't Need
I wrote about how anyone might achieve proficiency with the guitar in this article–much of the same principles apply to violin or any other instrument. You can check out that article here.
We’ve been comparing guitar to the violin, and comparatively, the guitar is an easier instrument to learn (at least initially as we’ve talked about).
However, don’t think that guitar is an easy instrument to learn! It has some challenges even that violin players don’t have to face.
Violin Vs Guitar: What's Easier To Learn?
Fingerpicking is a beautiful way to play the guitar and although you can pluck the strings on the violin, it isn’t nearly as common as playing with a bow. In any case, the fingerpicking patterns for guitar are more complicated (more strings) and are more varied.
Physical Dexterity playing chord shapes looks so easy, but a new player will soon discover that their hands don’t want to hold those positions! It can take a long time to get to a point where you don’t get cramps from playing guitar chords.
And more reasons… I actually address several reasons why the guitar is a difficult instrument to learn. Make sure and check it why here.
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Hi, I'm Peter. I have a passion for music and the amazing sounds in this world. I've been a hobbyist musician since I was in high school and people still point out that I'm whistling or singing without realizing it. I hope to help you on your journey to find your sound!I know that many of my regular readers are currently playing the violin, but are thinking about picking up another instrument besides their main hobby. Next to the piano, the guitar is one of the most popular instruments for violinists to pick up.
Learn The Difference Between Violin And Fiddle
In this article, I will give you a comparison between the violin and the guitar – and which one I think is easier to learn.
As most of you know, I have been playing the violin for almost 20 years at this point. But one of the other instruments that I love to practice is the guitar. 14 years ago, I got an old guitar from my dad and started practicing. Since then, I have enjoyed playing the guitar at jam sessions, campfires, and school bands. I still use my guitar regularly to accompany my violin students.
I hope this post will help you get a better idea of the differences between the guitar and violin – and which instrument is harder to learn.
Is The Fiddle Harder Than The Violin?
To understand what it is like to learn both violin and guitar, the first thing to understand is the differences between these instruments.
If you want to read about these differences in more detail, check out my article “Differences Between a Violin and a Guitar”.
Now you understand more about the differences, I want to address the question that so many of my readers, violin students, and acquaintances are curious about!
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The short answer is: Yes, the violin is harder to learn than the guitar. There are several reasons for that. First of all, the violin does not have a fretboard, which means you will have to find every tone by ear. Secondly, creating a beautiful sound with a violin bow is very challenging, which makes many beginners struggle to play even one note beautifully.
If you want to play any instrument at a professional level, it does not matter which instrument you choose in terms of difficulty.
The reason for this is that all instruments are endlessly difficult. You can compare learning an instrument at a professional level to becoming a professional athlete: there is no limit to how well you can perform. You can always jump a little higher, swim a little faster, or do a more impressive trick. A professional athlete would never say, “I am fast and strong enough – I am done practicing now.” Everyone at that level always strives to improve their skills and break new records.
The Hardest Instruments To Learn & Why
The same is true for musicians. There is always a way to play a passage a little more musically, a little faster, or a little more precisely. That is why even the best players in the world – no matter whether it is the violin or guitar – are usually still practicing many hours a day, decades after they started.
In that sense, you could say that no matter which instrument you choose,
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