Is It Harder To Learn Violin or Piano? 

Piano is easy to learn but hard to master

Playing the violin I am only reading music on the treble cleff. With the piano I have to read the treble and the bass cleff at the same time which made the piano more difficult.

Moral of the story: Both are hard in their own way

Thank you for sharing this, it has encouraged me to just enjoy the “process” of learning the violin 🎻

you know, pianists are going to say that piano is hard, violinists are going to say that violin is harder. there is nothing that is going to change it.

never done learning, that's the beauty of life 💗🎶

My mom was a violin teacher, I know every standard piece for beginners by hard, because I had to listen to it all day during my childhood.I still wonder, what love for teaching she must have had, because sometimes it must have been really hard. Every other day she would come to my room during a lesson, sit down and say: "Guess, which piece it is." , because the student learned the piece so wrong at home :D

I learned piano first at 10, guitar at 13. I picked up my uncles violin at 16 and picked out twinkle little star by ear in about 10 minutes. I feel like because of my piano experience, then guitar experience and knowledge of how strings work with my fingers.... violin seems like a much easier instrument.

I've been playing piano for 12 or 13 years now, I'm still learning new stuff all the time.

I found the piano much more difficult because I was struggling to read two different cleffs at the same time and having to play several notes at once. I am now playing the violin and I am loving it and I am not finding difficult at all.

try wind instrument and you got another difficulties..... haha

I started learning violin 4 months ago and I'm 18 years old. It was soo hard at the beginning but my teacher says we take really good way for 4 months and everytime I learn something about violin It felts me soo good and he is getting excited 😂

Thank you. I totally agree. In fact, I decided to pick up violin after starting piano lessons with a wonderful Russian pianist. She has challenged me with some very difficult pieces and after working very hard I thought, "Wouldn't it be nice to just have a melody line to play." So I found a teacher and started the violin again. I had played as a youngster in school. Now when I practise I will go back and forth from one instrument to another and I have improved in both. By the way, I am a retired teacher and just turned sixty so I'm playing to enjoy the experience of "the learning"' period. Thank you for your wonderful videos. They are very cheerful, informative and a delight to watch.

As someone who has been playing violin for only 4-5 months I would say violin is harder in the grand scheme of things, but piano is easy to learn and you can play simple songs quicker but it is pretty hard to master.

She really knows how difficult is the instrument and I respect that. I try to improve every day that’s the key by the way I’m a pianist and totally respect the violin… and the guitar

I play both, violin and piano, since 6 months and I am agree. There are moments, when the piano is so difficult and moments where the violin is very difficult. But everytime there is a time where it gets easier :) But I think, you can produce a beautiful sound on the violin, before you are playing a whole year :)

I am learning both instruments and find they complement each other. I found the video helpful, thank you. Rajeeve NZ

I play the piano and violin. Both are hard beyond my imagination but I manage it everyday.

Violin is definitely harder overall, but I'd say piano requires more dexterity in the long run and eventually surpasses violin in difficulty.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this topic! I'm gonna try my best to practice violin until i can finally play a beautiful tune hopefully by the end of this year. :)

What a lovely garden, Julia.

charming background

Initially I felt like the piano was a lot easier to learn. Within a year I was able to play the easier Chopin nocturnes (which are "real" pieces and not just those easy practice songs). It took about 4 years until I started playing easy (!) violin concertos. I get what you were saying, that for example Rachmaninoff is extremely difficult to master on piano but there are comparable pieces in difficulty on the violin.

she is a violin teacher...so she should know about double stops, left hand pizz etc. we're definitely not only playing one note at a time... just a detail, but i agree with her opinion.

Violin though, all you have to do is play one note at a time and as such it is considerably easy to pick up for the first time for a pianist of 5-6 years.

I would have to agree that violin is definitely difficult because their is a lot of guess work in where you need to put your fingers. It is not like an easy easy guitar where you have frets. And you just basically strum. And keep rhythm. Violin a compleetly beautiful instrument is very complicated. I am a working pianist and I have to say that the piano is besides the harp one of the most difficult instruments. You have to think about your posture like you said about the reading of its music their are so many more lines and staff you have to read compared to a violin. Also many people don’t realize this but breathing is another thing that a pianist has to do. If not, yo are going to keep on those tense muscles when you play. Also the other thing it takes so much demand. Piano is actually a piece of work. Not only is it one of the most difficult to play but you need to spend hours each day with it. You got to try and play the keyboard without raising up your shoulders. You can’t bee to close or to far from the keyboard. You have to pedal and have the dexterity in both hands. You need to breath correctly so you don’t injure yourself. Bee prepared for lots of clicking from a meta metranome as you have to repeat and repeat things. Also moving correctly on the bench. You want to bee comfortable of course but I would not say at all that playing piano is relaxing like hobby pianists. For working pianists it is work. As a pianist bee preppeared to bee alone a lot of the days. Also you are the one that gets the work. Not only is your instrument demanding but you are needing to bee their for demand from people. People want you to bee playing for everything. Background to parties. You need to bee able to understand theory as well. Bee prepared to play on out of tuned pianos as well and not only that but bee prepared to play on crappy ones as well. From wonderful pianos that can almost sing to ones that sound like crap yep this is what we deal with on a basis. As a pianist you want to have great skills in serving people. You as a pianist are set to high standards compared to other instruments. You are the one people depend on. From gigging to tuning. Oh and if your pedal goes out during gigs or performances you got to have problem solving skills to keep on playing. That is another thing that a pianist has to learn. Learn to problem solve. By the time a pianist finishes their day we are pretty tired... it is rewarding but tiresome. The blessing from this is is knowing that you are playing one of the most difficult instruments. And then not only that but on top of what I stated a digital piano is a whole different beast. You have to have the understanding of playing the piano before you even touch a digital. Because the digital will bee the next level. Not only do you have to have piano skills to play it but on top of that pedaling posture and more just with the piano you have to in addition bee able to emulate different instruments. So you are having to use a lot of muscle memory their. Plus the action is a compleetly different feel than that of an acoustic. If the piano is to soft when you are playing it you have to at the same time while playing the piano reach over and turn the volume up. If the piano is to loud then you have to keep adjusting it so it is softer in addition changing patches so their you go.

As a pianist (but I also know how to play the violin) piano is so much more difficult even thought most of the ppl think the oposite. The fact that ppl think that piano is much easier makes me really sad. Violin, is a nice instrument and difficult. Piano is much more difficult u have to sychronize both of your hands and sometimes the fact that you have to open your hands so much makes ur hands ache as hell, trust me. Please don't u ever underestimate piano again. Its dissapointing how ppl can really believe all the bullshit they find on web instead of trying to learn both of the isntruments and then talk. I am so sorry if I the way i decided to say the truth was not polite but i cant sit down and see others underestimate the king of istruments anymore. I also wanna apologize for my terrible english, soory I'm trying and I will make to speak them right. have a good day or night idk ;))

Mastering is the matter, pls understand that guys. Therefore piano is hard also pedaling. But cooling is hard since beginning and being in the tune. But piano is quite messy therefore piano is hard and so tiring.

I am just starting with violin, been 3/4 weeks and I've already managed to learn a few tunes, nothing amazing, but more complex than Twinkle Twinkle Little Star or Mary Had a Little Lamb, simple classical pieces and rock, I did have a moderate experience with the guitar before hand, though I don't know how much that helped but I found certain aspects of violin more intuitive, the tuning, the shorter distance between notes, the lack of highly convoluted chord shapes and barre chords that destroy your wrist and fingers, the consistency in chord shapes across all strings since the intervals between them are constant, lighter strings that don't shred your fingers as quick which enable me to sit for hours just enjoying learning to play, plus once you start to get used to it, a bow is FAR more intuitive than a pick (IMO), plus I am actually learning stuff I can apply to guitar, or any other instrument, because it has got me excited about music again! Once you get over the initial hurdles learning to bow, find the right finger placement and learning to vibrate your fingers independent from your bow, it's a lot of fun! Hard is relative, if you are having fun and feel a connection to your instrument and enjoy learning the theory and techniques, it's not that bad! I am sure there are other instruments I'd have progressed slower on!

Not to mention the rhythmic part of the piano. That can mess up with your head. But yeah, no instrument is easy top level is top level regardless. Playing glissando 3rds on violin has to be a living hell to get started with it. I always loved the sound of the violin but what ultimately captivated me about piano was the rythmic and polyphonic possibilities it offers

Violin. I play both so i know

Hi, I enjoy your videos I think you are a good teacher and you play very nice. I just started playing the violin, I am 62 but I know I can learn it and enjoy it. I am also playing the piano and I agree with you, every instrument can be very difficult to master it, however piano is easier to enjoy quickly but its gets harder, the violin it is hard to get a good sound but it is doable. I also play the guitar and I’ve been doing that for 45 years, I am not an expert but I enjoy it quite a bit, like you say, there is not a point when you say I made it to the top, but that’s the beauty of music you are never done but you can enjoy the process all the way. Thanks for your videos, you are great.

Simple Paino is easier to pick up. Even if you can't reat notes yet, it is way easier to remember the key patterns. But if you are playing ***Classic**** then it gets harder to *master*. Take flight of the bumble bee for example. Violin takes alot of time to get used to. But after a good 2 years of practicing you will get comfortable and now the only thing you have to focus on is posture, speed, and how to produce correct tunes

I can't play either, but I had expected violin would be easier, because for piano, one has to play multiple notes at the same time, utilising 10 fingers, but for violin, you fingers stay the same and you play one note at a time.

Very nice video! This is my own experience with both violin and piano hope you enjoy my story :) I'll start with violin When I was in 1st grade, I met a new friend in school named Max. We got along great and soon became closest friends to a point that we decided to have a sleepover one day. Yes that did happen and we had a lot of fun but a new thing I discovered was that he played violin. He played really well and I was motivated by him to play violin like him as well. So, when I got back home, I begged by parents to let me play a violin. Since I didn't really have any other hobbies or interests my parents were more than happy to get me a violin when I reached 2nd grade. I started playing and it was not what I was expecting what I actually experienced. I expected myself to be able to make sound no problem out of the 4 strings but I could never and I mean never get my fingerings right the first day of my playing. The sound was really off, my bow was shacking a lot, heck I wasn't even holding the violin properly. The worst part was that I had no idea how to read the music itself without my teachers help. I could never keep my bow straight when it moved up and down and it just sounded terrible just, terrible. Though it was only the first day so I wasn't ready to give up. I practiced harder and harder every day and one day, I could at least keep my bow straight. Though my teacher did notice that my fingerings were still off by a bit not to a point where it sounded like a screech but still off enough to affect my performance. So she put some thin short tape on where I was supposed to put my fingers. (Like B,C,D on the A string and F,G,A in the E string) and it really helped by a lot. The thing was, I depended on it so much and it became so automatic that I forgot it was even there sometimes. Yes, I did get used to the fingerings but it took me 3 years to be able to do the right fingerings without those stickers which to be honest, looked really bad on the violin. It takes time guys. For anyone thinking they can't play violin because they can't get the right fingering after months of playing, it doesn't take months, it takes a few years for most of us and that is perfectly normal there's nothing to be ashamed about that. I still play violin till this day as a 8th grader and I can't thank my friend max enough for motivating me to play a violin. Even though now we live in complete two different country and we don't call or talk anymore, I would like to thank him again. Max, if you see this by any chance, you are the best friend I could have found in that school. Hope your life is going well! Now time for piano I started (tried) playing piano when I was 5 (4 years before I started violin) At first I was like it's just hitting a few notes how can a piano be so hard? I was wrong I was so wrong. I could never play with both my left and right hand. Unfortunately, as a 5 year old, I was pretty impatient and decided to quit piano after 2/3 months of playing. It is still the biggest and I mean the biggest regret of my life. I wish I never gave up. I wish I never told my mom I would quit, I just wish I never gave up. Luckily though, my parents decided to give me one final chance and I'll be getting my piano next Friday or Saturday. This time, I will try my best and never give up like I did before. I don't care if it takes me another 3 years I won't let me and my parents down. So overall, having experiences with both piano and a violin, I say violin is easier (for me) because I just got used to violin's playing style and to be honest, using the bow on a violin becomes automatic after a while and I feel like I'm only using my left hand. The hand that I got used to. (Although I still miss once in a while so yes, gotten used to not mastered) Hope you enjoyed my story. If anyone seeing this wants to share my story to anyone else, than please feel free to. I would love to motivate others just like how my friend max motivated me. Yes, I will update on my piano progress once or twice a month. Thank you for reading and have a great day!

Hi Julia!🌹 I am watching you from Egypt😁. I really like your content and your quite easy way of teaching. May you do a video for absolute beginners violinists to guide them and elaborate the essential things must be known at the first year of learning and what they have to be able to do every month?

I play the Piano but want to learn Violin....I know Piano is easy to learnbut hard to master and Violin is hard to learn but somehow easier to master....I want Violin coz it sounds super good....

When I play melodies on my violin by ear that I know so well it sounds beautiful and I don't get that horrible screechy sound but learning a new piece even in an easy key it sounds terrible. Why?

Violin 🎻 is harder then piano 🎹 because piano already has the notes keys 🎹 violin no frets like guitar 🎸 position hold the bow a certain way

It becomes easier when one learns how to properly read music correctly. Especially if one takes music theory courses or simply learn to read all 4 common cleffs it will make one more confident on playing any intument. But yes, there is no ending to any intrument. One can keep on learning and learning.

i would like to play the piano again but now that I'm working, i don't think i have the time and effort to master it. i played violin as well during my high school days, and am considering taking it up again since reading sheet music for it is much easier than piano

The piano has a piece written by liszt never played at tempo, paganini etude 4 1838, fastest ever was 60 bpm, it's actually meant to be played by 70.

guys all instruments are hard in their own ways but some are overall still harder to play

I would think violin is harder because you need good posture and bow speed especially me because I’m naturally left handed and it’s a little harder to use the bow as fast with the right hand

hi! i'm new to your channel, i just started learning the violin yesterday with the help of violinspiration. normally, I had planned to learn with a teacher, but then lockdown came and i had nothing to do, so thank yoou very much for your videos, they make me more determened to learn!!!

I assume in this video. . Piano. Easy first. Hard later. . Violin. . Hard first. . Easy later because we only use upper scale. .

I find just learning section by section on bass guitar a lot of the Sections repeat themselves so I learn some theory but I learn songs which makes it fun and keeps it interesting and exciting and you feel good and you can play a song and the more songs that easier it gets after all a lot of the patterns are repeated I’m not sure with violin I’ve just begun with you I’ve kind of got me hooked you’re such a hottie

Most of the arguments I see are about mastery of violin or piano. This is wrong focus. What is relevant to vast majority of people is being able to gain enough skill to be able to play their favorite pop song and enjoy doing that. For this, Piano is WAY EASIER, hands down.

I agree totallly, I play 4 instruments violin (fiddle) 5 string banjo and guitar and harmoica and I have zero musical training it all by ear for me. I am trying to learn keyboard as well in an electroic piano and I think of the piano the hardest instrument to learn in the long run. I admire musicians who are way more skilled then me. I play very simple folk tunes nothing crazy hard. But, yes every instrument has its on difficulities. Keep playing it is worth every hour you do with it. I have now been playing for 25 years and I am still in my mind a novice.

In violin, i play two hands. In piano, i play three hands::).... the speed of pianist's fingers always faster than thr violinist's finger. Pianist can play "both", and skill to use pedals, and read 2 steffs... the tremolo and "runing finger" in piano's song is harder violin.... (etude no6, la campanella, winter wind, 25 no5 chopin,...)....

I have been playing the piano for 35 years and started playing the violin a year ago. My teacher really had to assure me a couple of times in the beginning that it was perfectly normal to advance at the speed I did, because I was used to the piano and it’s learning curve. The violin has a much slower learning curve. Right now after one year I’m learning the Brahms waltz and the Handel bourrée of Suzuki book 2, plus the Millies concertino. I’m happy with that :) .

I love your message! Thank you! 😍😎🙃

My teacher always says i don*t should say "i learned this week the following, i learned this ..." instead he wants me to say "play/ed" instead. And that's what it's all about. Of course we are all learning, but we should focus also on now and PLAYing to enjoy it.

I think it depends on the person!!!It is like sports some people finding easier to play football than basketball and the opposite I think it depends on the person!

Interesting perspective. For a reader / classical player, I can see your point. But for improvisers, especially jazz and swing, I disagree. The technical limitations of the violin make it really challenging to capture the spirit and underlying harmonies while you are improvising with exciting modern popular music. Just compare the number of exceptional (or even simply competent) jazz violinists vs the number or exceptional or competent jazz pianists.

The piano is the easiest to begin with but the hardest at a master level. The Violin is the hardest in the beginning but is easier at a.master level compared to the piano.

When you take repertoire, sight reading, etc. out of the equation and just analyze the instruments themselves, I still feel like the violin is surely the harder instrument, hands down, just because of the posture, finding the correct locations of the notes on the fingerboard, manipulating the bow correctly, while piano involves none of those things.🤔 But when you do consider repertoire, they're the same. 😊

Honestly, Violin is harder.

I like both violin and piano and I can play them as a beginner. But I continue with violin because I see it easier. I always dream to play (hungarian rhapsody no. 2 by franz liszt) on piano and (vivaldi four seasons) on violin. That is my goal for learning each instrument. And thank you for the video. Good luck.

Having played the violin for a number of years, I have to say that some of the difficulty in playing seems intentional. I've yet to hear a good explanation for why the fingerboard hasn't any markings on it. If you've got a good ear you immediately know when you've misplayed a note, but it's too late!

I play Piano 🎹 but it is quite hard but quick to learn for me

Ich weiß nicht, wie man Noten auf dem Klavier oder der Geige liest, aber beim Klavier scheinen die Noten viel schwieriger zu sein. Ich spiele Flöte, Klavier, Gitarre, Schlagzeug und probiere jetzt die Geige aus. Ich versuche aber, die Notizen lesen zu lehrnen. Das Beste ist ... üben,üben und nochmal üben ... Vielen lieben dank für diese Videos! Gott segne dich!

Piano is like chess. Anyone can learn the moves and be playing the game in a few minutes. Becoming a master requires Herculean efforts and Grandmaster is only for the chosen few. I never played violin but i imagine it's frustrating at the beginning and extremely challenging at the higher levels. I was quite shocked recently when I saw the notation for the Sibelius violin concerto finale 😱

I've never tried to learn to play the piano (although it might assist in making music theory easier to digest), but between the acoustic guitar, banjo and the Violin/Fiddle, i have to say the Violin is the hardest of the 3. It's so technique forward. But i think the most beautiful of the three respectfully. Thank you for your positivity and inspiration.

I genuinely like you!

I can't decide if I should play a piano or a Violin,I need an instrument to calm me down ngl

What i think is that we are all different for some people violin techniques will come easier and for other people they will be better at sight reading so piano will be easier.

Well said. I also learned both so I agree with you. Groetjes uit Antwerpen

Violinspiration - Violin Lessons The Piano is easy to play because the keys are layed out in a very familiar manner which means you could instantly play what you hear. Violin is harder to play because it's frettless & it doesn't have any keys.

I believe the piece at 5:45 is Prelude in G minor Op 23 no5 by Rachmaninoff, search it up on RU-vid(:

Has anyone seen Erlkönig for the violin? I dont think anyone in the world can call that piece easy to read and also goes into two scores of music at the same time (double stops/ chords with harmonics)

Piano is much harder, because you have to learn both bass and treble clef. Bass clef always throws me off when reading treble clef and that's coming from a piano player

Thanks for the comparison. Do you have any duet with your mum? Violin amd piano together. Please share!💛

Wow, this is a.....such an insightful video. Very good information. All in all,my preference to the piano over the violin remains unchanged; but wow!; this a great video 👌 👍

Violin

Piano requires multitasking you have to play two clefs at the same time

I think your right but l don't play piano that well. But l think violin is more fun.

7 years of violin and I still haven’t mastered my bow hold.

Guitar or violin which is easier to learn????

I have been trying to play piano for a while self teaching myself and I have not gotten good I got one teacher but I was legit beginner like beginning beginning after playing on and off for 2 years I don't know how to do key jumps and reading sheet music is not really good for me 😂 but I would agree on the violin being harder in the beginning I'm just wondering how do I get better 😂

Don't compare, the piano has its own unique technique, so does the violin. Even though the piano has keys, you have to play with 2 hands, face many chords, and the technique of 2 hands must be flexible, use finger strength.... and the violin, although it doesn't play as many notes as a piano, to know it. Getting the note position will be very time consuming, how to pull the bow and press the right notes at the beginning is quite difficult for first-timers. Pianists can easily switch to violin, trust me, I've done it... and I'm sure violinists switching to piano won't be easy (I'm not talking about cool pops). simple lessons for children's piano).

Violin is harder for me.

What to buy first piano or violin? I'm guitarist and I want to learn new instrument but I can't buy them and learn them at the same time.

Violin is definitely harder to learn than piano.

If you learn how to piano, you could think that you are operating a machine by pressing the key in according to the instructions on the paper. You do not have to know music whether it is in tone or not, This is the job of the person adjusting the music. You just have to worry about your rhythm or speed

I noticed in this video in the treble clef the notes C G D A but you had listed them as G D A E

3:55 that's not true, we also play chords on violin and double stops, not quite often as piano players do, but as the gap becomes smaller with higher pitches; playing a chord on a violin can be extremely difficult

I play both instruments, and while I’m much stronger on the piano than the violin, I think I have some insight here. For the novice, violin is indeed harder as it demands that certain unnatural skills are learned before it can sound presentable. With advancement, they become equally difficult From purely a logical standpoint, to claim that one instrument is harder than the other makes absolutely no sense. If an instrument is easier to play, it is a logical conclusion that the music made for it will overall be more complex. Indeed, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star might be harder on the violin than the piano, but a Rachmaninoff’s Op. 32 No. 13 Prelude in D-flat which is nothing short of an onslaught of notes is simply not possible on a violin. Paganini Caprice No. 5 is about as complex a piece as you can find on the violin, but would be very easy to play on the piano. Piano music is simply harder. And this without even considering the matter of sight-reading music, which is markedly harder on the piano.

4:17 my eyes are hurting

in Piano the music will be beautiful if you play the notes both on G and F cleff...in Violin I think notes on G cleff can stand alone

My son is only 2 years old. I was thinking of violin lessons at age 3 or 4.. is that too young? What age to you recommend? Thanks

Well spoken

The harp probably trumps both of them. Also, all the violinists literally disliked this.

Which one if you want to play pop songs?

As a violinist, it’s easy to learn but hard to make a good sound (I’m a beginner)

Both of the instruments will support unlimited cost as well.

I'm glad she didn't use the F word

My son is 6 years old and we have the violin.But I don't know which instrument is better to begin with.?Can you please help us to determine.And thanks for a such useful video.😗

Of course violin!

I wish I could just play the melody line