Does playing guitar affect my piano skills?

[musicioso]

Hey guys, here i am again witha question.

Does playing guitar any bad effect on piano skills? Guitar is actually pretty fun to learn as a second instrument, but piano is more important. So if playing guitar might be bad for piano, i wont star with that

Thanks in advance for your time and effort

[jogoeshome]

I dont think so, I learned guitar too because I like playing anything really.

[andreslr6]

Do you mean classical guitar as in that you have long fingernails? if not, then there's nothing to worry about. The only problem would be that your long fingernails would keep you from having a good right hand position, besides the danger of them getting caught between the keys and provoking a very bloody accident, so, keep your fingernails short!

[hfmadopter]

I can't think of much of anything about guitar that would take away from piano, except practice time. Don't let the guitar rob too much of your time !

[musicioso]

 andreslr6, jogoeshome and hfmadopter

Thanks for your reply, i appreciate it.

No, its not about nails. I thought maybe it was not a good idea, because when playing guitar you use your fingers and muscles differently.

And yes, piano goes first of course, i wont spend too much time learning guitar.

[chopin2015]

I play guitar too. Play nylon strings! I feel like if you get callous fingertips could affect your sensitivity and make it hard to feel the keyboard.

[jogoeshome]

andreslr6, jogoeshome and hfmadopter


because when playing guitar you use your fingers and muscles differently.

Well thats exactly why is a good idea, because its good if muscles be exercised  all round, prevents injury.

[dcstudio]

I play both.   When I first started playing though I squeezed the neck so hard that I started having numbness in my hand.  THAT affected my piano skills quite a bit! lol.  There are many ways to screw up your hand though without learning to play the guitar.   

playing guitar gave me a broader understanding of theory-- especially chord structure and progressions.  In some ways it is much easier to play than the piano--on the other hand the piano never made my fingers bleed.    Heavy callouses on your left hand will cause the keys to feel a little different sometimes--but you get used to it.

[musicioso]

Guys, thank you for your reply.

I have a hard time deciding whether to continue guitar or not. 

[olivetree]

Heavy callouses on your left hand will cause the keys to feel a little different sometimes--but you get used to it.

I would like to revive this discussion, as I'm thinking about picking up my guitar from the corner again. I used to play some guitar when I was a teenager and I got callous skin on the finger tips of my left hand only after a couple of days. At that time I didn't play so much piano, so I don't remember what the effects (if any) on the piano playing were. The hard skin disappeared quickly after i stopped playing.

So now two questions arise:
From a musical standpoint: Does it really feel just different (but not worse) with callous skin, or does it make it more difficult to control the touch? Would it be harder to work out the subtleties such as inner voices, based on the correct interpretation of the dynamics?
From a technical standpoint: Do more slips occur because of the callous skin when playing fast runs with the left hand (like for example in the revolutionary etude)?

[pytheamateur]

Very interesting question.  I would like to ask a similar question with the flute.  Anyone of you play the flute?

I suppose with the flute you raise your fingers a lot more, with the wrist, forearm and arm pretty much stable, not unlike the 18/19th century piano school.

On the musical side, on the other hand, I suppose the flute is closer to the singing voice than the piano is.  If your flute playing is good, it might actually help you develop a singing tone on the piano.

Any thoughts?