Burdett Rice
Why is piano so popular?
Updated: Jun 24, 2021
It may be strange to think that whenever people think of music lessons that piano is always the first instrument that comes up. So, why is piano so popular? And are there any other instruments that are good for beginners? Sure, there are, and you can see what are other great instruments for beginners. On the main topic, there actually is a very simple explanation as to why piano is so popular and is the go to instrument for new musicians.
1. The piano creates sound easily.
In an incredibly simplified way, to play the piano, all you have to do is press a button. We learn how to do that as the smallest of babies. This is really all that's needed to create sound out of the piano. Even compared to the drums, you have to have some strength to hit the drum skin hard enough to create a nice sound. With the piano, the mechanisms inside can create a great sound with a great volume simply by pressing the keys. This makes it very easy for little fingers to get the satisfaction of creating that glorious sound they love to make so very much.
2. All the notes are laid horizontally, which simplifies music theory.
If music is a language, then music theory is the grammar. The fact that the piano lays the notes side by side allows you see the metaphorical sentence structure in the same way that we would read language, like it was laid out on a sheet of paper. Music theory can be as simple as knowing how long to hold a note, or as complicated as knowing which chords to replace in a progression when you wish to modulate a key. The advantage of seeing the notes laid left to right can help students see how to build them and understand their relationships more easily than most other instruments which overlap identical notes on the platform that creates sound, or have no sound platform at all and just give you a series of holes to be plugged and released in a code-like fashion to create notes.
3. There are many musical ideas all played at once.
The piano is a versatile instrument. It is both a percussion and a stringed instrument simultaneously. Due to this dual nature and its great range of pitches, it is able to create rhythmic passages, fulfill the role of a musical bed with low notes, play ornaments with high notes and provide fullness of sound with chords. Many pianists learn to play solo because the instrument really fulfills all the necessary roles in musical production on its own. Also, due to this varied nature, the instrument can teach a student about each of these roles and how to develop their musicianship in rhythm, chords, and melody.
In conclusion, the piano is an extremely versatile instrument. It's among the favorites of music producers due to the fact that modern synthesizers have mainly been created using a keyboard, which can create sounds of virtually any instrument and be used to single handedly create entire orchestras all using a computer and a keyboard. While the piano does have some drawbacks, it's definitely an instrument that every musician should at least become familiar with in order to musically communicate in a more complete fashion with other musicians and in order to grow in all other instruments as well.