Why is it ok for guitarists to learn without a teacher but other instruments this is not the case?

Question

I am grade 8 level piano. I'd like to start playing violin again ( and guitar). I had about 2 months of violin lessons about 5 years ago (haha) before I moved schools. and never touched a violin since.
Anyway, so I can't really do violin lessons at the moment, and I really want to progress with piano further . I know so many people who've learnt guitar with no teacher and that seems to be the norm but with violin people are like, if you don't have a teacher you'll be really bad and make loads of mistakes and it'll be a waste of time. What's your opinion?

Answer 1

The reason why all of these people are saying is, is because the violin is in fact a complex and difficult instrument to learn to play on your own. There are many techniques that need to be developed slowly and correctly, and if developed incorrectly, such as vibrato, can lead to very bad habits that will need to be painstakingly fixed in the future. However, since you seem to be musically inclined, you might have a good shot at learning violin by yourself, especially since you probably know the basics from several years ago. If you want to play violin, I recommend you stop by your local music store and pick up the Suozuki Method books. These books will give you a thorough and rigorous course of violin study, starting with the basics, and progressing into more difficult works. Many young violinists have started with this method and developed into great players.there are 10 books total. As for guitar, if you want to be a more casual player, learning the guitar alone is entirely possible. Videos on YouTube and help from your friends who play guitar already could give you some rudimentary basics. If; however, you wanted to play under more serious conditions, I recommend taking one or two weeks of guitar lessons, just to get you on your feet so you can develop good techniques and habits. Same goes for the violin, it's amazing what one lesson can do. By the way, on a random note, i actually had a friend who hadnt touched her violin since age 5 and recently pickec it up and is now a violinist in my chamber orchestra. She plays piano like you, so I am guessing you have a good shot. Good luck in all your musical studies! Ps, sorry if there are any spelling erros, I was typing on a tablet and had autocorrect on

Answer 2

I taught myself the guitar and have become fairly competent.



I tried teaching myself the violin but found it much harder.



1) even holding the violin is much harder than playing a guitar

You can rest your guitar on your leg if sitting or use a strap if standing. With a violin you have to use your neck and my fretting hand to support the instrument's weight which I found really difficult. Even getting comfortable holding the violin was something i could not manage.



2) getting a nice and consistent tone out of the instrument was difficult, as was avoiding inadvertently sounding the adjacent string. Someone who has never played an instrument in his life can pick up a guitar and get a pleasant tone from plucking an open string. The same cannot be said about using a violin bow.



3) on a guitar there are frets for each semitone interval. On the violin you have to be much more precise with where you place your fingers or you end up with with what is called bad intonation (in other words you sound out of tune).



Guitar is a great instrument to learn



1) As I said it is easier to play than the violin

2) Unlike a piano it is portable

3) It is a more versatile solo instrument than the violin because, whereas the violin is limited to single line playing and double stops, you can play full rich sounding chords on a single guitar. I think this can make it good for composition, because you can play chords and melody simultaneously. The violin is a beautiful sounding instrument but it does not offer the same harmonic possibilities as a solo instrument. To play full chords requires more than one violin.

4) on the guitar you can bend the strings, which gives them a wonderful singing quality that you cannot get on a piano.

5) guitarists can use alternate tunings to provide different voicings and inspire compositional ideas.



I am not saying don't learn violin - in the hands of a skilled performer it is a beautiful sounding instrument - just saying that in my opinion it is much harder to learn than the guitar and so you might want to consider getting lessons if you wish to learn it.

Answer 3

That is in fact a very good question. By some strange design, way too many people seem to think that a guitar is unlike other instruments...



You can basically learn any instrument on your own. However, you will A. waste a huge amount of time, B. pick up all sorts of bad habits, and C. probably give up and quit within a year or so.



If you take a look at so many self-taught guitar players who either quit within a short period of time, or become (at best) mediocre at it - then here's the answer.



And no, it is not the norm that people learn guitar without a teacher. It is the norm that way too many people think they can do it and still be good at it in no time flat.

Answer 4

There's two big reasons.



1. The guitar is easy. Like any other serious instrument you can keep on improving your whole life, but the technique on guitar is intuitive, and a large part of your tone comes from your equipment. Even if you're terrible, nobody will doubt that you're playing guitar when they hear you play. Also, there is a ton of easy repertoire out there, so most people would be happy playing at a beginner's level their whole life.



2. The guitar is a very common instrument, so finding a teacher who knows what they are doing is hard. I bet I could easily find 5 local guitar teachers who don't even know how to read music, so even if you do get a teacher, a total beginner would often times be just as well off learning by themselves. This doesn't happen often with other serious instruments.

Answer 5

Well i play guitar piano and bass. I have private lessons out of school but dont do grades. My tutor teaches me some cool songs and we do gigs on some occasions with his other students to get the feel of being in a band. I find that its absolutly fine to learn an instrument without grades maybe better, because i have more freedom and i can choose what songs i want to learn and at the same time progress my ability. Basically it doesn't matter if you have lessons or not as long as you improve.

Answer 6

Guitar is considerably easier than violin. It's quite possible to learn guitar without a teacher.



I've played both. I learned guitar on my own and had instruction for violin. Trust me, you need instruction for violin if you want to get anywhere.

Answer 7

Piano Recorder Xylophone/Marimba

Answer 8

The guitar is easy my bro is learning it by himself. Try learning the violin on your own then you will see.

Answer 9

A good guitarist will benefit greatly from a tutor.



Anyone can thrash around badly on a guitar.