Guitar playing vs Keyboard playing

[stratoplayer]

since this board si dying down (shame on you) i thougth it would be nice to start a new debate topic
ok ill start

advantages of a guitar
several effects without fancy electronics
more widespread in metal bands


im placing guitar advantages only (i.e. not saying guitars can go way fast)

[Aresius]

I think that guitar playing is better because you can put all your feeling, it has so much expretion because is a string instrument and you can make vibratos, bends...ect
Only a few keyboard players have the ability to play with a lot feeling, the other just press keys.
Jens ofcurse is one of the, one of the only ones

[khamael]

(i.e. not saying guitars can go way fast)

hey dude i think you lost a point...rythmically in metal style playing guitar can go faster sure...
At least "soloing" speaking keys can go faster...

This remind me something Jens said in an interview...

JLP: More generally, due to the difference in the instrument, in which ways are keyboard and guitar solos different? (Am I clear enough? It's a bit difficult for me to phrase this as clearly as the question is in my head?)

JJ: Well, you can play a lot faster on a keyboard, so you have to be careful there so you don't play too fast. On the guitar you can get so much more emotion across, so with guitar maybe you have to be careful to put some thought in there as well.

here the link for the interviews section:
http://www.panix.com/~jens/interviews.par


I agree totally with Jens on this.

You have advantages and disadvantages in both instruments.
We laugh a lot with my guitarist when we found things that you can do with the keyboard easily and that are really hard to reproduce on a guitar. And vice-versa obviously...
Some things instead are IMPOSSIBLE to do...(or nearby).

Sometimes i envy my guitarist (especially when he play fucking fast and heavy riff), sometimes playing "arpeggios" or "scales" in the range of 5 octaves, i feel in paradise, and the envious his him...

[Aresius]

I love that about keyboards! the 5 octaves thing!

For example the "Ariadna project" keyboard player ( jens recorded a song of them in the Bariliari solo album, the song is " las sombras quedaran atras " ) makes some really long arpeggios trough the whole 5 octaves, i love it

[stratoplayer]

khamael i meant guitars going fast like dragon force, riffs and such, i know that keys have the ability to go much faster since you use 10 fingers
compared to the guitars 4 (5 if you tap with your right hand)

[Jackal Hunter]

i know that keys have the ability to go much faster since you use 10 fingers
compared to the guitars 4 (5 if you tap with your right hand)

U can get 8 fingers in there if u use 2-hand tapping! Pretty difficult though...

[Aresius]

its verry difficult that thing of 8 fingers tapping... but ill do it some day, its really cool.

It would by a 8t notes arpeggio with 8 fingers

[stratoplayer]

that would be insane... imagine what kind of noise you could make when playing like Van Halen in Eruption... holy crap

[htcdude]

I listen to Highlord, they have some awesome guitar/keyboard duels in their songs, but i still favour guitars.

[stratoplayer]

do you play guitar?

[Miguel_Ricardo]

I love that about keyboards! the 5 octaves thing!

For example the "Ariadna project" keyboard player ( jens recorded a song of them in the Bariliari solo album, the song is " las sombras quedaran atras " ) makes some really long arpeggios trough the whole 5 octaves, i love it

hahaha he used to be my keyboards proffesor!! I saw a video of Ariadna yesterday!

[Miguel_Ricardo]

Anyways I beleive they're equal... it depends who's behind the instrument , guitar has a very cool sound, impossible to emulate with a keyboard (I mean doing riffs) you can tell when its a "fake guitar", but you can manage to "lie" a lil playing your keyboard with a guitar sound for soloing (arpeggios sounds way more clean and perfects)

Bends? Keyboards can bend a lot! I mean bend a hole octave!*, and of course the common bends that makes it sound with "feel"
*Guitars can also if the use a pedal efect

And a guitar can emulate a keyboard as well, plugged with a MIDI, they sound terrificly awesome... I saw Vai using it last year at the G3... or Queens guitarrist (Brian May was it?) when soloing in "I want to break free"... it sounds excelent

Its a waaaaay too long discussion, I post more later

[stratoplayer]

No worries, were not going anywher

[htcdude]

do you play guitar?

I've played bass for like two weeks. Why you ask?

[stratoplayer]

cuz, there is a difference between liking guitars because you play them and liking their sound (just curious)

[Just a Vampire]

To me, both have advantages and disadvantages. The keyboard is great 'cause the keyboard have more scales and more sounds than the guitar. and with a synthetiser, you can poduce the sound of a piano, a guitar, a violin, etc. And you can play with feelings. I think that if you can't put your whole heart when yopu play music, you better don't do that. Maybe a keyboard would appear to be a mechanical instrument, and maybe it could be, but a real musician put his feelings in his /her instrument, despite if it's a guitar, a bass guitar, a keyboard, a drums kit or your voice (in the voice case, the feeling does counts more than in the other ones). That's the case of Jens.
the guitar have the advantages of the movements, i.e: you can produce a sound when you move your hand up, and another one if you move the hand down. with a keyboard, you can't do that. And the guitar can become more expressive than the keyboard sometimes, 'cause the guitar, more often than the keyboards, does carry the melodic line and the motivation of the song. (the keyboard also can do that, but is not as often as the guitar does). And the pedals, the glissando, the riffs, the vibrato, and that things. The vibrato is a lil different in the keyboars, but we (I'm a keyboard player) can also do that. and again, the feeling does counts a lot. that's the case of Timo Tolkki, and the other guitar heroes (don't remember the names now)

to me, there is no comparison, 'cause they're different instruments.

@stratoplayer: +1

[NeonVomit]

I can do the 8-finger tapping thing on bass And play some pretty messed up stuff on bass many guitarists can't copy

I really have no life

[iron_thunder]

keyboards are a lot cheesier. btw this is a good thing

[MikesiteX]

yeah totally diff instuments...i can do on the synth what most guitarists can't even dream of doing, and vice versa (rapid picking anyone?)

[Miguel_Ricardo]

yo can do a rapid picking in a synth!

[MikesiteX]

not as fast as you can on guitar! the keys won't come up fast enough hehe, even the lightest weighed ones

[Miguel_Ricardo]

I'm not sure... taping one key alternating fingers ( 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2) works for me... how fast are you talking about?

anyways you can cheat with a tremolo effect

[MikesiteX]

cheater cheater, pants on fire! haha no one really uses that anyway =)

[Miguel_Ricardo]

I have to say I was wrong , you can't do it as fast as guitars (I tried even with both hands doing it histerically )

who needs to do that anyways ..... ......

[khamael]

On keys you surely cant play an E-0 as fast as a guitarist can!At least not in an as long period of time! Try to play Stratospheres at 185 bmp eheheh(maybe drinkin 20 coffees being in bersek mode you can do that but breaking the keyboard at the same time! )

[MikesiteX]

yeah, maybe with a pair of drumsticks! hehe

[khamael]

yes.....

[Holy Light]

I think both rule and you can learn much from each instrument and apply it to the other.

[Me, My Enemy]

Well, I also think guitars have much more feeling because of bendings, but with some keyboards one can create nice feelings as well, if one tries to imagine them as a piano and uses them as a piano not as a play-as-fast-as-possible-dudldidudl
Anyway I ask myself why are so very few (e) pianos used any comparitively more keyboards. On a piano one can also go very fast (listen to Moonlight Sonata pt 3) and one can put more feelings in a song than with a keyboard. Because of the pedals and also because...it simply works different pressing the keys, you can do it in such a different way to make one note sound so different. On a keyboard that's only a bit possible imo.
So i'd say...if one compares keys & guitar I prefer guitar - a lot. But piano and guitar...both would come equal to me approximately...but maybe still guitar would win because it simply rocks sooo much

[icecab21]

With keyboards you get use of those grand multimillion dollar church organs and instruments don't get any more amazing than that. With keyboards all sorts of programs can be programmed in that can really make a lot of use out of single notes. Guitar and keyboards are great complements to each other and each provides great contributions towards wonderful music. Not sure a debate of conveying feelings comes in but I think the piano/organ/keyboards do a better job at being a solo instrument in conveying a mood. I mean how many songs in soundtracks do we hear that just have a single string instrument verses ones that just have a piano? aince a paino can play bass chords and melody at the same time it can count for many sounds and instroments.