The days of almost every middle class home having a piano and the kids 'forced' to take piano lessons are long past us, which is probably a bad thing.
For those at the beginning stages of their musical learning, a guitar seems the easy way to start. 'Guitar Hero' and its like have made a game of it (all show, no actual skill). You can carry a guitar with you to a party or a beach and just sit down and play. A keyboard is another matter - the small cheap ones pretty much suck, the speakers built-in produce low volume from battery power. So you need an amp. A stand to put the keyboard on. Just plain inconvenient.
No, there's nothing like the sound of a nice grand piano in a nice room, but today's ADHD kids are content with earbud-quality MP3s.
As to having to produce 'all the various instrument sounds'. Yes, it can be done with a guitar with MIDI pickup and some kind of tone-producing device/computer hookup, but until a few years ago, these were powerfully inadequate and did not produce great sounds, and frankly its still easier to do with a keyboard - but the ability means there will eventually be even less need for a keys player! New stompbox pedals that produce - very well - Hammond B3 and other keyboard sounds are not available, so I think that more and more you will see fewer indie/rock bands with a keyboard player.
Volume? Always been an issue with the drummer the usual culprit (no volume control on acoustic drums, and its hard to play 'soft' enough, even with modern brush-style sticks). With more and more guitarists using small combo amps - either miked or DIed to the PA, guitarists can also be a volume problem because the amp is on the floor and they can't hear themselves, so they turn it up! The simple answer, of course, is an amp stand. I have one of these: http://www.musiciansfriend.com/accessor ... -amp-stand
For those at the beginning stages of their musical learning, a guitar seems the easy way to start. 'Guitar Hero' and its like have made a game of it (all show, no actual skill). You can carry a guitar with you to a party or a beach and just sit down and play. A keyboard is another matter - the small cheap ones pretty much suck, the speakers built-in produce low volume from battery power. So you need an amp. A stand to put the keyboard on. Just plain inconvenient.
No, there's nothing like the sound of a nice grand piano in a nice room, but today's ADHD kids are content with earbud-quality MP3s.
As to having to produce 'all the various instrument sounds'. Yes, it can be done with a guitar with MIDI pickup and some kind of tone-producing device/computer hookup, but until a few years ago, these were powerfully inadequate and did not produce great sounds, and frankly its still easier to do with a keyboard - but the ability means there will eventually be even less need for a keys player! New stompbox pedals that produce - very well - Hammond B3 and other keyboard sounds are not available, so I think that more and more you will see fewer indie/rock bands with a keyboard player.
Volume? Always been an issue with the drummer the usual culprit (no volume control on acoustic drums, and its hard to play 'soft' enough, even with modern brush-style sticks). With more and more guitarists using small combo amps - either miked or DIed to the PA, guitarists can also be a volume problem because the amp is on the floor and they can't hear themselves, so they turn it up! The simple answer, of course, is an amp stand. I have one of these: http://www.musiciansfriend.com/accessor ... -amp-stand
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Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/mikebirchmusic
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/mikebirchmusic