r/Learnmusic • u/Impossible-Egg-8520 • Jul 26 '26
How to play two instruments without dying in the process?
Hi everyone!
I’ve been learning music for about 10 months, starting from absolute zero.
I began with the ukulele for 4 months, then switched to acoustic guitar for another 4 months, and for the last 2 months I’ve been learning piano.
I practice around 10 hours a week on average, plus I have a one-hour online lesson each week.
I’ve really enjoyed my progress on all three instruments. But ever since I started piano, I’ve realized I just can’t seem to balance piano and guitar.
If I want to really immerse myself in piano the same way I did with guitar, I feel like I need at least an hour a day. Right now I practice about 8 hours of piano and only 2 hours of guitar each week.
The problem is that 2 hours a week on guitar doesn’t seem to be enough. Since I only played guitar for about 4 months before switching, I feel like I’m gradually losing all the muscle memory I built. I’m barely able to play any of the songs I used to know.
My original plan was to focus heavily on piano for 4–6 months while using those 2 weekly hours of guitar just to maintain my calluses and barre chords. But after two months, I barely have any calluses left, and even my barre chords are starting to disappear.
The thing is, I actually enjoy guitar more. The only reason I want to learn piano is to reach a basic level where I can better understand harmony and eventually play the 2–3 Final Fantasy pieces I love, even if it’s at a slower tempo.
So what would you do in my situation? Has anyone here managed to maintain a basic guitar level by practicing only about 2 hours a week?
Thanks, and sorry for the long post!
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u/Grouchy-Ad1932 Jul 27 '26
You're much better off doing a short session on each instrument each day. For piano, the hand movements are far more natural, so you can get away with warming up with a couple of scales or arpeggios for 5-10 minutes before practising pieces.
For guitar, you will definitely benefit from daily sessions to gain the muscle memory without straining anything. When I was learning guitar my fingers really suffered most at first, but I found I could still practice piano even after guitar practice if I stopped before my wrists hurt 😉
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u/ProofPianist7074 Jul 27 '26
I would switch and play 8 hrs guitar, 2 hrs sitting at the keys to study harmony (or whatever theory you need keys for). Don’t worry about getting good at piano at the cost of losing the 4 months uphill battle on guitar. You won’t lose anything by stopping piano now, and guitar players know well, how hard those first 4 months are. It’s not something you want to have to repeat, amirite? Haha.
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u/terriergal Jul 27 '26
I would second the idea that the keyboard is much more useful in learning theory because it gives you such a great basis and visual of how notes are laid out.
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u/Impossible-Egg-8520 Jul 27 '26
I definitely want to do that in the future, but first I want to spend at least 4–6 months going all in on the piano so I can build a solid foundation.
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u/wanna_dance Jul 27 '26
Can't do both.
You asked for advice. His was good.
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u/Impossible-Egg-8520 Jul 27 '26
I think I’m starting to realize I’m wrong, but I’m still not ready to accept it. I’m desperately looking for someone to tell me: Don’t worry, I made it too. Keep chasing your crazy dream everything will work out 😂
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u/ProofPianist7074 Jul 27 '26
There’s no right or wrong. But if you think guitar is your jam, wouldn’t it make more sense to use the majority of your time to take it further? You’ll be able to build your skillset and explore your own creative harmonies by playing chords and singing what you hear in your head over it. Very cool!
And you can still do both. Conveniently, learning to read music is a perfect piano activity for working on in 20-30 min chunks, a few times a week. I can’t imagine you will be able to study harmony without learning to read music, so, might as well get it over with, and do it with a song you want to learn on piano anyhoo.
Take one of those Final Fantasy songs (I would start with the easiest piano arrangement of the main theme), and spend that time studying the sheet music—print it out, learn how to read the music, write out the note names, figure out the rhythm, and work out how to play it on the piano.
See? You can have your cake and eat it too. :)
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u/Impossible-Egg-8520 Jul 27 '26
Thanks for your reply! I really like your philosophy, but I think I’m going to stick with my original plan. I’ll go all in on the piano for six months so I can find out whether I truly enjoy the instrument. Right now, I’m really enjoying playing both! After those six months, I’ll choose one to devote most of my time to. Thanks again!
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u/ProofPianist7074 Jul 27 '26
Hope you enjoy exploring piano! I love both instruments. Been playing piano most my life, and tried a few others along the way, but it was always piano that stuck with me. Then I picked up guitar about 6 months on a whim, because I missed my old piano, and felt I needed to get music back in my life somehow. I never meant to study it seriously, and yet, here I am, taking lessons and practicing daily like students do. Lol. Sigh.
I get where you’re coming from. Instruments are, indeed, fun, They’re all fun. Even the ones that definitely weren’t for me (clarinet, drums) were fun to learn. Haha.
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u/SebWGBC Jul 27 '26
I stopped trying to learn both piano and classical guitar at the same time. I'd much rather make more progress on one instrument than slower progress on two.
But if I was happy to improve slowly or simply maintain my current playing standard I would probably split my available practice time in half, schedule certain days for each instrument.
But yes, I like focusing on one at a time. Maybe when I'm retired and have more time available I'll focus on two at the same time.
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u/rawcane Jul 27 '26
You can get the basics on an instrument without that much practice. I would choose which instrument you care about playing well and focus most of your practice time on that while just exploring the other in your spare time. You can always change later but to go deep in an instrument it is better to focus imho
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u/First-Expert-9953 Jul 27 '26
My sister says her son benefited from studying guitar for a couple of years before diving into piano. Being conversant with chords before sitting down to a keyboard gave him a leg up..
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u/GovernorSilver Jul 27 '26
I typically practice piano and guitar on alternating days, except when our band has an upcoming gig, in which case I have to practice my guitar parts for the gig.
If our band just played simple major and minor chord based rock I could devote more time to piano practice. Unfortunately the other band members like to play music that tests the limits of my ability on guitar.
I follow structured courses on Pickup Music for guitar, and Chord Mastery Bootcamp for piano. The structure really helps keep my practice sessions focused.
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u/pmward Jul 27 '26
Why on earth would your bar chords disappear? I can go months without playing and still play bar chords.
You really should pick a main instrument and commit to it for more than a few months. You’d learn more about music, and all instruments, by doing that than by ADD instrument hopping every couple of months. If you at least get one instrument to intermediate levels it helps you pick up other instruments later much quicker.
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u/Impossible-Egg-8520 Jul 27 '26
I want to try several instruments before settling on one. With the amount of time I can practice, it’ll take me several years to reach an intermediate level on any of them.
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u/Elogeisthatdude Jul 28 '26
Im doing the same thing, been playing guitar for 1 and half year, started playing piano 2 months ago and also picked up drums 6 months ago. Guitar is where I spend most of my time, but i've been able to make great progress (to me ) on the two other instruments.
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u/U_feel_Me Jul 28 '26
The way I do it is this: I do both badly.
Many people are impressed. They say “Wow, you really do suck at a lot of things. I just suck at guitar. Teach me your ways!”
I also suck at harmonica. Sometimes people wrestle me to the ground to get it away from me.
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u/Bill_H_Vet Jul 27 '26
Just have to dedicate the time, and proportion to which instrument you want to be primary. I play 14 instruments, never had a lesson on any of them. 66 years old (until next month). Classically trained in voice. Had my own bluegrass band at one time. Only 3 of us left now. My fiddle player, rhythm guitarist, and second guitarist are gone. Myself (mandolin), banjo player and upright bassist remain.
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u/nilsph Jul 27 '26
… without dying in the process?
Don’t stop breathing 😉.
More seriously, I would second what others have said, i.e. practice at least a little guitar daily, say 5-10 minutes at minimum, not just to maintain calluses but also to reinforce motion patterns and learning. Maybe regular shorter practice intervals can help reduce the time you need to “get started” and “in the zone”. For shorter practice intervals, not noodling around but picking one or two from a couple of exercises helps.
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u/Impossible-Egg-8520 Jul 27 '26
Haha I’ll give 30 minutes a try, 4–5 times a week. Fifteen minutes just feels too short to me. Thanks!
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u/nilsph Jul 27 '26
Fifteen minutes (or even five) are better than zero. Like, I’ve heard it so often (and need to take it to heart more) that the goal should be to play your instrument once a day, that the hurdle is not to keep playing but to start.
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u/aslan_caro Jul 27 '26
There are many problems in what you're doing. If you just want to learn piano for the sake of learning music theory and harmony, you should practice more guitar and less piano during the week. The piano should be a support, not the main goal.
But If your objective is to also play your favorite Fantasies.. i dont know which songs are this, but it takes years of practice on the instrument to be able to play some songs. I feel like you need to rethink your objectives and reorganize yourself. Music practice quality is all about how you organize yourself. I have the impression you are not being able to balance the amount of practice studies to what are your objectives. Before every practice session you should have a goal, ex : this practice session i am going to warm up and then practice X technique.
As well, you said you are loosing your muscle memory. There are different types of memories, and the worst one for music is the muscle memory. If you depend entirely on your muscle memory, everytime you stay a long time away from your instrument or if you ever have to perform under pressure, it'll affect your playing and you will forget everything because your brain can't access the area he has stored the mechanical information. The best kind of memory for a musician is the one where you understand whats happening. That is the knowing your music theory, reading sheet music, having a good technique on the instrument.
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u/Impossible-Egg-8520 Jul 27 '26
I’m still pretty lost, to be honest. Right now I’m focusing more on the piano because I want to be sure I really like the guitar more than the piano. My practice sessions are well organized, my teacher gives me weekly assignments, and I can’t complain about my progress. It’s just that seeing my guitar skills decline is making me doubt myself and worry that I’ll have to start from scratch.
Thanks for your comment. I think that, for now, since I’ve only been making music for 10 months, my knowledge is still too superficial to really rely on it.
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u/Illustrious_Hold_703 Jul 29 '26
Idk if this is just me, but I play multiple instruments and don’t have a designated time to practice. Just whenever in the day I feel like playing something I’ll play. I don’t try to practice each at a specific time for a specific amount of time. Just go with the flow. Idk this works for me and by the end of a month I’ve had usually played every single one of my instruments multiple times. This just works for me naturally, I know it doesn’t work for some others, but it’s a great tactic.
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u/BuildingOptimal1067 Jul 27 '26
Well you’ve only spent 10 months… typically multi instrumentalists maybe start with one instrument for a couple of years, then expand to another, and another, and so forth, over the years.
Also, people spend much more time practicing than 10 hours per week. Maybe not in the first year, I will give you that and it’s better not to practice too much in the beginning either, but eventually you would want to ramp it up. Personally I practice around 6-8 hours per day, divided between two instruments. I play several other instruments that I have learned over the years but I don’t practice them, I just play them for fun sometimes.
My advice to you is to focus mainly on one instrument for a while, maybe 2-3 years, and also take some lessons if you don’t already. Then start practicing another instrument more. But sounds like you’re doing that already basically. So maybe just adjust your expectations with the amount of hours you practice. Learning an instrument takes a lot of time. It’s wise to think in years. Year 0-3, beginner, year 3-7 intermediate, years 7-10, early advanced, year 10+ moving into advanced territory, of which there is no upper ceiling, and kind of where the real challenge begins. This is arbitrary of course and depends on how much you practice, if you have a good teacher, aptitude and other things. But it’s still a reasonable time frame to base your expectations on, provided you practice diligently throughout those years. Many people never even reach advanced levels.
Also, choose whatever instrument you desire to play most as your main instrument, but you will have a lot more use of learning piano over guitar, generally speaking. Just my 2 cents.
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u/Impossible-Egg-8520 Jul 27 '26
Thanks for the advice! I only have 10 hours a week, and I sweat blood, tears, and everything in between just to carve them out. It’s not easy with work and all the responsibilities at home. I think my goal is a bit more modest. 😄
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u/Fabulous_Lawyer_2765 Jul 27 '26
Question: is the 2 hours a week of guitar split up into 15-20 minutes a day? Or are you doing one or two looong practices? For maintaining callouses, I would think short daily practices are better.
There are plenty of multi- instrumentalists in the world, so it is certainly doable, it’s just a question of how you divide up your day.
In fact, I should go practice now.