I have to throw in my two cents here, which is what my opinion as an amateur musician will be worth (piano first, lute second, though historically I've received more cash from lute performance (a few $) than piano performance (0$)).
No question, it's easier to whack out a melody and impress your grandmother on a piano. But to really play high-end piano music requires very subtle control, a finely tuned ear and, of course, a real piano. (You can't get that level of control over a digital piano any more than you could get the subtle nuances of lute music from a sampled lute.) It is the soft and quiet piano passages that improve most dramatically when I've been doing my piano exercises. It really matters how you hit the piano keys even for a given volume. So I have to take strong exception to the attitude that the piano is an "on - off" instrument: the piano is every bit as complicated as the lute in terms of articulation, touch and nuance (whatever that means... both are very complicated). While some piano music is hard because there are so many notes, it also requires real mastery and years of study to correctly play piano pieces with very few notes. As you've pointed out, the lute, on the other hand, requires much mastery of subtlety of touch right up front, not to mention the initial challenge of coordinating such different actions with the two hands. In that sense it is certainly harder to play the lute well enough that my grandmother would want to listen. And playing lute music really well certainly requires the same level of maturity as the piano. Same, of course, for just about every other mature classical instrument (I got in trouble once for implying that percussion may be an exception - a mistake I will never repeat). Of course it could be worse: some years ago I tried to study the Chinese erhu. Now that instrument has a steep learning curve! I'm told that practicing erhu is referred to in China as "strangling chickens". At least I can practice the lute without anyone hearing me. I had a truly great teacher (http://www.jiebingchen.com), but found the learning curve too steep. Steve On Jul 7, 2007, at 1:38 AM, LGS-Europe wrote: > David > >> It's all relative. >> I just think that the demands made on a professional lute player, and > .. >> I personally would have to work harder to have the equivalent >> income and opportunities on the piano. > > Granted, no question, also because of the level of the competition > in the > piano world. But perhaps the level of difficulty in concert piano > music is > so much higher because in its essentials it is an easier > instrument, there's > bound to be some compensation somewhere. 20 years of serious study > on either > instrument will make an equally professional player, but the > pianist will > have to deal with more complicated music, the lute player with > perhaps a > more complicated instrument. > > Just my thoughts. > > David - full of respect of piano players and very much in love with > much of > the piano repertoire > --- http://homepage.mac.com/stevepur -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
