Which instrument suits me?

There is hardly a question I hear more often when parents or adults are thinking about starting: which instrument should it be? I can answer it reasonably well, because I look at it from two sides. Professionally I am a pianist, but I am also a cellist, and these two instruments could hardly be stranger to one another. My honest opinion up front: there is no single perfect instrument for everyone. But there is a really good one for getting started at all.

How you find your instrument

Most of us encounter music long before we hold an instrument. It begins in nursery when everyone sings together, continues in primary school where you make music together for the first time in class and try instruments out, and sometimes early musical education comes on top of that, where children get to know the whole spectrum playfully. Often you already have a quiet inkling by then, because you love a particular kind of music or think a particular musician is wonderful, and you roughly know which direction things might go in. And then there are those moments, usually at school, that give you the chance to engage with an instrument seriously. String class and wind class, for example.

I still remember my own decision exactly. For me it was immediately clear that I wanted to be in the string class; I just did not know which instrument. In the end it was pure chance: the boy sitting next to me, a good friend, chose the cello, and I thought, well then I will do that too. In hindsight it was the perfect choice, because I quickly noticed how much I love this instrument. For the next person it is the violin, for one the viola, for another the tuba or the horn. That is exactly why I think it is so important to try different instruments out in the first place.

There is no objectively best instrument

What I mean by that is: the right instrument is a very personal matter. It depends on your taste, on how your body feels, sometimes on pure chance. And that is a good thing. Far more important than the question of which instrument is objectively best is the question of which one you stay with. Because that is the real crux: a large long-term study with young people in Germany and the United Kingdom showed that around half of them stop making music by the age of 17.¹ Anyone who finds an instrument that feels right, and who experiences early on that it brings joy, is more likely to belong to the other half.

Why the piano is a perfect beginning

And yet, for all my love of the cello, I consider the piano one of the best starting points there is. The reason is simple and has a lot to do with how the first weeks feel. On the piano you have a sense of achievement almost immediately. You press a key and out comes a clean, beautiful tone. No scratching, no squeaking, nothing that first has to be laboriously tamed. In the very first lesson you can play a small melody that genuinely sounds like music.

That sounds banal, but psychologically it is enormously important. The best predictor of how well someone eventually plays an instrument is neither talent nor practice time alone, but self-belief — their own confidence that they can manage it.² And that confidence grows above all out of early successes. Particularly today, when we are used to everything happening quickly and patience for slow progress is often lacking (more on that in the article on practising properly), an immediate sense of achievement like that is worth its weight in gold. It keeps you going until the trickier things arrive.

The big difference: producing the tone yourself

Here lies the central difference between the piano and a string or wind instrument. On the piano the tone is already finished the moment you press the key. So it is not about coaxing a beautiful tone out of the instrument; anyone manages that at the first attempt. On the cello, by contrast — and I know this only too well from my own experience — the first months are about producing a decent tone at all. You have to guide the bow correctly, stop the string at exactly the right place, judge the pressure, and even then it often sounds anything but beautiful at first. That is not a disadvantage, it belongs to the instrument and makes a string instrument incredibly expressive in the long run. But it is a high hurdle right at the start. On the piano it falls away, and you can concentrate on what actually matters from the first minute: the music.

On the piano you do not have to fight for a beautiful tone. You press a key, and the music is already there.

A whole orchestra in ten fingers

There is something else I particularly value about the piano. It is one of the few instruments with which you manage entirely on your own. Melody and accompaniment, right hand and left hand, all at once. You can play a whole piece from beginning to end without anything missing. With many other instruments that is different. A horn or a double bass do have their own solo repertoire, but they unfold their true stature in playing together with others. And in purely practical terms, it is not always easy to find fellow players at short notice or to get into an orchestra. On the piano you carry your own small orchestra around with you, in ten fingers.

A foundation, not a corset

Does that mean everyone should learn the piano? No. I would be the last to claim that; I am far too attached to my cello for that. But if you are unsure where to start, or want to give your child as lovely a way into music as possible, then the piano is a fantastic first choice. It gives you quick successes and a solid understanding of how music works. From that foundation, every door stands open to you later — including the one to the violin, the trumpet, or indeed the cello.

At ARTIQ Music School in Mainz-Finthen you can begin exactly there, during the trial month, at your own pace and entirely without a contract. And if afterwards you find something completely different more exciting, you will still have done everything right. The main thing is that you start at all.