You’ve obviously never heard Chet Atkins play.
“With piano both hands can play two different chords at the same instant. You can’t do this with guitar.”
You seem to not understand what a guitar is capable of. Rock guitarists typically don’t play anything complicated like that but classical guitarists do it all the time. Also, from a theoretical standpoint when “playing two completely different chords in each hand simultaneously” you would most likely really be playing an extended chord of the given version.
“No, the piano is the only instrument on which you can play two true chords. The only other instrument where your two hands are doing two different things is the drums. But you can’t play chords on drums.”
If you include all percussion in this you also include keyboard percussion which can do it easily.
The main problem you have is relying on a faulty premise. Any chordal instrument can play two chords at once provided it can play the minimum number of notes for the given chords (in other words, to play two completely unrelated triads it needs to have the capability of playing 6 or more notes simultaneously where unrelated means they have no notes in common). It is the nature of the chording instruments, that may not be stylistic on the given instrument but that is not the issue here. Melodic instruments (instruments which can only play a single note at any given time) are not capable of playing chords thus couldn’t play anything like that.
Now to give an example on the guitar playing completely unrelated chords. D# major and E minor. You can play D# (6th string 11th fret) F# (5th string 10th fret) A# (4th string 8th fret) G (3rd string open) B (2nd string open) E (first string open). If you think playing triads in inversion won’t cut it either I will give another set. G major and A Major: G (6th string 3rd fret) B (5th string 2nd fret D (4th string open) A (3rd string 2nd fret) C# (2nd string 2nd fret) E (1st string open). Like I said early though, playing chords in this manner on any instrument from a theoretical standpoint will most likely be an extended chord. This is case dependent as a lot of twentieth century classical music does not use a tonal base. The first example would be a D# major flat 9 flat 11 flat 13 (D# b13 could possibly work for a description). The second example could be interpretted as a G major 9 Sharp 11. You can do that with practically any polyharmony.
As it is now, I can play a lot of piano music on the solo guitar; although, for ease of performance I may need to change keys. There are piano pieces that I can’t play because there are idiomatic things from the piano that don’t translate well just as there are idiomatic things to the guitar that don’t transfer to the piano.
HUGS!
Sqrl
Of course, none of this explains why I can’t play Rachmaninaof’s Prelude in C# Minor…
Xploder
sorry…had to throw this in as I’ve been trying for TWENTY DAMN YEARS!!!
xploder
AND I obviously can’t spell…
Rachmaninoff?
please…anybody…is it right?
Xploder
Then you haven’t heard my husband play it, Mr. Ukelele.
The double reed requires a completely controlled embouchure.
Your diaphragm control must be close to perfect…and here’s where Ike may have a point…double reeds have their own personality (at least with single reeds you can depend on some kind of consistency).
That’s the point my husband made too, when I asked him about this. He said one difficult thing about oboes is making reeds. Most instruments don’t require that skill as well.
Seems to me we need a better definition of "master"ing an instrument in order to give an intelligent answer to this question.
What about the harp? Is it not considered an orchestral instrument? Or is it just not that hard to master? From what I’ve heard it’s a real bitch-kitty to learn and hell on wheels to play.
By the way, Ike, you’re right about the oboe. Oboes are bagpipes with a college education.