The Piano

If still alive Dr R. Moog may disagree with you. <smiley>
If the piano hits the spot for you - great - but there is more to music than 'classical' - at least for me.
I also find the digeridoo to be a remarkable instrument when played by those that can properly.

A lot of pianist in my neighborhood play jazz and R & B.

I'd like to suggest that the violin, as played by Oistrakh, Heifetz or Milstein, is there or thereabouts.

Also (and here, I realise, I'm straying into difficult territory) the electric guitar, as played by Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Buckley and others.

I don't, sadly, play any musical instrument (other than my LP12, CDS II or NAT-01), so I have no idea what physical or mental demands each of the instruments makes on the performer. But the piano, violin and electric guitar all arouse the highest passionate responses in me.

Graham

The pipe organ?

Not called the King of instruments for nothing ...

Like Graham, I also think that the violin family of instruments is splendid - either solo or in ensemble they are only surpassed in expressive quality by the human voice, equally either solo or in a chorus, IMO ...

For me the piano is fundamentally flawed with its compromise in the issue of just tuning of intervals in the scale so that no third is ever even vaguely nicely in tune off the keynote, for example. Nothing can recover it once the tuning is thus spoiled. Modern even temperament is is no less a fudge than the old baroque temperaments, though more versatile, in that all the keys work equally well or badly according to taste.

ATB from George

The human voice - listen to Shirley Collins, Annie Haslam, Anne Briggs, Karine Polwart, Melanie Safka, Kate Rusby, Basia Bulat, Scott Walker .....

though I like the Piano too (especially as played by Sir Keith Emerson).

I love the piano. I also have a soft spot for the viola. It may not be the most versatile of instruments, but there is something wonderfully mellow about the sound it makes that just melts me.

I do see where Mike is coming from. The Piano or Keyboard is so much more than a preforming instrument, it is the tool that most music or songs are written and composed on, it is therefore both the transition of inspiration as well as inspiring those who compose or write music.

Where as most instruments play melody or accompaniment the Piano or Keyboard can play both together at the demand of player. The only other instrument with a similar capability is the Harp as far as I know, Classical Guitar, Lute, Mandolin and Banjo can also play Melody and accompaniment, abet not at the same level as Piano.

For me though it is still not the complete instrument, there are some things that the Piano can't do that that others can. Take a classical Guitar as example, it can in the right hands Rumba with golpe (Flamenco technique), change tone, bend notes, vibrato and play down to a whisper at the input of the player, all these things create emotion for me as well as the other instruments like the human voice, woodwind and brass. Granted the Piano can sound sombre, jolly or haunting yet, I find more pleasure in Guitar and other instruments knowing that the music was composed by a great such as Rodrigo or Albeniz on a Piano.

As for popular music I also see the electric Guitar as the most emotive instrument but all it dose that an acoustic can't is sustain due to saturation overload or distortion as discovered by Jimmy Hendrix and most others that followed but let us remember that Les Paul was the one and only pioneer of the electric Guitar.

If the Piano is the most complete instrument then the Guitar must be a very close second but life is so much richer with the whole range of instruments and music.

I have more tear in the eye moments with an electric guitar, played by a master.
It can pianoforte more than a Pianoforte too(admittedly with a little help from the electrics).
I think the ability to hang (sustain) a note under the control of the players fingers is where this manifest it's self most.
Whether the piano makes more demands is another debatable point. I would suggest until you have tried all instruments to the same level, such a comment cannot be accurate.

A few hours studying music for different instruments will quickly verify that piano is the most demanding instrument.

As a pianist (in training !) myself, my opinion may be a little biased. However, it is certainly up-there with the most difficult instruments.

I firmly believe that the violin family are very difficult too - you have to start learning early (3/4 years old) and spend all of you waking hours getting to know the instrument.

I think that piano is equally difficult, but for different reasons. Unlike the organ, or harpsi, each finger has a different 'sound' - a different touch, different angle of attack. We practice all our lives to try to even this out, to play as though we are just 'one large hand'. Whereas the violinist will spend their lives perfecting intonation, bowing, etc., pianists try to perfect articulation - not just legato, staccato, but also key velocity (how quickly the action moves in relation to the sound produced), part playing (e.g. fugues, chorale passages), layers of dynamics and sound, whilst controlling the pedals... It really isn't an easy job!

The piano has so much repertoire written for it - more than any other solo instrument. Piano Concerto concerts seem to bring in more people than orchestral concerts... The popularity is there. But, why the popularity? I think it's because the piano is capable of such a scope of sounds, colours, dynamics, depths of sound, it is the most well-rounded tool of musical expression available.