YOUR QUESTION:

11/19/2019 6:48:15 Juvenal Magallanes

can't decide if I want to learn to play piano or guitar. What instrument do you recommend ? Marc Ribot and Frank Zappa are my favorite guitarists. I would like to play metal/rock, blues, instrumental music. I don't like singing myself. A couple ideas doing an album with electric guitar and trumpet, maybe even pairing electric guitar with chamber music.

MY ANSWER:

It sounds like you want to play guitar. That said, I would learn both. Piano is a valuable instrument to have at least a marginal knowledge of it’s layout. I am by no means a piano player but I took a couple years of private instruction just for the purpose of composing; being able to get around a wide pitch range and see how other instruments fit together. Even learning a simple piece and being able to read both treble and bass clefs can give you a better understanding of counterpoint. No reason to limit yourself to one instrument.