i think guitar is much harder

I've tried both, and piano was MUCH much easier to learn the most basic/beginner shit on. I would assume that once you are at a highly skilled/advanced level on both of them, the piano would match, or possibly even surpass the guitar, at the extreme upper experience level, and become the more challenging of the two to go from being merely super super good to being world class/ultra elite caliber, due to the ridiculously high standards that world famous concert hall classical pianists are generally held to compared to most of the famous guitar players (not always the case, obv there are exceptions) as far as the level of subtlety/perfection they are held to "under the microscope" at that level when they play.

So, initially, when you are just first starting out, piano is easier by a wide margin as far as how quickly/easily you learn to play the most basic stuff, learn the chords etc, much easier to learn this stuff on piano than on guitar, but in the long run the difficulties will likely converge after a while, or even swap places.

With the guitar, the tricky thing, especially if you have wide fingers, is how precise you have to be with the fingers on your left hand as far as not letting the sides of the tips of your fingers accidentally touch the strings next to the ones you are trying to hold down, to be able to very rapidly places your fingers on all the various spots when you are playing a song, where if you miss by just 1 millimeter, you will mute the string next to the one you intended to hold down, it's pretty hard/frustrating at first, until you get some decent amount of practice at it. That and getting your string plucks to be exactly as loud/not loud as you intend. Like, when you first start, it's hard to hit each note with the amount of strength that you actually wanted the pluck to be on that string, cuz sometimes you'll touch more of the pick to the side of the string than you intended, like, where the tip of the pick dips deeper below the side of that string, making it make a louder note when you pluck it through the string, or other times you won't dip it as low next to the string as you intended, and get too quiet of a note compared to what you intended, since the amount of tolerance of getting it just right is extrmely small, maybe a tenth of a millimeter or less to get the loudness of the note to be exactly what you intended, and if you miss by more than just that tiny amount, the note will come out louder/quieter than you intended. This is something that is much easier on piano, getting the note volume just how you want it, in that with the piano it goes by how hard you press the keys, which is much easier to control, for a n00b, compared to the string plucking of the guitar, which has a smaller room for error/doesn't come quite as naturally/takes more practice to consistently get just right.

Try them both out, go to a store or find a friend or someone that has a guitar and a friend who has a piano, and try messing around on each one, and you'll see what I mean, in just less than an hour you could already learn some basic piano songs, having never played before in your life ever, whereas on the guitar, playing those exact same most basic songs that you could learn on the piano in like 20 mins, will be a LOT tougher to pull off. The beginner learning curve is way steeper on the guitar.

And then, as for the question of which one is cooler or better or more fun to know how to play, I mean, that's just a matter of personal taste man, totally depends on your own personal taste on nothing else.

Do you generally prefer rock music to classical music, or classical music to rock music? If you love classical music the most, and like to listen to mozart/beethoven's sick ass piano pieces, and badly want to know how to play that stuff, then learn piano. If you prefer rock music, and want to know how to play a good guitar solo like your favorite guitar player or something, then learn that. Just imagine yourself playing either one super awesomely, and whichever fantasy seems sicker to you, do that one, obv.

Whatever you do, def do not pay any attention to which one other people/the general public thinks is cooler. That imo, is totally irrelevant, the only thing that really matters in the decision is which one you think would be more fun/awesome to be able to play proficiently.

Another thing to take into consideration is that if you have any interest in making your own music/composing, the piano might be the better option, in that you can make a totally legit classical piece on just the piano alone, with no other instruments, with it still being a totally great piece of music just on its own, like, for example, one of the greatest pieces of music of all time is Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, which is just a lone piano, and nothing else, whereas, most good guitar songs need to contain more than just a lone guitar with no other instruments (obv there are exceptions, but, in general, this tends to be the case), so this is one more thing to take into consideration I guess. Like, take for example that song "everyday" by Carly Commando. That was just some random amateur chick messing around on her piano to make a piano song to use in the background of her friend's youtube video, and it becomes a huge hit and gets picked up by the NBA commercials, and various movies/tv shows etc despite the fact that it's just a lone piano piece, with no other instruments in the song. My point isn't that you are more likely to make money/become famous at piano than at guitar, the opposite is more likely the case, rather, my point is just that you can make a song that is totally legit/complete all on its own, with just a piano and no other instruments in the song, whereas guitar, in general isn't as good at this, and generally needs to be accompanied by several other instrument to make a good song. So, what I mean is, unless you are planning on joining a band, the piano has an advantage in that you can play songs that sound like an actual song even when it's just you alone, playing by yourself in your house with nobody else around, whereas on the guitar it'll usually sound like a fraction of a piece, which would sound great if the other ingredients of the recipe were there along with you, the drums/base/etc. There are exceptions tho, but, you know what I mean.

I saw a Mike Posner video the other day where he made some sick beats to one of his songs on the piano...dunno if I'm into classical stuff a ton, but do like playing the songs I hear on the radio (pop, r&b, etc) on the piano (I'd think anyway). How the hell do you pick the instrument? What's the difference between keyboards?

Piano teaches slot of what you need for other shit, as stated

other than that, get a metronome and practice anything and everything, then do it 100 more times

nah, just went to musiciansfriend, saw it had decent reviews, and posted a link.

This is why I love OT. I decided yesterday that I WAS going to learn piano this year. Great info bfactor as always. I like the video game idea and forsee myself doing things like that if I ever get good enough. I'm searching for someone to teach me as well. I have self-trained some of the skills I have but I'm not sure if I should use books and try myslef and/or use a lesson everyonce in awhile.

Yeah, good luck bef99hwk and keep me posted on progress, I will do the same. Maybe do a side motivational bet or something? Just grasping at straws to help this become reality.

God I hate you, Bfactor.

Piano is much easier to learn in the onset, it makes more sense "mathematically" if that makes sense.

Guitar is easily the cooler instrument to play.

You can play anything on either instrument, regardless of what you're into.

A starter instrument will cost the same ($150-$200) for each instrument.

Go to the store and play them both.

Personally, I'd recommend guitar because once you really learn it, it becomes a beautiful thing to do.
That said, piano is very nice also. The two compliment each other well.

Buy some drums.

The first year - little progress
2nd year- much progress
3rd year - you know how to play and only get better