Playing the piano is easier than playing a violin. I would argue that a world-class pianist is about as skilled as a world-class violinist.
If you could allocate skill points like an MMO, the violinist is spending 3 points on instrument mastery, and 7 points on musical mastery, while the pianist spends 1 and 9.
I hate spending my limited skill points on "browser mastery," so I mostly do lower level things.
It seems to me that musicians play more complicated things the easier the instrument is, so it does even out at the end. Drummers do some insane things, even though they only have five drums to hit (whereas a piano has 60ish keys).
I agree with your general point. So maybe the following is the exception that proves the rule, but:
An acoustic piano has 88 keys, and classical or jazz piano music tends use many of them. Whereas a 60 key electronic keyboard is often subject to the Flock of Seagulls treatment, wherein one key at a time is held down. :) It's roughly like touch typing vs. hunt and peck.
But aside from that example, yes, I think you're onto something.
I'd say more like 7 and 3 than 3 and 7. Still, the violin has always seemed strange to me. It doesn't help at all with the established 12-tone scale, or with polyphony or chords, and it sounds unbearable in a beginner's hands. Sadistic parents allocate about as much skill to it as to the piano, but it just seems like a bad instrument for producing western music.
The violin requires physical adaptations in order to progress past a certain level. You have to start developing those adaptations when you're very young. Otherwise you'll never be quite as fluid with it as someone who has. I suspect that there are no world-class violinists who started as adults.
If you could allocate skill points like an MMO, the violinist is spending 3 points on instrument mastery, and 7 points on musical mastery, while the pianist spends 1 and 9.
I hate spending my limited skill points on "browser mastery," so I mostly do lower level things.