Is guitar on the decline?

holdenhinkle

holdenhinkle

Inspired
I run a decent sized music lesson agency and we've seen a huge decline in requests for guitar lessons and a large increase in requests for piano and voice lessons over the last few years.

I started digging around our Google Analytics to see what was happening, and the difference between guitar and piano/voice is now significant.

I thought, well this is our site, maybe the type of traffic we're getting has changed. Maybe the guitar traffic is going somewhere else?

Then I looked at Google Insight and it confirmed the decline - Google Insights for Search There are still more searches for 'guitar lessons' than 'piano/voice lessons' but you can see the trend is very clear: guitar is on the decline.

Today's music is less guitar-centric than it used to be so maybe that's why? Or instead of searching for guitar lessons now, people are going straight to youtube or other online lesson sites? But still, people would have to find those sites by searching for them, so I don't think that's the cause of this.

What do you think?
 
Just trends, whatever is popular at a certain point in time.

String instruments & Percussion instruments will always have a place in music, one will be more "fashionable" for a while.

Swings and Roundabouts!
 
I think the music world is extremely fragmented now in a way that's very different from when I grew up (70s). The music of that era was very guitar dominated. While dance music and some pop got very synthesized to varying degrees, it seems like guitar hung on at least through the pop/punk period of the 90s started by Nirvana and popularized by Green Day, Smashing Pumpkins etc.

Now the distribution is so fragmented that it's hard to tell to me if there's a pop music that "everybody" is aware of. There's Hip Hop, Country, R & B, rock, metal, dance/disco/teen pop and more. It seems to me that they're all appealing to different demographics. There's also American Idol and all its' spin offs. On those, the voice is dominant.

People like Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and, later, Eddie Van Halen were people that most people in their teens-30s would be able to identify. They were musicians who were identified as the leaders of hugely popular music for years. It's hard to see who's like that now. I can name a lot of guitar players, but when I look through something like Guitar Player, I don't see a lot of people who I think cross as many lines as previous generations of players. John Mayer, Steve Vai, Tom Morello hmmm?

Derek Trucks, who certainly comes out of the lineage of great blues rock players and to my ear is the best of the current lot (and one of the best of whatever era as a blues-rock guitarist) isn't remotely a household name. 35 years ago he'd be on t-shirts everywhere and 90% of the people under 30 would know who he was. Now I'm guessing that he seems like someone older white dudes would like to a lot of people his age.

It's an interesting question to ponder.
 
in this age of instant gratification and one finger chords on computer programs, it's not too hard to see why more kids aren't picking up the guitar... it doesn't come easy and it doesn't come instantly.

it's hard for me to imagine developing a connection with a piece of plastic attached to a computer in the same way i have a connection with my guitars, but maybe the electronic musicians of today do feel a similar connection.

interest in the guitar may be on a down cycle, but it will come back. it is arguably the most expressive instrument around, and that hasn't changed.
 
This question probably applies to any physical instrument at this point. Don't get me wrong, software can do incredible things in the right hands, the Axe-Fx is a testament to that. My whole rig is Guitar -> Axe-Fx. However, the experience would be completely unsatisfying without the physical instrument vibrating in my hands.
 
shemihazazel said:
This question probably applies to any physical instrument at this point. Don't get me wrong, software can do incredible things in the right hands, the Axe-Fx is a testament to that. My whole rig is Guitar -> Axe-Fx. However, the experience would be completely unsatisfying without the physical instrument vibrating in my hands.
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Amen! Well stated.
 
Interestingly, there's a peak towards the end of each year. Guitar lessons as Christmas gifts?

The biggest peak showing is Christmas 2004. The Guitar Hero videogames came out in 2005 and got bigger evey year since. Coincidence?

My other theory is to blame guitar gear forums like this one. No one cares about learning to play anymore, they are too busy having GAS and arguing about gear. :)
 
I specifically remember a trend in the 90s (grunge movement) when many a media outlet said that soloing and lead guitar were dead, and for a while bands that would solo were rarely heard of. Now, every kid on youtube wants to be another shredder. It's like what Mark said, it's just a trend.
 
I run a music school in Canada and we've also noticed a decline in guitar enrolment. I see it as more of a normalization after the surge that was caused by the Guitar Hero/Rock Band popularity.
 
OMG! (per Googles Search Engine)....the Skank industry takes the gold medal!....I remember most guyz wanted to learn to play the guitar to score mo' TeeTee!
Now they just need a Laptop and a high speed connect. (I guess it has become a "virtual" world)
I'll take the "real thang" baby
 
mhd1970 said:
in this age of instant gratification and one finger chords on computer programs, it's not too hard to see why more kids aren't picking up the guitar... it doesn't come easy and it doesn't come instantly.

it's hard for me to imagine developing a connection with a piece of plastic attached to a computer in the same way i have a connection with my guitars, but maybe the electronic musicians of today do feel a similar connection.
interest in the guitar may be on a down cycle, but it will come back. it is arguably the most expressive instrument around, and that hasn't changed.
Click to expand...

Oooo.....well said bro. How many guys have come to ask for a lesson or two, and fall away rapidly, due to the time required to develop skill?
An instrument that is never really mastered.
 
kinda looks like a decline in those sorts of things in general.
added "dance lessons" and that shapes up similar to guitar.
Google Insights for Search
pull guitar and dance out of the above, leaving drums, bass, and piano and it's easier to see that they're *all* slowly declining for whatever reason.

(I'm guessing those peaks aren't just Christmas, but New Years resolutions. :p)
 
I think a lot has to do witht he fact that guitar lessons a re FREE all over the web-with video no less. So bother with paid music lessons. See how many free video piano lessons you can find.Hmmmmm..... not too many I say
 
I saw an article about 10 years ago that claimed guitar was no longer the most popular instrument, the new most popular instrument: Turntable. This was based on music store sales data.
 
If you base this off of amount of lessons requested... I know a few that are learning from youtube.... amazing to me, if I'd had all that guitar info when I was younger my brain would weigh three more pounds than it does now... lol
 
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