Want to learn a ........ conventional instrument too

I like the idea of blowing his guts out with ye olde .45 ACP and watching him trip on his insides while trying to run away, but that's just me :-))

Nope, I got some nasty pepper spray, he gets a snootful of that if push comes to shove. I'd much rather have the cops shoot him or him commit suicide in prison. I don't want to commit the money for a decent gun and don't want to deal with the loss of work hours and paperwork.

On the prevalence of keyboard in musicianship instruction:

The reason we educators insist that everyone learn at least some rudimentary keyboard skills is that it's [i]still[/i] the best way for a single person to produce polyphony in real time. In particular, the possibilities for counterpoint are considerably greater than they are with a guitar.

This is probably why so many of the classical composers we revere (including, but by no means limited to, Bach, Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Schumann, and Liszt) first made their names as virtuoso keyboard players.

Beyond that, though, I would hesitate to crown it as king of instruments. (Traditionally, that moniker goes to the pipe organ.) If you have a big tune that you really want to sell, you assign it to the violin, or oboe, or trumpet, or--yes, to the flute--but certainly not the piano.

I've read the argument that the piano became so prominent over the late 18th and the 19th centuries precisely because of its ability to emulate so many expressive instruments, in a way that harpsichords, organs, and clavichords couldn't... but that's "emulate," [i]not[/i] "match."

And as fond as I am of synthesizers, a keyboard is simply not the best controller for achieving an expressive performance. Better to use a heavily processed guitar signal... or, of course, a theremin!

I would say for accuracy and learning the structure of music, the piano.

For expressiveness, the electric guitar, theremin, sax, clarinet, slide guitar, etc. And voice of course.

Oh yeah and the oboe.

the oboe is very cool but so hard to play......