Opportunity Cost of Practising

I've been playing guitar for four years, and I think part of the reason that I've progressed so far in learning it is the guitar's particular characteristics.  Unlike many percussion instruments or keyboard instruments, there isn't very much set up.  Unlike woodwind instruments and brass instruments, the guitar doesn't involve using your mouth.  And unlike smaller instruments, like violin and mandolin, it sits comfortably in your lap while you aren't playing it.

Because of all of those characteristics, it's been quite easy over the past few years to catch a few moments of practise while waiting for internet pages to load.

But recently, I started thinking about the opportunity cost of guitar practising.  Not in the sense that there is something I would rather do than practise, but rather that there is an instrument other than guitar I would like to practise.  Namely, piano.

I took a piano class in university back in spring 2011.  That's my only formal education for any keyboard instrument, and actually, it's the most recent formal music education I've had since 6th grade band (which - I feel I must note - I did not quit by choice, only by circumstance; we moved, and my new school didn't have a band).  But because I haven't practised a lot of stuff I learned in that class since it ended, I don't remember it.  I still know some fundamentals - the five-fingered position and some basics about scales - but because practising piano is something I have to put some extended and conscious effort into, I find that it's something I'm less likely to do.

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