Piano and guitar are more similar than you think. A lot of guitar music, especially on the net, is written just as chords, which may be what you're thinking of

Piano and guitar are more similar than you think. A lot of guitar music, especially on the net, is written just as chords, which may be what you're thinking of. But the chords are the same notes whether you're playing them on guitar or piano. You could play exactly the same thing on piano as the guitar players do, and aside from sounding a little stiff, would make good musical sense. It's also common in pop and jazz for piano players to read off chord sheets (lead sheets). Likewise, guitar music can be written out note-by-note just as piano music generally is. Classical guitar music is written this way, as well as rock leads. Here's the thing about it, though. If you're thinking of it as individual notes, you're doing it the hard way. Scales and chords are a form of compression between the page and your brain, just as gzip is a form of compression between the web server and your browser. Once you figure them out, you can look at a measure and know what keys you need to hit without having to look at each note individually. Playing any instrument becomes much more fun once you have that skill.