The guitar and piano seem like the two most widely-used instruments. Is that because of their resonance?
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Before the electric guitar, the banjo was actually much more common in popular music because it has much better natural volume, so you could play it in an acoustic band and be clearly heard. The guitar used to be mostly a classical instrument.
These two instruments are common in large part to cultural history rather than any specific quality of the instrument. Both guitar and piano were invented in Western Europe in countries which spread their culture very widely.
Both Spain and Italy had huge empires, large global trade and enormous cultural influence. That made these instruments commonly used in important pieces of music, so they became more commonly played.
If India had been the dominant cultural exporter in the last 1000 years, we would probably all know how to play sitar and sarod.
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