I am a very low vision grad student in classical piano performance. I will admit, piano is much easier if you can see, but keyboard topography is very feelable. Particularly if you want to play as a hobby and not a career, I think piano is actually really great for blind/low vision musicians - the kinesthetic motions involved are much more intuitive than, for example, oboe or violin, where the body mechanics are so exacting. I am not sure what style of music you would like to play, but another option you might like, due to similar repertoire and textural possibilities, could be guitar or banjo. My understanding is that the body mechanics of those instruments are a bit more complex than for piano at the beginning stage, but at more advanced levels, become almost entirely touch oriented, whereas piano can often become more visual in certain styles at advanced levels. But really, I think you should just choose the instrument you like the best, I have met blind/low vision musicians of almost every instrument, there are always work-arounds for more visual aspects.

go for it! when i went to a bland center in my city, they had piano and harp classes. i was one of a few low vision people, but most were completely blind and playing awesome! I am sure it will add additional learning curve, but not insurmountable.

i have to start this by saying that i am uneducated on your particular condition.

i am registered blind. i can play guitar, ukulele, piano, ocarina, kalimba and bongos. out of all these instruments i would consider the piano or the ocarina the easiest to learn when blind. honestly i found the bongos the most difficult as my hands kept hitting the wrong places. i have played most of these since becoming blind, although i could play violin at school before going blind, i couldn't afford my own one though so i have not played since i was 8.

playing the piano is a bit like a dance with the fingers. if you can touch type you can definitely play the piano. if not you probably still can as it is only 2 levels instead of 5-6 so it is easier to play than touch typing. the struggle comes in with the sheet music. it will take longer than sighted people for you to play full songs, braille sheet music is a whole other type of braille with different rules, and due to the need to touch braille, you cant read the music while playing it. personally i gave up with braille sheet music and learned how to tell by ear what notes are used, then i play around until it sounds right.

you will need to memorise the notes instead. in my opinion this makes us learn faster when you get to the later stages of learning because we cant cheat by looking at the notes so we become independent musicians quicker.

you will make mistakes, it will be hard to learn to move each hand doing its own movements at the same time. but it is worth it.

i would say go for it.

if you ever have some blind related piano questions i'd be happy to answer if i can, and point you to some large print or screen reader accessible sites that display the notes of popular songs as their letters for piano.

remember that Stevie Wonder was completely blind and became a brilliant composer of piano and other instruments. he never even took one single music lesson.

i hope you do learn to play and i wish you good luck with it.

everything will be problematic at first. On time, you’ll learn to find the keys without even thinking about it. The same applies for drums, strings and pretty much any instrument.

Vision is not really a big factor when learning instruments. I come from a family of master musicians who are all blind. Glaucoma runs in the family. It’s all about feel.

Listen buddy. I have learned a lot of instruments. Guitar, trumpet, bass, violin and piano. And I have to say, piano is the easiest one I’ve ever learned. It’s all about learning where the keys are on the piano. The piano is not completely uniform. Also, if you get your own electronica keyboard and put it in your home, you can put markers on important keys that you find. Because playing an instrument is not about just looking at stuff, it’s about sound. So, if you hit a key with your finger and it sounds like middle C, it’s middle C. And you can put a marker on that.

Monocular music teacher here. I’m not familiar with your particular conditions, so apologies if important details are overlooked. I have taught several students who had no vision.

I wouldn’t think piano should be automatically excluded, most pianists I know don’t play by sight, more by feel. I’m actually taking lessons from a blind piano player.

People have been learning musical instruments for millennia. Don’t overthink it. I’d suggest you try several, starting with guitar or piano. Brass, woodwind, string instruments are also good candidates as they rely mostly on sound and touch.

Good luck!