Is playing the guitar harder than playing the drums?

As a guitarist myself, I’m in a fairly good position to compare how I learnt, to my son’s drumming skills progression. Unlike my son, however, I didn’t begin learning the guitar until I was 7, so he has 3 years on me. 

Family Rocking Out

For young children, learning the guitar is harder than learning the drums, BUT only at the beginning. Learning basic fingering techniques and knowing how to properly move from one chord to another with little hands is much more difficult than nailing down a basic (One and Two and Three and Four) drum beat. However, mastering complex syncopated grooves, and laser accurate fills, are in my opinion, much harder than anything you can do on a guitar. If a guitarist makes a mistake, no one really notices, but if the drummer makes a mistake, the whole band goes out of time!

The nuances in complex drum rudiments (especially jazz drumming) are in my opinion more difficult to perfect and consistently do on stage, than a lot of guitar techniques. Watching how long it takes my son, and now daughter, to perfect the timing on fills, all while counting the beats and holding the rest of us in time, is humbling. Also looking at the complex interplay between all four limbs, the raising of high hats, and double kick precision, is something I don’t think I could ever achieve.