Again and again the obsessed fraction of Prince fans, defending their hero's untouchability, throw in the argument that he plays tons of instruments. the most popular number is 26. in my eyes, Prince does not master 26 instruments!! Hell, I got my BA in jazz but I dont even know to name 26 instruments!
lets make a list. Prince masters:
1.Piano (that includes rhodes, wurlitzer, moog, clavinet. its ONE instrument)
2. guitar
3. bass guitar
4. drums

thats the ones we know for sure. I have seen him play timbales, you can see it in the RAVE video as well. but its a pretty weak playing, that is not mastering an instrument.
there's rumours he can play harmonica, stand-up bass and a little bitty violin. but thats rumours until somebody proves else.btw: a little toot on the horn doesnt qualify as mastery either.
even if we find 3 or four more on this thread, its a looooong way til 26!! so lets go...
P.S. this thread does not mean I do not have appreciation for Ps musical talents. I just dont like it when fans are not willing to break it down to the facts.

FINGERCYMBALS!!

Triangle.

Regardless, the guy can play more than alot of others. U gotta give the guy props 4 keepin' it real, unlike others who now rely on computers to solely make their music for them.
Think about it, Kirky J can't play 1 instrument.
Prince is talented, period!

His Penis!

we've been told now. thank you so much. the world makes sense now.

soulpower said:

The "he can play 26 instruments" rhetoric is a bit silly, yes. But it takes different techniques to have a voice on variations of a piano, especially when it comes to an isntrument like the clavinet. Just because it's keys doesn't mean it's played the same way, and in this case it's not. Even an organ requires a different technique than both a piano and a clavinet. There are many people who can play the hell out of a synthesizer, but don't have the dexterity or nearly the same proficiency on piano.

Even as close as the electric piano is to a regular acoustic piano, technically you don't play it the exact same way, although it won't take you a world's worth of effort and practice to translate what you know of piano playing to a Rhodes.

What I'm saying is that although there are many multi-instrumentalists in the world, what's rare is for one person to have such a distinctive voice on multiple instruments, even a variation of one instrument.

So..."master of over 2 dozen instruments, motion picture star & entertainment enterpreneur" or whatever his billing was for that American Music Award of Merit he won a few years ago was a fabrication on national tv?

If you look at the credits to his first album 'For You',it lists a TON of instruments that Prince supposedly plays on that record.Record company hype? Maybe,but there is no denying that Prince plays many instruments (maybe not 26,though).

He can also play the Harp.Appolonia bought him one and he taught himself how to play it.

According to the For You-cover, he also gets down and funky on the handclapsandfingasnaps. So that makes five.

dnaplaya said:

Kirky J can't play one instrument??? I take it you never went to a Prince show between 97 and 2000!! He was his drummer for 4 years!!! In the studio, he may be boring, but he was a "capable" drummer...can't rip shit up, but can play what he needed to.

.
[This message was edited Fri Apr 19 7:13:29 PDT 2002 by luvy]

dnaplaya said:
Think about it, Kirky J can't play 1 instrument.
Prince is talented, period![/quote]

Kirky J can't play one instrument??? I take it you never went to a Prince show between 97 and 2000!! He was his drummer for 4 years!!! In the studio, he may be boring, but he was a "capable" drummer...can't rip shit up, but can play what he needed to.[/quote]

U're right, Prince never toured Australia between 97 & 2000, and i thank him 4 that, because i couldn't live with myself if i witnessed that Kirk as his drummer.
It's interesting U put "capable" in (" ") marks. I think that says it all. Face it, Kirk is a dancer. 2 dance, you have to have rhythm. 2 be a drummer, u have 2 have rhythm, the cross over was an easy one for him, but that doesn't make him a drummer.
Take Care.
dnaplaya

disdain4theunfunky said:

hehehe.

who cares about countin instruments?!? i just go by what p told dick clark way back when: "umm.....a lot."

Maybe he can...

It's possible.

I know he plays:

Eletric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Bass, Acoustic Contrabass, Drums, Percurssion, Harp,
a little of Violin, a little of Trumpete and Sax, mouth harmonica.

Now let's think, if he plays non tempered instruments like that bigg bass and has notions of violin, maybe he plays Viola, and cell. Prince is a intelligent man, he is a guitar player, He can visualize chords, hell even i can do this, he msut play lots of different guitars, like, banjo, and if he plays violin and guitar it means he plays bandolin cause it's the same tuning.And if he play sax maybe he plays transversal flute.
So let's see.

Eletric Guitar, Acoustic, Guitar, Bass, Ac bass, Drums, Percurssion, Harp, Violin, Trumpete, Sax, mouth Harmonica, Flute, Banjo, Bandlin, Cello, Viola, seet flute, transversal flute.

That makes 18 instruments. I give up.
But it's not impossible for a man that lives for music. That started playing at seven. A man who must have a great musical perception, great ear, a man who is millionare, who has acess to any instrument he wants, Gosh, he can do whatever he wants, he is fucking rick and talented.

Of course he just master 3, 4 instruments, but that doesen't mean he only plays them.

Man,
I am a 19 years old. I play lead guitar, study classic piano, play somethings on drums, bass and mouth harmonica. Imagine Prince, that is a musical genious and a millionare, and he is fucking 40 years old. It's not impossible.
Just think about it.