This must b really a joke in the liner notes in For U ! he can play 27 instruments? ha ha! 4 would be better! Guitar, Bass Guitar, Drums, and keyboards! Thats all!

Yea, they exaggerated a bit there. I wonder if handsclapsandfingersnaps counts as an instrument? But it's nice the way all the individual instruments are listed for each song, as opposed to just "All sounds by Prince."
[Edited 4/30/05 3:29am]

misiu said:

Listen you , if you count the spoons and the triangle, that makes 29!

senik said:

Hee-hee, exactly - triangle, finger cymbals, each drum in a drum kit, acoustic guitar, piano - it all adds up!

"Voice" is an instrument.

prince said on a ausssie national v station he could play everey instrument....except the xylophone (however the fuck aussies spell it) watever it is the instrument made up of a stick & beer caps...welll prince said he could play EVERY INSTRUMENT but he was stumped by this particular one...i dunno where i'm goin with this but i would say he can play alot of fuckin instruments!!!

I am sure Prince plays tons of instruments, there's no way he couldn't play a banjo, or a bandolin for example. any guitar player with harmony knowledge can play them. mouth harmonica is very easy to play, because it nevers go out of tune (except chromatic). So i can name lots of instruments Prince could play in his sleep. But i dont think it goes to 27, but if you coun't bongo's, and tamborines,you can easily get there ;p

When you play one 'type' of instrument, you can pretty much play all those 'types' of instrument. Like 7salles said above, if you can play the guitar, then the Banjo and bandolin come natural to you.

Me for example, I can play 11 instruments, but I only learned how to play 2 or 3.

Started on Clarinet (2nd grade), Bass Clarinet (Junior high), Tenor Sax (high chool-present), Alto Sax, Baritone Sax (my fav), Soprano Sax.

Started on Bass Drum, then to snare, Xylophones, drum set.

Technically I can only play 3 kinds of instruments, but due to the variety of styles and types within each, I can say I play 11.

Oh yeah? Well my Casio has 100 instruments on it and I can play every one of the muthafuckas! Sorry I had to put you guys in your place, there.
[Edited 4/30/05 9:45am]

No you are still playing on the same casio keyboards, unless it does morph into some kind of violin or vibraphone.

From what I've heard is, just about the only thing he can't play are horns, that's why he's so enamored with the horns.

well it sure was a great marketing trick by WB to promote their product "Prince". and it worked!

Eroticist said:

Horns and orchestral strings. About the banjo, mandolin thing. I'm sure he could learn them if he wanted to, but he hasn't, and I don't imagine he really has the desire to either. Prince is a virtuoso on guitar and bass (perhaps piano too depending on your standards) and he's more than competant on drums, that's more than enough I'd say.

I always assumed the reason he never learned the horns was cos he cant sing a song and play the horns at the same time ,Prince's favourite wind instrument is his voice

moonshine said:

pretty much

jacktheimprovident said:

It isn''t a matter of learning. playing banjo and mandolin to a guitar player is as easy as playign a guitar in alternate tuning. So thinking on this terms we could come to high numers of intruments playing by Prince. Man PRince is a millionare rock star. Do you think in his home there is only some guitars and pianos hang arounds? all he has is time and money to try lots of instruments, i recall him saying in a interview that he can harp, and i believe, i dont need to see him playing to believe. it is nothing out of t his would to play a bunch of isntruments.

moonshine said:

If that's the case, then the harmonica would be out. And since he DOES play it, that theory is out.

All people in here can play 27 instruments....Question is: does it sound good?? LMAO

Anyones knows if Prince can play the harp. On several tracks of him you hear this instrument, for example on Adore, and it doesnt sound sampled. In the liner notes to that song there isnt a seperate harp player noted, so you think Prince plays this instrument himselve?

alexnvrmnd said:

has he ever played the harmonica live then ? I still think he prefers to be able to sing and play an instrument , if hes mastered the harmonica , good for him , he should show us in concert sometime . For that matter , he should show us more in his music , which songs of his feature a noticeable harmonica?
Just a question , not a challenge , if its common knowledge he plays harmonica I'm happy to go along with it .

Update : Baby Knows / Thieves In The Temple feature harmonica yes?
[Edited 5/1/05 13:16pm]

I once read the harmonica part from Thieves in the Temple was sampled from an old blues / r&b song? any info on that?

He probably counted his... "dirty instrument", too.

scififilmnerd said:

But I heard he can ONLY play THAT instrument in D MINOR.

8up said:

Can you play instruments without a cheep casio though? Anyone can do that.. my year old son can do that too...

wow, i just realized that dolly pardon plays more instruments then prince...

she can play wind instruments. (in addition to all the stuff prince can play thats been mentioned in this thread)..wow!! go dolly!!

misiu said:

Keyboard Family Members:

Synthesizer, Grand Piano, Electric Piano, Organ, etc.

Drum Family Members:

Acostic Drum Kit, Electic Drum Kit, Drum Machines, etc.


...well, you get the idea!

Humming
Spoons
Comb&Wax Paper
Foot Tapping
Head Bobbing
Whistling
shit..the list goes on and on...

Eroticist said:

I agree Tony van Dam,

they probably did count all key-instruments seperately: piano, organ, hammond, synth, minimoog, mellotron (?)

The same goes probably with the 'guitar'-like instruments: banjo, mandolin, ukelele....lol

But.....still no answer, DOES Prince play the Harp?

Riverpoet31 said:

He once commented that he can play "a few simple things on a harp" but this was in reference to him using harp samples on some songs in Emancipation, so it seems to indicate that it's not an instrument he's really significantly proficient on and thus he prefers to use sampled harp parts for the effects he wants.