Which do you prefer?
And which one do you think he is better skilled at? I am a fairly new fan so I can't say as I think he is great at both. A friend gave me the ONA Piano, I found this amazing .. Prince on the Piano.

But I also just watched some RaveU2 DVD and that Guitar in "TheRide" floored me.

Guitar, IMO. He expresses himself much better on the axe. His funky rhythm breaks are just insane sometimes.

I would say he's just as good at both.

Depends on the tune for me !!

Sometimes I think he excels on everything equally. If I really had to choose..It would be guitar, but then how many times has he just played Piano (Ignoring ONA Piano) or bass etc?? The Guitar is something he uses the most.

The guitar is more mysterious to me... What I hear him play on piano is not too hard to pick out. So I guess I'd have to consider him more brilliant on guitar!

How about when he sits down at the piano and plays them both....simultaneously.

I've seen it on video a few times but I saw it in person on New Years Eve in Houston 97/98. The guy walks over to his purple piano with his blue cloud, props it up on his lap, and starts doing these runs on the guitar with his left hand, then turns his body and starts playing along on the piano in perfect unison with his right hand....Good Gawd...

gettoff said:

now that, is cool!

I made a thread on this exactly 2 years ago I picked the guitar. Although when he's on the guitar...he's being strong and passionate and when he's on piano he's being beautiful and romantic... U really cant pick afterwhile...
[Edited 11/15/05 5:37am]

I have always been inclined to say guitar until I really listened to ONA. I didnt know he was trhat good on keyboards and I have been going to conerts and buying his records since 1978. I would say he is actually more underrated as a keyboardist than he is a guitarist.

Prince is an exceptional guitarist, and an adequate pianist (somewhat limited) IMO
[Edited 11/15/05 5:59am]

Levi said:

Not knowing much about the piano, how would you assess his skill?

One of the best things I've ever seen was Billy Joel bowing before a concert pianist and saying that as good as he is, he has never been able to play at the level of a classical musician.

Prince is no Chopin. He is also no Eddie Palmieri.

But how good a pianist is he really?

CherrieMoonKisses said:

Gotta agree with you here

Now let's address a more serious question...

How about Prince on the mandolin?

Heiress said:

I LOVE this avie! my Dad plays violin and mandolin.

I say GUITAR all the way - Prince can really rip when he wants to!

Fuck the guitar and piano...

I SAY BRING ON THA BASS AND DRUMS!

Good question....

Great on both, but better on the guitar. Especially in the first few albums!

Alasseon said:

I play piano. It's hard to put your finger on, but when you play an instrument, you get a feeling for someone else's ability, even someone technically better than you (which Prince is). Don't get me wrong, he's a *good* pianist, just not a brilliant one. Best way to demonstrate it ... listen to a prince piano solo, then listen to a renato neto solo. The gulf in quality and skill is pretty big. Renato is exeptional on keys.

Some of the run fills prince does on piano sound kind of crushed (that's the only word I can think of to describe it) - best example I can think of is at the end of 'Starfish and Coffee' on the One Nite Alone live album (about 1 min into the track, just before he starts 'Sometimes it Snow ...' He's hitting all the right notes, but they don't feel as polished as some of Renatos work ('Extraordinary' from the same album, for example).

Have a listen and tell me what you think.

L

i know he's maybe a better guitar player, but I really enjoy when he plays piano.

It's just beautiful.

DiminutiveRocker said:

Awesome for your dad! That's my sweet lil mandolin in the picture. I'm going to go jam on it tonite.

Mandolin !!! Yes !!!!

I will get my tamborine.

virginie74 said:

Hey, thanks for reminding me!! I almost forgot I need that thing for the jam 2nite.

Levi said:

Cool! I remember an interview P himself had last year in Keyboard magazine where he admitted(!) that Renato Neto was on an entirely different level harmonically than he was.

I know almost NOTHING about the piano, so I respect your opinion. With Prince, it's hard to know exactly how good he is at anything because of his minimalist arrangements. He's great at putting sounds together, probably better than most people who can play one instrument extremely well.

I remember when I sat up and opened my eyes during Purple Rain as he played keyboards on "The Beautiful Ones" and then, on the acoustic piano with the opening chords to "Purple Rain".

I saw him in '88 where he silenced Madison Square Garden with an acoustic version of Ray Charles' music.

He's a very good piano player , but Stevie Wonder is probably not losing any sleep.

Next year, I'll start to learn to play keys. Then I'll come back and let you know what I think.

Can't help it, I gotta go with guitar

Yes, yes, he can play guitar and piano! But what about cowbell?? We need more cowbell!

Heiress said:

Levi said:

I'm playing One night alone now, he's more than competent on piano but he's nowhere near being exceptionally great at it. i play piano and more importantly, been around some badass players and as good as Prince is, he is nowhere near as good as he is on guitar, you could say he's one of the worlds best guitarists, you cannot say he's one of the worlds best pianists, although he's damn good, and yeah, i know what you mean by crushed, some of his playing isn't technically perfect and he's also very unique in his chord voicings. this is no criticism by any means, he's fantastic at so many things and I'm sure if he only did piano he would be that much better at it, he's already inhumanly good at so many things, lets leave it at that.

I did not know that Prince could sound the piano. I would like to enjoy it.

it depends on if the effects of the piano. i would say guitar compared to a regular piano but if the piano was a keyboard with different effects on it i would have to say piano.