Hi guys,

I need to prove to someone that Prince can play a lot more than only the guitar. [No asking where can I find/get snip - luv4u]
Thanks in advance

(btw; how many instruments can Prince play?)

If you can get your hands on the Omnibus documentary, there's a clip of him playing guitar and keyboard SIMULTANEOUSLY and looking cool as fuck doing it.

[No asking where can I find/get snip - luv4u]

Ronnuz said:

No it has been on television several times. You just need to find someone who can send you the clip. It's called the "Prince Of Paisley Park" and Omnibus is are the people who produced it.

Ronnuz said:

[There are videos but they are over at www.housequake.com, but unfortunately the video forum is down for now, and that is a very good legal site to view them - luv4u]

Prince's legal videos show him playing more than guitar. He plays piano in Purple Rain. He plays piano/keys on Sign 'O' The Times. He plays piano/keys/drums on Rave Unto the Year 2000. He plays piano/keys on Live At the Aladdin.

Just look around a li'l bit.

The Face Down video shows him playing sax and violin, but I'm not sure if it was for real, or a joke. Either way, it was cool to see.

Thanks guys for the help.

Still I think it's kinda hard to get those vids.

It's always been exaggerated how many instruments Prince can play. He can play guitar; you can split that up into the different versions of guitar but it is rather a cheat - acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bass guitar, etc. He can play percussion, which again you can split up into dozens of instruments, everything from bongos to the triangle. He can play the piano, which then leads onto all the different versions of keyboard such as the organ.

And then you have the question of whether he has mastered an instrument or simply gotten a tune out of it for a particular track. Like most people, I'm sure he could get something out of a harmonica, for instance.

In essence, he can play guitar, bass, piano/keyboards and drums/percussion, and has been seen playing all those at some point. It has been said he can get a tune out of a sax but has never been seen playing it, other than that I have never heard of him playing any wind instrument. I have never heard of him playing a wood instrument like violins either (he's just miming in the Face Down video to a keyboard/synth version!). There's a bit of harmonica in Thieves In The Temple it sounds like; there's some sitar in Thunder; there's harp in Solo; but whether he is playing those himself or whether they are keyboard triggered synth versions is hard to tell.

In the Sign O' The Times film he plays drums briefly during It's Gonna Be A Beautiful Night, he also plays them during the live recorded video for America. He also plays a tiny bit of percussion during the Rave DVD, during Alphabet St. I think it is...

He plays bass on the UK TV White Room performance of Get Wild, he also plays it during the Brit Awards performance of Emancipation/We March but I think he is miming as he has gloves on! There's a fantastic short clip of him laying down the bass part to Partyman in the studio from the A Musical Portrait film, I think it is also in the Omnibus Prince of Paisley Park documentary.

He plays piano during many shows, most notibly the piano medley section of Lovesexy Live, several times during the old Prince & The Revolution Live concert, on the Sign O' The Times there's a great bit when he's playing a synth/organ before Hot Thing.
[Edited 4/17/07 4:06am]

If you can play the guitar, piano and drums (and all the subsets within), what else is there left to play in rock?

Other than horns, of course.