while we can say for sure that prince have his most wildest guitar excursions now days .but
what about his piano playing?

few years ago while i watched prince's piano segment from lovesexy tour with my friend she came to a conclusion.
(btw she is a student on classical music academy,
shes great at playing bach,vivaldi,mozart,chaikovski,maler...)

she was realy impressed with prince's piano playing she said"wow prince kicks ass of the piano.

so from this time distance do you find prince to play piano
better now or before.
i heard cool piano only playing from prince on 21 night in london.
on one nite alone disc he didnt play as good as he was on lovesexy but he used better "silence" on piano.
so i can't decide.
so whats your opinion.
did prince evolve in his piano playing???

Princes piano playing is amazing.

The best example of recent times is the re-working of the Dance on 3121.

He rips it up at the end of that song.

Truely amazing!!!!

thebanishedone said:

This is a good topic. My own feeling was that back around the Lovesexy tour, his piano playing was outstanding. I felt it got a bit stale though. The ONA piano CD is really pretty poor in my opinion, and his technique during the ONA tour I thought was especially weak.

However, since then I think we're witnessed a new flavour creeping into his playing, and I put it down to Renata Neto's influence. Listen to the piano section on 'Get On the Boat' for example, and I think you'll hear a departure from Prince's style, much more towards Renato's work.

I wrote a post about this when 3121 was released, praising Prince for being prepared continuously to enhance his skills. I got pretty much shot down as some people read it as an insult !!

L

First of all, let me just say that I would be very surprised if this thread will last as long as the guitar-related topics tend to do...

it will last as long as cool people write cool stuff.

Basically - and I think this has been discussed in a similar thread a while ago - Prince is generally much more proficient on guitar (and bass, for that matter) than on keyboards.

He does have a personal style on piano, which mostly comes from being self-taught. It has been described (even by himself, I think) as "coloristic", which I think is quite accurate. He can play very expressively, but seems to lack some basic piano skills (technique, harmonic knowledge, voicings etc).

If you put it this way:
On guitar or bass, Prince would have enough skills to be a pop/rock/R&B session musician, playing in different styles, adapting to new musical situations etc.

On piano, I don't think he could do that to the same extent. On piano, Prince can at best play his own music, in his own way.

But then again, that's all he needs to do, anyway.

I love his piano playing. It is usually passionate and beautiful. I can listen to one night alone CD or songs like Free, Condition of the Heart, or Sometimes it Snows in April and truly get inspired. His 7/7/07 piano set was the highlight of the show for me (the O2 piano set had a similar effect on fans according to reviews). I'm a sucker for Prince on the keys...Has it improved over the years....I think he has yet to hit us with everything he can do for fear that we can't take or that his nay sayers will accuse him of showing off...

I don't know if it evolved but it's always been pretty funky. He doesn't showcase it as much as his other skills so it's hard to say. He has a definite style of his own which I don't think has really changed that much. I liked his ONA piano stuff simply because we rarely get it like that. His medley of hits was fantastistic and mind blowing, mistakes and all. I play some of those songs and the way he has fleshed them out made them just that much better.

His Piano medleys at his live shows are my favourite parts. I loved all the ones through the O2 shows!

Now to the actual question, has Prince's piano playing evolved?

I don't know. To me, even though I am a pianist myself, it's not that obvious that it has. At least I can't think of any recent examples, off the top of my head, that tells me so.

Although I certainly think he's improved on guitar over the years.

Hm...let me think about it for a while...

RealMusician said:

I have a feeling that the guitar and piano threads will eventually merge...

I agree with you mostly, but I seem to feel that his guitar and piano skills are more or less equal. Technically, he is not the most polished performer on either instrument, but his harmonic language (though, like you said, is not developed in a jazz sense but, nonetheless, features an "enriched" pop vocabulary with lots of inversions, suspensions, etc.) is more apparent on the piano than on the guitar, while his soloing comes through more effectively on guitar than on piano.

Of course, I've only heard a comparatively small amount of Prince's music (there is a lot in the way of live performances that I've never seen, and I'm missing the pre-1999 albums, as well as some of the post-Lovesexy albums), so my knowledge of Prince's playing is, at best, informed by a fraction of his output. Because of this, I don't think I'm capable of answering the question regarding the evolution of his playing, either. I can say, now, that Prince's performance style is infused with elements of Latin jazz that, perhaps, may have come from Renato's presence and are now seeping into his compositional style ("Get on the Boat," "The Dance," "Te Amo Corazon"), and that this changed happened immediately post-Musicology.

mentalist said:

live thats renato

renato is amazing. there is no one in the world that can play the piano better than renato neto
[Edited 1/10/08 10:06am]

in a concert setting he's more prone 2 pick up his guitar, it would interesting 2 c him go through the majority of the concert without picking up the axe and play a true piano instead.

he can get around pretty good on the piano.. but i know a few in pop music that could whoop his rump on the piano.. mr. folds being one.

I love Prince's piano playing. I think he has a very unique style. You can recognize his way of playing immediately. I believe he beats every other singer/piano player in the business (think Elton John, Billy Joel, Axel Rose, Norah Jones, Alicia Keys etc.). The 2nd ONA live disc shows some of his best skills (imo). It's too bad the ONA piano album was a little tame (I mean piano technical).

Did his playing evolve? Yes, I think so. He added some jazz-feel to his style (Renato's influence). I also think that Prince himself believes his piano playing did evolve. On the Purple Dove's interview DVD he was asked this same question and he said: 'yes, I've grown. I feel more confident in my abilities.'
[Edited 1/10/08 11:27am]

RumAndRaisin said:

Hey, Renato is great but this is a bit of a stretch, don´t you think ? [b]

KoolEaze said:

no, hes good enough to be classed as the best i think. once youve seen him play The Dance live youll know why i say this

RumAndRaisin said:

surely this isnt classing classical pianists into the equation too?

zsasz said:

yeah but they bore me.

renato's able to play jazz and funk, but for some reason, when he plays, its good. where as other players just bore me.

mentalist said:[quote]Princes piano playing is amazing.

The best example of recent times is the re-working of the Dance on 3121.

He rips it up at the end of that song.

Truely amazing!!!![/quote]

Incredible!

Did I just read some people think he is one of the best piano players?


yeah fucking right.. and this is coming from a pianist


he can dabble his way around it enough to write songs and perform live.. and do some minor improv

Sdldawn said:

I'm willing to bet that you misread, Sdldawn. The discussion was about Renato being one of the best piano players, which I'm not inclined to agree with especially, though he is much more of a jazzer to Prince's pop stylings.

I think we all agree that Prince, while a solid piano player, is far from "the best" outside of playing his own material.

I do not play piano or guitar, However I have always enjoyed Prince playing or singing....Evolvement as an artist is a given...I think that if you do something on a regular basis, you are bound to evolve. What a professional pianist would say...I do not know, and what Prince believe's is the answer.

RumAndRaisin said:

thats fair enough.
the very brief piano bit at the o2 i saw was gorgeous i must say...really short and sweet.
though one of my favs at the moment is the classical pianist ludovico einaudi...like music from final fantasy games...really lovely but mixed with electronic sounds to add a different feel to them.

I also think his guitar playing has improved amazingly. Since he doesn't dance on stage like he use to I guess he's gotten pump it up!

Ice9sFine said:

Interesting topic.

I've always been far more impressed with Prince's guitar performances than with his piano skills. I play piano, so I might be "pickier" about others' technique since I have a better sense of what they are doing on the instrument. I don't play guitar so I don't have the same frame of reference to know if what an artist is doing on that instrument is out of the ordinary or not.

Aside from the technical aspects, however, I think Prince has a stronger voice on guitar than on keys. He doesn't seem to be able to convey emotion and completely realize his ideas and piano to the same extent.

As to whether or not he has evolved on piano, I believe he has improved his skills and become more comfortable with the instrument. Practice/performance over so many years almost guarantees that. Has he evolved, though? Not so sure about that. I think his style, his phrasing, how he "speaks" through the instrument is fairly consistent. I don't hear any real growth.

I can't speak to any influence Renato may have had on him as I really haven't heard him play post ONA except for 3121 and PE albums. Would love to hear some of what folks have referenced regarding his performances at O2, but I didn't have the opportunity to go to any of those gigs.

RealMusician said:

Have you listened to his instrumental jazz-funk outing "Madhouse 8" (1987). He plays some pretty mean piano on that album. Also some of his former musical associates feel that he is much stronger and interesting as a piano player than as a guitar player. (Michael Bland).

michael bland said on org that prince is guitar virtuoso.
wendy and lisa preffair prince on piano.
miles davies said that p plays piano as ordinary 60s jazz players

In '97 during the Jam of the year tour in MPLS Prince did a piano medley. During it he said "I have Quincey Jones on tape saying that I am not a good piano player" (something 2 that effect). He then did a long beautiful medley and then stopped and said "that's why I keep my mouth shut."

I remember in the beginning he was playing and stopped and stood up and a computer voice over the loud speaker said "Did u miss me." It was P' first time in MPLS since '88. Some folks I could hear yelling "play a whole song," because just as you get into a song he switched it.

Good time
[Edited 1/11/08 10:34am]