Scottie Baldwin ince said in an interview he thought Prince's best instrument was the piano. I wish we had more footage like this. I love watching him play.

https://youtu.be/hbLHzvBfsV8

Good lord that is pretty I agree with you, he's not a virtuoso on the piano like he was on the guitar or bass, not technically advanced in the least bit like say a Herbie or even Patrice Rushen. But there's definitely character and personality in his piano skills, when I became a fan of his music I knew how to identify his piano & drum playing quicker than the other two instruments, you could tell it was him because his playing on the keys is more percussive, so it was easy to differentiate than say Lisa. Even though I hear alot of Joni Mitchell and sometimes Thelonious Monk (since his dad's influence as he styled himself after Thelonious Monk) and I could definitely hear the distinctive whimsical and emotional signature style thats his own.

I can't wait until the piano version of "Honest Man" (UTCM's opening intro) gets released officially among the rest of the piano instrumentals he did for that movie (Alexa De Paris is another one, I think).

Hamad said:

Good lord that is pretty I agree with you, he's not a virtuoso on the piano like he was on the guitar or bass, not technically advanced in the least bit like say a Herbie or even Patrice Rushen. But there's definitely character and personality in his piano skills, when I became a fan of his music I knew how to identify his piano & drum playing quicker than the other two instruments, you could tell it was him because his playing on the keys is more percussive, so it was easy to differentiate than say Lisa. Even though I hear alot of Joni Mitchell and sometimes Thelonious Monk (since his dad's influence as he styled himself after Thelonious Monk) and I could definitely hear the distinctive whimsical and emotional signature style thats his own.

I can't wait until the piano version of "Honest Man" (UTCM's opening intro) gets released officially among the rest of the piano instrumentals he did for that movie (Alexa De Paris is another one, I think).

I compare his piano playing to other popular musical artists. And I'd put him up there with Elton John, Billy Joel and Paul McCartney (among others) any day of the week. And just imagine if it was his primary instrument.

Hamad said:

I prefer him as a pianist more than all of them combined to be honest.

Im with you on this. As someone here said...it's very percussive. Like what I gravitate towards when hearing a piano

Hamad said:

I prefer him as a pianist more than all of them combined to be honest.

I feel the same way. I still get chills whenever I here "Father's Song" in the Purple Rain film.

I honestly prefer his noodling on guitar to his noodling on piano, it's all a bit Liberace to my ears. Having said that, I love his piano playing when he's actually playing something.

jaawwnn said:

I honestly prefer his noodling on guitar to his noodling on piano, it's all a bit Liberace to my ears. Having said that, I love his piano playing when he's actually playing something.

i loves his piano interludes that eventually turned into the P&M tour. Like this one from London.

https://youtu.be/E_9M1di88CE

masaba said:

I love the piano. I love prince. I love prince at the piano. Feels good to me.

This gives me a George Winston feel in some parts.

https://youtu.be/08BOqVuCVZc

rogifan said:

Ah, Venus de Milo is brilliant! I mean, to be hyper critical some of that Parade stuff is kind of pastiche music - I understand why someone might find it saccharine -but he clearly really means it. I think he gets away with it.

rogifan said:

I compare his piano playing to other popular musical artists. And I'd put him up there with Elton John, Billy Joel and Paul McCartney (among others) any day of the week. And just imagine if it was his primary instrument.

I love Prince on piano, but nowhere near those 3, get real

Dandroppedadime said:

TheFman said:

rogifan said:

I compare his piano playing to other popular musical artists. And I'd put him up there with Elton John, Billy Joel and Paul McCartney (among others) any day of the week. And just imagine if it was his primary instrument.

I love Prince on piano, but nowhere near those 3, get real

Oh please, he's way better than those three. Certainly McCartney.

Hamad said:

Dandroppedadime said:

Slightly off topic, but I was listening to ‘piano rehearsal 83’ and I could swear he plays Ur Gonna C Me and a bit of I Love u but I don’t trust you anymore! Has this been discussed before?

Interesting! I don’t hear it, I might need to listen again, but hey could be, remember Prince had a knack of recording himself all the time & he constantly kept revisiting old materials via a chord change or hell, even a whole song. I wouldn’t rule out the possibility if that was the case.

Dandroppeadime is on to something. I hear the similarities too.

rogifan said:

TheFman said:

I love Prince on piano, but nowhere near those 3, get real

Oh please, he's way better than those three. Certainly McCartney.

Wow, sorry but that is wrong. He is not better than Elton John or Billy Joel (aka the PIANOMAN).

https://www.youtube.com/w...mLqhhqbYGU

What's next? Prince was better on drums than Buddy Rich or John Bonham?

[Edited 11/26/19 4:56am]

Surely a far better point of note has to be his composition skills as well as his technical ability. One listen to his piano based songs elevates him hugely.

Frankly the level of genius in that man was insane.

I'm classically trained on the piano, or at least I was, I don't play classic no mo (unless we're talking FUNKY classics, but funnily enough, I don't play much Prince, while I do have fun covering lots of other artists. He's either out of reach, or I don't feel I can really bring anything to his stuff. I've produced a few Prince remixes though, and have some still to do on the slate)

however the fact that I learned to play and consider myself a pianist doesn't mean my opinion is worth a damn more than anyone else's... but he's a virtuoso to me.

ForbiddenFruit said:

rogifan said:

Oh please, he's way better than those three. Certainly McCartney.

Wow, sorry but that is wrong. He is not better than Elton John or Billy Joel (aka the PIANOMAN).

https://www.youtube.com/w...mLqhhqbYGU

What's next? Prince was better on drums than Buddy Rich or John Bonham?

[Edited 11/26/19 4:56am]

Buddy Rich and John Bonham were better drummers than Billy Joel and Elton John are piano players.

Now I'm not saying Prince was Arthur Rubinstein or Vladimir Horowitz but he was as good as any popular music pianist in my opinion.

rogifan said:

Scottie Baldwin ince said in an interview he thought Prince's best instrument was the piano. I wish we had more footage like this. I love watching him play.

https://youtu.be/hbLHzvBfsV8

Boo this video is gone now. I wish I would have downloaded it. it wasn't even that long stupid for the estate to force it to be removed.