I've heard he can play 27, on american bandstand he says thousands (i think?). so whats the deal? What does he mean by being able to "Play" them? Which ones is he virtuostic with besides guitar, keys, and bass? Does he count different synth sounds or drum programming?

Oh Lord, not again.

He's listed as playing 27 instruments on For You, although I would say he's one of those people who can pick up any instrument and have a go at it.

mrdespues said:

i read in an interview that he can play n e instrument but only like 27 well.

I heard it was 236 instruments and that he shits lavender.

It's 1,203,207 to near nearest integer.

mrdespues said:

How many instruments can u play? Only comment when u have attained multi-instrumentalist status. Until then, u are not allowed to comment on any Prince thread involving the playing of instruments.

Yeah..that 27 count I've always heard..but.....

Can anyone name the 27 instruments?..

Are the kazoo, spoons, comb and tissue paper, hand claps, and blow whistle included... Whatever it is , he'll probably still one of the baddest Muthafathas doin' it.

fauxnewbie said:

Well looks like you barked up the wrong tree, ol' buddy!

I can play the following instruments quite well if I do say so myself:

Guitar
Bass
Drums
Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Baritone saxophones
Piano

so, I can play MORE instruments than Prince, although he can play piano and guitar PROBABLY a bit better than me.

If you don't believe me click on the website in my sig and listen to some of my tracks.

mrdespues said:

Very nice guitar work. You are a good musician! Keep working hard; I hope it all goes well for you.

I don't think Prince can only play piano, drum, bass and guitar. The guy is messign with music since he was a teen, and he is rich since early 80's. I myslef can play bass, guitar, piano & drums. Not as good as him but i can. Lenny kravitz can too, and so TON of peoples. I think he does nto play other instruments because he is not very good on them. Even Steven Tyler from aerosmith can play lots of instruments, he plays drums, bass, guitar, mouth harmonica and piano.

The thing is that Prince plays this main instruments very well. he is a badass bass player and i like very much his drum playign too, especially in the early days.

7salles said:

Speaking of Lenny, have ya'll seen that Target commercial advertising some CD of his where he's playing all the instruments? All of a sudden there's this scene where he's got a feathered boa around his neck and he's prancing across the stage in front of a piano beating a tambourine. What the hell was he on looking like a damn church bunny!

He told Dick CLark he could play thousands...and that was at a precious age of 18/19.

do thousands of instruments even exist?
or did he mean he could play any of thousands of telecaster shaped guitars?

Yeah, I tried, and it was a struggle for me to think of 27 instruments, so Im not gonna attempt to try and discover 1,000!!!

He had to had added in some illegitament instruments
like the frying pan, the wind chime, snapping, beat-boxing, playing a CD, etc.

In that case I guess Im quite the musician too !!! Yippeee!

people seem to forget the amount of different insturments that are out there. They may look similar to synthisizers, but they aren't. Like the fender-rhodes, which is like an "electric-guitar" version of a piano in the sense that it has electric pick-up's that pick up the sound, not just acoustics.

There's harpsicords, moog synthizers, pipe organs, the other organ(4getting the name right now...brain fart).

While all these insturments are set up like a piano, they all require much different techniques to play.

That's why I think Prince has never really tried to play wind insturments. U R very limited to a "one note at a time" technique and Prince usually has more going on in his head than one note at a time. For him it probably be like talking through only 1/3 of his mouth...it wouldn't sound good. Which shows how he can work with horn arrangements very well. And yes, I know he hasn't done ALL of his horn arrngmnts, but he has done some of them, and he seems 2 be good at that.

andyman91 said:

He was obviously kidding...but was not in a kidding manner when he said it. Well at the point in which he said it..I dunno either it was starting to happen or it may have happened on the spot but a truckload of mind tripping ego was starting to form within the boy. There is just a moment...where he switches...it's like he decides thee and then to not give anyone after that moment a straight answer.

he said in an interview he can play a little of HARP. Terecent Trent can play harp too!

Mastered 28 instruments
Prince...master of the triange, finger cymbols, maracas, and panflute!

On the View (I'm sorry to admit I saw it).
Star asked him how many instruments he played, and he said something about being good at keyboards, as if to say that with synthesyzers he can play horns, strings, even drums, and other keyboard instruments such as rhodes, organ, etc.

I think he can play different keyboard intsruments, but I doubt he knows all the stops on a pipe organ. I think he doesn't play horns because he never learned how, not because they're too limiting for his genius. His voice can only sing one note at a time, too. There's a reason we've never seen him play violin. How could anyone master a whole orchestra & marching band? There's only so much time in the day!

It doesn't lessen his greatness if he only plays five instruments.

umm...a lot.

okaypimpn said:

Yeah, it's ..... quite ridiculous. Target.

andyman91 said:

I think he can play some horns...but just not all that good...you need to have quite a frame (and really big lungs) to get out some of those notes. I think he gets others to play them because they can play them better.

He does not play only 5 instruments, playing 5 instruments ir ridiculous for a guy like him. Are you crazy? he mastered 5 instruments. Even lenny kravitz and Steven Tyler plays more that 5 instruments. Hell, there are lots of orgers who plays 5 instruments.

i didn't know he played instruments. i thought he just sang, or maybe just did the lip-sync thing. too bad he can't dance either.

Alasseon said:

Thanks, I'm working towards going professional - I'm moving to the States and marrying an American so I'll be starting a band over there soon....getting my music out, etc...

dang... i guess not even the best of the orgers knows this one... mb know one does.

so i know hez crazy at guitar, bass, and singing. but what about his drumming? did he play on 777-9911, the drums?

Supernova said:

A damn mess.

okaypimpn said:

i just saw that commercial last night!

me when the commercial came on:
me after it went off: