he can play the piano, percussion and he is a phenomonal beat boxer.From reading about him over the years Most of Mj's ideas for songs he beatboxes or plays on the piano and records then he comes up with the chorus and rest of the song is right at the last minute

whats there to Drool over..?
You could find every last piece of that software FREE online if you know where to look..

superspaceboy said:

thebanishedone said:

Michael can play keyboards.

Mars23 said:

That reminds me of the old dude on family guy that's been trying to get with chris "You like popsicles? I got a whole bunch of popsicles in the cellar."

funksoulpop said:

now, that's basically singing, but it's true.

I heard a recording of his testimony when he got sued for Billie Jean. He demonstrated how he wrote the songs and started singing the beginning with the drums & bass.

Sounded just like the song!

He's a very talented guy, and he's come up with some great stuff, but I still won't believe he plays an instrument until I see it (and not a still picture!)

DarlingDiana said:

Piano/keyboards, drums, rhythm guitar, organ... onstage, I've seen him play the keys as Graycap just pointed out.

I don't judge Michael any less just because I don't believe he plays any instruments. But it's like the people who believe Prince plays 28 instruments & HAS to read music because he's such a genius. Let's just be real about these guys. They're very talented, and there's no need to exaggerate their talents.

I feel Michael is talented and he's musically adept. Maybe he can or can't play instruments but the thing about him is he knows what he wants to hear and he tells his bands to match what he wants to hear. That's what you call a musically adept person.

Timmy84 said:

Exactly, I think James Brown did a lot of direction with his mouth, rather than play something for a sax player to imitate. I think Prince does it too, even though he CAN play lots of instruments.

It's about communication and (more importantly) communication of great musical ideas.

midnightmover said:

I've never seen James Brown play keys, but I think he started to play keys when he became to old to dance...

Playing instruments has never been the main focus of his performances...

midnightmover said:

I think he's never gonna play instruments in front of the public...

But mentionning Timberlake, there's a difference between people who can play instruments but refuse to perform on stage and those like Timberlake or Madonna who pretend to play instruments knowing well they only know few chords ...

People mention his ego, but if he can play an instrument but not that well he ain't going to play in public, because of his ego. I have actually seen Michael play the drums at one of the Jacksons concerts, but it was very briefly.

Surely this thread should be
"If you lock Michael Jackson in the studio alone with children".

will there ever be a time when the "child molester" connotation is not used with him

-I mean like if he truly is innocent- don't you feel just a little bad about bad mouthing him?

there can't even be a musical convo without this coming up

Evvy said:

it's the org, so it happens all the time

The only instruments that I think he can really master are keyboards/synth/fender rhodes/piano, and percussions. He was playing percussion since he was a child. He probably knows the some guitar licks, but not like his brother.

2blax2proud said:

Same thing.

One of James Brown's backup singers said that if one of the guys in his band messed up, he would take the instrument from him and show him how to play it.

Superbad indeed.

Not superbad, just bad. For fuck's sake, have any of you actually heard the instrumental albums he did? Painful as fuck. He couldn't play keys to save his life. He was OK vamping, but not soloing - dreadful.

From the looks of it now, MJ is officially on the Org shit list.It's rather asinine to make up a thread about on rather or not MJ plays instruments. When, we all majority of those in the industry knows the story of Joe and how he taught all of the boys in the J5 to play one sort of instrument or another. Like in MJ's case, he learned harmonica and keyboards. Now, Damn what's next with the stupid threads.

SPYZFAN1 said:

You may be right Mong, but I could really give two shits if James or Micheal could play a keyboard or a plastic comb with paper wrapped around it.

Their true talents were singing and dancing. THAT'S what I enjoyed about them. When I want to see or hear great instrument ability, then I'll check out P, Lewis Taylor or Todd Rundgren.

I thought magic and the madness said that he can't play the piano or any instrument, whereas in the HIStory era, it was being said he could play any instrument he picked up including some foreign one. He could probably pick out notes and play a melody or two, but I doubt he knows music theory and is able to read music, though he does a great job of communicating and knowing what he wants played on each instrument as shown in those mexico deposition tapes, I thought it was a brilliant and creative way to compose music when I first saw it.

But he was credited for playing instruments on blood on the dancefloor and invincible wasn't he? The guitar in morphine (which I know was only 3 notes haha), and "all instruments by rodney jerkins and mj" in the invincible booklet, though he probably did the percussion part of it, as he talked about making beats with bottles and whatever was around that made sounds (though invincible is NOT up there with don't stop or workin day and night in terms of raw production). For Invincible, he could have also meant all MIDI instruments on the computer!! hahah in that case, I'm prince and can play 25 instruments...on the computer!

Timmy84 said:

My point is, James Brown never made a point of playing instruments on stage. Not until he was too old to dance. Yet he's still respected, especially on the org, as a musician. So if it's not important that James Brown played every instrument he possibly could on stage, yet it is for Michael? These guys you call "real musicians", like Prince for example... I'd like to see them leave their instruments at home and still be able to deliver an amazing performance. I think it takes more talent to keep the audience captivated without playing every instrument you can.

P has already proved he can amaze an audience without really playing an instrument. Just watch the Detroit 86 show. Barely played guitar and sang and danced his ass off.

SPYZFAN1 said:

Mmhh... Disagree strongly, he's not amazing without instruments...

He can make a great performance without playing instrument, but he can make a GREAT concert without instruments... Just impossible... And the Parade concert proved me that... To me this is by far his worst concert ever...

His vocals are not strong enough and his dancing skills are just too limited to put a great 2 hour show...
[Edited 4/3/08 5:48am]

krayzie said:

Ohh larwd.....

James Brown sang its a man's world whilst playing the piano in 2006 at the electric proms for bbc 1 i think this was one of his last performances before he passed away

Graycap23 said:

Seriously, with the invention of YouTube, there really is no excuse for there to be no video (boot or otherwise) of MJ either in the studio or in concert playing an instrument like people keep daying he can do.

Ifsixwuz9 said:

Bingo....I don't believe the hype. Never have.

Ifsixwuz9 said:

I don't understand the link between Youtube and MJ playing instruments
...


That makes no sense...