How Many Musical Instruments Did Prince Play?

Prince sang every vocal line and played all the instruments on his 1978 debut album, “For You,” a performance commonly described as playing 27 instruments.

It’s highly impressive, though quite a few of these were the same families of instruments (guitars, basses, keyboards/synths, drums/percussion), many of which were just different models of these classes of instruments. This probably explains why many non-musicians would look at the instrument listing and say, “I have no idea what half of these instruments are!”

The Instrumentalist

Here is the detailed instrument-and-sound listing associated with Prince’s first album. He performed the vocals and instrumental parts himself; the familiar 27-instrument description groups keyboard models, percussion sounds, and playing techniques rather than 27 separate instrument families:

“electric guitar, acoustic guitar, bass, bass synth, singing bass, fuzz bass, electric piano, acoustic piano, Minimoog, Polymoog, ARP String Ensemble, ARP Pro Soloist, Oberheim Four Voice, clavinet, drums, syndrums, water drums, slapsticks, bongos, congas, finger cymbals, wind chimes, orchestral bells, woodblocks, brush trap, tree bell, hand claps, and finger snaps.”

Of course, Prince was an absolute genius! The amount of creativity, vision, and songwriting and arrangement skills it would take to create such an album is, of course, absolutely amazing.

Although Prince was gifted at playing many different instruments, I think it’s better to approach his music from the quality of his playing rather than the quantity of instruments he used.

For example, if we’re going to go off sheer numbers in the same manner, a regular percussionist might play 20 instruments!

Let’s break these up a bit into their categories of instruments.

Guitars

• Electric Guitar
• Acoustic Guitar

Piano/Keyboard/Synths

• Bass synth
• Electric piano
• Acoustic piano
• Minimoog
• Polymoog
• ARP String Ensemble
• ARP Pro Soloist
• Oberheim Four-Voice
• Clavinet

Basses

• Bass
• Fuzz bass

Drums/Percussion

• Drums
• Syndrums
• Water drums
• Slapsticks
• Bongos
• Congas
• Finger cymbals
• Wind chimes
• Orchestral bells
• Brush trap
• Tree bell
• Hand claps
• Finger snaps

“The Artist”

From 1993 to 2000, Prince used an unpronounceable symbol as his stage name and was often called “The Artist Formerly Known as Prince,” or simply “The Artist.” The change was tied to his dispute with Warner Bros. over control of his music. He returned to using Prince in May 2000; “The Artist” was a spoken way of referring to him, rather than the symbol’s pronunciation.

Whatever the case, no musician encapsulated the term as well as Prince. He was a true well-rounded artist. He was a musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer, with each aspect being good as the previous one. “The Artist” was a force both in the studio and live, utilizing his talents to switch effortlessly between instruments and put on a masterclass show.

The Songwriter

Prince’s songwriting reflected years of sustained work. His output was enormous: the Library of Congress noted nearly 500 copyright registrations under his full name, Prince Rogers Nelson, including unreleased titles. That is a count of registrations under that name, rather than a complete total of everything he wrote. Prince also described recording almost every day, which gives a clearer picture of the work behind that catalogue. He was relentless and a true master of his craft.

Summary

Prince was an absolutely gifted musician who had amazing skills and talent for many different instruments. Of course, he was an excellent songwriter as well, making him one of the best musicians of our time.

I hope this article has shed some light and helped you understand exactly what instruments he played and what went into his amazing creative works.

Prince Image by: jimieye from flickr.com – https://www.flickr.com/photos/jimieye/, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons