Multi-instrumentalist
Encyclopedia : M : MU : MUL : Multi-instrumentalist
A multi-instrumentalist is a musician who plays a number of different instruments. Often, multi-instrumentalists are solo artists who overdub several tracks themselves, rather than hiring session musicians, but they can also be found within bands. However, when playing live, most multi-instrumentalists will concentrate on their main instrument and vocals, and hire backing musicians (or use a sequencer) to play the other instruments.
The Bachelor of Music degree usually requires a second instrument to be learned (unless one is studying composition), but people who double on another instrument (eg guitar and piano) are not usually seen as multi-instrumentalists.
In most cases, a multi-instrumentalist will play several types of keyboard and plucked string instruments, such as piano, synthesizer, organ, guitar, bass and mandolin, and perhaps also percussion and drums. They may also play brass and woodwind instruments, although this is fairly rare within popular music. The voice is sometimes, albeit rarely, listed amongst a multi-instrumentalist's instrumental repertoire.
The British entertainer Roy Castle once set a world record by playing the same tune on 43 different instruments in four minutes.
Most of Mike Oldfield's albums include a list headed 'Mike Oldfield plays' followed by the names of the various guitars, synthesizers and percussion he has used in the album.
Some noted multi-instrumentalists
- Ian Anderson
- Beck
- David Bowie (vocals, guitars, drums, keyboard, sythesizer, chamberlain, saxophone, stylophone, harmonica, mellotron, moog, piano)
- John Cale (violin, bass, vocals)
- Phil Collins
- Stewart Copeland (vocals, guitar, bass, keyboard, synthesizer, drums, percussion)
- Graham Coxon
- Sheryl Crow (guitars, bass, piano, harmonica)
- Ben Folds (vocals, piano, keytar, bass, drums, percussion)
- Jonny Greenwood (guitar, Ondes Martenot, piano, organ, synthesizer, Glockenspeil, xylophone, harmonica, viola, etc.)
- PJ Harvey
- Brian Jones (guitars, vocals, recorder, piano, sitar, mellotron, synthesizers, saxophone)
- John Paul Jones(bass, guitar, banjo, mandolin, organ, piano, mellotron, synthesizer)
- Lenny Kravitz (vocals, guitar, bass, drums, piano, saxophone, trumpet, sitar)
- Geddy Lee
- Thijs van Leer
- Paul McCartney (vocals, bass, guitars, piano, drums, percussion)
- Ian McDonald
- Marcus Miller
- Charles Mingus
- Moby
- Mike Oldfield
- Prince (vocals, guitar, keyboard, synthesizer, drums, percussion)
- Trevor Rabin
- Trent Reznor (vocals, guitar, bass guitar, synthesizer, mellotron, piano, saxophone, tuba, drum machine programming)
- Todd Rundgren
- Sufjan Stevens
- Jack White
- Steve Winwood
- Stevie Wonder
- Frank Zappa
External link
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.