Could MJ have been a decent drummer?

JichaelMackson

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I don't know what it takes to master an instrument but there is this J5 picture where MJ is in the background playing drums.
When he sings a bit of Who is it for Oprah you can see he is snapping his fingers and bumping his foot on the floor rhythmically so I assume he must be at least handy behind a drum kit?

OR I'm totally wrong, I honestly know nothing about music, I only et my ears judge what I like or don't like :listeningtomusic
 
This is one of the things that really interests me. It's always been a bit of a mystery what Michael could and couldn't play. We know that he could definitely play piano to some level, you can see below that when he plays this keyboard, his hands are super relaxed and he looks comfortable. Not to mention the fact that he is playing actual chords! I also heard that he played the piano part in Don't Be Messin' Round. I don't know if that's true, so someone please let me know!


However, the way he handled a guitar below, tells me that he wasn't comfortable on that instrument (meaning he couldn't play it). Please note, I obviously don't actually know if he could or couldn't, I am making assumptions about what I can see and hear.



To your point, Michael had really great rhythm and his timing was impeccable. The one thing I have taken from Michael's music, into my own more than anything is percussion. People don't notice too much just how great his beats were. While, I can't imagine that Michael got behind a drum kit very often, or even at all (apart from the J5 photo. I think he definitely had the rhythm and coordination to be sufficient, at least!

Also, may I note that I see the voice as instrument too, literally. You can learn to play guitar and piano, and the same very basic principles of learning which notes to play and when applies to the voice too. So we know that Michael was a master of his voice too.

~Dan~
 
I'm sure Michael is credited with playing drums on a few songs.
 
This is one of the things that really interests me. It's always been a bit of a mystery what Michael could and couldn't play. We know that he could definitely play piano to some level, you can see below that when he plays this keyboard, his hands are super relaxed and he looks comfortable. Not to mention the fact that he is playing actual chords! I also heard that he played the piano part in Don't Be Messin' Round. I don't know if that's true, so someone please let me know!


To your point, Michael had really great rhythm and his timing was impeccable. The one thing I have taken from Michael's music, into my own more than anything is percussion. People don't notice too much just how great his beats were. While, I can't imagine that Michael got behind a drum kit very often, or even at all (apart from the J5 photo. I think he definitely had the rhythm and coordination to be sufficient, at least!

Also, may I note that I see the voice as instrument too, literally. You can learn to play guitar and piano, and the same very basic principles of learning which notes to play and when applies to the voice too. So we know that Michael was a master of his voice too.

~Dan~

He def knew how to play piano. I can't find the quote at the moment but during his stay in a rehab facility in 1993 he played and sung a song on piano for one of the workers there. He even had a piano in Neverland so he could have practiced non stop and put in a lot of hours.
 
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This is from Time Magazine 1971:

“Michael plays drums. He says he is learning piano too. "It's not hard. You just have to put your mind to what you doin'; that's all there is to it."”

So, he was at least working on it. :)
 
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He def knew how to play piano. I can't find the quote at the moment but during his stay in a rehab facility in 1993 he played and sung a song on piano for one of the workers there. He even had a piano in Neverland so he could have practiced non stop and put in a lot of hours.

I never knew that! I knew he had at least one piano at Neverland but I also knew he was a bit of an antiques-nut so I didn't add that into my response!
 
Michael wasn't really good with instruments. Prince was though. he could play any instrument you gave him. Michael was sort of good with the piano. he definitely wanted it to do that more. like you just said he played the bongos as a kid. Michael was VERY good at beatboxing. speed demon and a lot of other songs has him beatboxing. hahahaha. Michael was more of the voice music machine while Prince was the musical instruments machine.

bless their souls.
 
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This is one of the things that really interests me. It's always been a bit of a mystery what Michael could and couldn't play. We know that he could definitely play piano to some level, you can see below that when he plays this keyboard, his hands are super relaxed and he looks comfortable. Not to mention the fact that he is playing actual chords! I also heard that he played the piano part in Don't Be Messin' Round. I don't know if that's true, so someone please let me know!


To me it isn't enough to say he could play it, probably he copied what the guy before did.
Let's be real, he couldn't play properly any instrument and I quite don't believe the song credits where it is stated that he played an instrument on them.
However he didn't need those because he had all the instruments naturally inside his soul and he showed it multiple times
 
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To me it isn't enough to say he could play it, probably he copied what the guy before did.
Let's be real, he couldn't play properly any instrument and I quite don't believe the song credits where it is stated that he played an instrument on them.
However he didn't need those because he had all the instruments naturally inside his soul and he showed it multiple times

He's playing different chords to the guy before him. Also, if you can't play the piano then to walk up to it and play chords in a super relaxed manner, straight away isn't easy. If he's practiced enough to be able to play, albeit simple chords, but so effortlessly then is safe to say that he could play. Not like Stevie Wonder or Prince or anything but enough to sing along and even write songs. A lot of Michael's songs were very simple (when it came to chords). A lot of his song are just two chords. Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough, Do You Know Where Your Children Are, Ghosts and there are more.

Though I agree 100% that it doesn't matter because his instrument was his natural voice and his rhythm and beat-boxing was his instrument.
 
Dan;4289574 said:
He's playing different chords to the guy before him. Also, if you can't play the piano then to walk up to it and play chords in a super relaxed manner, straight away isn't easy. If he's practiced enough to be able to play, albeit simple chords, but so effortlessly then is safe to say that he could play. Not like Stevie Wonder or Prince or anything but enough to sing along and even write songs. A lot of Michael's songs were very simple (when it came to chords). A lot of his song are just two chords. Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough, Do You Know Where Your Children Are, Ghosts and there are more.

All of this. :) Playing a few chords also isn’t that complicated. It needs practice, but definitely isn’t something you need to dedicate your life to. I don’t see why he wouldn’t be able to contribute some piano chords to his recordings. Was he playing Bach or Beethoven on the piano? Probably not, because he was too busy doing his own thing to practice that much.
 
One thing that has always fascinated me is just how many instruments Michael could play and how well he could play them. Because, we never saw him play any instruments on stage (understandably) and because the people interviewing him were more interested in knowing about the bogus media rumours, we will never really know. If I had the chance to interview Michael, I would ask him questions like "how many instruments can you play" and not questions like "are you a virgin?" which some horrible loser asked him one time.

If I had to guess, I would say Michael was a good pianist, although not great. I think he could play a bit of the drums as well. Although, I don't think he knew how to play the guitar.
 
What Michael Jackson does with the piano part on ‘Don't Be Messin' 'Round’ is actually looped, so you cannot take that as an example that he could play piano.

Michael Jackson’s abilities in playing instruments (drums, guitar, piano, etc) have been exaggerated through the years, and part of that comes from some of his own collaborators who have been buttering him up when it comes to his abilities in playing instruments.

In reality, he could only play piano a little, as confirmed by his long-time engineer Bruce Swedien:

“…He could play piano a little but he wasn’t that kind of a musician. Michael’s instrument was his voice and his ideas…” (Bruce Swedien)

Also, the credits on certain of his songs that credit him with playing specific instruments are actually misleading, and are meant only for his royalties’ purposes.
 
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Michael was credited on the HIStory album as playing keyboard and synthesizers, on the song This Is It, he was credited as playing piano and additional synthesizers (absolutely no mention of Paul Anka on the This Is It album booklet :/), he played percussion on Workin' Day and Night and Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough. He was the "Drum case beater" on Beat It, he is credited as playing percussion, drums and guitar (with Slash) on Morphine. On the credits for Unbreakable, You Rock My World and Threatened it states "All Musical Instruments Performed by Michael Jackson and Rodney Jerkins.", it says the same on Break of Dawn but this time including Dr Freeze and Teddy Riley. On Dirty Diana he's credited as Clavé Clapsticks. There's also photo of Michael in the Bad25 booklet of him sitting a piano with headphones on, so it's safe to assume he was recording something on the piano, Don't Be Messin' 'Round maybe?

That's of course not counting lead vocals, background vocals, vocal synthesizers, vocal percussion and vocal arrangement and any other form of arrangement. He also conducted the strings on Speechless.
 
mj_frenzy;4289596 said:
What Michael Jackson does with the piano part on ‘Don't Be Messin' 'Round’ is actually looped, so you cannot take that as an example that he could play piano.

Michael Jackson’s abilities in playing instruments (drums, guitar, piano, etc) have been exaggerated through the years, and part of that comes from some of his own collaborators who have been buttering him up when it comes to his abilities in playing instruments.

In reality, he could only play piano a little, as confirmed by his long-time engineer Bruce Swedien:

“…He could play piano a little but he wasn’t that kind of a musician. Michael’s instrument was his voice and his ideas…” (Bruce Swedien)

Also, the credits on certain of his songs that credit him with playing specific instruments are actually misleading, and are meant only for his royalties’ purposes.

Just posted my last comment and saw you posted this. I agree that the credits will be misleading and people thought he was a master at everything when he wasn't. I know it was looped, however he could still play it. He could still sit down at a piano and play a song, write a song. To me that qualifies. You don't have to be a session musician to have fun and make music. Again, not that it matters because his voice was his instrument and he was a master with that.
 
Michael wasn't a master at everything. but he was great dancer,singer,and entertainer. that's all what matter. also who cares?
 
He could still sit down at a piano and play a song, write a song. To me that qualifies. You don't have to be a session musician to have fun and make music. Again, not that it matters because his voice was his instrument and he was a master with that.

Exactly. There are 24 hours in a day for everyone, including MJ. Of course, he used most of that time to perfect his core skills instead of practicing this and that and then ten other things on top of that. And the best session musicians in the world were always just a phone call away from him anyway. But a piano is simply useful to sketch up song ideas, figure out a few chords to go along with the melody you just came up with, and so on. And once you got that far, you can also lay down a few chords in the studio instead of calling in a session musician, and should then of course also take credits for it.
 
Some people are born to do somethings others are not. just because Michael couldn't play a instrument didn't make him less then. :rolleyes:
 
NatureCriminal7896;4289619 said:
Some people are born to do somethings others are not. just because Michael couldn't play a instrument didn't make him less then. :rolleyes:

Probably not your intention, but you make it sound like MJ failed at learning an instrument. When in reality his focus was simply on something else, namely his own instrument, his voice.

Anyone can learn any instrument when they put enough time and effort into it. Playing an instrument really isn’t something that only people with “talent” can achieve. You get a good teacher and put the hours in and voilà – you can play the instrument. To truly master it is a different thing, of course. :)
 
my opinion is not everyone is born to do somethings. I know a young lady who been singing for 7 years now and she (bless her soul not trying to sound rude or anything) still can not sing.

some people just don't have the skills to do somethings. yes practice makes "perfect" but in reality not all the time.

other examples justin bieber and wade. they can't dance they been dancing for years and still not good.
 
NatureCriminal7896;4289626 said:
my opinion is not everyone is born to do somethings. I know a young lady who been singing for 7 years now and she (bless her soul not trying to sound rude or anything) still can not sing.

Hmm, maybe she should find a different teacher? Learning how to to sing, from a technical point of view, means to learn how to control breath, vocal cords, larynx etc. and there are several tried and tested methods to achieve that if you put in the hours. To truly master the techniques and then get creative with them, again, is a whole different thing and certainly not something one can achieve as one hobby among many others. But learning how to sing in and of itself is not something exclusive to specifically talented people. Maybe the teacher just doesn’t show her the right techniques. :)
 
He def knew how to play piano. I can't find the quote at the moment but during his stay in a rehab facility in 1993 he played and sung a song on piano for one of the workers there. He even had a piano in Neverland so he could have practiced non stop and put in a lot of hours.
In addition to what Bruce Swedien said, Brad Buxer has also mentioned that MJ could not really play piano. I get the sense he was a very elementary player, and I don't think he played any other instruments (except maybe some percussion, as that's really easy to pick up and just play). So I don't think he was a good drummer either. That's not to say that his timing was not impeccable. You're completely right that his sense of rhythm was incredible.

Every artist has their own process. MJ was not a control freak when it came to his music; he did not feel an obsessive urge to do everything himself, but rather, was happy to seek out and collaborate with other very talented people. I think he just observed which skills he was particularly good at and which he felt he needed most, and he relentlessly pursued those (dancing, singing). He was able to create the music he wanted by vocalizing the ideas he heard in his head, and by collaborating with others. He knew what he liked to hear and would have the final say, but was also open to the ideas others came up with. Clearly, it's what he felt comfortable with (and look what it brought him).
 
In addition to what Bruce Swedien said, Brad Buxer has also mentioned that MJ could not really play piano. I get the sense he was a very elementary player, and I don't think he played any other instruments (except maybe some percussion, as that's really easy to pick up and just play). So I don't think he was a good drummer either. That's not to say that his timing was not impeccable. You're completely right that his sense of rhythm was incredible.

Every artist has their own process. MJ was not a control freak when it came to his music; he did not feel an obsessive urge to do everything himself, but rather, was happy to seek out and collaborate with other very talented people. I think he just observed which skills he was particularly good at and which he felt he needed most, and he relentlessly pursued those (dancing, singing). He was able to create the music he wanted by vocalizing the ideas he heard in his head, and by collaborating with others. He knew what he liked to hear and would have the final say, but was also open to the ideas others came up with. Clearly, it's what he felt comfortable with (and look what it brought him).

:heart: :clapping:
 
ScreenOrigami;4289630 said:
Hmm, maybe she should find a different teacher? Learning how to to sing, from a technical point of view, means to learn how to control breath, vocal cords, larynx etc. and there are several tried and tested methods to achieve that if you put in the hours. To truly master the techniques and then get creative with them, again, is a whole different thing and certainly not something one can achieve as one hobby among many others. But learning how to sing in and of itself is not something exclusive to specifically talented people. Maybe the teacher just doesn’t show her the right techniques. :)

okay.
 
Maybe he could have been if he'd had the time to properly learn. Michael was great with a beat, but you also need to be able to use both hands and feet simultaneously to do different things at different times for sustained periods. It's not an instrument for everyone. Drummers who can sing at the same time are seriously impressive.
 
In addition to what Bruce Swedien said, Brad Buxer has also mentioned that MJ could not really play piano. I get the sense he was a very elementary player, and I don't think he played any other instruments (except maybe some percussion, as that's really easy to pick up and just play). So I don't think he was a good drummer either. That's not to say that his timing was not impeccable. You're completely right that his sense of rhythm was incredible.

Every artist has their own process. MJ was not a control freak when it came to his music; he did not feel an obsessive urge to do everything himself, but rather, was happy to seek out and collaborate with other very talented people. I think he just observed which skills he was particularly good at and which he felt he needed most, and he relentlessly pursued those (dancing, singing). He was able to create the music he wanted by vocalizing the ideas he heard in his head, and by collaborating with others. He knew what he liked to hear and would have the final say, but was also open to the ideas others came up with. Clearly, it's what he felt comfortable with (and look what it brought him).

SoCav I love you. I just thought you should know this.
 
Was there a guitar credit in the liner notes of Blood on the Dancefloor album?
 
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