Freddie's style of piano playing

I cant remember if somebody said it on here or on youtube but it was mentioned that he plays the piano like a drummer plays the drums and i can see how because when playing piano live he really used to go for it and he always got fantastic sound from the piano. is a shame that in the magic tour he was using the piano less but i understand why when he wanted to make full use of the huge stage

Brian May explains how i feel about freddie as a painist on the Making of ANATO.

What did he say?

He's playing piano like a drummer: hammering.

Brian also said he consider's freddie a great pianist, not in a technical way, but he played with a lot of passion.  Which I agree with........IMO, Some of the piano player's who took fred's place either on stage, or in the studio later on In queen's career like  Mike Moran and other's were way better Technically, but freddie had  something you can't explain, his own style.  Not Many great pianist could say that.

Whenever i watch anything where Freddie is playing the piano i enjoy it very much because he always looks like he is having fun himself

There are technically better pianists yes, but how many of them sing while playing? As difficult songs as Freddie sings?

Besides piano intros of Seven Seas of Rhye and Death On Two Legs are technically stunning, to me at least.

Whole piano in Love of My Life is so beautiful and classical esque. My sister thinks that the short "piano solo" in It's A Hard Life is one of the most touching moments of the music by Queen, and I agree with that.

How many pianists can arrange what Freddie did with keyboards in Was It All Worth It (orch. interlude), The Miracle or The Fairy Feller's Master Stroke etc.

To me Freddie Mercury is my favourite singer and pianist/keyboardist of all time.

I would imagine that playing the piano, singing and connecting with the audience at the same time is quite hard but Freddie always made it look easy

A good piano doesn't cross hands - any  piano teacher will tell you...
Enter Fred playing Bo Rhap.. ha ha.

> A good piano doesn't cross hands

A bad piano doesn't either - pianos have no hands, so how could they cross them?

>  any  piano teacher will tell you...

Not quite. It's not a forbidden technique. It's up to the performer. In many cases (like Bo Rhap), it's actually the logical thing to do. In other cases, it's pointless - that's what's contraindicated. But there's nothing wrong with hand crossing.

> Enter Fred playing Bo Rhap.. ha ha.

Loads of compositions have crossing hands, like Mozart's Sonata No 14 in C minor K 457 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSCa46fGlH0&feature=related), composed 162 years before Freddie was even born!

Another example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viFOI1QA_DU

Sebastian wrote: > A good piano doesn't cross hands

A bad piano doesn't either - pianos have no hands, so how could they cross them?

>  any  piano teacher will tell you...

Not quite. It's not a forbidden technique. It's up to the performer. In many cases (like Bo Rhap), it's actually the logical thing to do. In other cases, it's pointless - that's what's contraindicated. But there's nothing wrong with hand crossing.

> Enter Fred playing Bo Rhap.. ha ha.

Loads of compositions have crossing hands, like Mozart's Sonata No 14 in C minor K 457 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSCa46fGlH0&feature=related), composed 162 years before Freddie was even born!

Oh God....should have known better.....oh well it is raining I suppose..

I know its not relevant to this topic but i like how Roger combined the drums and singing because that cant be easy either

Freddie was amazing at playing piano as far as I've seen on videos! He truly had his own style, got great sound at the same time as he was singing very difficult songs and entertaining the audience 100%. He made it look so easy too :O

I get cross eyed just looking at the 7 pages of sheet music for Bohemian Rhapsody, and Freddie wrote that!

It's hard to believe he was a bit shy about his piano and guitar ability. He really played like a God!

That being said, I've only just started playing keyboard and don't read sheet music well yet...

Freddie was one of those rare people who wasnt big headed about his wonderful talent

That was the great thing about many musicians especially in the 70s.
They were all recognisable immediately. Guitar players did one note and you knew who was playing. Even drummers were quite easy to identify.
 And Freddie was one of the few piano players instantly recognisable. And that's the biggest thing you can achieve. It's sad that he gave up the piano on the later Queen albums.