Just how much piano did Brian play?

[CosmicDancer]

I was just curious as to how much of the piano work on BB's albums is Brian.  Of course he used the wrecking crew and various other studio guys on a lot of the stuff, but how much of it is him?  Any examples? 

Obviously Brian was a fantastic pianist, I know I read a quote from someone saying at the time Brain had "the best left hand in the business, so why did he use so many session guys for it?  This may be a stupid question and it might have been beaten to death over the years but I am fairly new here so fogive me!

Also, on the same note, how much does Brian play on his more recent records?  The piano in the live setting isn't much more than a prop, but what about in the studio?  Does any of his playing actually get heard in the final mix?  I know all the albums credit him on piano, but as we all know, Everythign from that camp shouldn't be taken as the gospel!

[Jon Stebbins]

Brian plays nearly all of the keyboards on the first 5 BB's LP's. For instance the organ solo in Surfin' USA is him, or the heavy piano in Little Deuce Coupe...that's him too. Just like Carl, Dennis, Al, Dave and Bruce...Brian is underrated for his contributions to the BB's recordings as a player.

[the captain]

I like Brian's piano style. Without checking liner notes, you can usually pick his parts out in that they tend to be block chords, and a lot of left-right-left-right hand stuff (as opposed to single note lines or more complex parts).

As for that "best left hand..." stuff, I don't think it should be mistaken as some kind of statement that Brian is a virtuosic pianist or anything. In some ways his playing is very simple. But I think that statement means he really, really came up with cool bass parts and kept them in a fantastic groove.

[Amy B.]

I'm no musician, butI always wonder when people talk about how well Brian plays piano. In terms of untrained piano players, is he really that great? I mean, sure, he's good. But, for example, here's Paul McCartney playing Lady Madonna:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=CSOXEr_xWsY

And Ben Folds Five playing Theme from Dr Physer:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=dKRqs-uKVO8

It seems like Brian is called "exemplary" at so many things, but his piano playing more "ordinary." Maybe I'm wrong?

[Chris Brown]

I think Brian is a better piano player than he lets on.  Most of the parts he played on the records were pretty simple, but after seeing him do a bit of Rhapsody in Blue on the Beautiful Dreamer doc, I think that he is probably capable of more complex playing than he shows. 

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

Also, on the same note, how much does Brian play on his more recent records?  The piano in the live setting isn't much more than a prop, but what about in the studio?  Does any of his playing actually get heard in the final mix?  I know all the albums credit him on piano, but as we all know, Everythign from that camp shouldn't be taken as the gospel!

That is a really good question.

[the captain]

I'm no musician, butI always wonder when people talk about how well Brian plays piano. In terms of untrained piano players, is he really that great? I mean, sure, he's good. But, for example, here's Paul McCartney playing Lady Madonna:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=CSOXEr_xWsY

And Ben Folds Five playing Theme from Dr Physer:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=dKRqs-uKVO8

It seems like Brian is called "exemplary" at so many things, but his piano playing more "ordinary." Maybe I'm wrong?

I think you're right on...and wrong. He isn't in any way a brilliant pianist, technically speaking. (Didn't Spector kick him off a session?) He is a great musician, though, and I think it comes through in his piano playing. His parts are pretty simple, and even examples of more complicated playing aren't very impressive. His Rhapsody in Blue, or his fast little boogie woogies he does every so often, are very rough around the edges both in terms of rhythm and note-correctness.

All that said, I love his feel, and his songs are just so damn good that I'd take him pounding out those simple block chords all day long.

[PMcC]

As a big fan of Brian's piano playing, I can tell you that it is technically not all it should be, but the feel and the power of his rhythm is not to be denied. He drove the band with his keyboards during the early-mid 60's. His piano was there during the Smile sessions of 66-67, and was prominant on Wild Honey , Friends, and 20/20...after that, it gets a bit murky. But they used Brian's piano as a metronome to build their backing tracks on, so the rhythm must be impeccable, and for an example of that "quick left hand" on the bass notes, one only has to listen to the final run of "Surf's Up" to catch the magic in action.

[Pretty Funky]

The use of a the piano as a prop is often mentioned in his concert reviews and it has always surprised me he doesn't throw out a few notes during songs with vocal breaks. I think we here know he can play but many in the audience don't. Something for 07 shows maybe if you want my 2 cents.

[the captain]

He played a part of Wind Chimes in the SMiLE shows. The audience went crazy, but I remember some people posting that they thought it made him look like a trained monkey, just doing a simple bit for the people's amusement. I thought it was cool to have him do a little piece.

[Amy B.]

He did play the keyboard a little bit more in the last few Pet Sounds shows. I think he played an intro to Marcella and a few other things...nothing major, but more than on previous tours.

The video of the making of What I Really Want for Christmas shows Brian playing piano while recording the title track. The piano on the track sounds kind of like Brian's playing, doesn't it?

[Shady]

My question is how and when Brian learned piano...Did he just pick it up, like the bass?

[Zander]

My question is how and when Brian learned piano...Did he just pick it up, like the bass?

According Audree in "Heroes & Villians", he started playing a childs accordian at age 3, then progressed to a toy piano then took a few lessons a bit later. Also, we must remember that Audree and Murry played piano / organ so he probably picked up a lot from them.

With bass, I'm sure he just picked it up and self taught himself. He has musicians instinct so it was probably trial and error in the beginning. I did the same, I taught myself the guitar by playing along with records then later started picking out chords on the keyboard.

[Rocker]

I think Brian played every song on GIOMH just on piano and then the band added their parts afterwards. I'd like to hear the solo-piano songs.
I love Brian's playing. My biggest wish was a CD with just Brian and his piano singing his songs. Like "My little red book" (ok, not his song and a bass was there too, I know) or the demo "Surf's up"; that sounds like magic.
I love the piano-part of "Funky pretty" btw. I'd even like to hear Brian and piano alone nowadays with his "older" voice. He has a great rhythm and, like Carol Kaye says, everything starts to swing when brian plays....

[Jonas]

I love all the Brian piano demos that are out there, I really wish there was more...that would make a great cd-release.

[CosmicDancer]

I think Brian played every song on GIOMH just on piano and then the band added their parts afterwards. I'd like to hear the solo-piano songs.
I love Brian's playing. My biggest wish was a CD with just Brian and his piano singing his songs. Like "My little red book" (ok, not his song and a bass was there too, I know) or the demo "Surf's up"; that sounds like magic.
I love the piano-part of "Funky pretty" btw. I'd even like to hear Brian and piano alone nowadays with his "older" voice. He has a great rhythm and, like Carol Kaye says, everything starts to swing when brian plays....

Do you really think they recorded to his piano?  I'm not trying to slight him or anything, but every example of him playing on the recent dvd releases are not very steady.  Definately not enough to base an entire recording off of.  Now granted, in the studio you can keep trying till it's perfect so maybe he did play all the songs first. 

In reply to other posts on here, I knew that he played on the early first 5 or 6 albums pretty esclusively.  I was thinking more along the lines of the Today album through now.  Like, for instance, Pet Sounds and the released stuff from the '67 Smile.  How much of Brian is on that? 

Thanks for all the responses.  Very helpful group you all are!

[Zander]

In reply to other posts on here, I knew that he played on the early first 5 or 6 albums pretty esclusively.  I was thinking more along the lines of the Today album through now.  Like, for instance, Pet Sounds and the released stuff from the '67 Smile.  How much of Brian is on that? 

I think that's a difficult question to answer. But I'll try and be rational until someone with more knowledge comes along (AGD?)

Pet Sounds - He played on the "Don't Talk" Piano Demo - See PS Box Set. Did he or Tony Asher pluck the strings on You Still Believe In Me?

Smile - "Surf's Up" Demo. As for Smiley Smile, I'd say that was a group effort so he must have played a lot on that.

Hazarding a guess, he must have played on subsequent albums after Smile a lot more as the studio was built in his house. So they probably weren't using session musicians as often as the 62-67 period?

Brian's finest example of pain playing is probably on the "Love You" piano demos...

[Rocker]

I think Brian played every song on GIOMH just on piano and then the band added their parts afterwards. I'd like to hear the solo-piano songs.
I love Brian's playing. My biggest wish was a CD with just Brian and his piano singing his songs. Like "My little red book" (ok, not his song and a bass was there too, I know) or the demo "Surf's up"; that sounds like magic.
I love the piano-part of "Funky pretty" btw. I'd even like to hear Brian and piano alone nowadays with his "older" voice. He has a great rhythm and, like Carol Kaye says, everything starts to swing when brian plays....

Do you really think they recorded to his piano?  I'm not trying to slight him or anything, but every example of him playing on the recent dvd releases are not very steady.  Definately not enough to base an entire recording off of.  Now granted, in the studio you can keep trying till it's perfect so maybe he did play all the songs first. 

That's what has been said. I wasn't there so I can just say what others, including Brian, said. Of course it might have been different.

[Mark A. Moore]

Here's a cool, exclusive  nugget for you . . .

Brian has been quoted as saying that Jan Berry was a good piano player.

Well, I have hardcore evidence that Jan liked Brian's piano playing as well. In some of Jan's music scores . . . from which the parts were generated by copyists and placed before the session musicians in the studio . . . the piano parts often have a telling little instruction in the bass clef . . . "BRIAN WILSON LEFT HAND."

Left hand doubling the bass line . . .

Jan did that a lot in his music scores . . . Aside from the usual technical articulations, he wrote things like "Jan & Dean Usual" . . . or "J&D Schtick" . . . or "Dick Dale Slide" . . . etc. .

Easy and familiar cues for the musicians who played on all his sessions. They came to know what Jan wanted by those little instructions.

M.

[XY]

Listening to all the 60's SMILE stuff, Brian's 'hammering' piano technique is an important part of these recordings. Don't know if he played on the released waterish "Love To Say Da Da", but he did play on the air Dada. And of course a lot of demos "All Day", "Child Is Father Of The Man"... Does harpsichord count? - "Wonderful" (Boxset). "Vega-Tables" (Boxset). Intro to "You Still Belive In Me" (very unusual playing technique).

[Exapno Mapcase]

I think it's naive of some people to suggest that because BW wasn't properly tained at college or school that his playing was weak, or worse, that it never improved. Same with those people who talk about Jardine's limited guitar playing.  What?   After 40 odd years?  Did he never work at it?  Dennis, meanwhile, becomes a talented musician with the ability to play Beethoven's Ninth on a penny whistle stuck up his arse.

From film of him over the last few years, I suspect our boy's medical condition probably means that more 'fluent' playing is out of the question.

[NHC]

i think Brian considers himself more as a composer and arranger than a performance-type "pianist".  He creates music on the piano, not necessarily piano compositions. Among the historic band, it's Bruce and Billy who are the trained and accomplished piano players on the performance side, but Brian's the composer, and that's worked out fairly well for the world.  There's some good although regrettably brief, as in about two measures, footage of Brian on the IJWMFTT and I think the Endless Summer DVDs demonstrating the jazz-tinged chord stylings he learned from Four Freshman songs and from his dad. Pretty compelling and it would be nice to hear more of that.  It also would have been nice to be around the house or studio in the early days as he was developing his skills and starting to compose because I think there was probably some pretty terrific piano playing going on.  He's a natural, no doubt about it, even if he isn't the kind to sit down at a score and play Rachmaninoff or Claude Bolling. Like another poster a few posts back, I learned piano from guitar and play best off of chord structures, mainly because I'm lazy and don't work at sight reading or technique enough. My son is just the opposite, go figure.  (I picked up the bass later when asked to join a small jazz/swing/pop combo and really got into that once I discovered how much the bass can drive the song. ) Somewhere along the line Brian or someone said that Carl taught him the "bass basics" and he obviously got the hang of that pretty quickly.  Whatever we want to consider Brian regarding the piano, the result of his being able to play has been rewarding.

[shelter]

I think it's naive of some people to suggest that because BW wasn't properly tained at college or school that his playing was weak, or worse, that it never improved.

None of the Beatles could read sheet music... Jimi Hendrix couldn't... And it never bothered them that much... But Brian can read sheet music, so he relatively wasn't even that uneducated as a musician.

[the captain]

There are so many different kinds of musicians, and even different kinds of education for musicians, that it is a waste of time to try and justify one musician's abilities or talent with some kind of grade along those lines. Whether Brian was a technically brilliant pianist by the traditional definition (which he absolutely, 100% wasn't) has nothing to do with him being a great musician. As others here have said, his primary strengths were composition, arrangement and production -- not to mention his singing ability in the 60s. The fact that he had all of these various skills already makes him an AMAZING musician. Whether his piano skills were rudimentary, competent or virtuosic is almost completely irrelevant, other than as an amusing aside.

(I thought of this when the last post mentioned other talented but non-reading musicians--the ranks of which include plenty of absolutely unbelievable jazz and blues musicians along with rockers, by the way.)

[Magic Transistor Radio]

I think Brian played every song on GIOMH just on piano and then the band added their parts afterwards. I'd like to hear the solo-piano songs.
I love Brian's playing. My biggest wish was a CD with just Brian and his piano singing his songs. Like "My little red book" (ok, not his song and a bass was there too, I know) or the demo "Surf's up"; that sounds like magic.
I love the piano-part of "Funky pretty" btw. I'd even like to hear Brian and piano alone nowadays with his "older" voice. He has a great rhythm and, like Carol Kaye says, everything starts to swing when brian plays....

I don't know who did what, but I believe that Carl probably played a lot of the keyboard parts in 'So Tough' and 'Holland'. I also read somewhere that Brian played drums on Funky Pretty.