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A multi-instrumentalist is a musician who plays a number of different 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 (e.g., guitar and piano) are not usually seen as multi-instrumentalists.
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Classical music
The European Piffari, Stadtpfeifer and Waits were multi-instrumentalists, who played trumpet, sackbut, shawm, cornett, recorder and string-instruments.1 Musicians with an education of a Stadtpfeifer were Gottfried Reiche,2 Johann Joachim Quantz,3 Johann Christof Pezel and Sigmund Theophil Staden.4 Also many European church musicians of the 17th and 18th were multi-instrumentalists, who played several instruments. Georg Philipp Telemann for example played violin, viola da gamba, recorder, flauto traverso, oboe, shawm, sackbut and double bass.5 A contemporary multi-instrumentalist is the German kantor Helmut Kickton who performs church music on organ, violin, viola, cello, double bass, recorder, euphonium, guitar and kettledrums.
Pop music
Often, multi-instrumentalists are solo artists who overdub several tracks themselves, rather than hiring session musicians, but they can also be found within bands or working under various monikers. However, when playing live, most multi-instrumentalists will concentrate on their main instrument and / or vocals, and hire or recruit backing musicians (or use a sequencer) to play the other instruments.
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.
Some musicians have pushed the limits of human musical skill on different instruments. The British entertainer Roy Castle once set a world record by playing the same tune on 43 different instruments in four minutes.citation needed Anton Newcombe, frontman for The Brian Jonestown Massacre, claimed in the documentary film Dig! to be able to play 80 different instruments.citation needed
Multi-instrumentalist Yuri Landman not only plays several string instruments, but also creates several new instruments with alternative scalings, constructions and string combinations to reach new playing techniques. His work is mainly based on resonance, string pitching and overtones.
A number of artists have become well known for their proficiency on many instruments. Some examples include: Ian Anderson, David Bowie, Phil Collins, Stewart Copeland, Graham Coxon, Jay Easton, Ben Folds, Daniel Gildenlöw, Jonny Greenwood, Brian Jones, John Paul Jones, Paul McCartney, Marcus Miller, Neal Morse, Mike Oldfield, Prince, Trent Reznor, Emitt Rhodes, Sufjan Stevens, Elliott Smith, Steve Winwood and Stevie Wonder .
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- This page was last modified on 20 November 2008, at 12:25.
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