# Beatles concert piano **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [January 3, 2022, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beatles-concert-piano/957154 "2022-01-03T19:42:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2022, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beatles-concert-piano/957154/1 "2022-01-03T19:42:07Z")
AFAIK, they had an electric piano in all their concerts. Was it just John that played it? I know he would do the elbow down the keyboard thing for fun, but what was the style of playing otherwise? I know it really didn’t matter, because no one could hear them anyway. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2022, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beatles-concert-piano/957154/2 "2022-01-03T20:04:37Z")
All four Beatles could play the piano, though I wouldn’t call any of them virtuosos or anything. George Martin used to play a lot of the piano parts on their albums. At some point, George Martin wanted to learn to play the guitar so that he could interact better with the four Beatles, and they wanted to learn the piano so that they could interact better with him when trying to create the parts for their album tracks. Martin later said that they learned to play the piano better than he learned to play the guitar. I believe John was the only one to play the piano on stage though. John’s playing was fairly simple, but he did do a lot of interesting things with fairly simple chords. George Harrison’s playing got better as he got older. You can hear him play the organ and synth on While My Guitar Gently Weeps. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2022, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beatles-concert-piano/957154/3 "2022-01-03T20:27:41Z")
Billy Preston played the electric piano for at least one concert… ---
**Author:** ![Joeu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/joeu/32/2911_2.png) [@Joeu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joeu)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2022, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beatles-concert-piano/957154/4 "2022-01-03T20:31:18Z")
In the new Peter Jackson series, “Get Back,” on Disney+ (which is totally worth watching–at least the first 3.5 hours, which is all I’ve seen so far), there are a lot of scenes with Paul (in rehearsals) playing piano. It seemed that for at least a few days of that rehearsal period, Paul was coming in and playing around on the piano for an hour or so every day. There’s a super sweet moment where Paul is playing and Ringo says something like “I could just watch him just playing the piano for an hour. He’s that good.” There’s also a moment of Paul and Ringo playing together on the same piano, just having fun. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2022, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beatles-concert-piano/957154/5 "2022-01-03T20:44:28Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > I believe John was the only one to play the piano on stage though. Unless you count the [promotional film for “Hey Jude”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hey_Jude#Promotional_film) (in which Paul played piano) as being “on stage.” ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2022, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beatles-concert-piano/957154/6 "2022-01-03T21:44:10Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > Was it just John that played it? I know he would do the elbow down the keyboard thing for fun, Not an electric piano. A Vox Continental organ. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2022, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beatles-concert-piano/957154/7 "2022-01-03T23:46:20Z")
> [@TreacherousCretin](#): > > Not an electric piano. A Vox Continental organ. Did they use that live for any number other than “I’m Down”? ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2022, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beatles-concert-piano/957154/8 "2022-01-03T23:59:50Z")
> [@Joeu](#): > > In the new Peter Jackson series, “Get Back,” on Disney+ (which is totally worth watching–at least the first 3.5 hours, which is all I’ve seen so far), there are a lot of scenes with Paul (in rehearsals) playing piano. And also John. It surprised me how comfortable he was, and how he could change styles when asked to by other Beatles. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2022, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beatles-concert-piano/957154/9 "2022-01-04T05:53:33Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > Did they use that live for any number other than “I’m Down”? Not when I saw them in 1965, he bragged. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2022, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beatles-concert-piano/957154/10 "2022-01-04T10:28:37Z")
You only got to see them once, eh? mmm ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2022, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beatles-concert-piano/957154/11 "2022-01-04T14:30:33Z")
Yeah, but my act of being born broke up the Beatles — early in 1970, they looked at each other and said, “There isn’t room in this world for jkellymap AND the Beatles!”. Back to a recent question: On the video for “We Can Work It Out,” John plays the electric organ. It’s not a live concert, but it is one of those videos that imitates a concert (as opposed to, say, the walking-around-a-park videos). ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2022, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beatles-concert-piano/957154/12 "2022-01-04T15:47:21Z")
I keep seeing the thread title and thinking “Beatles Piano Concerto”? Not surprisingly, there is such a thing. [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Pr5rNsCrSHo/hqdefault.jpg "John Rutter : Beatles Concerto for two pianos and orchestra (1977)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pr5rNsCrSHo)