# What do people who know think of Elton John as a pianist?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-people-who-know-think-of-elton-john-as-a-pianist/606590>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [December 17, 2011, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-people-who-know-think-of-elton-john-as-a-pianist/606590 "2011-12-17T23:45:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 3

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\
**Post date:** [October 21, 2012, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-people-who-know-think-of-elton-john-as-a-pianist/606590/41 "2012-10-21T02:30:49Z")

</div>

> [@pulykamell](#):
>
> I’ll be honest: it’s very good, very classic Elton John. He’s got a nice New Orleans-style 3+3+2 beat going on in his left hand, with blues and gospel-type phrasings in the right. His phrasing is impeccable. Wonderful feel. I wouldn’t characterize as what he is doing as particularly difficult technically–it is hard to get the feel right, though. He excels at that feeling, IMHO. But it’s not a piano solo I listen to and think “what in the fuck just happened.” Which is fine. I’m having a hard time thinking of a pop/rock piano solo that made me feel that way.

[Try Rick Wakeman’s solo from the Anderson Bruford Wakeman & Howe tour.](http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SosAGuOWOnw)

It’s well into the " what the fuck just happened " category of technical and artistic accomplishment.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-people-who-know-think-of-elton-john-as-a-pianist/606590.md?page=2)