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Madonna and the piano


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I saw this post and feel like contributing, since as a musician I've always paid close attention to these aspects. 
She never pretended to play guitar, she often played the same notes Monte Pittman was playing but with a different preset, so her guitar sounds different. And obviously her guitar was lower than Pittman's.
Even in Burning Up at the RHT she was playing and you could distinctly hear the sound of her guitar, in fact once for a technical problem she had entered late with her guitar and her guitar was also loud.
Her band can always be heard too, she always had great musicians who mixed perfectly with the recorded sounds. 

On some occasions her guitar is actually not so loud in the mix, but if you pay attention you always hear it: even when she makes mistakes you notice that.

As for the piano, I don't know, I haven't seen her live at the Madame X Tour and I've only seen the DVD.
But since she played three very simple chords that even a five year old could learn in a minute, I highly doubt that she was faking it or that she could miss even one note.
More than anything else it was ridiculous that they brought the piano on stage to make her play three chords, when in the rest of the concert you can feel the absence of a band.

Edited by Loru (see edit history)
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Madonna is a novice when it comes to playing instruments, guitar seems to be what she has most experience playing and even that is incredibly mediocre at best. I dont believe for one minute she was playing piano on the Madame X Tour and even if she was it was at a level so basic that it does not warrant her being called someone who knows how to play.

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2 hours ago, Semtex1 said:

I downloaded all those radio interviews recently and she mentions she learnt to play the piano early on and then later guitar and drums

She learned to play electronic keyboards not piano when she first moved to New York.  She admitted that she got away from playing instruments and was focusing on other things. If you don’t practice frequently you will lose your ability to play well. It’s like sports and physical fitness. 

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Madonna's guitar playing was a just phase for her, just like the tracksuit, the hunting, the mini cooper, Rupert Everett, Gwyneth Paltrow, the bicycles and whatnot... she is briefly obsessed with these things and then moves on to the next thing... that's why she hasn't made any progress with the guitar since she started playing it.

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56 minutes ago, androiduser said:

Madonna's guitar playing was a just phase for her, just like the tracksuit, the hunting, the mini cooper, Rupert Everett, Gwyneth Paltrow, the bicycles and whatnot... she is briefly obsessed with these things and then moves on to the next thing... that's why she hasn't made any progress with the guitar since she started playing it.

From this comment, can we assume then that in reviewing your life over the last twenty five years that you have never shifted, wavered, outgrown something or someone, buckled down, given up, separated, joined, started, or finished anything or evolved at all? It’s pure madness to trivialize someone’s life in this way. What insight permits anyone to make this type of generalization?!  I’m looking for the humor in this, and don’t mean to single you out.  However, it’s becoming untenable to read these dismissive, misinformed comments on forums. It’s as if we are all seeing a totally different human being at this point. ?

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1 minute ago, Alibaba said:

From this comment, can we assume then that in reviewing your life over the last twenty five years that you have never shifted, wavered, outgrown, buckled down, given up, separated, joined, started, finished or evolved at all? It’s pure madness to trivialize someone’s life in this way. What insight permits anyone to make this type of generalization?!  I’m looking for the humor in this, and don’t mean to single you out.  However, it’s becoming untenable to read these dismissive, misinformed comments on forums. It’s as if we are all seeing a totally different human being at this point. ?

Calm down, he was just stating his opinion about why she is a mediocre instrumentalist.

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2 minutes ago, Alibaba said:

Thanks, but I’m perfectly calm. I am also entitled to state my opinion that there’s a tendency to generalize a great deal.

What does any of that have anything to do with a comment about how she cant play instruments for shit? I did not become a fan of Madonna because of how she plays piano or guitar.

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3 hours ago, androiduser said:

Madonna's guitar playing was a just phase for her, just like the tracksuit, the hunting, the mini cooper, Rupert Everett, Gwyneth Paltrow, the bicycles and whatnot... she is briefly obsessed with these things and then moves on to the next thing... that's why she hasn't made any progress with the guitar since she started playing it.

Maybe not a phase, she's been doing it for 20 years now, but she remains basic as you said. She clearly is not interested in making progress, she uses guitar like a prop on stage, she likes the "attitude" and the image that are linked with it. Same for the piano in MXT. 

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18 minutes ago, Enrico said:

Maybe not a phase, she's been doing it for 20 years now, but she remains basic as you said. She clearly is not interested in making progress, she uses guitar like a prop on stage, she likes the "attitude" and the image that are linked with it. Same for the piano in MXT. 

well the learning was a phase...

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On 4/11/2022 at 2:22 AM, Glindathegood said:

She learned to play electronic keyboards not piano when she first moved to New York.  She admitted that she got away from playing instruments and was focusing on other things. If you don’t practice frequently you will lose your ability to play well. It’s like sports and physical fitness. 

Of course you lose the ability to play an instrument after so many years of not playing it, but when you start playing it again you relearn very quickly.

I played piano when I was a child, and I was not very good at it... when I was 15 my parents sold the piano.

Now I'm 28, I haven't played piano in over 10 years, but when I tried to play one I still remember some of the songs I played (Für Elise). I don't perform them very well, but I can still play a little bit.

 

During Madame X she used to play just three chords. Even a person who has never played the piano can play it on stage without rehearsing not too much.

Someone who has played the piano before in their life, even at a beginner's level, should be able to do them almost with their eyes closed.

 

9 hours ago, androiduser said:

Madonna's guitar playing was a just phase for her, just like the tracksuit, the hunting, the mini cooper, Rupert Everett, Gwyneth Paltrow, the bicycles and whatnot... she is briefly obsessed with these things and then moves on to the next thing... that's why she hasn't made any progress with the guitar since she started playing it.

I agree, more or less. On the Drowned World Tour her guitar sounded pretty good, she was committed.
At Reinvention her right hand was maybe still a little better, you could tell she kept trying and improving.
After Re-invention she maintained more or less the same level.

But from the MDNA Tour onwards she always played super simple things, showing less confidence, she probably got worse.
I think she likes to play, but for her nowadays it's a little game, not a passion. I agree with you when you say it was a phase for her.
By the way, she has had very long fingernails for two years now, I don't think she can practice and play decently with such nails.

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