Queen - DM's Beatles forums

Quoted from Mr_Kite

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i really like the band.. all four of them are or were great musicains .. im surprised you said that about Brian.. kev .. each to their own though

"Members Of The Band As Instrumentalists
It's well known that in the basic line-up, Deacon played bass, Taylor played drums, Mercury played piano and May played guitar. But, like their heroes The Beatles, Queen members explored different kinds of instrumental functions throughout their career.

Roger Taylor was quite good at the guitar, in fact in the late 1980s he formed a parallel band in which he was the rhythm guitarist instead of the drummer. Occasionally he played bass for his own songs with Queen (e.g. "Sheer Heart Attack"), and he knew some notes at the keyboard, although mostly he used synths for atmospheric effects. Still, he reportedly composed many songs at the piano because he didn't know how to play it well, and therefore he came up with nonstandard ideas when he played. He admitted that he didn't even know the names of some of the chords in "Radio Ga Ga".

Freddie Mercury was a pianist with the ability to cover many different styles and performances. Mostly he used grand pianos, but throughout the years he occasionally played upright jangle and electric piano. He was an experienced synth player and programmer as well: the orchestral interludes of "Was It All Worth It" were completely composed, arranged and played by him on a Korg M1 keyboard, as well as the string sections of "Bijou". Mercury was often self-deprecating about his guitar skills, introducing "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" by "I only know three chords" jokes. However, he would write on guitar occasionally, especially in the early days, such as the famous riff from "Ogre Battle," and the rock part in the world number one "Bohemian Rhapsody."It's unknown if he could play bass or drums to any extent, but it's been confirmed that he came up with very elaborate parts for them on various songs. In fact he composed the bass-line of Roger's "A Kind Of Magic", and programmed many rhythm parts in his first solo album, Mr. Bad Guy.

John Deacon played guitar in addition to bass, taking over rhythm parts in many albums, as well as several acoustic performances. Reportedly he could keep basic drum patterns and, even if he never mastered his keyboard abilities, he would occasionally play synths on his own compositions and often composed at the piano, playing an electric one on his top ten hit "You're My Best Friend", He can also be seen playing the grand piano in the video to "Spread Your Wings." He took over double-bass roles sometimes; reportedly Brian May had told him to play it on "'39" as a joke, but some days later John appeared at the studio with the instrument and he had already learnt how to play it.

Brian May played piano and ukelele in addition to guitar. He played rhythm instruments less than the other Queen members, but occasionally he did some bass or drum parts in his solo albums, and within the band he composed some parts for bass and drums, like in "Sweet Lady" or "Teo Torriatte". He added some special instruments here and there, but most of them were via studio tricks; for example, to nail the harp parts of "Love Of My Life", he played each chord separately in a different take, then the producer merged them to form the entire part. "The Prophet's Song" is probably his finest work, with an acoustic arrangement which features a koto given to him by a friend. This can be heard in the intro and the wonderful outro of this eight minute and twenty seconds long epic."

From here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_%28band%29
at 6. Members Of The Band As Instrumentalists