Paul McCartney was the bassist for The Beatles, but he played far more instruments than just the bass guitar. Even on the band’s records, McCartney jumped from instrument to instrument, taking over for his bandmates. He’s a highly accomplished musician, as evidenced by his mastery over dozens of instruments.
How many instruments can Paul McCartney play?
McCartney has become one of the most well-known bass players in the world, but it’s far from the only instrument he plays. He first impressed John Lennon with his mastery of the guitar. While growing up, he also knew how to play piano and trumpet.
Since then, his mastery of different instruments has expanded. McCartney has played over 40 instruments, including harpsichord, harmonica, mandolin, cello, and ukulele. He put his skill to use on his 2020 album McCartney III. He worked on it during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and played every single one of the instruments.
In the music video for “Find My Way,” viewers can watch McCartney as he tackles each instrument.
Paul McCartney initially did not want to play the bass guitar
Because of his role in The Beatles, McCartney is perhaps best known for playing the bass. This wasn’t initially an instrument he wanted to play. After the band’s original bassist, Stu Sutcliffe, quit, McCartney reluctantly stepped in.
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“None of us wanted to be the bass player,” McCartney told Bass Player in 1995 (via Ultimate Classic Rock). “It wasn’t the No. 1 job; we wanted to be up front. In our minds, it was the fat guy in the group who nearly always played the bass, and he stood at the back. None of us wanted that. We wanted to be up front singing, looking good, to pull the birds.”
McCartney wanted to be a guitarist, but John Lennon and George Harrison already played the instrument. Plus, he didn’t own a guitar. After playing bass for years, though, McCartney grew much fonder of it.
The first instrument Paul McCartney played was a trumpet
McCartney’s first instrument was not one audiences typically associate with him. His father gifted him a trumpet as a child, and he excitedly learned to play.
“My dad bought me a trumpet for my birthday, at Rushworth & Draper’s (the other music store in town), and I loved it,” he said in The Beatles Anthology, adding, “There was a big hero-thing at the time. There had been Harry James — The Man With The Golden Trumpet — and now, in the Fifties, it was Eddie Calvert, a big British star who played ‘Cherry Pink And Apple Blossom White’ — all those gimmicky trumpet records. There were a lot of them around back then, so we all wanted to be trumpeters.”
Eventually, though, he realized he couldn’t sing and play trumpet simultaneously, so he gave up on the instrument. It probably didn’t help that, according to Lennon, McCartney wasn’t a very good player.
“Paul had a trumpet and had this wild theory that he’d actually learnt how to play the oldie ‘When The Saints Go Marching In,’” Lennon said. “He just blew away as hard as he could, drowning out everything we were trying to do. He thought he was doing a great job on the tune, but we didn’t recognise any of it!”
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