Freddie Mercury's instrument knowledge

 As a child in India, he took piano lessons until he was nine years old. Later, when he moved to London, he learned to play the guitar. Most of the music he liked was largely based on guitar accompaniment: his favorite artists of that era were The Who, The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, David Bowie, and Led Zeppelin. He was very self-critical about his ability to play both instruments and from the early 1980s began using guest keyboardists for Queen and for his solo career. Most notable was the hiring of Fred Mandel (an American musician who had worked for Pink Floyd, Elton John, and Supertramp) for his first solo work, and who from 1985 worked with pianist Mike Moran in the studio and with Spike Edney in concert. Mercury played piano on many Queen songs, including "Killer Queen," "Bohemian Rhapsody," "Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy," "We Are the Champions," "Somebody to Love," and "Don't Stop Me Now." He used grand pianos for concerts and sometimes even the harpsichord. From 1980 he also started using synthesizers. Queen guitarist Brian May says Mercury was not happy with his piano playing and delegated the piano to concerts because he preferred to walk on stage. Although he wrote many guitar lines, Mercury only had the basics of playing the guitar. "Ogre Battle" and "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" were written with guitar. In live performances, Mercury used acoustic guitar to perform the latter song.

Freddie Mercury & the Piano Was Born to Perform | Pianote