Editing David Bowie (section)

==Musicianship==
[[File:David Bowie's Vox Mark VI guitar, HRC Warsaw.jpg|thumb|right|alt=A guitar hanging on a wall|Bowie's [[Vox (musical equipment)|Vox]] [[Vox Mark III|Mark VI guitar]] in the [[Hard Rock Cafe]], [[Warsaw]], Poland]]
From the time of his earliest recordings in the 1960s, Bowie employed a wide variety of musical styles. His early compositions and performances were strongly influenced by rock and roll singers like Little Richard and Elvis Presley, and also the wider world of show business. He particularly strove to emulate the British musical theatre singer-songwriter and actor [[Anthony Newley]], whose vocal style he frequently adopted, and made prominent use of for his 1967 debut release, ''David Bowie'' (to the disgust of Newley himself, who destroyed the copy he received from Bowie's publisher).{{sfn|Sandford|1997|pp=41–42}}{{sfn|Perone|2007|p=4}} Bowie's fascination with music hall continued to surface sporadically alongside such diverse styles as hard rock and heavy metal, soul, psychedelic folk and pop.{{sfn|Perone|2007|pp=22, 36–37}}

The musicologist James E. Perone observes Bowie's use of octave switches for different repetitions of the same melody, exemplified in "Space Oddity", and later in "{{-'}}Heroes{{'-}}" to dramatic effect; the author writes that "in the lowest part of his vocal register&nbsp;... his voice has an almost crooner-like richness".{{sfn|Perone|2007|p=12}} The voice instructor Jo Thompson describes Bowie's vocal vibrato technique as "particularly deliberate and distinctive".{{sfn|Thompson|2004|p=76}} The authors Scott Schinder and Andy Schwartz call him "a vocalist of extraordinary technical ability, able to pitch his singing to particular effect."{{sfn|Schinder|Schwartz|2007|p=483}} Here, too, as in his stagecraft and songwriting, Bowie's roleplaying is evident: the historiographer Michael Campbell says that Bowie's lyrics "arrest our ear, without question. But Bowie continually shifts from person to person as he delivers them&nbsp;... His voice changes dramatically from section to section."{{sfn|Campbell|2008|p=254}} In addition to the guitar, Bowie also played a variety of keyboards, including piano, Mellotron, Chamberlin, and synthesisers; harmonica; alto and baritone saxophones; [[stylophone]]; viola; cello; koto; [[thumb piano]]; drums; and various percussion instruments.{{sfn|Thompson|2006|p=346}}<ref>{{cite book|title=Bowie|first=Jerry|last=Hopkins|publisher=MacMillan|year=1985|isbn=978-0-02-553730-9|page=[https://archive.org/details/bowie00hopk/page/239 239]|url=https://archive.org/details/bowie00hopk/page/239}}</ref>{{sfn|Perone|2007|pp=17–44, 152–160}}{{sfn|Buckley|2004|p=48}}