The first instrument May learned to play was the banjolele, which he played on Queen’s song “Bring Back That Leroy Brown” (live and in the studio). For “Good Company”, he used a regular baritone ukulele which he had bought in Hawaii on a holiday. Occasionally, May would also record on other string instruments such as harp (one chord per take, then copied and pasted by the engineer to make it sound like a continuous performance) and bass (on some demos and many songs in his solo career, and the Queen + Paul Rodgers album).
As a child, he was also trained on classical piano. Although Freddie Mercury was the band’s primary pianist, May would occasionally step in (such as on “Save Me”, “Flash”, “Who Wants To Live Forever”). From 1979 onwards, he also played synthesisers, organ (“Wedding March”, “Let Me Live”) and programmed drum-machines for both Queen and outside projects (such as producing other artists and his own solo records).