I would like to teach my kids about the various modes Prince likes to play in, have any of you ever created a lesson plan that students from early childhood through 12th grade might enjoy?

[Edited 6/5/13 0:33am]

There's nothing strange about Prince's music. He operates in pretty normal song structures. His magic, I think, comes from his vocal abilities and surprising arranging choices. His lyrical content is impressive to fantasy-minded escapists and he was quite successful at establishing a cult of personality about himself. There's really nothing on a nuts and bolts level in Prince's music that sets him apart from other writers. Most of his songs in a funk style are heavily dorian mode-based. Things like Joy in Repetition are natural minor, (Aeolian-based) with dorian note, (D in this song) for flavor occasionally. Purple Rain is straight diatonic with some pentatonic minor blues accents, mainly in the soloing.

I think Prince's overall output would have to be taken into account to see much special from a musical education standpoint. One thing that really sets him apart in his career is the rarity in the pop world of such a good musician who is so skilled at combining styles and being pretty damned good at lots of them WHILE making them sound like they belong together AND making them identifiable as coing from Prince. That's pretty damned amazing. The only real area in his officially-released output that I've detected what I consider to be a failing, (beside several instances of junior high-level lyrical content) is when he attempts what some call jazz. He masterfully owns several styles of music, but jazz is NOT one of them. He can make jazz noises just like he can make country noises, but there's no apparent understanding of either tradition as far as I can tell form his released music. Right the Wrong is NOT country in spite of his addition of a hick accent in spots and native American characters and N.E.W.S. is nothing more than Weather Channel 7-Day Forecast background music with real instruments instead of Sienfeld keyboard slap bass patches.

What type of information do you need? I've been known to do some teaching in my day and I can listen to most music without an instrument in my hand and tell you what's going on with the chords and scale choices. I'm all for people knowing about music as opposed to mystical nonsense parading as knowledge.

blugtr542 said:

steakfinger.... actually there is a guitar player magazine I recall that did an interview with Prince and his bandmates and they analyzed snippets of his music. I believe they spoke on his use of chord extensions to make Purple Rain have its mystical magic. Instead of just playing normal major or minor chords Prince was stacking triads and using extensions to get very sophisticated jazz voicings and harmonies that popular music does not use. Don't let Prince fool you he has a very good grasp of Jazz and doesn't always play with just the modes. I believe the article also stated how Wendy hated playing the opening of Purple Rain because the stretches were so tough but Prince wanted those voicings, and Wendy was jazz trained. I could cite other examples .... but I digress. Anywhoo I am a music teacher. So if I have time or find the article I will post it. Peace

I'd be thankful if you posted it or if you could give us the exact reference.

blugtr542 said:

steakfinger.... actually there is a guitar player magazine I recall that did an interview with Prince and his bandmates and they analyzed snippets of his music. I believe they spoke on his use of chord extensions to make Purple Rain have its mystical magic. Instead of just playing normal major or minor chords Prince was stacking triads and using extensions to get very sophisticated jazz voicings and harmonies that popular music does not use. Don't let Prince fool you he has a very good grasp of Jazz and doesn't always play with just the modes. I believe the article also stated how Wendy hated playing the opening of Purple Rain because the stretches were so tough but Prince wanted those voicings, and Wendy was jazz trained. I could cite other examples .... but I digress. Anywhoo I am a music teacher. So if I have time or find the article I will post it. Peace

Sting did the same thing all the way back from the Police days. Steely Dan and a load of 1970s went WAAAY beyond what Prince has ever released when it comes to jazz in pop music forms. Pop can be a lot more sophisticated than folks think, certainly. Stacking triads to get a jazzy sound is exactly what I described. Jazz noises. Prince may have a very good grasp of jazz, but neither you nor I would know it from his officially released efforts. He makes jazz noises, as I said. I'm sure he's more than able to listen to jazz and get what they're doing and appreciate it on a very deep level. Music is a literally a language. If you change the vocabulary, (Just because Styx said domo arigato in one of there songs doesn't mean they speak Japanese. It means they used Japanese sounds in pop music. You can know words to a language and even phrases, but that doesn't mean you speak, understand or can write it fluently. That's all I'm saying. Stacking thirds is not sophistication. Not anymore. It hasn't been for a long time. Hell, people in rock were doing that shit all the way back in the 60s and what's been called pop used to encompass George Gershwin all the way back to the early 1900s. They did some super-hip shit with chords and harmony and you still wouldn't call that stuff jazz.

Purple Rain is totally diatonic. You can play over the entire song using nothing but a Bb major scale and you will sound right at home other than the outro which was almost certainly Wendy and Lisa to a large extent at least. I'll ask Fink about that. He may know. I was under the impression that Wendy came up with those intro voicings based on prince's chord progression, but I admit that I could be wrong about this. I thought I'd read something from her or one of the other Revolution members that is pretty much the opposite of what you may have read. Who knows? Interesting conversation, though. Better than that mystical nonsense that we usually get around here.

I do not stand corrected yet, but time will tell.

you right steak & ale Wendy came up with the chords and voicings...she said so in the extras on the 25th anniversary blu ray.

i try to tell people prince is a basic musician but folks act like he playting stuff thats never been done and i laugh so hard....

steakfinger said:

blugtr542 said:

steakfinger.... actually there is a guitar player magazine I recall that did an interview with Prince and his bandmates and they analyzed snippets of his music. I believe they spoke on his use of chord extensions to make Purple Rain have its mystical magic. Instead of just playing normal major or minor chords Prince was stacking triads and using extensions to get very sophisticated jazz voicings and harmonies that popular music does not use. Don't let Prince fool you he has a very good grasp of Jazz and doesn't always play with just the modes. I believe the article also stated how Wendy hated playing the opening of Purple Rain because the stretches were so tough but Prince wanted those voicings, and Wendy was jazz trained. I could cite other examples .... but I digress. Anywhoo I am a music teacher. So if I have time or find the article I will post it. Peace

Sting did the same thing all the way back from the Police days. Steely Dan and a load of 1970s went WAAAY beyond what Prince has ever released when it comes to jazz in pop music forms. Pop can be a lot more sophisticated than folks think, certainly. Stacking triads to get a jazzy sound is exactly what I described. Jazz noises. Prince may have a very good grasp of jazz, but neither you nor I would know it from his officially released efforts. He makes jazz noises, as I said. I'm sure he's more than able to listen to jazz and get what they're doing and appreciate it on a very deep level. Music is a literally a language. If you change the vocabulary, (Just because Styx said domo arigato in one of there songs doesn't mean they speak Japanese. It means they used Japanese sounds in pop music. You can know words to a language and even phrases, but that doesn't mean you speak, understand or can write it fluently. That's all I'm saying. Stacking thirds is not sophistication. Not anymore. It hasn't been for a long time. Hell, people in rock were doing that shit all the way back in the 60s and what's been called pop used to encompass George Gershwin all the way back to the early 1900s. They did some super-hip shit with chords and harmony and you still wouldn't call that stuff jazz.

Purple Rain is totally diatonic. You can play over the entire song using nothing but a Bb major scale and you will sound right at home other than the outro which was almost certainly Wendy and Lisa to a large extent at least. I'll ask Fink about that. He may know. I was under the impression that Wendy came up with those intro voicings based on prince's chord progression, but I admit that I could be wrong about this. I thought I'd read something from her or one of the other Revolution members that is pretty much the opposite of what you may have read. Who knows? Interesting conversation, though. Better than that mystical nonsense that we usually get around here.

I do not stand corrected yet, but time will tell.

Could some of the chords you're referring to be secondary dominants? I'm almost certain of that. I'm wondering if either of you have used a lesson plan on his music that grabbed the student's attention and was fun. I remember a professor (who's name I forget) visited our campus who did a complete seminar on his music. But such an idea would be too elaborate for ages K-12. Just like I got my Music Appreciation class wanting to dress like hippies for Halloween and protest the War, (which was cool) When I analyzed Jimi Hendrix and Bob Dylan, I want the music writing class that I'm planning to present to the principal to experiment with some of his concepts. I could create my own but I'm looking for an icebreaker somewhat, to get them interested.

kidmelody2012 said:

kidmelody2012 said:

you right steak & ale Wendy came up with the chords and voicings...she said so in the extras on the 25th anniversary blu ray.

i try to tell people prince is a basic musician but folks act like he playting stuff thats never been done and i laugh so hard....

thebanishedone said:

Wow Sticky congradulation,you triviased Prince's sound. Jazz noises ? ok ,maybe Prince can call you so you csn show him a thing or two about the music.and btw look who is your supporter, the Kid melody orgs biggest hatter

I'm not saying I'm better than Prince at what he does, but I'm more of a musician than YOU are so you need to step back from things you don't understand. I'm not talking about Prince's skills, I'm talking about the absoulte FACT that he is not a master of every single style of music BASED ON WHAT HE'S RELEASED. I've said he may well be great at jazz, but he hasn't RELEASED anything to show that he is. I have no doubt that he can do a great many things with music that none of us know about because of what he chooses to do with his skill, (work mostly within the confines of standard song forms making tweaks here and there). When YOU can analyze a piece of music, write it down and understand what you've written down on a theroetical level, feel free to lecture me when you yourself are no more qualified to know what Prince can or can't do.

A piece of music can be simple and at the same time extremely profound. I'm not disrespecting Prince's ability to write music that a lot of folks can agree is pretty moving. I am simply saying that the inividual parts are not that unusal and he hasn't done much that hasn't already been done before him EXCEPT recombine the pieces in sometimes surprising ways. He hasn't come up with any groundbreaking new way of looking at music. He writes in standard song forms and he tweaks them in pleasing and surprising ways. If everything he did was so new and dramtcally different than what came before him it would sound like alien noise to you because you would have no point of reference with which to understand. If I played you some Olivier Messiaen, (or really anything modern classical from the early 1900s) you'd think it was pure, random noise.

Prince is a very advanced musicial mind, no doubt. I don't agree with anyone who says he's basic, but i also have no use for these myth-building knuckleheads who think he's something he is not.

Also, your argument that Prince is famous and well-respected so no famous people are actually the nobodys is a pretty ignorant argument. Justin Beiber is famous. Justin Beiber sells a lot more records than Prince. I guess that means only non-musicians like yourself can really truly understand "his" music. Fame is as much about looks, dance moves and personality as it is musical skill, as I've just proven beyond any reasonable doubt. Well-respected? I assure you I am quite well-respected amoung those who know me as a musician. Big deal. I'm a mechanic taking apart a car. A car is a car. Some are different, some are cheap and some are ecpensive. Some possess advanced engineering and some are classic oldies that are fairly primitive by modern standards but to some people there is nothing better because they were art pieces as much as transportation. There is no fucking MAGIC involved, moron. Take your simple ass back to whatever rock you crawled out from under.

In fact, all we adults are really dicussing is putting Prince's MUSIC on paper and analyzing what he does and perhaps turning some younger STUDENTS OF MUSIC, (as opposed to the totally unrelated subject of Prince's coolness). That's all. Prince is cool. He's better than ever pop act making money in the Top 40 right now, (though he doesn't seem to be able to participate in the Top 40 at the moment).

I'm talking about science and you're talking about magical monsters in the closet. Get educated about the suject at hand before you start telling me what I know. I don't come to your job and slap dicks out of your mouth, so why do you come to my job and try to tell me what I don't know about music?

steakfinger said:

chuckdv2 said:

Could some of the chords you're referring to be secondary dominants? I'm almost certain of that. I'm wondering if either of you have used a lesson plan on his music that grabbed the student's attention and was fun. I remember a professor (who's name I forget) visited our campus who did a complete seminar on his music. But such an idea would be too elaborate for ages K-12. Just like I got my Music Appreciation class wanting to dress like hippies for Halloween and protest the War, (which was cool) When I analyzed Jimi Hendrix and Bob Dylan, I want the music writing class that I'm planning to present to the principal to experiment with some of his concepts. I could create my own but I'm looking for an icebreaker somewhat, to get them interested.

Secondary dominants? I don't think I'm talking about seconday dominants here, but as a craftsman of contemporary music using contemporary forms and harmonic tools Prince has certainly used them, but nearly every country song you hear will have some secondary dominants, as well. In fact, in country music it is quite common to use a ii chord, (except they generally make it major - II - as minor i to V sounds too jazzy) before they head over to the V chord. This is all secondary dominant means. The V chord is the dominant chord and considered fairly inevitable so secondaries are a way to postpone getting there and they share several chord tones with the V.

Charlie Parker was the first person credited with really applying upper extension to his soloing, (as you can't play chords on a sax). This was a pretty shocking but awesome sound and people took these sounds and ran with them. Prior to him, folks didn't get much fancier than adding a 7 to their chords. Charlie Parker took that and stretched it to 9ths, 11ths, (which are usually raised as they're nothing but a 4th and octave about the root and a #11 gives a nice lydian sound) and 13ths. Bebop is a good things, friends. Even slow.

You may be talking about polychords, which in my opinion is really more of a voicing type than a chord type.

An example would be if you took the polychord of C over D, (a C-E-G and a D-F#-A) you would stack them like that, but i you look at the notes you've just got a C chord and the D chord just gives you the colors of 9(D), #11(F#) and 6(A). Some if the outro chords in the Purple Rain song could be considered polychordal MAYBE, but to me they're just chords moving over a Bb pedal tone, so maybe you'd call them slash chords, like a D major 7 with a Bb in the bass.

I could go on. I love me some music and then I love to understand it and what about it specifically makes me feel a certain emotion. Composers are like chefs. Prince said the same in Joint 2 Joint about having hot sauce. His songs are fairly normal forms and chord progression, (though not always) and he adds some hot sauce to make it stand out. There's good sandwiches and there's not-so-good sandwiches. In the end, you can still take it apart and see what makes it special. Regardless, it's still and sandwich. Magic is not involved.

steakfinger said:

There is no fucking MAGIC involved, moron. Take your simple ass back to whatever rock you crawled out from under.

What a pitty ... so much great info and insights from your side in indeed a great thread. Great to be so much of a musician yourself to be able to analyze Prince's music in this way. Nice to be able to abstract, for once, from all the usual nonsense.

And then all of a sudden this remark (see the quote) ... where did that come from? Two sentences that spoils about every positive imprint in the mind that your insights could have given.

To really abstract, I guess, It need to go to ways ... outwardly (you seem to manage that quite well), but surely inwardly aswell ... (you might want to take a look agian).

Otherwise than that, again nice posts! Looking forward to reading more posts from you (and others on this topic).

steakfinger said:

I'm not saying I'm better than Prince at what he does, but I'm more of a musician than YOU are so you need to step back from things you don't understand.

I'm not talking about Prince's skills, I'm talking about the absoulte FACT that he is not a master of every single style of music BASED ON WHAT HE'S RELEASED.

But declaring someone is, or isn't, a master of music styles is not a fact at all. It's opinion...even if it is an expert opinion.

*

Example: People call Bob Dylan THE best of Folk music songwriting, but Joni is THE master. I base this on their released music.

*

See the opinion?

[Edited 6/5/13 11:25am]

steakfinger said:

I'm talking about science and you're talking about magical monsters in the closet. Get educated about the suject at hand before you start telling me what I know. I don't come to your job and slap dicks out of your mouth, so why do you come to my job and try to tell me what I don't know about music?

Are there any English Teachers here? Such nastiness.

pray4rain said:

steakfinger said:

There is no fucking MAGIC involved, moron. Take your simple ass back to whatever rock you crawled out from under.

What a pitty ... so much great info and insights from your side in indeed a great thread. Great to be so much of a musician yourself to be able to analyze Prince's music in this way. Nice to be able to abstract, for once, from all the usual nonsense.

And then all of a sudden this remark (see the quote) ... where did that come from? Two sentences that spoils about every positive imprint in the mind that your insights could have given.

To really abstract, I guess, It need to go to ways ... outwardly (you seem to manage that quite well), but surely inwardly aswell ... (you might want to take a look agian).

Otherwise than that, again nice posts! Looking forward to reading more posts from you (and others on this topic).

That remark was a bit bombastic, I'll admit. I can understand how you might feel that way about the second sentence. I apologize to all for that one. The first sentence makes sense to me, though. I'm talking about a strictly analytic view of the music which is what I think the OP was looking for. There is a certain thing that some might call "magic" about the creative process, though I tend to feel that magic is just natural world stuff we don't understand yet.

skywalker said:

steakfinger said:

I'm not saying I'm better than Prince at what he does, but I'm more of a musician than YOU are so you need to step back from things you don't understand.

I'm not talking about Prince's skills, I'm talking about the absoulte FACT that he is not a master of every single style of music BASED ON WHAT HE'S RELEASED.

But declaring someone is, or isn't, a master of music styles is not a fact at all. It's opinion...even if it is an expert opinion.

*

Example: People call Bob Dylan THE best of Folk music songwriting, but Joni is THE master. I base this on their released music.

*

See the opinion?

[Edited 6/5/13 11:25am]

What I'm referring to IS a fact, though. No human is a master of all styles of music. I can prove this quite easily because it is impossible for any human to have even had time to LISTEN to the best examples of every style, (best being a subjective state, beside) much less the time to study and master that particular language. It is not opinion in this case. It is fact. He can't fly, either. FACT. Your example regarding Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell is certainly opinion, but if some little fanboy claimed that Joni must be a master of ALL musical styles because she's his or her favorite is not humany possible. You know what I mean?

I thought I was extremely clear when I said that based on what he's released I don't see the vidence of a mastery of jazz. I just thought it was commonly know that no one human ca master every style of music, at the very least bcause there aren't enough hours in the day to liten to it much less study it.

skywalker said:

steakfinger said:

I'm talking about science and you're talking about magical monsters in the closet. Get educated about the suject at hand before you start telling me what I know. I don't come to your job and slap dicks out of your mouth, so why do you come to my job and try to tell me what I don't know about music?

Are there any English Teachers here? Such nastiness.

I don't think an English teacher would needed as much as a desire to spell-check and typing more slowly. I'm well-aware of the correct spelling of subject. I strongly dislike mispelling as much as the next person, (who actually knows how to spell). Touché, my friend. You got me.

steakfinger said:

chuckdv2 said:

Could some of the chords you're referring to be secondary dominants? I'm almost certain of that. I'm wondering if either of you have used a lesson plan on his music that grabbed the student's attention and was fun. I remember a professor (who's name I forget) visited our campus who did a complete seminar on his music. But such an idea would be too elaborate for ages K-12. Just like I got my Music Appreciation class wanting to dress like hippies for Halloween and protest the War, (which was cool) When I analyzed Jimi Hendrix and Bob Dylan, I want the music writing class that I'm planning to present to the principal to experiment with some of his concepts. I could create my own but I'm looking for an icebreaker somewhat, to get them interested.

Secondary dominants? I don't think I'm talking about seconday dominants here, but as a craftsman of contemporary music using contemporary forms and harmonic tools Prince has certainly used them, but nearly every country song you hear will have some secondary dominants, as well. In fact, in country music it is quite common to use a ii chord, (except they generally make it major - II - as minor i to V sounds too jazzy) before they head over to the V chord. This is all secondary dominant means. The V chord is the dominant chord and considered fairly inevitable so secondaries are a way to postpone getting there and they share several chord tones with the V.

Charlie Parker was the first person credited with really applying upper extension to his soloing, (as you can't play chords on a sax). This was a pretty shocking but awesome sound and people took these sounds and ran with them. Prior to him, folks didn't get much fancier than adding a 7 to their chords. Charlie Parker took that and stretched it to 9ths, 11ths, (which are usually raised as they're nothing but a 4th and octave about the root and a #11 gives a nice lydian sound) and 13ths. Bebop is a good things, friends. Even slow.

You may be talking about polychords, which in my opinion is really more of a voicing type than a chord type.

An example would be if you took the polychord of C over D, (a C-E-G and a D-F#-A) you would stack them like that, but i you look at the notes you've just got a C chord and the D chord just gives you the colors of 9(D), #11(F#) and 6(A). Some if the outro chords in the Purple Rain song could be considered polychordal MAYBE, but to me they're just chords moving over a Bb pedal tone, so maybe you'd call them slash chords, like a D major 7 with a Bb in the bass.

I could go on. I love me some music and then I love to understand it and what about it specifically makes me feel a certain emotion. Composers are like chefs. Prince said the same in Joint 2 Joint about having hot sauce. His songs are fairly normal forms and chord progression, (though not always) and he adds some hot sauce to make it stand out. There's good sandwiches and there's not-so-good sandwiches. In the end, you can still take it apart and see what makes it special. Regardless, it's still and sandwich. Magic is not involved.

I can tell you're well versed on Theory. Thanks for the educated opinion. I agree somewhat. I do believe in his jazz skills even though Miles Davis is clearly the influence for N.E.W.S., and I'd like to think I am a pretty good scholar of music but, sadly it wasn't paying the bills the way I expected it would and Paisley Park never called back when I inquired about an internship So, I had to get a different kind of job that fed the family faster by picking up the Grout and Koska to start teaching.(Mr Holland's Opus complex in full effect)/ I can hold my own though, I'm good enough to sit down and write some scores and stuff. But I'm getting off track a little. Have you come across any lesson plans that the kids might like?

steakfinger said:

What I'm referring to IS a fact, though. No human is a master of all styles of music. I can prove this quite easily because it is impossible for any human to have even had time to LISTEN to the best examples of every style, (best being a subjective state, beside) much less the time to study and master that particular language. It is not opinion in this case. It is fact. He can't fly, either. FACT. Your example regarding Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell is certainly opinion, but if some little fanboy claimed that Joni must be a master of ALL musical styles because she's his or her favorite is not humany possible. You know what I mean?

I thought I was extremely clear when I said that based on what he's released I don't see the vidence of a mastery of jazz. I just thought it was commonly know that no one human ca master every style of music, at the very least bcause there aren't enough hours in the day to liten to it much less study it.

I get what you are saying...we are basically chewing on semantics here.

*

I agree that Prince (likely) is not a master of a styles...being that he is a human limited by time and space. However, I don't think you can prove he is not a master.

*

Furthermore, what is THE definition of a musical master? This is where the opinion comes in.

skywalker said:

steakfinger said:

What I'm referring to IS a fact, though. No human is a master of all styles of music. I can prove this quite easily because it is impossible for any human to have even had time to LISTEN to the best examples of every style, (best being a subjective state, beside) much less the time to study and master that particular language. It is not opinion in this case. It is fact. He can't fly, either. FACT. Your example regarding Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell is certainly opinion, but if some little fanboy claimed that Joni must be a master of ALL musical styles because she's his or her favorite is not humany possible. You know what I mean?

I thought I was extremely clear when I said that based on what he's released I don't see the vidence of a mastery of jazz. I just thought it was commonly know that no one human ca master every style of music, at the very least bcause there aren't enough hours in the day to liten to it much less study it.

I get what you are saying...we are basically chewing on semantics here.

*

I agree that Prince (likely) is not a master of a styles...being that he is a human limited by time and space. However, I don't think you can prove he is not a master.

*

Furthermore, what is THE definition of a musical master? This is where the opinion comes in.

Indeed. If humans were wiped from the face of the earth good and evil would cease to exist. No one thinks of a lion as evil when it hunts down and kills a gazelle on some nature show, but when humans do it we have murder. We just say it's the circle of life when it comes to animals. They are a construct of society, mutually agreed upon by a majority and essential for a society to exist. That's not enough motivation for some folks, so scary punishments had to be devised in an almost certainly non-existant afterlife to motivate the potato-eaters to not to turn on the ruling class.

If we follow the dialectic method of Socrates and try to tease out the definitions of some of these terms we would probably both come to the conclusion that instead of answers we have only more questions.

Ah, life.

thebanishedone said:

hey Stick i don't wanna downplay your abilities.as a matter a fact i have enjoyed a lot of your posts in the past.it's just this time it seemed like you downplayed Prince on your original post.I think it was more balidate to say that Prince is working in the pop music frame.So you can't say that Prince didn't experiment and dound very interesting music solutions in that frame. How many musicians you know who make a song song that is atonal in every aspect? second i don't agree about the jazz thing.Listen to Loring park sessions.That is a very decent jazz and how old was Prince? Prince's fusion projects are underrated.If Cobham made 2 and 4 from the Madhouse session people would rave about it.So my respect to you Sticky,just put your thoughts in the right frame. And to tell you the truth Kid Melodys post got on my nerves much more then u did.And no need to mention dicks because i'm a pussy lover

well all I was saying is that i agree with steaksauce.Prince is not master of the universe!John williams is much better than him(wrote star wars)Prince jazz efforts make kenny G laugh!pRINCE IS THE BEST AT FUNK! ok at rock,above average at pop,sucks at rap,sucks at classical, sucks at acoustic guitar music,sucks at solo piano music,brillant singer, and thats not opinion.THATS FACT!

thebanishedone said:

Kidmelody you suck

Even her/ his avatar sucks.

thebanishedone said:

Kidmelody you suck

And that IS fact

chuckdv2 said:

I would like to teach my kids about the various modes Prince likes to play in, have any of you ever created a lesson plan that students from early childhood through 12th grade might enjoy?

There is no "Prince mode" per se, but he seems to be fond of the dorian mode. I would start there if you are talking guitar.

Javi said:

blugtr542 said:

steakfinger.... actually there is a guitar player magazine I recall that did an interview with Prince and his bandmates and they analyzed snippets of his music. I believe they spoke on his use of chord extensions to make Purple Rain have its mystical magic. Instead of just playing normal major or minor chords Prince was stacking triads and using extensions to get very sophisticated jazz voicings and harmonies that popular music does not use. Don't let Prince fool you he has a very good grasp of Jazz and doesn't always play with just the modes. I believe the article also stated how Wendy hated playing the opening of Purple Rain because the stretches were so tough but Prince wanted those voicings, and Wendy was jazz trained. I could cite other examples .... but I digress. Anywhoo I am a music teacher. So if I have time or find the article I will post it. Peace

I'd be thankful if you posted it or if you could give us the exact reference.

You may find it here http://princetext.tripod.com/ sorry I don't have time to check.

honer said: