I would like to know what guitar chords Prince is using in the songs Purple Rain, Sexy MF, Alphabet St, Let's Go Crazy and 1999.


When I look at a lot of his live videos, it appears that he uses the same moveable chord on a lot of the same songs. Also, I noticed that I never see him play an barre chords.

I know he uses the 9th chord for a lot of funk stuff. But can some tell me what moveable chord he's using on the rest of the songs that he plays live? They look like 7ths but I'm not sure.


Thanks

your question is a little general mate. I wish it was as easy as just learning a couple of chords to sound like the master. Prince uses different chords for each song pretty much mate, he does like flat keys though, namely Bb
[This message was edited Wed Jun 18 17:50:22 PDT 2003 by cloud9mission]

But there is a chord that i can't identify that he uses te same way on a lots of positions of the neck, instead of barre chords, i think it's like this:

-5-
-3-
-4-
-5-
-x-
-3-

or something like this, i am not sure

7salles said:

I dont read tab unfortunatly. Sheet music yeah . But I know the chord you mean & I think its just an F Major shape chord which, as most guitarists know, is an easier alternative to E major shped bar chords.

The one that I use all the time, (and then people go, "Oh, you like prince?") is THIS one:

root note is on the A string
so, if it's in D, we're doing this:

8
6
5
7
x
x
and when you're doing your chickenscratch riff, the high e moves between the 8th and 7th frets, like horn hits. That's the riff for the ending of Kiss. (well, it goes from the 8, to 7, to 5 to 7)

Another version of the same chord, with the root on the E string, if you're in A:
5
8
5
7
x
x

THAT is (I think) the Controversy chord.

I don't bother to learn the keys of the original songs. I know the riff, so I move it to the key that I can sing... or the key that the band is playing in.

check these:

15
14
12
12
x
x

x (hendrix favourite)
8
7
6
7
x

12
12
9
9
7
0

All in E but you can slide them anywhere

and:

x
7
8
8
x
7

to jazz it up a little (in B)

(Bmaj7 edit...)
[This message was edited Thu Jun 19 15:03:12 PDT 2003 by BigThing]

might wanna read

http://www.prince.org/msg...msg_447262

Oh cool I was about to type the same reply all over!

daf1999 said: