What scales does Prince primarily play when he's soloing? It sounds like pentatonic...was wondering if someone could offer some insight into that, and what the P-Mans favorite effects are.

Thanks!

I think most rock/pop musicians play pentatonic. And also Prince guitar playing is very blues influenced, so...

nowadays he plays modes too, and natural full scales. he always used, Prince is not just pentatonics.

Learn your blues scale & you'll figure out the rest from there

blues scales,pentatonic,harmonic minor,dorian mode,myxolydian mode,phrygian mode...everything plus some stuff he found in outer space...

I'd say he primarily uses either dorian (minor third) or mixolydian (major third) scales, both with an added flat fifth from the blues scale and some chromatic embellishments. However, he treats the third in very bluesy manner, often using a flat third (slightly bent or not) against a dominant major harmony. He also bases a lot of licks around pentatonic figures. So it's a mix of blues and modes, basically. And in recent years, he's shown a tendency to empasize the relatively weak notes (2nd, 6th) of the scales, creating a sound not unlike Santana. Which is another way to view it: combine hendrix (blues scale) and santana (modal) licks and throw in a little jazz (chromatics) and hey presto! Prince also depends a lot on symmetric patterns on the guitar neck, i.e. (in the key of E) 11-12-14 or 14-13-12 repeated over an number of strings. Obviously, when the harmony dictates, he'll use other scales as well.

As for effects... He mostly uses Boss pedals. Compression, Distortion (or mega distortion for a nineties sound), Flanger, Phaser and/or Chorus and a generous helping of Delay. A trademark sound is the Boss Octave pedal, as heard on When Doves Cry and Shockadelica. Then there's the wah-wah and I think he also uses a Digitech Whammy. Of course, P uses incredible amounts of different effects, including non-boss rackmounted gear by Zoom among others. Compression, distortion and delay should get you in the ballpark though.

Hope this helps!

hectim said:

Yeah, except on the banjo solos, dude. You're WAY OFF on the banjo solos. It's all minor 6ths.

yeah, P plays alot of 6th chords and harmonies

Don't start me talking on the banjo stuff. I have this rehearsal bootleg with a tune called "Billy's Contact Lenses" where P just rips it up on that banjo for four hours! Coincidentally, I once read the Chronic waxed P
's ass on banjo during a soundcheck.

otan said: