The september 2003 issue of Guitar techniques features Prince in their Funk workshop.. It's titled "How to funk like Prince" and contains 8 examples focusing purely on his funky rhythm styles. For further listening the tutor says "If you've got a stash of cash, I'd suggest buy every album of Prince's as each contain a few real gems!"

awesome!

Xcellent!

Nice to see Prince's funky guitar techniques getting the proper respect.

psychodelicide said:

- Yeah! Unfortunately most people still have the image of Prince as being a ´pop singer who occasionally plays guitar´. Most of them dont take him so seriously as a musician, and it´s great that some guitar magazines like this one talk about him
Speaking of his guitar, the solo of ´Joy in repetition´ (ONA box) is amazing!

American Critics are underrating or ignoring that Prince is an Amazing guitar Player. Maybe if Prince did drugs or was self abusive he would gain "rock & roll" respect. no disrespect to Kurt Cobain, But if your drugged out and suicidal and don't don't know what day of the week it is...Rolling Stone mag. will say that u are the second coming! Maybe Jimmy Jam was right, when he said that we will all understand the genius of Prince when he is past away. He also said that Prince is the best rythym guitar player ever. Carlos Santana is even blown Away by Prince's guitar Technique's.

The man has very few equals on the 6 string that's fo sho.
I really dig the solos at the end of Interactive or When I lay my Hands on You.

Does the mag have a website?

No web site unfortunately, apart from a subscription link through the publishers: http://www.futurenet.com/..._music.asp

...and what 8 examples are featured?

It is the new dawn, and the world is beginning to wake up... Amen.

Xtraordinary said:

- I love the solo of Interactive. Too bad this song wasn´t on ´Gold´

NPG187 said:

- I agree...but part of the problem is with Prince himself.
For example, you would never see Jeff Beck, Santana, Stevie Ray Vaughan or Jimi Hendrix without the guitar. Even new guys like Jonny Lang get attention from the critics because he is always playing it. Almost every song had a guitar solo.
With Prince, some of his best moments are:
1)hidden in the middle of a song (like in Anna Stesia)
2) in unreleased songs like ´Interactive´ or ´My summertime thang´ (do u know this one?). I confess I was very surprised about the solo of ´Strollin´ on Zurich ONA. I never thought Prince could do that fast part in such a clean way. If they told me it was Benson, I would believe.
3)rythm guitar, something really underrated by most.
4) as much as I acknowledge that Prince is an amazing guitar player, he sometimes makes very uninspired guitar solos, like on Rave 2000. It doesnt seem that he was that perfectionist when it came to guitar playing in the last years. For my surprise, the ONA tour had some of his best playing ever

Some of the funkiest guitar playing I've seen him do is on the Dirty Mind tour, during "Head". The extended jam is unbelievable, it's so funky and so fast at the same time. I keep rewinding to this part amazed, and I wished more people could see this on a legal DVD!

dnaplaya said:

Yeah, that would be interesting to know...

dnaplaya said:

1.Had U
2.Solo
3.Walk Don't Walk
4.Power Fantastic
5.Slave
6.Avalanche
7.Girl 6
8.Right Back here In My Arms

Cloud 9 Mission

Why do you have to simply add a one word opinion to every thread, maybe your just trying to get traffic to your website..pathetic

OK, the 8 examples don't explicitly refer to any particular song - more to styles for exercise. Quick summary as follows:

ex.1 : power chord stabs
ex.2 : dorian chords
ex.3 : syncopated single notes
ex.4 : octaves
ex.5 : single note hook and chords
ex.6 : 7th chords
ex.7 : octave riff
ex.8 : funky dorian 16ths

There is a CD as well with the tutor playing through the examples.

From the few prince articles I've seen in guitar magazines over the years they've all been positive about his playing. I'd suggest the reason he is overlooked is that he is first and foremost a songwriter. I've seen aftershows in which he didn't touch his guitar, and others in which his playing has been truly unbelievable. The Parade Birthday concert had no guitar at all. It really seems depends on his mood and inspiration on the night, which I also think is why on some nights when he "has" to play guitar it's just not flowing - (like the entire Rave 2000 DVD - what a bore!). But I thought his playing throughout ONA was great - not having another guitarist really put the pressure him as well to keep the rhythm going. Did anyone see the surprise acoustic set he played on the last night in London last October instead of the piano medley - that was awesome!

My sister and i went 2 The Xenophobia Celebration last year and were, and still blown away by his surprise acoustic set after the smooth and intimate performance by Norah Jones. The crowd went nuts! and this was his NPG Music Club in the house/Paisley Park. We could not get enough! He teased and sang his butt off. If you could only hear his performance of One Kiss At A Time or The Truth, don't get me started on his track Don't Play Me! MTV Unplugged!? What a Great idea! hmmm?

allanb said:

*snicker*

machinegun said:

- Agree...Prince usually plays better guitar when there isnt another guitarisr. A good example is the Miami 95 B Day concert, where he played all guitar parts. His playing on Budokan ONA was great too.
What´s the name of the London hall where he performed this acoustic set? I gotta find this one

opnions are free. so is yours my dear. but try to leave the throwing shit at other orgers please. thank u.

a couple of month's ago they had an acoustic fingerstyle version of 1999 as well, although they credited that as released in 1987!...it still RAWKS

The reason you see Jeff Beck, Steve Vai, Hendrix, the Vaughans, Jimmy Page, etc, on the cover of Guitar Magazine, if because their publicist calls the magazine and says "hey, let's work together to do an article on my guy. what do you need?".

Prince, on the other hand DOES NOT. It's not that he's underappreciated by critics. Find a critic that says Prince is a bad or mediocre guitarist. EVERY review I've ever read on Prince, Rolling Stone, Spin, Crap Music Weekly, ALL give Prince props for his playing.

Rolling Stone on Rainbow Children:
http://www.rollingstone.c...417&cf=377
RS review on Rave:
http://www.rollingstone.c...834&cf=377

It's his message that befuddles critics. It's the pitiful lyrics, the heavy-handed message.

And Kurt Cobain was NEVER hailed as a guitar god. He was the anti-hero of guitarists. Few solos, comprised of noise mostly. NEVER was there the line "Cobain is amazing on guitar on this album".

Prince IS hailed as the funkiest guitar player on the planet. Unfortunately, he ties the guitar to 80-pound bibles and jumps into bad-metaphor-lake.

NPG187 said:

Amen to that brother! "The song will ring in your (their) ears when we are gone" - Let It Go
[This message was edited Mon Aug 11 19:01:39 PDT 2003 by Astasheiks]

DMSR said:

Sinc you go by DMSR, ever heard the live extended version of it, there is an awsome Solo in it!!!

otan said:

I contest that. 'comprised of noise mostly' referring to Cobain's solos, this is simply not true. Kurt Cobain was by no means a great technical guitarist and in many respects he was a frustratingly SHITTY live guitarist because of his destructive lifestyle. His druggy life often hampered his guitar playing, but produced an inimitable sound overall for his MUSIC nonetheless because he had a unique talent. Cobain DID think about his sound as a guitarist and spoke on the subject in at least one guitar magazine interview, but he never claimed to be a god of technique. He IS a guitar-hero of sorts, an anti-"GUITAR HERO" hero. Along with Hendrix, Kurt Cobain inspired me personally to pick up the guitar and play whatever the fuck I wanted...I learned clean technique later when I emerged from my own druggy grunge phase. Anyway, there was a certain art to Kurt's solos and on record they were almost always melodic and impassioned and had a GOOD TONE, when he wanted them to. It is simply not true that they were mostly comprised of noise although "noise" was a part of it. The thing is that Kurt really did know how to play quite well, you can hear that on early live recordings when he was trying to prove himself...but he played by punk rock rules, which prefers passion over perfection, conviction over diction, and unfortunately for Kurt, sometimes destruction over life. My point is, don't disrespect Kurt, man...he had talent, he just didn't always use it to its full potential (other than getting famous and making some classic albums, heheh).

Ah, but where were we? Prince? Oh yeah, he's good...

.
[This message was edited Tue Aug 12 0:55:33 PDT 2003 by mrdespues]

I hate mos of kurt cobain's solos, i only like the one in in bloom, i think he ia an ok punk guitar player on studio. Live he sucks too. But i think he is kind of creative and tatalented.