I have a friend who went with me to see Prince for the 1st time. He loved it. But we now have an ongoing debate - he thinks Joe Satriani could out play Prince - I don't agree with him. I think Joe is great but I think Prince could out play him. What do you think?

In terms of speed Satriani can probably play scales up and down the neck faster, along with some cheesy artificial harmonics. Satriani is just like every guy working at guitar center with the same haircut he had in 1989, pathetically thinking he's going to get signed. Guys like Allen Holdsworth (along with Prince the most underrated guitarist of all time) play fast but with more musicality.

Satriani has better shredding technique, if that's what you mean.

Swanson...

...your comments just floored me. Cheesy harmonics? Since when did using harmonics become cheesy? Harmonics are a key element of music. Satriani has found countless ways to experiment with them and create new musical ideas. Are the bass harmonics in Prince's Diamonds and Pearls cheesy? And you probably haven't seen Satriani in a while--he's shaved his head since 1989 (if that means anything at all here).

cocogrille...

...in my opinion, Satriani could out play Prince overall. If this was strictly a funk guitar question, then Prince wins hands down. But Satriani is just tremendously gifted. I highly recommend you check out his albums...start with Surfing with the Alien.

BTW, Satriani is a HUGE fan of Prince.

Joe who?

Just kidding. Joe bores me. He may be a talented guitarist, but his playing doesn't have heart. This is strictly my opinion.

Joe's playing = Nothing to me

Prince's playing = heart, emotion, chills, massive shredding, just take any guitar term and multiply it tenfold.

I was hipped to Satriani by a guitar music major in college,, this was in 1989.. Surfing with the Alien was what he introduced me to first..

I admit that I liked it and found his music somewhat intriguing, but I never went hog wild over him..

It's been awhile since I checked him out.. Maybe I'll check him out again...

Any suggestions as to where to start (btw my musical tastes lean more towards smoothed out r & b/ jazz fusion type stuff).

steevetheeo said:

My suggestions would be his follow-up to Surfing...Flying in a Blue Dream. And then his recent release, Engines of Creation.

Satch can outplay Prince

LovesexyIsThe1 said:

Satriani is talented and underrated by some´serious´press but I think
Prince put more emotion in his playing..
And if we´re talking but rock-guitarists I still think Eddie VH is the founder and
godfather off all those gifted musicians!!!!

funkydoo said:

HE MEAN ARTIFICIAL HARMONIC

PINCH HARMONIC

POINT BEING SATRIANI LEAN ON VAN HALEN TRICK TO SELL RECORD

HE BETTER TECHNICAL PLAYER AND COULD FAKE ANY STYLE

BUT PRINCE HAVE SOUL YO

SOUL LIKE MONKEY TAIL

quote]

HE MEAN ARTIFICIAL HARMONIC

PINCH HARMONIC

POINT BEING SATRIANI LEAN ON VAN HALEN TRICK TO SELL RECORD

HE BETTER TECHNICAL PLAYER AND COULD FAKE ANY STYLE

BUT PRINCE HAVE SOUL YO

SOUL LIKE MONKEY TAIL
[/quote]

POOK not play guitar. Artificial harmonic never been trick to sell record. POOK go back to masturbating in tree.

Satriani have soul 2.

funkydoo said:

POOK PLAY GUITAR!

ORG KNOW THIS

IT REALLY SMALL SYMBOL GUITAR

POOK PLAY AND JUMP UP AND DOWN REAL FAST!

GET DOWN!

ALSO ARTIFICIAL HARMONIC SELL LOT OF RECORD

IT WORK FOR ZAKK WYLDE

Yeah, I personally find too many artificial harmonics and too much fret-tapping irritating. Those techniques CAN be used musically but not by Satriani. His playing and tone just sound very cheezy to me. On the G3 live disc I have I usually skip over the Satriani part, I like Vai's playing a lot more especially. In terms of superfast guitarists I tend to like more jazz or fusion based players, just a matter of personal preference. Like everyone else said, Prince has a lot of "soul" in his playing like Santana or Hendrix and that's something that Satriani doesn't really have.

Prince

POOK said:

WHAT THE HELL IS A POOK?????!!!!!is it a monkey or somethin?



as for the comparison. Prince hands down. Only Jimmi H, Santana, and Hooker can compete when it comes to passion and musicmanship on lead

Joe Satriani can outplay Prince. He is an incredible guitar player, one of the best. As far as 80´s tappings and artificial harmonic goes, there is a guy who is very good at this and still he can´t get very funk on rhythm, his name is nuno bettencourt and he is the former guitar player of Extreme. He is "Brian May + Van Halen + Prince" in one man. He named his main influences once: Queen, Jimmy Page, Van Halen and Prince

funkydoo said:

I don't car who ya are, dat's funny right there....

POOK said:

Sorry to hurt POOK's feelings. I offer a banana as a peace offering.

POOK mentions some great/legendary guitarists that "used" artificial harmonics. Some others are:

Randy Rhoads
Jimi Hendrix
Brian May
Vernon Reid
The Edge
Stevie Ray Vaughn
Kirk Hammett
Tom Morello
Frank Zappa

...to name a few.

Certainly, these players are not prone to using "tricks." By the way, Prince is using both pinch and artificial harmonics in his playing...especially now that he's playing guitars with whammy bars. He's simulating the dive bomb sounds that have been around for quite some time. I don't see anyone here criticizing him for that...

Swanson said:

- Man, you are too focused on stereotypes. I dont like Satirani much, but this cliche ´he is a shredder, he has no emotion´ is real old. You probably never heard an entire Satch album. Listen to the song ´Midnight´ and tell me it has cheesy artificial harmonics. Satriani has style and personality, he is not the average shredder type.

NOTE: I AM NOT A SATRIANI FAN (but I hate prejudice)

funkydoo said:

- Flying in a blue dream is in my opinion, his best album.

Swanson said:

- Ah, now you made a better point. I agree with you, I prefer Vai....he is more intriguing, adventurous and experimental. But I understand why people like Satch. He is a good instrumental songwriter and has unique style.

Ok, now let me stop quoting people and add my 2 cents....
I don´t like these comparisons between players. I think when musicians get to a certain level, it´s hard to compare them. Satch can outplay Prince in terms of speeding easily, but Prince is more versatile as far as I know, and a more interesting rythm player. For me, Prince´s biggest strenght as a guitar player is that he plays what he plays. He doesn´t care to play 1000 notes just to impress the audiences. I learned to admire it on him. He has a very good technique and he MASTERS the instrument. He is more mature and soulful than lots of people who are faster than him.

DANG GUSTAVO ONE POST AT TIME

KIRK HAMMETT NOT PRONE TO USING TRICK

JUST PRONE TO USING WAH TO PLAY SAME SOLO ON EVERY SONG

[This message was edited Wed Jul 14 14:56:11 2004 by POOK]

Allow me to interject cuz clearly Satrianis detractors do not know his history.

First of all Satriani was a guitar teacher who was in a band at nights. But during that time Satriani had studied so many guitarists he had pioneered himself into being a guitar icon..by mistake. He had been there done that on the road/sessions and at a certain age he was like "I have music too"

Satriani made his first ep on a 4 track. What makes it startling is every sound on the ep was made by a guitar. Even the drums and bass.

How did Satriani do this? He used a allen wrench on the pickup as a bass drum for one tune. He tuned the guitar strings low so he could play it like a base. To say Satriani cant play funky rhythms? Listen to Dreaming#11 off Time Machine Disc 1

Some of you are saying artificial harmonics and you have no idea what you are talkin about.
Joe Satriani was a master of harmonic experimentation. Artificial and real...

If you listen to a tune called Banana Mango which is a latin fusion track he masks em backwards.... whats amazing is he did this on a 4 track.

On another tune called "I Become Death" inspired by Robert Oppenheimer he makes a warbling apocalyptic guitar come to life. It sounds frightening...how he incorporates the wall of guitar come to life.


To say Satriani doesnt have soul....is so far off the mark. And I assure you this PRINCE would be in awe of Satriani.

Alot of people don't realize his albums are assembled for "THE AUDIENCE" not him.

But he has vault of countless compositions and it doesnt even sound like him.

What im saying is very few people can touch Joe even what he did on that ep back in 1984. After Not of this earth he found the formula tone/sound he would evolve with and continued with Surfing with the Alien.

But the reality is the dude is as experimental and daring but at the same time he can sit down and do a slide shuffle blues like Robert Johnson. He loves the guitar period...


As far as Steve Vai? Satriani was Steve Vai's teacher. As far as prince being more versatile? Thats a negative. I'd say its pointless to compare them.

Satriani studies every guitarist under the sun even if they cant technically play.
And that makes him a oddity because he learns from people who are just makin noise...

But saying Satriani doesnt have soul.....if you asked Satriani to play Question of U he would play it and knock you out.... you ask Prince to play


Circles:

And he is gonna fumble...through the song. Just because it's not


The brilliant thing about Satriani is his sustaining power as a instrumentalist.

Prince had a huge backing behind him to finance his career. Satriani funded his entire record on his credit card on a gamble to be a recording musician.


If Prince/Satriani ever were on stage together you would see what I mean But to say Satriani doesnt have soul...

I can assure you.... you name any Prince guitar tune and Satriani is gonna nail it.

Anyways Prince is a J.S. Fan....
on the dl...


And to close this off: Like Prince, Satriani is a smart businessman.

He proved people after Jeff Beck you could sell instrumental guitar in rock fusion.


But theres way more to satriani than his records.
And everybody would eat their words if he appeared on stage one night trading solos with Prince.

And I leave you with this: Most of what Prince loves ...Satriani can play and
he could be in Princes band easily.

Satriani has the ability to play rhythms unbelievably. Satriani also has an eccentricity like Prince. If you listen to a song like "The Headless Horseman" which is a multitracked acoustic gallop
or "Driving at night" which is like anew wave funk metal exercise.

As for the claim Satriani doesnt have soul ?

Listen to Rubina.... off Not of This Earth.


Prince would be coppin licks from that if he heard it.

And to end this debate :Satriani is a big Prince fan.

And at the end of the day both are geniuses.... just in different musical directions and statements.
[This message was edited Wed Jul 14 15:20:08 2004 by Trickology]

"As far as Steve Vai? Satriani was Steve Vai's teacher. As far as prince being more versatile? Thats a negative. I'd say its pointless to compare them. "

err i thought Zappa was Vai's teacher? i must say ive listened to satriani,and as technically good as he is, he hasn't the "feel" of folk like SRV, robert johnson, jimi etc etc. maybe its just me but i just don't "feel" him. and thats what music all boils down to at the end of the day.

daf1999 said:

Zappa was Vai's musical mentor. Growing up though, Vai went to get lessons from Satriani.
Satriani also taught Metallica's Kirk Hammett and gave lessons to Charlie Hunter.

What Im tryin to tell you is, That was part of the times RELATIVITY was a metal based label. The days of SRV/Robert Johnson/ The world was too crowded to do something like that.

Alot legendary guitarists love the man.I can understand why alot of people don't like his records. Its cool but im telling you download his first ep if you can.

It was totally different than anything he released.

I guess the thing that separates Joe Satriani is, He can play a tune like Joe Pass or Henry Kaiser or Fripp etc
But that's not marketable.
And to be on Sony he needs to keep doing what he does.


His last album "Is there Love iN space" was really cool.

But then again I like the daring Satriani then the power ballad/ metal blues shuttle one.

I will give you a list of 20 songs which I think any Joe detractor should hear and I will show you why so many guitarists are won over by him.

Trickology...

Thanks for backing me up. Great post.