I was just wondering could any of you musicians give me some examples of the kind of time signatures Prince uses in his compositions?

I know most pop songs are 4/4, but could you give me some examples of some other time signatures he uses and in which songs?

Actually, Prince's entire catalogue is almost exclusively in 4/4. The only possible exceptions being some ballads, that could be considered as 6/8 or 12/8 (Insatiable, Extraordinary, The Question of U etc).

Oh, and "She Loves Me 4 Me" is in 3/4.

It's kind of surprising, really, that he hasn't experimented with time signatures at all - considering his innovative approach with other musical elements...

"Power Fantastic" is in 3/4 as well. I tried to get my EX-fiance to waltz because I wanted it to be my wedding song.

"a place in heaven", or "she wants a place in heaven"
3/4

It seems that his drum pattern preferences also seem to steer him towards ,common times.
I think it was Johnny Carson, i believe it was before Jay, anyway he was interviewing Miles Davis.
Miles pointed out that P, had a very particular drum beat style that he didn't want to steer away from.
I don't recall the exact wording, but that was the gist of it.
Thats partly to blame for everything sounding the same.
Even thought the music is wide and varied, the drums and bass bring, a familiar feeling to the songs.

I think do you lie is 12/8

curious child is 3/4 too....

has he ever played 7/8 or 5/4?

RealMusician said:

True, but what about the start and bridge in Shhh?
There is a strange part in it with some 9/8 or so...

The time sig changes in "The Same December" are really nice.

Keep in mind that a lot of the flexibility we see in Prince's music depend on whether he's using a drummer in a song. Michael Bland helped bring some much-needed life to his stuff, as did Blackwell.

ThreadBare said:

Yeah, I forgot about that one. He changes from half-time to double-time feel, and then back. There's also some metric modulation (very unusual in a Prince song!) where the eighth notes becomes triplet eighth notes of the new tempo.

But even still, it's all 4/4 basically.

Jochem said:

No, that's all 4/4 too.

But I see what makes you think that: In the fourth bar of the drum intro, everybody lands on the second eighth note (the "and" of 1), making it sound like a downbeat - which can fool you to believe that the first eighth note actually belongs to the previous bar, which then would make it a 9/8, yes.

It's an old trick...

Another example of the same thing is the chorus of "Splash", that starts on the 2 instead of the 1, creating the illusion of a 5/4 bar followed by a 3/4. But it's really 4/4 all the way. What's so clever about this particular example is that Prince uses the vocal phrase to fool you. That's one of the strongest elements in music - if there are words and a human voice, that's what our ears will follow.
[Edited 3/22/08 2:48am]

Jochem said:

All in 4/4. Sorry.

But : i wanted to add something anyway. Actually there
is a 9/8 beat, i love that one so much. It´s the outro of "A large room with no light". One of my favorite songs of all time.
To say that he didn´t experiment with time signatures is...unfair. A least a bit.
Listen to the bridge of "Mountains". Love that one too. The beats flips over, there`s a quarter note missing which is added later. That way the feel twists around. Smart stuff.
But it`s true that the majority of his music deals with straight ahead 4/4 beats. Just like the majority of music of all Soul/Rock/Funk artists.

"In A large room with no light"

Hey I dont know this song. From what year period is it?

why would he do a 12/8 or a 5/4? you can't get funky with that.
One thing has never tried to be is Sting.

RealMusician said:

Except for the passage leading to the blues deal. Briefly, unless I'm mistaken, he's in 3/4.

ThreadBare said:

Well, it depends on how you look at it. In this case, what I call eighth note triplets (with Prince's sixtuplet guitar lick on top) could also be considered quarter notes - then you'd have 3/4, sure.

RealMusician said:

Yeah, the triplets plus the feel of the drumming through there suggest a time change to me. But, I've never been the best at gauging sigs.

RealMusician said:

So, did I understand you correctly if I say that is it all 8/8 but the illusion is that it is 9/8 followed by 7/8...

Jochem said:

Exactly. It's mathematics, really.

7salles said:

Do You Lie is 12/8? I can't hear that personally....

Is he right???

Milty said:

What do you mean by that?

MattyJam said:

Basically, a song in 4/4 with a triplet feel can always be considered 12/8. This is regardless of tempo, although it's more common with slower tunes.

"The Question Of U", "It's About That Walk", "How Come U Don't Call Me", "Still Waiting" and "International Lover" are some examples. "Do U Lie" is too - although not as obvious, since the tempo is faster and the triplet feel is less emphasized.

However, 12/8 really only exists in theory (at least when it comes to popular music). Meaning that noone really counts twelve beats - it's always 4/4 with a triplet feel, for the listener as well as the performer.
[Edited 3/22/08 13:39pm]
[Edited 3/22/08 13:42pm]

would be cool if he took some time to learn music theory
i know Tamar was teaching him some things as recently as 2006
if he played around more with the mathematics of music
i believe it'd open up a lot more possibilities for him

Snap said:

I think this also points to why so much of his music in the past 20 years is virtually throw away material. He really isn't as accomplished a musician as many make him out to be. There can be all sorts of defenses, but the real reason is just doesn't have the know how to pull something else other than 4/4 off.

I don't know anything about Tamar, but I find it hilarious that he had to be taught musical theory from a protege.

Wall, Prince is a funk/pop/rock artist. You people overate this all "time sig" aspect of music. Go listen do bs like dream theater if you want to hear it. Prince has some songs that are not in 4/4, It wouldnt hurt him to do more. Do you think that Prince with Renato Neto and Blackwell would not jam in another time sigs if they wanted too? Prince can do it, he did it before, and i am glad at it. I would hate to see prince turning into a dream thater of funk.

Wall said:

Girl had some training -- jazz fundamentals, and all. Blackwell did as well... Berklee! Hopefully some of it rubbed off on lil man. Not that any of it would make him do some totally weird crap, but I think it'd really open up his sound. We may never know?

"Under the Cherry Moon" is in 6/8. "Do U Lie?" is in 4/4.

Has he ever done a song in 2/4?

MattyJam said:

2/4 is the same as 4/4 really. Just depends on how you choose to feel the pulse - half-time or double-time.

In popular music, 4 beats per bar has become a standard, even though you could just as well count it as 2/4.

ThreadBare said:

Yeah but it's Prince himself on shh

Wall said:

hahaha There must be always someone to say that he is not such an accomplished musician. Funny enough he is considered as a musical genius by many accomplished musicians.