I'm a new member and this is my first posting. I was thinking about performing something on a piano for a showcase event and thought it would be really cool to do something by Prince. I'm not sure if he's ever published the sheet music to anything he's written, although I haven’t really started to look. The songs I'm most interested in are Father's Song, Do Me Baby, Kiss, 17 Days, Power Fantastic, God (B-side to Purple Rain), I Love U In Me, Anna Stesia, Planet Earth, The Beautiful Ones, When Doves Cry, 1999, and International Lover. I know some of those don't use a piano as a primary instrument, but would it still be possible to play it on one? Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

Sheet music is available for a lot of his albums.

Unfortunately they aren't anyway near exact transcriptions of what he actually plays. It's the sort of rubbish sheet music where they include the vocal line in with the piece, so it's not as if you could play it and sing along.

Other artists have decent piano and guitar TAB books which actually sound like what is being played on the record. Prince unfortunately does not.

Hi...Welcome.

Yes, there's lot, and I have a lot of it. I used to own the books to Purple Rain, ATWIAD, and Parade. Man, I wish I still had those.

The 1999, 3121, PE and Musicology books are still available.

If you're looking for the old albums, you will have to scour ebay or some other site for used sheet music. They get pretty pricey.

I have the books for PR, ATWIAD, SOTT, Diamonds and Pearls, , and TGE. I just ordered the book for 1999 on Ebay.

I forgot, you can go to sites like www.musicnotes.com and buy downloadable copies of the in print sheetmusic. You can also purchase the hard copy.

These books are mostly rubbish. You're better off finding out the chords and transcribing it yourself.

MattyJam said:

Most of the books are in the right key, and it's a decent guide for at least getting the basis of the song down. Obviously some songs are better on paper than in real life playing (When Doves Cry), but some are more essential (Father's Song, etc).

I did a little searching and I did see music books and downloadable sheets available. So when it comes to tracks that don't have a specific album associated with them, those would be difficult, or nonexistent to find, correct?

sferdin said:

Like a B-side or something? Probably. I remember finding sheet music to "The Arms of Orion", but never had any for "I Love U In Me".

ernestsewell said:

Prince's b-sides were never published. The only one that I know of that is in print is "How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore". That's thanks to Alicia Keys.

I don't think that any of his side projects have any sheet music published either.
[Edited 12/18/09 21:35pm]