This is a subject that has always intrigued me. With some songs it's fairly obvious (the rock songs composed on a guitar, ballads on the piano etc). But take a song like Courtin Time, with its big band arrangements... or some of the material on The Vault... how much of those arrangements do you think were written by Prince?

I would love to hear some early demos of his songs that have more elaborate arrangements, just to hear how they sounded in their infancy.

[Edited 9/22/13 1:54am]

His brain!

he is extremely intelligent and I dare anyone on this site to replecate his awesomeness when it comes to writing, composing and arranging the pieces Prince does so well. Unless you have a concept of music writing and music in general I dont think you could appreciate what it takes.......

just my thoughts

Max

depends on song structure

When U Were Mine was written on guitar, Moonbeam Levels on piano.first album by the Time got to be written on the bass

his thingy

luvsexy4all said:

his thingy

*

Well, besides his thingy, I would guess the piano.

A large percentage of his songs seem to be just written around some sort of a "rhythmic structure" or some sort of an idea of what type of parts the song should contain. I'm pretty sure he's "written" stuff like "Hot Thing" or "Gett Off" as he's recorded them.

But I'd say he's written more songs on keyboards than on the piano. The songs that are dominated by guitar must have been mostly written on guitar, although it might be that he wrote Purple Rain originally on the piano.

Instrumental ability makes the differences in music composition and performance. Prince is currently the King IMHO.

Prince currently is No. 1 in the field of R&R music composition and glad he is still going strong.

Love him dearly and think he composed mightily with his guitar.

[Edited 9/22/13 22:26pm]

Did Prince ever tell anybody about his composing methods?

funkyrake said:

I think it depends first on what inspired him to compose at that moment. I think he's comfortable composing from scratch on guitar, bass, keyboards, drums and within a sequencer or drum machine.

On For You - piano

Prince, Dirty Mind, Controversy, 1999 - mostly bass

Since then up until Love Symbol - Mostly piano probably, but also lots of guitar, obviously

I guess it's a mix between those three, with 20Ten probably done mostly on keyboards.

linn drum maybe

BobGeorge909 said:

funkyrake said:

I am currently on another fan forum of a band which has suffered some real heartaches and is currently doing really well with one very small little hitch that they haven't noticed but some fans have. I find myself comparing Prince favorably to their situation (and hopefully don't get kicked off or my posts deleted for this). My latest comparison is Prince's beautiful music instrumental ability (guitar, piano and drums) to their newest guest member who has little no music instrumental knowlege (got a great voice and charisma though).

Allow me to assure you that instrumental ability makes the differences in music composition and performance. Prince is currently the King IMHO. The above band was sterling in their heyday and instrummentally all of them produced all their own exceptionally beautiful music, including their wonderful front man who is now in the winged form in the parallel universe called Heaven.

Again, Prince currently is No. 1 in the field of R&R music composition and glad he is still going strong.

Love him dearly and think he composed mightily with his guitar.

Why so incognegro?. ..r u referring to bon jovi? What band/group/person r u talking about...? MJ, jackson 5, is that why ure scared?... signed, confused

Notice I edited the original. I have been comparing Prince with a band for a long time. Prince's motto "real music by real musicians" rings true with me, and really describes the difference between artists who sing and dance from artists who have a deep abiding musical ability, including music theory, notes, chords, rhythm, etc. Prince is exceptionally knowlegeable and seeks people with great abilities and talents to work with and that includes those who intrumentally compose their music as he has for decades. He has high standards.

I think it's mostly piano

My initial thoughts were a pen, like a Biro perhaps but settled on a pencil, because he could rub out any mistakes.

u all forgot about his vibrating toothbrush..

From what I understand from the musicians and engineer interviews and the books I've read Prince doesn't usually compose his music as most musicians do, i.e. with an instrument, going thru a trial and error process until he gets it right. It seems it's more like he has an instant image of the whole basic tracks in his mind and he just either starts recording it starting with drums, then bass, then guitar or keys and fincally vocals, or he tells the band "u do this, and u do that" until the musicians get it right and play the song as he had it in mind. So basically the answer to the original OP's question would be: "his mind"...

I recall in the 80's him saying that he started writing Controversy on the drums and said it ended up as it did due to him starting with that instrument...

funkomatic said:

After the 80s it seems to be primarily Cowbell!

SPOOKYGAS said:

My initial thoughts were a pen, like a Biro perhaps but settled on a pencil, because he could rub out any mistakes.