Mindflux said:

Prince himself has said that he can't read music and when asked if he would like to learn, he said that he wouldn't, as he doesn't want to alter how he makes music. I can't remember where that was from, but I know that I saw it.

That said, he has a deep understanding of music, including chords, scales, modes, harmonics, tonics and all their relationships - it is clear from his compositions.

Furthermore, there is reading music and there is reading music - I'll explain, from personal experience as a professional musician and producer myself. I would be classified as someone who can't read music - in that, you could put a piece of complex piano music in front of me and I can't just play it straight off the bat. However, I do know what most of the symbols and notations mean and I can sit there and work it out and, once I've got it, I can then play it from memory, without further reference to the music sheet. I can jam with a band though, with no musical direction, playing with just my ear - I don't even need to be told the key, I tend to get that right just from listening. You can't teach that, I'm just lucky to be born with that skill.

My wife, however, is a trained pianist (Grade 8) and she can read and write music. You can put a piece in front of her and she can just play it - just like that! However, put her in a jam situation and she's utterly lost - she will say, I need a music book! Now, she learnt and was taught how to read, write and play, but it is not an innate ability she has.

So, there you have it. I'd be damn surprised if Prince could not read a single note of music, as DreZone (hey friend, long time no see!) said, but he could still be classed as someone who can't read, just as I stated for myself above. One thing is for sure though, Prince has an immense understanding of how music works, as evidenced by the fabulous music he has produced over the years and his virtuosity on so many instruments.

So who does the sheet music to his Hit songs from the 80's? Or for that matter any era? Are there team of writers that sit down and write/decipher a song from start to end?

I listened to a good portion of The Work in the last few days, and yes there are many gorgeous songs there but there are also several handfuls of stuff that aren't nearly as good as Screwdriver.

Astasheiks said:

Mindflux said:

Prince himself has said that he can't read music and when asked if he would like to learn, he said that he wouldn't, as he doesn't want to alter how he makes music. I can't remember where that was from, but I know that I saw it.

That said, he has a deep understanding of music, including chords, scales, modes, harmonics, tonics and all their relationships - it is clear from his compositions.

Furthermore, there is reading music and there is reading music - I'll explain, from personal experience as a professional musician and producer myself. I would be classified as someone who can't read music - in that, you could put a piece of complex piano music in front of me and I can't just play it straight off the bat. However, I do know what most of the symbols and notations mean and I can sit there and work it out and, once I've got it, I can then play it from memory, without further reference to the music sheet. I can jam with a band though, with no musical direction, playing with just my ear - I don't even need to be told the key, I tend to get that right just from listening. You can't teach that, I'm just lucky to be born with that skill.

My wife, however, is a trained pianist (Grade 8) and she can read and write music. You can put a piece in front of her and she can just play it - just like that! However, put her in a jam situation and she's utterly lost - she will say, I need a music book! Now, she learnt and was taught how to read, write and play, but it is not an innate ability she has.

So, there you have it. I'd be damn surprised if Prince could not read a single note of music, as DreZone (hey friend, long time no see!) said, but he could still be classed as someone who can't read, just as I stated for myself above. One thing is for sure though, Prince has an immense understanding of how music works, as evidenced by the fabulous music he has produced over the years and his virtuosity on so many instruments.

So who does the sheet music to his Hit songs from the 80's? Or for that matter any era? Are there team of writers that sit down and write/decipher a song from start to end?

Best answer of the whole thread

Actually, yes, there are people doing that for a job. Do you seriously imagine Prince sat down and wrote down the music sheets for each of his album tracks when most of them have been recorded in a rush and on the fly one minute after he thought of them? U need to read a couple of books about Prince and his working process: even if he could write music he just wouldn't do that!

Commercial worksheet usually aren't from the musicians themselves but from people doing the job just by listening to the records: it's not so hard to do for a classically trained musician. Actually when u study music in a music school u have "dictations" where u're exposed to a music and u have to write it down (I sooooo sucked at this ). Very few pop artists write down their stuff anyway, even those who're fluent in reading and writing music, they just record it. It was pretty obvious when I was a studying singing in a music school and I'd use some commercial music sheets to work with the school's pianist for lessons or exams. Even when the recorded track was solo piano the music sheet never played exactly the same notes/harmony. It was close enough to work perfectly but never exactly the same thing. Same went for the melodies actually: the music sheets sometimes told me to sing a note when the record told me to sing another, and I checked with my keyboard so many times to make sure I wasn't deaf or anything and it definitely wasn't the same note. I used to work on songs I was really familiar with so it was pretty easy for me to spot the differences.

Se7en said:

I listened to a good portion of The Work in the last few days, and yes there are many gorgeous songs there but there are also several handfuls of stuff that aren't nearly as good as Screwdriver.

right, but a lot of the stuff wasn't finished as well.

For me I try not to compare that stuff completely to released work

There is some kind of feeling I get listening to stuff 'that I'm not supposed to have access too'

Like being on the other side of the room while Prince or Prince and the band are creating a song

I like the scruffiness of some of them,

Astasheiks said:

Mindflux said:

Prince himself has said that he can't read music and when asked if he would like to learn, he said that he wouldn't, as he doesn't want to alter how he makes music. I can't remember where that was from, but I know that I saw it.

That said, he has a deep understanding of music, including chords, scales, modes, harmonics, tonics and all their relationships - it is clear from his compositions.

Furthermore, there is reading music and there is reading music - I'll explain, from personal experience as a professional musician and producer myself. I would be classified as someone who can't read music - in that, you could put a piece of complex piano music in front of me and I can't just play it straight off the bat. However, I do know what most of the symbols and notations mean and I can sit there and work it out and, once I've got it, I can then play it from memory, without further reference to the music sheet. I can jam with a band though, with no musical direction, playing with just my ear - I don't even need to be told the key, I tend to get that right just from listening. You can't teach that, I'm just lucky to be born with that skill.

My wife, however, is a trained pianist (Grade 8) and she can read and write music. You can put a piece in front of her and she can just play it - just like that! However, put her in a jam situation and she's utterly lost - she will say, I need a music book! Now, she learnt and was taught how to read, write and play, but it is not an innate ability she has.

So, there you have it. I'd be damn surprised if Prince could not read a single note of music, as DreZone (hey friend, long time no see!) said, but he could still be classed as someone who can't read, just as I stated for myself above. One thing is for sure though, Prince has an immense understanding of how music works, as evidenced by the fabulous music he has produced over the years and his virtuosity on so many instruments.

So who does the sheet music to his Hit songs from the 80's? Or for that matter any era? Are there team of writers that sit down and write/decipher a song from start to end?

Erm, YES!

Oh, just seen databank has more than adequately answered this question.

Clearly not a musician yourself, are you Astasheiks?!

batman89 said:

I recall Prince during an interview some time ago alluding to the purpose of recording so much material back in (what I will term the hey-day) so that "they" (presumably referrng to the Revolution IIRC) can take it easy down the track. That's all well and good, however with knowing what we do about the vast amount of brilliant old material yet to see official release, I wander whether he ever intends to breathe life in to some of the old recordings or if he simply applies his mantra of not looking back far too literally these days?

I think he probably recorded so much to get the best possible album made for that time. From the bootleg demos I have heard he definately released the best songs in my opinion on the real cds. I would love for him to open up the vault even if the songs sucked but I think everyone puts too much stock in the unreleased tracks in the vault. There is a reason why they are in there in my opinion.

trax said:

batman89 said:

I recall Prince during an interview some time ago alluding to the purpose of recording so much material back in (what I will term the hey-day) so that "they" (presumably referrng to the Revolution IIRC) can take it easy down the track. That's all well and good, however with knowing what we do about the vast amount of brilliant old material yet to see official release, I wander whether he ever intends to breathe life in to some of the old recordings or if he simply applies his mantra of not looking back far too literally these days?

I think he probably recorded so much to get the best possible album made for that time. From the bootleg demos I have heard he definately released the best songs in my opinion on the real cds. I would love for him to open up the vault even if the songs sucked but I think everyone puts too much stock in the unreleased tracks in the vault. There is a reason why they are in there in my opinion.

I'm sure there are plenty of top notch songs in the vault. The reason why they may not have made it to an album is that they just might have not fit the CONCEPT of said album. That's why you see songs that are 3 to 4 years old show up on later albums.

I'm just waiting for Prince to pull out Hard 2 Get 1981 version. I think he and 3EG could really rock that song out.

trax said:

batman89 said:

I recall Prince during an interview some time ago alluding to the purpose of recording so much material back in (what I will term the hey-day) so that "they" (presumably referrng to the Revolution IIRC) can take it easy down the track. That's all well and good, however with knowing what we do about the vast amount of brilliant old material yet to see official release, I wander whether he ever intends to breathe life in to some of the old recordings or if he simply applies his mantra of not looking back far too literally these days?

I think he probably recorded so much to get the best possible album made for that time. From the bootleg demos I have heard he definately released the best songs in my opinion on the real cds. I would love for him to open up the vault even if the songs sucked but I think everyone puts too much stock in the unreleased tracks in the vault. There is a reason why they are in there in my opinion.

I think the only reason they are there is because the didin't fit on a particular album, and Prince wasn't always good about promotion. Which is when a lot of songs could have worked. Like why not release 4 single and 4 Bsides. Parade had only 2 B sides but a lot of good outtakes.

.

especially in the 1980s they were really heavy in to creating music, and I don't think it was always to try to fit on a particular album. I could have been that an album concept came as the result of a lot of the music. Not too much of what I heard from the 1978-1989 period I don't like.