Wendy is explaining how she played Purple Rain on the guitar. I always knew the opening chord was played somewhere along the 5/6th fret. You can also see Prince playing the beginning of Purple Rain in his acoustic performance for Maria Bartiromo on CNBC: https://www.youtube.com/w...TH7m-IyFj4
So Wendy is saying that she is barring the 3rd fret with her index finger and using her thumb to fret the 5th or 6th on the low E and A strings. Now if she is barring the 3rd fret i'm kind of puzzled how she makes it sound right. Does anyone have any clearance on this? Does she perhaps play an open D as wel?
Wendy is explaining how she played Purple Rain on the guitar. I always knew the opening chord was played somewhere along the 5/6th fret. You can also see Prince playing the beginning of Purple Rain in his acoustic performance for Maria Bartiromo on CNBC: https://www.youtube.com/w...TH7m-IyFj4
So Wendy is saying that she is barring the 3rd fret with her index finger and using her thumb to fret the 5th or 6th on the low E and A strings. Now if she is barring the 3rd fret i'm kind of puzzled how she makes it sound right. Does anyone have any clearance on this? Does she perhaps play an open D as wel?
somewhere along the 5/6 freat sounds a bit too vague.
Since the song is in Bb, the lower E string would have to be the 6th fret. However, if she also barred the A strong o the sixth fret, that would give an Eb, which would normally be dissonant in the Bb chord. So is she barring them sideways? i.e. 6th on the lower E, 5th on the A?
The higher strings make a GM, which is perfectely compatible with Bb.
Pity I don't have a guitar at hand to try this out
I do wonder why Wendy doesn't play the root noot too, it's easy enough. Just do a barre with your first finger on the first fret of the A string and place your 3rd finger on the 3rd fret of the D string and your 4th finger on the 3rd fret of the G string. There you go, Wendy, just in case you're reading
e ---1--- B ---1--- G ---3--- D ---0--- A ---x--- E ---x---
This is the chord. If anyone tries to tell you otherwise they're wrong, trust me. You can CLEARY see what Wendy is playing on the First Avenue performance. It's A Bb9 chord with a D in the bass.
e ---1--- B ---1--- G ---3--- D ---0--- A ---x--- E ---x---
This is the chord. If anyone tries to tell you otherwise they're wrong, trust me. You can CLEARY see what Wendy is playing on the First Avenue performance. It's A Bb9 chord with a D in the bass.
[Edited 5/4/18 9:38am]
For the record, what is the song’s opening chord?
I was in standard tuning, and Bbadd9 would be the easiest way to tab it.
e ---1--- B ---1--- G ---3--- D ---0--- A ---x--- E ---x---
This is the chord. If anyone tries to tell you otherwise they're wrong, trust me. You can CLEARY see what Wendy is playing on the First Avenue performance. It's A Bb9 chord with a D in the bass.
[Edited 5/4/18 9:38am]
For the record, what is the song’s opening chord?
I was in standard tuning, and Bbadd9 would be the easiest way to tab it.
I'm not interested in what the easy way to play it or notate it is. I'm interested in accuracy. And the chord I tabbed out is what she is playing in the opening of Purple Rain. It's putting the 3rd (D) in the bass that gives it that unique voicing.
e ---1--- B ---1--- G ---3--- D ---0--- A ---x--- E ---x---
This is the chord. If anyone tries to tell you otherwise they're wrong, trust me. You can CLEARY see what Wendy is playing on the First Avenue performance. It's A Bb9 chord with a D in the bass.
[Edited 5/4/18 9:38am]
Thank you. In this case anyone is Wendy herself . I''ve quoted the article where she talks about the bar on the 3rd fret. I alway's played the opening chord like you tabbed it so i was surprised reading that article. It should also be noted that Wendy is talking about how the opening chord was originaly played by her.
e ---1--- B ---1--- G ---3--- D ---0--- A ---x--- E ---x---
This is the chord. If anyone tries to tell you otherwise they're wrong, trust me. You can CLEARY see what Wendy is playing on the First Avenue performance. It's A Bb9 chord with a D in the bass.
[Edited 5/4/18 9:38am]
Thank you. In this case anyone is Wendy herself . I''ve quoted the article where she talks about the bar on the 3rd fret. I alway's played the opening chord like you tabbed it so i was surprised reading that article. It should also be noted that Wendy is talking about how the opening chord was originaly played by her.
I don't know why she says that, because when you watch her play it she doesn't employ that technique at any point except for when she does use her thumb to reach over and mute the E and A string in the opening chord, which might be what she means.
e ---1--- B ---1--- G ---3--- D ---0--- A ---x--- E ---x---
This is the chord. If anyone tries to tell you otherwise they're wrong, trust me. You can CLEARY see what Wendy is playing on the First Avenue performance. It's A Bb9 chord with a D in the bass.
[Edited 5/4/18 9:38am]
Actually, I took another listen to the released version. That is what's played but there's also a Bb below the D. My feeling is that the Bb was overdubbed, although it's possible to play it by doing
e ---3---
B ---2---
G ---4---
D ---0---
A ---1---
E ---x---
At least this is the way I could do it with my small hands.
e ---1--- B ---1--- G ---3--- D ---0--- A ---x--- E ---x---
This is the chord. If anyone tries to tell you otherwise they're wrong, trust me. You can CLEARY see what Wendy is playing on the First Avenue performance. It's A Bb9 chord with a D in the bass.
[Edited 5/4/18 9:38am]
Actually, I took another listen to the released version. That is what's played but there's also a Bb below the D. My feeling is that the Bb was overdubbed, although it's possible to play it by doing
e ---3---
B ---2---
G ---4---
D ---0---
A ---1---
E ---x---
At least this is the way I could do it with my small hands.
This would be my guess as well because even a novice musician can hear the low Bb in the chord (low E string at the 6th fret) and everyone recognizes the Bb as the first note in the riff moving to the next chord.
I'm sick and tired of the Prince fans being sick and tired of the Prince fans that are sick and tired!
I can hear the Bb on the bottom now. Okay so here it is, beyond doubt haha:
e ---1--- B ---1--- G ---3--- D ---0--- A ---1--- E ---x--
you know you guys can go look at the sheet music for this right?
The sheet music is still just some random persons interpretation. There's no reason to think it's right/accurate. I typed in 'Purple Rain sheet music' and the very first result is... wrong:
you're playing guitar right? go to music notes and punch in purple rain and get the guitar tabs, and i play piano, i don't think the version i have is wrong at all.
dandan said:
PeteSilas said:
you know you guys can go look at the sheet music for this right?
The sheet music is still just some random persons interpretation. There's no reason to think it's right/accurate. I typed in 'Purple Rain sheet music' and the very first result is... wrong:
New topic
Printable
Report post to moderator
. I''ve quoted the article where she talks about the bar on the 3rd fret. I alway's played the opening chord like you tabbed it so i was surprised reading that article. It should also be noted that Wendy is talking about how the opening chord was 
