Prince was proficient on guitar keys bass and drums.

but in order to maintain proficiency he needed to practise each

instrument at least 1,2 hours a day to stay in shape.

Considering the fact that Prince had busy

days consisted

of meeteings,composing rehearsals i highly doubt he had time to practise all

4 instruments on a daily basis.

so was there a period where you thought Prince plays great some

nstruments but no so good the other?

I think that during 1998-2000 period Prince didnt practise guitar at all.

he struggled with guitar playing

during every concert i heard in that era Rave 2000 being an example .but at the same time

he was killing it on bass during that time.

In 2004 he was playing some really hot drums(Glass Cutter) but he didnt sound so great on piano at that time.

thebanishedone said:

Prince was proficient on guitar keys bass and drums.

but in order to maintain proficiency he needed to practise each

instrument at least 1,2 hours a day to stay in shape.

Considering the fact that Prince had busy

days consisted

of meeteings,composing rehearsals i highly doubt he had time to practise all

4 instruments on a daily basis.

so was there a period where you thought Prince plays great some

nstruments but no so good the other?

I think that during 1998-2000 period Prince didnt practise guitar at all.

he struggled with guitar playing

during every concert i heard in that era Rave 2000 being an example .but at the same time

he was killing it on bass during that time.

In 2004 he was playing some really hot drums(Glass Cutter) but he didnt sound so great on piano at that time.

That´s what many people here on the org said during those years and I partly agree with you but saying that he struggled with guitar playing is a bit of a stretch. And keep in mind that he was also constantly touring, too, so he definitely practised a lot, too.

In hindsight, I find it remarkable that he still had so much discipline and kept doing his thing during those late 90s, early 00 years considering what he was going through businesswise and in his private life.

thebanishedone said:

Prince was proficient on guitar keys bass and drums.

but in order to maintain proficiency he needed to practise each

instrument at least 1,2 hours a day to stay in shape.

Considering the fact that Prince had busy

days consisted

of meeteings,composing rehearsals i highly doubt he had time to practise all

4 instruments on a daily basis.

so was there a period where you thought Prince plays great some

nstruments but no so good the other?

I think that during 1998-2000 period Prince didnt practise guitar at all.

he struggled with guitar playing

during every concert i heard in that era Rave 2000 being an example .but at the same time

he was killing it on bass during that time.

In 2004 he was playing some really hot drums(Glass Cutter) but he didnt sound so great on piano at that time.

Motherless child on November 22, 1999.

It's on youtube, look, listen, maybe you will change your opinion.

ForbiddenFruit said:

thebanishedone said:

Prince was proficient on guitar keys bass and drums.

but in order to maintain proficiency he needed to practise each

instrument at least 1,2 hours a day to stay in shape.

Considering the fact that Prince had busy

days consisted

of meeteings,composing rehearsals i highly doubt he had time to practise all

4 instruments on a daily basis.

so was there a period where you thought Prince plays great some

nstruments but no so good the other?

I think that during 1998-2000 period Prince didnt practise guitar at all.

he struggled with guitar playing

during every concert i heard in that era Rave 2000 being an example .but at the same time

he was killing it on bass during that time.

In 2004 he was playing some really hot drums(Glass Cutter) but he didnt sound so great on piano at that time.

Motherless child on November 22, 1999.

It's on youtube, look, listen, maybe you will change your opinion.

I've seen Motherless Child long time ago,sorry but its mess.

and yes he did strugle to play his own solos.and you can see by the way

he was playing that he was out of his element 1998 up until 2000 hit n run tour

after that time he got better and better

ForbiddenFruit said:

thebanishedone said:

Prince was proficient on guitar keys bass and drums.

but in order to maintain proficiency he needed to practise each

instrument at least 1,2 hours a day to stay in shape.

Considering the fact that Prince had busy

days consisted

of meeteings,composing rehearsals i highly doubt he had time to practise all

4 instruments on a daily basis.

so was there a period where you thought Prince plays great some

nstruments but no so good the other?

I think that during 1998-2000 period Prince didnt practise guitar at all.

he struggled with guitar playing

during every concert i heard in that era Rave 2000 being an example .but at the same time

he was killing it on bass during that time.

In 2004 he was playing some really hot drums(Glass Cutter) but he didnt sound so great on piano at that time.

Motherless child on November 22, 1999.

It's on youtube, look, listen, maybe you will change your opinion.

When I want one of those mesmerising, multi faceted, emotional solos, this is one of the Prince guitar performances I return to. This and Joy In Repetition from It Ain't Over, Empty Room, The Undertaker from The Undertaker VHS. RNRHOF comes after these to me. His guitar playing is the main reason I became a fan. He never missed...

milesb said:

ForbiddenFruit said:

Motherless child on November 22, 1999.

It's on youtube, look, listen, maybe you will change your opinion.

When I want one of those mesmerising, multi faceted, emotional solos, this is one of the Prince guitar performances I return to. This and Joy In Repetition from It Ain't Over, Empty Room, The Undertaker from The Undertaker VHS. RNRHOF comes after these to me. His guitar playing is the main reason I became a fan. He never missed...

See you are subjective.Prince is one of my favorite guitar players.but if you cant spot a difference between anything he did b4 or after 1998-2000 period than i dont know what to say.

you can see and hear that Prince didnt practise at all during those two years.

take a listen to any live show from 1997 and than listen to 1998 or 1999 up to rave 2000 and he was much better than in 1997 than 1998-2000

but starting with hitnruyn 2000 tour he strated getting back.

Whats so strange of person who plays 4 instruments not practicing one?

i thionk he was focused on bass in 1998 2000 period

his bass intro to Kiss rave 2000 was music highlight of that concert

I agree. His tone back then was so over processed, muddy and saturated. I'd go to bat and say his 3EG rock guitar tone was better than his 1999-2000 tone.

thebanishedone said:

ForbiddenFruit said:

Motherless child on November 22, 1999.

It's on youtube, look, listen, maybe you will change your opinion.

I've seen Motherless Child long time ago,sorry but its mess.

That's crazy.

It's one of his most committed performances, especially on guitar.

jjam said:

thebanishedone said:

I've seen Motherless Child long time ago,sorry but its mess.

That's crazy.

It's one of his most committed performances, especially on guitar.

maybe 2 u.to me its a mess ,he had much better performances b4 and after

While trying to respect everyone's opinion capacity to assess a musician's own technical skills, I'm always a little taken aback by those criticisms regarding Prince's skills at such or such instrument (or any of his bandmembers for that matter).

.

I'm no musician myself, I used to be a singer years ago but I quit doing that long ago, and I never played any instrument, so I can't claim to be an expect except maybe, to some extent, when it comes to vocals, but I've never heard anything played by Prince or his bandmates that sounded unprofessional to me. A little rough sometimes, yeah, particularly in the early days, and yeah Prince maybe isn't Keith or Herbie on the piano, and Kirk Johnson maybe isn't John Blackwell on the drums, but that's a long way from not being skilled or being unprofessional.

.

Besides, when it comes to former associates or any other professional musician discussing Prince's skills at either vocals, guitar, keys, bass or drums in interviews, it appears they ALL agree on saying that Prince and his bandmembers were always top-notch musicians, high skilled professionals, if not stellar.

.

So in the end the only people who seem to criticize Prince and his bandmembers' skills appear to be the audience, mere listeners, non-professional musicians for the vast majority of them. And that just makes me wonder on what grounds people come-up with those conclusions. Are they actually qualified? Many people tend to believe that they are experts on everything, but it is not the case. So I'd really be interested in knowing, when people criticize the technical aspects of Prince's or his musician's playing skills (I'm not talking about the artistic or esthetics aspects, which is something more subjective), what their qualifications are when it comes to assessing such things, and which reasoning leads them to their conclusion?

databank said:

While trying to respect everyone's opinion capacity to assess a musician's own technical skills, I'm always a little taken aback by those criticisms regarding Prince's skills at such or such instrument (or any of his bandmembers for that matter).

.

I'm no musician myself, I used to be a singer years ago but I quit doing that long ago, and I never played any instrument, so I can't claim to be an expect except maybe, to some extent, when it comes to vocals, but I've never heard anything played by Prince or his bandmates that sounded unprofessional to me. A little rough sometimes, yeah, particularly in the early days, and yeah Prince maybe isn't Keith or Herbie on the piano, and Kirk Johnson maybe isn't John Blackwell on the drums, but that's a long way from not being skilled or being unprofessional.

.

Besides, when it comes to former associates or any other professional musician discussing Prince's skills at either vocals, guitar, keys, bass or drums in interviews, it appears they ALL agree on saying that Prince and his bandmembers were always top-notch musicians, high skilled professionals, if not stellar.

.

So in the end the only people who seem to criticize Prince and his bandmembers' skills appear to be the audience, mere listeners, non-professional musicians for the vast majority of them. And that just makes me wonder on what grounds people come-up with those conclusions. Are they actually qualified? Many people tend to believe that they are experts on everything, but it is not the case. So I'd really be interested in knowing, when people criticize the technical aspects of Prince's or his musician's playing skills (I'm not talking about the artistic or esthetics aspects, which is something more subjective), what their qualifications are when it comes to assessing such things, and which reasoning leads them to their conclusion?

the topic is not about criticizing,and yes i do agree Prince always played on proffesional level.

but when u play lots of instruments its very hard to b equally great on all of

them especially if u have other stuff to do like business ventures and other things.so topic

is about Prince not being always polished on instruments he plays because of various reasons.sometimes maybehe ws more into one instrument and less into another ...

after hearing Prince play sucky guitar I see why The Mother left her child!He was truly awful at this time!eddie vAN HALEN OR JESSE JOHNSON HE AINT!

ForbiddenFruit said:

thebanishedone said:

Prince was proficient on guitar keys bass and drums.

but in order to maintain proficiency he needed to practise each

instrument at least 1,2 hours a day to stay in shape.

Considering the fact that Prince had busy

days consisted

of meeteings,composing rehearsals i highly doubt he had time to practise all

4 instruments on a daily basis.

so was there a period where you thought Prince plays great some

nstruments but no so good the other?

I think that during 1998-2000 period Prince didnt practise guitar at all.

he struggled with guitar playing

during every concert i heard in that era Rave 2000 being an example .but at the same time

he was killing it on bass during that time.

In 2004 he was playing some really hot drums(Glass Cutter) but he didnt sound so great on piano at that time.

Motherless child on November 22, 1999.

It's on youtube, look, listen, maybe you will change your opinion.

Oh dear.

as a musician myself, i don't even see how he did all he did, but that's what made him unique. I only play piano, have thought of playing guitar but just don't have the time. the stories that prince didn't sleep had to be true otherwise there was no way he could have done all he did. He wasn't a virtuoso on any instrument I don't think but technical ability is a dime a dozen and means nothing, i'd rather have a full on artist than some jackoff who can play a lot of really fast notes, those are everywhere, here too, they all think they are better than Prince. To be as good as an oscar peterson on piano, you have to have put in the time, oscar says he played 18 hours a day during his early years, that is incomprehensible. Oscar also wasn't known as a composer,dancer, producer, singer, just a pianist. Even Prince said he couldn't imaging playing like Coltrane did, 14 hours a day on one instrument. It's all a trade off, prince was great on guitar, one of the best, he could have been even better but that might have cost the production, the performance aspect, the image aspect. each aspect takes a lot of time. Just him sitting getting his hair done probably took hours a week at times in his career, all for image, that's hours he could have been playing guitar. The rehearsals that lasted hours, that all could have been sacrificed to work on technique all by himself, then where would we be? a guitarist who may have been even greater but no real bands because he didn't have the energy to whip these guys in shape. It's all a tradeoff. As a musician myself, i work alone, i don't have time to try to convince other musicians to do things like I want them, Prince put a lot of energy into those areas, and he wasn't a nice guy like i am either.

[Edited 3/16/19 15:16pm]

thebanishedone said:

jjam said:

That's crazy.

It's one of his most committed performances, especially on guitar.

maybe 2 u.to me its a mess ,he had much better performances b4 and after

And isn't that how differing opinions work? Wow, it's remarkable to have two separate forms of thought...