We all know that Prince's guitar skills are heavily underrated. From For You to let's say D&P, he was obviously under the direct influence of Santana (much much more than Hendrick's as a matter of fact), and was thus often not recognized as an original guitar player (which was to a large extent true).

But ever since The Gold Experience era, Prince's guitar style has evolved drastically. Leaving behind his influences and traditional way of playing the guitar (even though he can still deliver a perfect Let's Go Crazy type of solo), he developped what I hold as a very original style, by blending weird sound effects and "spacy" solos (see The Ride or the Rainbow Children for instance). This new style, very personnal and odd, can be heard in most of Prince's recent aftershow jams. And I'm just mad that critics and music lovers do not acknowledge and recognize that Prince's guitar style has mutated into something so distinctive, unique, challenging and beautiful. 'Nuff said!
[This message was edited Wed Nov 12 8:28:37 PST 2003 by DaFunkFreak]

I just love that 'dirty' way he plays the guitar, like in The War and Rainbow Children. I think that's what you're talking about? Is this an original style? (I'm not well versed on a lot of artists).

Prince is without a doubt the most under-rated guitarist in modern day. He has tasteful chops galore!

I remember reading a comment by Satch(Joe Satriani) that he felt Prince was "a great guitarist". Now that's saying something coming from Satch.

sabaisabai said:

Yeap, that's a good example of that (even though it can be more "spacy" and ethereal). Never heard any guitar player doing that kind of stuff. Genuinely unique.

hes ok...just kidding

jw1914 said:

It is something!! Even though Prince is not the greatest guitar player in terms of pure technic (Satch, among many others, is way faster than Prince), he is one of the best guitar players ever in terms of sonic textures.

Yeah, I know, this "sonic textures" may sound a little bit pompous, but I didn't find a better way to put it. Thought about "sound architect" for a while (something Varese - who influenced Zappa a lot - wanted to achieve: his goal was to create "sonic sculptures"), but it sounds even more pompous...Anyways, hope you see where I'm getting at

wildblueangel said:

A very zen-like comment

DaFunkFreak said:

I dig that he plays with lots of soul. He will never beat a Grant Green or Wes in terms of technique, but he really feels what he`s playing.

soulpower said:

Right on the spot!! That's exactly the idea I wanted to convey, expressed in a less concise and simple manner!!
[This message was edited Wed Nov 12 9:46:04 PST 2003 by DaFunkFreak]

soulpower said:

By the way Soul Power, bought a Mandrill CD this week-end: very cool. Thanks for having mentionned this band in a previous post!

Who cares if someone is 'faster'. As a friend once said - he's not competing in the guitar olympics, he's a musician and is creating wonderful music.

In fact, these guys who play fast are really just boring. If you are impressed more by how fast someone plays, you're not a music fan. Sure, i'm impressed by these guys who play really fast but I'm similarly impressed when I watched a man balance a motorcyle on his chin with his arms folded (recently on tv!).

I don't care what you say - we've all been disappoined and thrilled by his albums over the years, even his live shows, but I've always been impressed when he simply plays guitar~!

Ronny said:

yeah but prince can still play as fast as every guitarist apart from the finger tapping ones and i honestly believe that. he just chooses not to. joe perry from aerosmith is the same, sometimes he'll just play an incredibly quick solo and you know hes holding back most of the time, yet guitarists who in my opinion are far inferior get loads of credit for blazing solos
as for prince being good or whathaveyou, i think he could be known as one of the best guitarists ever if he gave a shit, by which i mean it means more to prince to be known as one of the best songwriters ever than the best guitarists, each song has its own merits and doesnt necessarily need a huge guitar thing. id still love him to do a finger tapping album just to show people! isnt there a time song, i dont know which one, but prince is playing guitar in the background and on the latter half of the song it sounds like proper finger tapping! amazing!

DaFunkFreak said:

You`re welcome. You should see them live... which one did you get?

He's pretty good.

*FART*...oops, sorry...

This is one of the few areas where I still hold vast amounts of respect for Prince. When it comes to his guitar playing; he hasn`t allowed the JW-religious-pagen-mumbo-jumbo to interfere with how he plays. Prince must spends numerous hours a week in the studio honing his skills and exploring new ways become a better guitar player. Personally I feel that he has evolved into one of the best black (can I say that without offending anyone?) guitar players in the world! I still get chills when I listen to the 3 minute NPGMC guitar jam from Days of Wild. WHEW!!!

Ronny said:

Well, being able to play fast is a criterion, whether you like or not. I am not saying that this is a quality per se, but still, it does matter. Take Rachmaninov's piano concerto (number 3 in particular) or Bach's Goldberg's Variations (the 1955 Gould's recording especially): these are two very sophisticated pieces of music that both require a high degree of technicality (mainly because of the richness of the chords and melodies and also because both need to be played fast at times) and are oh so beautiful at the same time. What I'm saying is that technicality (when not used for the sake of it but to convey musicality) is important in music, just as in every art form.

soulpower said:

Just outside of town. Brilliant LP!

Well, it has been said thousand of times before.
1st thing, it's clear Prince is not technically the best guitarsit. And it's easy to understand why. Steve Vai, for example, practise 9 hours a day, only guitar (and when he isn't on tour). And it's sure Prince practice at least guitar, piano, keys, apart from composing and recording all the time.

2nd. For this reason, he doesn't dominates some techniques like tapping, and he doesn't play so fast.

3rd. Why is he underrated? Because he hasn't got his own style? FAALSE. The reason is because the "guitarplayer religion fans" only believe in guitarist who only plays guitar. I mean, all the albums by Eric Clapton, Santana, Satriani, Van Halen, etc. are guitar albums, and ALL THE SONGS have a guitar solo. Look for into Prince's discography. There isn't any album only for electric guitar, and all songs with incredible guitar solos. There albums where you can't find almost anything.
If you wanted to record a Cd of guitar to a friend, you should make a selection from different albums.

4th. NEW PRINCE'S STYLE? Well, more or less. It's true he is using the effects, and it sounds personal (for example in NEWS), but, what about Xpectaction? In this album, he plays "clean" guitar and it sounds very personal. I BELIEVE Prince has improved his techinque, but, to my mind:

Prince has always had a personal style. For example, guitar solo in Batdance, don't you think it's Prince and it can be only Prince? There's a lot of times you hear a song and you think: this guitar sounds like Prince.

To sum up, I think Prince is on top of guitarists because he has enough technique to play almost any song, and enough soul to show us what he wants to express.

If he wanted to be recognized, the only way it's to publish a record plenty of guitar solos. But the real fans don't need it to know the truth.

funkbible said:

One of the best black guitarists?? I'm not offended my brother, just confused. I didn't realize being black had anything to do with anything. Prince is my favorite guitar player. I do believe his style of play has shown itself to be unique and the passion in that playing can't be denied.
The solos in "Gold", Pink Cashmere", "The Rainbow Children" and "Empty Room" (live) are a few examples of that. We can't go putting guitar players in classes of black and white. Whenever Prince has shared the stage with Eric Clapton, Santana, Stevie Wonder or Sheryl Crow he's been completely in his element. Black or white, I put him up there with all the guys they rank atop those dumb lists in Rolling Stone and Guitar World simply for his contribution to the art.
P.S. Talk to an actual JW before you go ranting about pagan mumbo jumbo. One MIGHT take offense to that .

Lots of my friends who plays music, says Prince knows how to play guitar and is great, but they think his music is crap.. personnaly I think his guitar playing is great!! he should be on a top 10 of best guitarists ever.. seriously..

Sandra said:

are u serious?

JavierAlcalde said:

VERY good points Javier.

Prince is such an amazing guitarist, and yet he truly is underrated, like so many other funk/rock guitarists. How often does Catfish Collins ever get recognized for his skills? Or what about that guy from Slave? Or the guy from Earth, Wind, & Fire? The list goes on.

It's like, I read these guitar magazines and rarely do these guys get a nod. With those mags, it's mostly Classic Rock, Punk, Metal, Progressive, and maybe some Blues & Jazz for good measure. Even the New Wave guitarists rarely get mentioned. The point is, I think Prince and many other great guitarists of his caliber deserve more credit than they receive.

From DEC 2003 GUITARONE cover article

BATTLE OF THE AXES: 126 Legends Cut Heads

"chops king Eddie Van Halen
eked by Prince, whose astonishing
chops did not go unrecognized by the judges"


http://www.guitaronemag.c...ature1.asp




[This message was edited Wed Nov 12 11:17:00 PST 2003 by PFunkjazz]

DaFunkFreak said:

Yeah, that one rocks. But there is much better stuff, like "Composite truth", "Mandrill" and "Mandrill Is". Their best album you cant find on CD, only on vinyl. Its called "Mandrill Land" (Polydor, 1974) and its a double LP with some amazing jams on there. Some of the songs you can hear on the Polydor Mandrill Anthology 2-CD-set.

Prince ain't no Monte Montgomery...

Soladeo

OdysseyMiles said:

come on guy's u kno wot was meant by "one o the best black guitarists"

its well known most black music artists are soul singers etc

most white music artists are rock singers etc

thank god 4 prince and hendrix , they proving its just music not black or white...just music !

imo, p is one of the very best guitarist's, at the marquee a/show london last year "i swear both his hands were a blur on geeetar" what's all this talk bout fast !


he simply sooo... good !

danielboon said:

Heaven forbid you consider the entire range of jazz artists like MILES DAVIS, CHARLIE PARKER, CHARLIE MINGUS, THELONIOUS MONK, DIZZY GILLESPIE, WES MONTGOMERY, JOHN COLTRANE, HORACE SILVER etc, etc.

Oh forget it.

That music is way too BLACK for you!