If I wanted To Solo Like Prince? Studie him and Santana? Hendrix had certain scales he used a lot I hear. How do you solo like in the style of Prince?

Meloh9 said:

Learn scales, modes and chords and play like YOU. Nobody respects a copycat. Find your own style and you'll find your own greatness.

BlaqueKnight said:

Now go run and tell this to Andre3000

Gee thanks, seeing that my post said that I wanted to fashion my life and career after Prince. I dont even want a career in music. I just like learning to play. And if nobody likes a copy cat, then you must hate Prince. He said he got his bass playing style from Larry Graham out his own mouth.
[This message was edited Wed Dec 31 9:34:02 PST 2003 by Meloh9]

Easy. Learn funk chords, some easy scales, and go for it.

rdhull said:

Never give up, do ya?

Meloh9 said:

Prince may SAY he got his bass playing style from Larry, but his records say different. Prince has NEVER written a bassline like "Pow". People always bring up that little shit he did in that interview on "Partyman" as if its the Holy Grail of bass playing, but Prince isn't a third the bassist Larry was in his heyday. Okay smartass: here's your answer - learn blues scales. End on a flat 6th during scale runs instead of a 7th and use a flat 9th on occasion. 2 fret note progressions instead of 3 like most blues scales. THERE. Ya happy...non guitar playin' assed mofo. Use ya EARS. Prince's shit is NOT hard to figure out. Odd, but not HARD. Learn how to play like Greg Howe, then you're doing something. Prince 'll seem like grade school guitar playing.
[This message was edited Wed Dec 31 10:28:43 PST 2003 by BlaqueKnight]

BlaqueKnight said:

whoeva said that after listenin 2 so and so that prince will seem like grade school playin needs 2 stay off that crack they been hittin, and 2 the cat who asked how 2 play like prince the answer is this... enjoy, appreciate, and be inspired by his life's work but always do your own thang... free your mind and your ass will follow...

diamondpearl1 said:

Think Prince's playing is more complex than someone like Greg Howe? Not the brightest bulb in the pack, are you? I'll leave the purple crack to you idolworshippers who hang onto every little note Prince plays as if he's the ONLY guitarist. Prince's shit is not hard to play if you'ne been playing for years. You must NOT play guitar.
[This message was edited Wed Dec 31 11:22:30 PST 2003 by BlaqueKnight]

BlaqueKnight said:

Come on. I'm a guitarist. And I must say "Prince is not the best guitarist in the world". Ok, this is right. But we don't speak about it. Inspiration, feeling? It depends on your taste. Not sure what's the meaning of that.
I love Prince, simply. And I can like other guitarists who play better technically than Prince.
But your words are not very kind, and not true.
Only blue scales? Man, you're a liar: what scale is what Prince plays on keyboards or flute on The Question Of You? I put this example cause it's easy to find. But you can find a lot of example in his guitar work.
What scale does Prince play on I could never take the place of your man? A blue scale? If you think that, you musn't play guitar very well.
I think you're a good guitarist, so I come to the conclusion you are not very sincere about this, and you can tell us why.

BlaqueKnight said:

oh dear this was funny

JavierAlcalde said:

I never said anything about ONLY blues scales. WTF? Come on, let's not be extremists, here. I suggested learning blues scales as a starting point.

BlaqueKnight said:

thanks I started learning blues scales awhile ago. and I wasn't trying to be a smart ass. Everybody borrows somewhat. Everybody was influenced by somebody. The Santana influence shows in Prince's guitar work. You can really hear it as early as For You in songs like My Love Is Forever. Its natural to carry the torch in my opinion, and probably necessary. Prince can be very original, yet he is a total hybrid. I never said he was the best guitar player in the world nor am I one to think that a guitar player has to be " technical" to be great. I hear people say stupid shit like B.B. King is Overrated because he does not play fast? When its the emotion that he translates.I was just wondering did Prince seem to have distinct things he used more often. Why is it that everybody that has been playing longer becomes a elitist? I dont care how long you have been playing and how good you think you are. If you cant make people feel you its pointless. Kurt Cobain was a prime example, he could not play like clapton could he? And I am far from a person who only listens to and worship Prince as far as guitar. I probably know more about great guitar players than you. What do you know about Charlie Christian? Not to be a elitist and make the same mistake as you.
[This message was edited Wed Dec 31 12:55:36 PST 2003 by Meloh9]

Meloh9 said:

Co-sign

BlaqueKnight said:

lol..Im beginning to enjoy you more and more..

BlaqueKnight said:

BlaqueKnight said:

You were the one who attacked me with the " Prince shit is not hard to play you none playing MoFo and you kinda assumed that I looked at Prince as some sort of guitar god just for asking? I dont know what your problems are with others here, however you are the one who got defensive in the first place. And Im just sick of people who claim to be such guitar masters having condecending atitudes and posting on the internet. Go Play Something. Go WigglE!

BlaqueKnight said:

If you're starting out on something, be it guitar or school (being the analogy that you made), you can't jump right from 1st grade to 9th, can you?

Wouldn't it be easier to start off with something simple and easy (or, in your terms, starting off in 1st grade) than to expect someone new to guitar to immediately start shredding like Van Halen? And don't say that "you gave a response" because that's not the ONLY thing you did - in the process, you also downgraded someone's desire to want to get better by suggesting that they "learn how to play like Greg Howe."

You can only move one step at a time.

BlaqueKnight said:

Hilarious. Whenever I say things like this about Larry I get bashed. I love Prince's guitar playing, but you're absolutely right.

I have pro musician friends who will SWEAR his tone sounds like "water," he uses so many effects. We argue all the time...

BlaqueKnight said:

Go easy on the horse tranquilizers.

squirrelgrease said:

The only horses getting tranquilized are these lame, broken-legged, headed-for-the-glue-factory assponys riding the tip of Prince's johnson and sweatin' me because my opinion doesn't follow the status quo.
I thought this thread was about "learnin' to play like Prince? Didn't I speak on this? Who else has?

BlaqueKnight said:

Come on, Black. Anyone here is so stupid to deny you wanted to help and you have given an answer. The problem is that you gave an answer and added an agressive and malicious message, something we can translate that way: "ok, if you want to play like Prince do that, but you're wasting your time cause he is not a good guitarist". And this is the moment when we have argued about guitar playing.You're not a victim.

JavierAlcalde said:

And as you can see, I gave a very fast advice, and I didn't say Prince was a master on guitar.

Ok, next things go for Meloh9:
Do you want to play like Prince?
To begin it's easy, learn 9th chords, a pentatonic scale, and most important, keep it funky, playing semi quaver notes.

You don't need anything else to start to play like Prince, and like funky musicians.

But you can use more things. For example, if you want to solo on Purple Rain, you can use Major scale too.
Sometimes it's very useful to use doric scale, or blues scale. It's vital to know at least these 4 scales (Major, pentatonic, doric, blues).


And he loves to use other chords like 7sus, 5, 7(#5#9), #9, sus4, but this is for next step about Prince's music.

Hope you'll enjoy, Meloh9
[This message was edited Thu Jan 1 7:24:43 PST 2004 by JavierAlcalde]

Meloh9 said:

yeah, but Prince is nothing if not an original, knucklehead

Does anyone think Prince's playing reminds them of Steve Vai? There are definitely some Vai-esque moments on The Rainbow Children (in the short atmospheric tracks.) He's definitely a Vai fan (he covered "Tender Surrender" at some point) and Vai loves Prince as well of course.

Prince's Guitar technique has improved alot over the last few years. I'd say he's been inspired by Vai and others to push himself a little more than he has in the past.I do occasionally here a partially Vai-esque phrase here and there but its not an obvious thing. As for the famed cover of "Tender Surrender", I actually heard Vai himself refer to it in an interview. He was, rightly, very proud that Prince had covered his song but when I heard Prince's version (from some concert) it didn't sound that much like "Tender Surrender", apart from the solo octave intro thing on the guitar. In fact, from what I've heard Prince's version isn't "Tender Surrender" at all, its a cover of a tune Hendrix played at Woodstock called "villa nova junction" which has a simlar section in which the band drops out and the guitar plays a short melody in octaves. I suspect that Vai was unconsciously influenced by the intro to "villa nova junction" when he wrote "Tender Surrender" ( I love Steve but he has a history of doing that kind of thing: a big part of "I would Love To.." is taken from "blue wind" by Jeff beck. Steve wasn't even aware of it until an interviewer pointed it out and he had to admit he'd probably unconsciously "borrowed" from Beck. A similar thing happened with the first part of "The Fire Garden Suite" which Steve had thought was original until someone told him Tim Rice had written the tune for the musical Chess years before).

So its kind of funny that old Steve gets credit when Prince covers a Hendrix tune that Steve "copied" in the first place!!!

As for the brain dead baboon with the half-baked "just play a flat 6th every now and then and you'll sound like Prince" rubbish, you can break any musician's work into certain phrases or harmonic/melodic signatures including the incredibly mediocre Greg Howe (Yes I've heard his stuff...dull in the extreme...but oh so perfectly played) but you won't learn much. The keys to Prince's playing are great ears and a great imagination. Listen to 'The Undertaker" sessions, if you ignore the annoying effects you can here the little guy's beautifully warped musical mind at work. He's at his best when he's not playing any particular scales or patterns but letting his ears guide his fingers. Very few musicans, especially guitarists, have the ability or the confidence to do that, maybe Hendrix and Jeff Beck...oh and Santana on a good night.



yes, BlaqueKnight, you're becoming a fucking Greg Howe clone...trust me, one is enough




...Rrriiight, and Kenny G blows a better horn than Miles Davis. You just don't get this whole "music" thing do ya, Knighty? And sadly, you never will.

Blaqueknight is arrogant and agressive, let's hug him everybody, he needs love.