Research on Prince.

Being a massive fan of Prince I regard him as one of the greatest musicians of all time and is my main influence for guitar playing. I wanted to take some time to look in to just how he worked when it came to songwriting, his recording process and his overall routine of how he created so much music.

Introduction and Songwriting:

As a musician sometimes it takes a while for inspiration to hit you to create a new song, with the average amount of time to create an album roughly taking 2-3 years, not for Prince. He is known to write enough material to release an album every month! This is astounding to anybody, but I wanted to look from a musicians perspective on what it is that makes Prince tick with his songwriting and how he goes about bringing his ideas to life.

Prince seems to me like a mad genius when it comes to songwriting, he has a vault filled with thousands of songs that he has written that he believes aren't good enough. I don't know any other artist who writes that much and to such a high level as prince. He is a multi-instrumentalist who wrote every song, played every instrument and produced everything on his first album "For You" released in 1978 at just 21 years of age.

After looking through multiple sources to find out just how his creative mindset works I found a great article put together talking about his songwriting to which I will link below.

http://www.brianhartzog.com/prince-the-artist/prince-songwriting.htm

Constantly Evolving his style musically:

Something that I believe is vital to keeping a musician and his music relevant is you have to change or risk becoming stagnant and being forgotten. Prince is one of the best examples of a musician who has kept himself and his music ever changing through out his long career. From his first album (For You) which focused more on a disco/funk sound, to the massively acclaimed "Purple Rain" which featured massively rock influenced tracks such as "Let's Go Crazy", to a much more pop effort in "When Doves Cry" and of course to the huge stadium anthem that is "Purple Rain". These two albums show just how far Prince changed his style during that time period, and it continued throughout his career. From the huge album "Purple Rain" Prince's album "Sign O the times" (1987) saw prince really diving into his experimentation using synths and electronic sounds in his music. This is something that he had always experimented with during the early 80's but the titled track "Sign O the times" saw this track almost composed entirely of an electronic beat and princes vocals. No album was ever the same as before with Prince and this is something he has said on multiple times that he doesn't look back on his work but looks towards what he will do next and does not want to repeat himself.

Constantly Evolving his style visually:

Prince was one of the pioneers who made music not something you just had to listen to, but you had to see it too. Princes live shows were back in the eighties was like going to watch a theatrical show, but with the music of funk/rock and pop. His style changed many times over the years but his most iconic look will always be the 'Purple Rain' era with the long purple trench coat and his curled hair. During this time period Prince sported an Edwardian dress code fusing with his signature trench coat and heels, finally being topped off with the vibrant colours that were dominant during the eighties. I have placed a link to his most iconic look below.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/04/22/12/336F775B00000578-3553491-The_Purple_Rain_tour_was_undoubtedly_the_most_iconic_of_Prince_s-m-79_1461325361695.jpg

His styles changed drastically throughout, from wearing womens bikini bottoms on stage and heels, to his Edwardian "Purple Rain" style, to wearing wearing a bright yellow suit with the rear end cut out (Princes performance of "Get Off" at the MTV VMA's), to a more 70's style that he has donned most recently before he tragically passed away. I have posted a link of all of his most iconic looks through out the years below.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3553491/Prince-s-iconic-outfits.html

Prince knew that how you dress and how you appear on stage is half of the performance itself. This is something I have really taken away form Prince is that what you wear can make a huge difference to your performance and image as a musician.

His guitar work:

Prince was a musician who played 27 instruments but I will be focusing on just his guitar playing as it relates to myself being a guitar player too.

Now Prince is one of the most underrated guitar players out there. Had he just been a guitarist I believe he would be ranked up there with the all time greats (in my opinion he is). What seemed to overshadow this talent was Prince himself. He had so much talent, played so many instruments was an incredible showman, amazing songwriter and singer and the list goes on.

When it comes to technical ability there are many more players better than prince, but what prince is proof of (this is the same for B.B King) that it's not about how many notes you play, or how fast you can run a scale, you have to think about your phrasing, making sure that the guitar compliment the rest of the song and band.

Prince has written one of the most famous guitar solos of all time in "Purple rain". The three odd minute solo screams it's way to the forefront of the track with a bend that demands your attention and respect. This is what Prince was incredible at with his guitar playing, personifying raw emotion through the instrument combined with a flurry of technical prowess.

His ability as guitarist was of many different styles, from blues to funk an to rock. Prince could imitate the sounds of some of the greatest guitarists of all time. He could sound fiery and chaotic like Hendrix, capturing the smoothness and incredible vibrato of B.B King, Being able to make a guitar sing and cry like Santana.

Prince had it all, and perhaps it was Princes enormous talent that made his guitar work not get enough of the recognition it deserved. However in my opinion Prince is up there with the all time greats of the guitar, and is a massive influence to everything I do musically, be it guitar playing, songwriting, and even making that emotional attachment to what you play which is so crucial.