Purple rain chords

EricTheWeary

stratman3142;1051484" said:

richardhomer said:

I'm not great on theory - but at the risk of pedantry - I believe the F is an Fadd9 and the Eb is an Ebadd9.



Someone who actually knows about these things may wish to correct me....





Yes I think you're correct.



My rule of thumb is to call it a '2' chord if it contains a 2nd instead of a 3rd. As all of these chords have a 3rd, and the 2nd (so to speak) is in the octave above the root I suppose they's strictly add9 chords. But I'm happy to stand corrected.



Shoddy workmanship and a lack of attention to detail on my part

Although as that Fadd9 is a bitch then one alternative would be to play it thumb over with an open G string which would turn it back into F2 (without a guitar in front of me I think 1,3,3,0,1,1) . That or a vanilla F aren't exactly right but for those of us with stubby fingers...

digitalkettle

richardhomer said:

And then there's the question as to what the first chord is called?

The open D is the 3rd in Bb - so as it has a third, does that make it a Bbadd9?

My knowledge of this stuff is definitely not as good as it should be....

That's about it...there's the 3rd in the bass which makes it a first inversion 'Bbadd9/D'.

richardhomer

EricTheWeary;1051510" said:

Although as that Fadd9 is a bitch then one alternative would be to play it thumb over with an open G string which would turn it back into F2 (without a guitar in front of me I think 1,3,3,0,1,1) . That or a vanilla F aren't exactly right but for those of us with stubby fingers...

I agree that's a reasonable 'work-round' - I used to be able to play the F#m add 9 in Every Breath You Take with ease on a Strat - now I struggle with it on a Taylor GS Mini (23.5" scale length). Definitely need to adopt 'classical' technique with thumb in the middle of the back of the neck.

That said, there is something about the closeness of the 9th and 3rd in the context of those chords that makes them sound really distinctive.

I think I need to start practicing more....

Gassage

I just texted the lads in the Gilmour band asking them for the chords

They said they didn't know them and DG doesn't know either.

richardhomer

Gassage;1051910" said:

I just texted the lads in the Gilmour band asking them for the chords

They said they didn't know them and DG doesn't know either.

Tell him to PM me - discretion assured....

harpo

Haha, this thread is brilliant ...I'm glad I started it Although I'd still like to know What Springsteen was playing

ftumch

I have played it a few times before but in the band ive played it with they do it in a. Ive learnt the proper chirds now and it just sounds so mych better!
I have my little finger missing on my left hand though (after an accident) so i cant play that 4th chord. However, i just play it
X 6 8 8 6 6 and it sounds 90% correct.
Thanks

thomasross20

Jesus, those chords... surely he must have played around to find what sounded good as I couldn't have immediately played a Gm11 like that lol!

harpo

He wrote it on a piano is what I read somewhere

EricTheWeary

harpo said:

He wrote it on a piano is what I read somewhere

Although from the various links it isn't Prince who actually plays the chords on geetar is it? Forgotten her name now, Wendy thingy played them. Prince does the twiddly bits.

Plectrum

EricTheWeary said:

harpo said:

He wrote it on a piano is what I read somewhere

Although from the various links it isn't Prince who actually plays the chords on geetar is it? Forgotten her name now, Wendy thingy played them. Prince does the twiddly bits.

Wendy Melvoin. Her farther was a jazz musician apparently so I bet she'd been playing those mega-stretch chord shapes for most of her teens....

stratman3142

harpo said:

Haha, this thread is brilliant ...I'm glad I started it Although I'd still like to know What Springsteen was playing

Here's a completely wild guess, based on where he's playing it on the neck. I think there might be a capo on the 5th fret. It almost looks like his hand doesn't move between the 3rd and 4th chords, so I'm not really sure what's going on.

Any better offers?

http://i.imgur.com/Z8HHEzI.jpg

stickyfiddle

Watching again with a guitar on my lap I reckon Bruce has a capo on 3rd (or 4th if the guitar is in E flat) and playing the basic "wonderwall" G, Em, D (maybe sus2), C shapes with minimal movement between each. His guitar is very low in the mix - much more so than usual - so the more "proper" sus/add chords are coming from SVZ and/or Lofgren. You can see that neither of them are capo-ed when they're on screen.

stratman3142

stickyfiddle said:

Watching again with a guitar on my lap I reckon Bruce has a capo on 3rd (or 4th if the guitar is in E flat) and playing the basic "wonderwall" G, Em, D (maybe sus2), C shapes with minimal movement between each. His guitar is very low in the mix - much more so than usual - so the more "proper" sus/add chords are coming from SVZ and/or Lofgren. You can see that neither of them are capo-ed when they're on screen.

Yes that sounds plausible. I might be overthinking it.

Modellista

Just to throw another bunch of inversions into the mix: these are for lazy people (ie me!) because all that changes is the bass note. Would probably work well if accompanied by keys or bass, or as a super-minimalist acoustic arrangement.

xx0311 Bbadd9/D
xx5311 Gm7sus4
xx3311 Fsus4
xx1311 Eb6add9

harpo

/\ that's what I'm talking about

EricTheWeary

[ignore]

StuartMac290

The thing to remember about the original record of Purple Rain is that it's a live recording from a club show - actually the first time they ever played the song live and were effectively trying it out - edited down from 13 minutes to get to the 8-minute version on the album, with only the strings overdubbed.

The iconic solo and falsetto vocals at the end were just improvs, and Wendy Melvoin hit those insane chords again and again effortlessly. If you watch the footage, she does it without batting an eyelid.

It's a stunning performance all round

StuartMac290

http://boingboing.net/2016/04/21/watch-incredible-video-of-prin.html

StuartMac290

Actually, this link is more reliable:

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/videos/see-princes-original-unedited-13-minute-performance-of-purple-rain-20140714