5 Must-Know Licks From My Purple Rain Cover (Prince) + Free Tabs

Hey everyone. Today I'll be breaking down five licks for my Purple Rain covers with Mark Lerry and Chris Buck.

We're going to look at some really interesting ideas, concepts, and techniques that you can study and explore. Free taps are linked in the

explore. Free taps are linked in the description. Let's dig right in.

description. Let's dig right in.

[music] [music] So, here we go. Let's start with the first lick. This one goes over the Fsus

first lick. This one goes over the Fsus 2 chord [music] and we're in the key of B flat major. So

that means we're dealing with a five chord. The underlying mode would be the

chord. The underlying mode would be the F mixolyian mode. One thing that I strongly recommend you do is that you download the tab from below and look at the rhythmic notation here because

you'll notice that this lick doesn't start on beat one, it starts on beat three. And one thing that is important

three. And one thing that is important to me in general is that I'm very rhythmically aware whether I play rhythm or I play lead. I'm fully rhythmically

aware of what subdivisions I play, where a phrase starts, where a phrase ends, what the exact note lengths are, etc. So, the first thing I might do is I look

at this transcription and I might count myself in and then vocalize the rhythm in a loop. Okay? Something like this.

One 2 3 4 one two da da da da da one two da da da da da. You'll notice that there are three triplets, two 16s, and a quarter note. Yeah. And you want to have

quarter note. Yeah. And you want to have that down. That is not negotiable. It's

that down. That is not negotiable. It's

it's it does want to be on the beat. At

least in the style of music or in the style of guitar that I play. So, now

that we got the rhythm, let's assign some notes to it.

I start on the root note of F. And most

of the time, I'll be referring to the interval functions of the underlying chord. So in this case that would be F

chord. So in this case that would be F over the F chord that is root and we have a G that would be second. We have

an A and that would be third. This is

how I think about improvisation in general. So this is also how I

general. So this is also how I communicate my ideas. Sometimes like

with blues based material which is part of this lick as well. I'll think of a key center or something like this. But

in this case I think of playing over the actual chord because that makes me do different note choices. So I go root, second, third on the A string. And then

I go seventh two or ninth natural nine and root on the G string and that is an enclosure. I have a target note which is

enclosure. I have a target note which is the root note F and I target it from below and above and therefore enclos it.

As far as picking is concerned, I'm starting with an upstroke because I want to end up with the downstroke on the down beat. So I kind of reverse engineered that [music]

and that is really important for me to lock in rhythmically also on a physical level. And that leads us to bar two.

level. And that leads us to bar two.

Here we encounter a 313 pattern. 313

refers to the configuration of notes per string. We have three notes on the A

string. We have three notes on the A string, one note on the D string, and three notes on the G string. And the

reason I use that pattern is that it's very easy to economy pick and it makes for a very smooth sound. So I actually find notes that fit the pattern, right?

The physicality comes first because that allows for a very smooth sound and I find notes that fit within that mold. So

here I'll start on the third which is the 12th fret A string. Go up

diietonically and then I go up in thirds [music] which results in a C minor 7 chord or C minor 7 arpeggio rather. So

and I enclose the major third of F.

As far as picking is concerned, we're going down up down up down. Okay.

up down. Okay.

and we end up with yet another downstroke on the down beat. Super

convenient to play. It's fast, it's smooth, but it's also locked in rhythmically. And then I do the exact

rhythmically. And then I do the exact same thing starting on the 15th fret, which is the fifth of F7. Go up

diatonically. And there I play this arpeggio right here. So we're in the key of B flat. So that is an E flat major 7 arpeggio.

And we enclose the fifth of F.

Both together sound like this.

And let's play the first two bars in succession. Goes like this. One, two.

succession. Goes like this. One, two.

[music] Okay, make sure you get that down first.

Let's get it up to speed a little bit.

One two.

Something like that. From there, we go into this little melodic idea. Goes like

this.

And that refers to the underlying cadence which is it's very iconic, right? And I cite that rhythmically.

I kind of try to tailor my solos and my improvisations to the track. I see it as kind of a a tailor made suit as opposed to a one-sizefits-all kind of suit,

right? I want this to be very specific

right? I want this to be very specific to the song. So I I will often cite themes from the song in my solos quoting that rhythm. And from there I go

into a blues idea in the key of B flat major or G minor. However you think about it. I kind of think of it in a

about it. I kind of think of it in a keycentric way. So

keycentric way. So I don't really think about how that relates to the chord. It's just a piece of tension that I create. It's like a

chanty type thing. And I create it by fretting the 17th fret on the G string, bending up a whole step, and then playing the same note freted on the B

string.

Everybody who's dabbled in blues and rock guitar has encountered this. And

then I add an 18th fret F on top on the B string.

And that gives this little poly rhythm because we're playing a group of three against a binary beat. 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 something like that. How it does go.

[music] This is how it resolves. So as far as picking is concerned, I'm doing doing two consecutive downstrokes. [music]

But I don't sweep. I actually do discrete downstrokes.

And I have this little pull-off idea.

This is how it goes. using the G minor blues scale.

And that concludes the phrase. And now

let's play the whole thing one last time. One, two.

time. One, two.

[music] A little faster. One. Two.

[music] [music] [music] Lick number two is fairly easy to understand, but can be hard to master.

Requires some technique and some dexterity in both of your hands. And it

is based off an E flat sus 2 arpeggio.

So we got three notes, fifth, second, and root.

And I'm playing them in a sequence of three notes descending from the top note. And I do that over and over again

note. And I do that over and over again as six tuplets. 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1. And as far as technical execution is

1. And as far as technical execution is concerned, I do a downstroke, a pulloff, and an upstroke. Repeat.

Then I sustain on the highest note. So

slow it goes like 1 2 3 4.

Little faster.

Okay, and that is bar number one. Bar

number two is based off of a very popular shredd sequence containing six notes played to sixuplets starting with a downstroke using strict alternate picking and goes like this. [music]

You've heard countless shredders play this. Let's play it a little bit faster.

this. Let's play it a little bit faster.

[music] What I do here when I practice this, I do a massive downstroke accent on the down beat. That keeps my two hands

down beat. That keeps my two hands locked in in between. It's kind of whatever goes, but I want to make sure that I hit that landmark on the down beat on the first note with a downstroke. And then I know I'm kind of

downstroke. And then I know I'm kind of good. And I take that down the strings

good. And I take that down the strings as well.

Practice that on each set of strings until it feels comfortable. And then I conclude the lick with frets 12, 13, and 15 on the D string, strictly diietonic

to the key of B flat major.

And then four notes on the G string, including a chromatic note.

And that chromatic note is there to lead us back to the tonic chord and play the root note as a target note on the down beat.

One that creates that satisfying resolution.

The whole second bar slows like this.

Fast [music] the whole lick. Slow

and the whole lick. Fast. [music]

Sorry, that wasn't the whole lick. Let's

do it again.

That was the whole lick. Have fun.

Before we move on to the next lick, let's quickly break down the tone I'm using here. My gear of choice for this

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back to the list.

[music] [music] The next lick is fairly weird sounding and fairly complex to learn. This one

uses a lot of seemingly random interval jumps that are a fifth or greater. And

even though it's strictly dietonic, it has a weird sound. And I attribute that to the nature of those larger intervals at seemingly random places. So, let's

hear this thing slow. I actually have to relearn this on the spot because my transcription is wrong. I'm going to have to fix it after the video, but I'm going to give it my best shot. It starts

on beat four, goes over G minor, and here goes nothing. 1 2 3.

[music] Okay, let's break this one down very, very slowly. We're starting on the minor

very slowly. We're starting on the minor third on the low E string with a downstroke and we hybrid pick an F on the D string. That is a fifth interval already.

And we slide up from the F to the G and go down to the F fret it on the A string with a downstroke.

And this alone you want to practice.

And then we add another fifth jump with yet another middle finger use. And I

love this sequence of notes. [music]

Such a cool launching pad for a lot of cool other ideas that you can do. And

it's fairly comfortable to play as well, despite its weird nature.

unorthodox nature. Continuing, we are going into this arpeggio.

There's a three note arpeggio G minor 7 utilizing the fifth, third, and seven, but jumps intervals. So, it has a fairly wide intervalic layout. And the picking

is downstroke, middle [music] finger, downstroke.

That is the first half. The second half starts on the high E string, sliding up with the first finger from the fourth to the fifth.

And I do a downstroke, maybe an upstroke. Who knows?

upstroke. Who knows?

Who's to say? On the F here, and then I descend what I call the pentatonic plus.

Meaning I utilize the notes of the minor pentatonic. And I add a ninth to it

pentatonic. And I add a ninth to it until I hit the high A here. Let's play

the whole thing one more time until this point.

And by this time, the chord has changed to F major, which means our target note A here is actually the major third of

that chord. And I descend going 3 2 1 5.

that chord. And I descend going 3 2 1 5.

And if you've read my book, Modern Rocket Soloing, you'll know that I refer to this as a tetraatonic. Tetonic being

an arpeggio, or sorry, a triad, in this case, F major, plus an added note, in this case, the two. So 3 2 1 5 and from there I descend with the another

tetraatonic using the fourth. So F major triad plus fourth. 5 4 3 1 5 4 3

I conclude like this. So tetraatonics

all over the place. How I like it in my playing. The whole thing goes like this.

playing. The whole thing goes like this.

[music] [music] [music] [screaming] Lots of fun to be had with this one.

[music] This next lick is based off of a pentatonic sequence that is popularized by players such as Eric Johnson and Paul Gilbert. It utilizes the G minor

Gilbert. It utilizes the G minor pentatonic in our case grouped as six notes played as six toplets. And it goes something like this.

[music] Now that is it slow. Let's break it down here. We're using the mother of all

here. We're using the mother of all fingerings and that is the E shape of the G minor pentatonic. So,

it's the very popular pentatonic box that everybody knows. And we're

sequencing it over a sets of three strings. So, we're going to go A, sorry,

strings. So, we're going to go A, sorry, E, A, D, A, D, G, and D, GB as sixuplets. Okay? And I alternate pick

sixuplets. Okay? And I alternate pick everything starting with a downstroke minus the second note there. I use a little hammer on to give myself a little bit of a head start. So I go down hammer

with fingers one and three. And then

everything else is alternate picks.

[music] I like to use my fingers 1 three and one two depending on where I am within the sequence here. So I go 1 3 1 2 1 2 1 2 1

sequence here. So I go 1 3 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 3.

And up here [music] I play this little melodic line that utilizes a freted note and then another note bent from a half step below into

the same note as the freted note.

And up here I play a melodic line that uses a bunch of pre-bends.

If you weren't to do the pre-bends, it would be fine, but not as spicy.

So, you want to learn to do that quick little move.

It's a nice little trick to add to your toolbox. And let's play the whole thing

toolbox. And let's play the whole thing in conjunction with the rest one more time. Goes like this.

time. Goes like this.

Tempo.

Make sure you squeeze every drop out of those notes.

[music] The first part of this last lick is inspired by John Petrrui and goes something like this. [music]

It's a group of five notes, even though you don't really notice it when you play it in context, but the five notes are B flat, jump an octave to another B flat.

Go from the fourth to the fifth with a slide, and jump another octave. And then

you do the same thing over from the next B flat.

1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5. Right.

[music] From there, you descend by moving your first finger down with a slide and following up with an octave, bouncing

back and forth between those two notes.

[music] You can move that around as you please to create your own licks. So, the whole thing goes and it ends on the major third here with this [crying] bend. And there we go into

the second part of this whole section.

And the second part uses some chromaticism. And I don't really know

chromaticism. And I don't really know what inspired this whole thing. I

haven't really played it since, but it's a kind of cool idea using some chromaticism. Goes like this.

chromaticism. Goes like this.

[music] And it also utilizes what I call start stop phrasing where you have a quick succession of notes followed by a long note, another quick flourish, another long note. So tension and release within

long note. So tension and release within a very small time frame. Goes like

[clears throat] this. One more time.

I pick it fairly aggressively [music] and I use these little bus trills as well. Like right before you release the

well. Like right before you release the note, you slide up a little bit and take the note away. I kind of got inspired by bass players to do this. And Tom Quail uses it as well. Greg How lots of guitar

players do it too. And as far as the notes are concerned, I go from the second to the seventh chromatically.

Then from the root to the sixth, [music] from the flat six which is out of key to the four for maximum tension and then release it by going three flat 3 2 and one.

And there the whole thing resolves. And

from there we move into a little pentatonic line [music] that rounds off the whole piece. Right?

I always like to ground these more angular ideas with something really solid and tangible. Let's hear the whole thing slow one more time. [music]

[music] and fast.

Make sure to put a big vibrto on that last note and everybody will be happy.

And that is it for today's lesson. I

hope you got something out of this and these [music] concepts are meaningful to you. Let me know in the comments which

you. Let me know in the comments which solo from the session band you would like me to break down next. And don't

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material. Please like and subscribe, and I hope to see you in the next video or on the road. Bye-bye.