DEEP DIVE: Prince's Guitar Solo On "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" | LESSON & REACTION

[Music] yes [Music] ladies and gentlemen michael pomizano here and yes yes this is the prs sc 2408 that we're giving away when we hit 300k when we have the uh dancing bears concert um so whenever we hit it is whenever we give it away we're just gonna keep watching and it's gonna be one member on the guitar gate website um and so if you're not a member that's the first link in the description and this one is different because it has the coil taps so you get the or the whatever you prefer now i'm on my website and brian j olson wants me to do the very famous perhaps the most famous guitar video on the internet uh prince playing with tom petty steve wynwood jeff lynn and others doing while my guitar gently weeps and i figured you know what it's time for a deep dive so i've obviously seen this before i've obviously heard it before what we're going to try to do here is get in the mind of what prince may or may not be thinking while he's playing this sure this is improvisation sure he's flying like a laser beam from the sun during this right he's not actually thinking all the time but there's a couple choice moments in here where it's very clear that this dude knows exactly where he is all the time and in complete control don't let the showmanship fool you prince is arguably the baddest man that ever walked the planet just saying here we go and there's a couple things in here which i'm going to point out which i haven't seen other people on the internet point out so here we go we're going to fast forward to the solo let me start a little bit before so you get a so you get a basic foundation of what he's soloing over it's a minor a minor over g you just descend the baseline a minor f sharp a minor over f you'll see a lot of people do this play that f major triad you're really getting the sound of f major seven and then it alternates based upon where you are between d major to e major or c major to e major or sorry to e7 right and so you got to kind of pay attention to where you are but that's your basic framework it is in the neighborhood of a minor but what does prince do with it [Music] guitar [Music] all right so let's start with the first little phrase here he comes in we are up here in pattern two if you get down with the cage system you don't have to but this is where it is right it's easy to learn this way coming in on the four of d in a minor right so [Music] here's your root minor third four bending the four in through the five right through the flat five and he's kind of going back down and up with it the four as you know is used to suspend the third it's a subdominant kind of sound so it makes you feel like you're going away you're adding this tension that is in a way sound right because you're suspending the third it's basically what the four is for right that's why so many people trouble have trouble solving over the four chord because it really is a departure from the tonic and this is going to be a theme throughout prince's lead so check it banning up not used to these nines on this guitar i'm a little my intonation's a little a little crap but you understand four to the five d to e [Music] and just bring it down a little bit each time and landing right on the floor super vibrato pulling down that's a very prince thing [Music] [Applause] flat three four hammer on little push pull off land on your root right [Applause] now we've been descending through this cycle here right now where are we when we get to this next part right there you hear something change you're like something cool happened stop what you're doing guitar players musicians in general figure out why something sounded like what was that something special happened what was that listen to it again you'll hear it [Music] right it just it sounded a little brighter a little less minor what happens is when the band finally goes over this g chord when they go to the g watch him watch him reach up here and he's he comes from this and then he goes and targets this b which is the third of g third hunting right but it is the nine the two if you will in your key center of a and he gets there by way of this [Music] f-sharp now i'm guessing here because i could watch him do it and i've tried listing to see if he goes or to get to that b b is the target the third of the g is the target but i think whether he gets there or not he's shooting to reach there by that f sharp which lands us squarely in the key of g major or a dorian which is a minor with a major sixth and that's going to be the key for the rest of the tune here check it [Music] right there you see that you see that third finger that bloop [Music] that is f sharp on the fourth string and immediately rocks over to grab the b so the band is playing g and b and he pushes behind the g to settle us into dorian keep that a minor key centered approach but lands squarely on the third of g that nine of a which gives it that bright more major sounding sound of dorian right it gives it that little bump watch it real closely i know it seems like a little thing but this is it's the little nuances that make prince prince or your favorite players who they are stop what you're doing take an extra two minutes figure it out [Music] so back up to the flat three and get back down to your root there you go onward [Music] and then [Music] one of the things prince does which i love so much like so many great guitar players when he's using the wall and other things like that you get a lot of the right so just know that that's like a tonal texture thing and there's no like tab for that okay the point is you came down from there and you're coming back into this area [Music] pattern four a minor but what does he do what does he do he comes in right on the e and what is it f sharp bending that is the major six bending into the flat seven landing a squarely again in dorian it it it just gives you that prince sound and then of course he slowly opens the wall to let the gate open up and just and it just it just sears [Music] eventually to the flat seven which bends to the root rock's bound he's always following the chords too if you notice he's always thinking about where the chords are going up and where the chords are going down he's got he's always doing these little you know things right but he's usually going down and grabbing a piece of the chord so he is aware of the chord that he's playing over the whole time so he's thinking about the rhythm guitar the whole time all right check this part out now what do you have in here is you can see him with his thumb starting back down here like playing the bass notes and he's going up and he's shooting for this little thing here this little dyad this is e and a so you could look at this as the major third and fifth of c you can look at this as the root and um uh uh uh uh what am i sorry flat seven and five of a but for whatever reason he decides to hang here and hammer on to that e from e flat makes you gives it that kind of c major kind of blues thing but we're still obviously uh centered squarely in a and he just starts again opening up the gate then once he gets past that once he's once he's said okay i've said enough about this this one spot that's going to sit here and open as opposed to a lick right i'm going to make this texture right now then he switches to a different texture which you could construe as a lick but it's very clear that this that where he's just pedaling on the open e string going down the a major scale so e d c b a g and then instead of going to your f and f sharp in here so we'll be dorian are we ireland he goes back to the [Music] right flat three two one hammer on a pull off from the from the one to the nine and then to the root so he finishes with that little motif so i look at this as kind of like this is a texture thing where he's opening up the gate finishes with another texture thing that descends right on a higher string with a different tamer and then whatever that little licky does there finishing with a super memorable motif really really a lot in here right and you know he's winging it but there's there's there's really a lot of conscious little things it's so musical that's the word it's just so musical listen to this little part again [Music] so hot [Music] and right there a nod to clapton that because for those of you that have learned this solo from the record you'll know that one of the things that everybody does uh that was played earlier in the earlier guitar solo on here is people is you you bend through the root and that while my guitar gently weeps thing that you're bending through the root to the nine and coming back down when you're a beginning guitar player a beginning improviser generally we teachers encourage students to refrain from bending the root because if you don't get there you know if you don't i mean you're immediately squashed right so you have to you got to get to that nine right you got to get there and everywhere in between [Music] right that's you kind of get that crying sound that way so in my mind that is prince's little tip of the cat to the recorded version here comes a big pick slide now for me this is all about the rhythm this is like this is like okay we did our little descending thing we made a texture thing we made a little memorable motif you know we we started with a little super melodic this is just rhythm this is standing on the tippy toes flat seven to one that [Music] right he's just feeling the whole band it's flat three flat seven one and flat three you're bending the flat seven into the one you're bending the flat three into the four and it's totally loose it's whatever you want to do with it but this this this is all swagger this is all tip of the toes rhythm leaning forward right here that's what this is [Music] little tremolo picking just because you [Applause] [Music] can again back to a memorable line [Music] now you can tremolo pick it you can try to whatever but but what's happening here is you're slowing it down you're you're you're not you're not playing it fast anymore like you did up here you're trying to create another little motif that it's the and what this is is five major six there's dorian f sharp f sharp right flat seven root two flat three four five trill so again establishing a dorian knowing where your f sharps are in an a minor context completely totally on purpose let's keep going look at that throw one of the best throws i've ever seen listen to it it's four parts right it's a four part you know slide throw catch slide back release that is a four part guitar throw best you can do [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] such a showman got the guy to catch him so what does he do here he knows he knows that he's got to get to turn around he's got to check out where the guy is first and he's got to get something under his hands that he's going to be able to sustain right while he's doing that and have enough time for him to push back to then grab the rhythm so here's how he does it he comes out of it you know establishing that four again like you did in the beginning [Music] little [Music] and then starts this little textured but it's not the full descending run like you're expecting he keeps it just on the root in the flat 7. and so what does that enable him to do it enables him to signal the guy he's gonna he's gonna fall right he makes eye contact with him stays there turns his back to him leans back dude catches him keeping the same thing going right look he's got him crack it all right [Music] right there lean back [Music] maintain it right then takes up to the next part right so you got e and g [Music] the bend holds the bend as he's pushing him back up yeah right re recalibrates with the band you know letting it sear grabbing the rhythm right back to the chords gives him a little look look at that grin now watch this he's like okay you want another you think it's done obviously tom's like go baby go baby go watch it [Music] you hear the wall kick on so good just like in the beginning four flat three root but you start to get the wall kick on right he's gonna go full gait on you [Music] jumps down root two flat three starts it slow picks it up right while the gate is opening remember great wawa players don't just keep the beat right they open and close the gate like you would sing that's why you see them open their mouth like that right it's it's it's like a connection of the throat there's like a whole lesson on this on my website um about like you know wawa not just being a sugar and watch it i mean it just sears through the sky [Music] so what he does he's going up here this you know right a minor pentatonic straight down but then he starts grabbing that four again just like in the beginning just like in the middle hammering home that motif so prince's cry for my guitar gently weeps is the four running through the fo through the flat five into the five and hanging out in there over and over again that is the that's the cry now one thing he does that i noticed is he tends to pull it down the third string instead of push up like i do um no right no wrong and you know what probably do it different different nights frankly depending on how juiced up you are right there i haven't forgotten you thought i forgot about that f sharp no he didn't forget about that f sharp but wait the best is yet to come all right now this is this right here shows you in prince's little way right that he's just one of the best of the best and most tasteful and he's thinking about the rhythm the whole time see if you can hear what he's doing here and you could tell by his look that was the moment that was it he saved it till the very end he saved it to the very end see if you get this with me okay so he comes and starts doing octaves now prince does it like this thumb third finger and muting the rest i'm gonna do it like this to illustrate uh and because i it's just not gonna be as clean if i do the other way but he comes in on a this little t's to c but then lands on that nine as the chords descend to g so what is that nine of a that's b which is which is what the third of g so we got right that little move there then what happens it's g going into a right and it's real slick and loose it's not specific like this it's right it's a it's a whole slide off right it's filthy but just see if you can hear it and then down to the e [Music] right and again it's not specific this isn't something you tab out he's kind of just starting on a going to the b g it's like a really heavy part right it's such a it's such like a riff in a song without a riff like it's it's it just shows to how diverse and how spicy prince can be at times you know when you're playing a huge band like this there's like six guitar players and keys and everything else like that it takes serious balls to go down in in octaves and go all the way down into like a into like a grind land down there right and you just have it be so slick and greasy that you never really land on anything super super hot super hot check it again right there you see prince's face he's like you're gonna get it you're gonna get it you're gonna get he's like you know i have it he told him with his face he had that f before he even got there watch it watch it happen same basic thing right i'm going to do it my octaves like this now he's muting a lot picking all the strings so it gives it that real big clunky sound you might get an open g in here every now and again but the basic concept here is you're finishing with a what is like a a simple single note line which just catches the ear at the right moment so you're starting on c which is your flat three and a right d right four five f sharp right six oh sorry g and then f sharp i miss i spoke too soon so he's going g and f sharp and then finally when the progression gets around [Music] to the actual f not the f sharp prince knows where he is he's waiting for it look at that grin he's like you think i'm not gonna get that f you think i'm not gonna get that f and he comes in [Music] right on it right at the right time right at the right time completely in control of the moment watch it happen [Music] look at you [Applause] and then finishes i thought my guitar was down i forgot about this part what the [Music] right with that little you know right up here with that same little uh style motif i mean so so what you're seeing here is just a complete master of the stage of the rhythm of the harmony and the melody and the texture that's why it's got 100 some million views um the showmanship completely speaks for itself uh you got to see um how he kind of teed it up made sure it was safe gave himself something to latch onto how he could get out of it recalibrate with the band um you saw him very clearly choose a dorian but know where that f is and save the f to the very very very end when he was locking eye contact with tom petty and he got it and just like smiled right in his face and i mean it's so unbelievable his mixture of you know making wawa textures with the tremolo picking versus the things people are seeing on in the car on their way home the the nod to clapton you know bending through the route uh for his kind of crying sound where prince clearly chose uh to bend through the four into the flat five and five to kind of make his signature crying sound there's just so many great things i just i i it's prince it's prince and i love prince man who did this who did this brian j olson brian thank you so much for being a subscriber on the website and uh choosing to allow me the privilege of being your online teacher i absolutely loved this if you guys out there like this style of lesson where it's like you're in the room as with the teacher with me and we start and stop and we play the actual track um and you want like my actual step-by-step curriculum and you want to join a community that will encourage you and motivate you to keep picking this thing up because we post videos showing ourselves doing it and posting videos this react request page so we're all finding new music i would encourage you to click the first link in the description and join me and thousands of others over on guitargate.com it's my life's work it's how i support the channel um and i am uh just humbled and grateful to get to do this for a living and damn it this got me going this got me fired up love you all so much cheers oh my god

Channel: Michael Palmisano

Views: 832,759

Keywords: guitar, guitar lesson, improvisation, music theory, guitar scales, Guitargate, reaction, guitar reaction, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, with, Prince, rock and roll hall of fame, while my guitar gently weeps reaction, prince guitar solo while my guitar gently weeps reaction, prince guitar solo lesson while my guitar gently weeps, prince guitar tutorial prince hall of fame, prince tom petty steve windoown while my guitar gently weeps reaction guitar lesson

Id: 6F97BbZkpLk

Length: 29min 52sec (1792 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 05 2021