Chord Of The Week 23/4/16 - a Bbadd9/D from 'Purple Rain' by Prince

bigjon

Still can't find a specific slow blues where the C9 8x8758 to C9sus4 8x8768 move is used, but anyway I obviously have to pay tribute to Prince this week. Here's another one where an audience will recognise the whole song from just the first chord, it's the opening chord to Purple Rain, and it was played at the gig which was tracked for the record by Wendy Melvoin. Surprisingly she only plays the top three strings, but I'll notate the chord in full so it sounds complete without the rest of the band.

Bbsus2: x13311

Edit 29/4/16 - 

There has been extensive discussion of this chord this week at

http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/73831/purple-rain-chords

I am persuaded that the open D string gets struck by Wendy Melvoin as well as the top three strings of the chord, so the true Purple Rain chord is actually

Bbadd9/D: xx0311

You can see Wendy Melvoin playing the chord in the live recording that was used as the track for the record at 0:36 in this video. Next week I'll do another chord from the same Purple Rain intro progression.

https://bongorama.com/2014/04/17/the-original-prince-live-performance-as-recorded-for-the-album-purple-rain/

bigjon

Chord Of The Week Index updated with 142 discussions at

http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/598/chord-of-the-week-index

bigjon

From the index, previous Prince chords I've done on chord of the week are the two most reconisable chords from the song 'Kiss'

The Prince chord no1 E9(no3rd)/D - http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/36693/chord-of-the-week-14-3-15-the-prince-chord-no1-e9-no3rd-d
The Prince chord no2 Am7add4 - http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/37204/chord-of-the-week-21-3-15-the-prince-chord-no2-am7add4

RocknRollDave

Thanks, an appropriate choice this week. Playing it right now....What a song!