Purple Rain Tab

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Difficulty:	intermediate
Capo:	no capo

Author brianray [a] 61.

1 contributor total, last edit on Jun 17, 2016

We have an official Purple Rain tab made by UG professional guitarists.

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Prince
Purple Rain
 
 
[Verse]
 
e||--1-------------------------------1----x------6--------------||
B||--1---------------1---------------1----x------8--------------||
G||--3----3----------3---------------2----x------10*------------||
D||--3------3--------3----3----------5----x------8--------------||
A||--1--1-----1-0----1------1--------3----x---6-----------------||
E||---------------3--3--3-----3-0-1--1----x---------------------||
                                          *tenth fret 
 
[Chorus]
 
e||---1-----------------------------(1)---------------------||
B||---1-----------------------------(1)---------------------||
G||---2-----------------------------(3)---------------------||
D||---5-----------------------------(3)---------------------||
A||---3-----------------------------(1)---------------------||
E||---1~~~~~~-----------------------------------------------||
Only want to see you in the purple rain(stum once and stop strings)
 
 
e||----------------------6-------------------------1-----------||
B||--no------------------8-------------------------1-----------||
G||---music--------------10------------------------3-----------||
D||----------------------8-------------------------3-----------||
A||----------------------6~~~~~--------------------1~~~~~~-----||
E||------------------------------------------------------------||
   Purple rain, purple rain, purple rain, purple rain
 
 
e||-----------1-----------------------1-----------------------1---||
B||-----------1-----------------------1-----------------------1---||
G||-----------3-----------------------2-----------------------3---||
D||---3-------3-----------------------5-----------------------3---||
A||-----1-----1-----------------------3-----------------------1---||
E||-------3---3-----------------------1---------------------------||
              Purple rain, purple rain, only want....purple rain
 
 
************************************
 
| x    Dead note
| (n)  Ghost note
| ~    Vibrato
 
************************************
X

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Purple Rain – Prince

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"Purple Rain"

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24 comments

bloody hell, those chords are hard

+12

This is the correct version of the original live performance. Thing is Wendy Melvoin is a freak of nature and can make that seemingly impossible stretch on the third chord. Toss a capo on the first fret and this version (the original and best) of the song gets a lot easier and sounds 'right' without destroying your hand, but you definitely lose that one grace note on the low E leading into said third chord. There should be yoga for hands for this sort of thing.

The problem with using a capo is that you always need to hit that low E-string right before the Fma chord (the third chord in the progression), like a grace note. That note is definitely in there. But with that in mind, maybe try these chords (read left to right, from low-E to hi-E): 6-x-0-5-6-x (Bb ma sus 9), 3-x-0-3-1-1 (G mi 5/7), 1-3-3-2-1-1 (F ma), x-6-5-0-6-6 (Eb ma sus 9). "x" means the note is either not plucked or muted by hanging a finger a little bit over. Those might not be exactly what Wendy and the purple man are playing, but they sound right and don't require a six-inch ring finger.