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Steve’s go-to ideas
Guitar Player magazine publishes an online tutorial from Steve Morse My 5 go-to ideas for playing and writing.
In this exclusive video lesson, Steve showcases five conceptual and technical approaches that he employs when improvising or arranging guitar parts. These include melodic arpeggios, 16th-note patterns, sextuplet-based picking, melody with ostinato bass and rhythmic variations. To close, he brings all these together for a final long cohesive etude that is both technically challenging and musically fulfilling.
Watch it on GuitarPlayer.com with accompanying notation.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Sigh, I don‘t want to come out sounding nasty … Steve is a lovely man and his technique is awesome, but, but, but …
This mini tutorial (aimed at guitar nerds, I know) gives the unfortunate impression that Steve‘s tools to combat musical challenges always end up in him playing either EVEN faster or cramming in EVEN more notes, not once does he recommend to play simply LESS to get a musical point across. An already hugely dense and busy style is made even mor(s)e dense and busy. It beckons the question what the point of this is if you’re playing with Jon Lord/Don Airey, Roger Glover and Ian Paice who all want to contribute a note or two (or three) too …
Kind of disturbing to watch. Blackmore, Bolin, McBride, heck … even Satriani all left more space than Steve without anybody accusing them of underplaying or being boring. Steve‘s concept of space seems to be that it is something that needs to be filled at (!) all (!!) costs (!!!).
Sextuplets 🙄 – while kinda intriguing sounding as an erotic concept – , do we really need them in rock’n’roll?
https://youtu.be/aKCt8ssC7cs
You can be evocative with a lot less notes per minute, even while wearing tights …
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/_7lXkDSLlMs
Now all you Morsemen, gather and gang up on me! 😂
June 5th, 2025 at 03:43Uwe
June 5th, 2025 at 07:55I am not a Motseman!!
I agree with you, to be sincere I don’t miss him even if I love some DP works with him (but not at all).
Hearing you there Uwe and I have not watched this latest video. I have been thinking that since the early 90’s when I started to go off his faster busier music. It all started to sound very familiar back then. However we must NOT forget that on his first solo album, High Tension Wires there is an instrumental, ‘Tumeni Notes’. Cheers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaFGG8j1xhI&t=16s
June 5th, 2025 at 10:21What a guy !
June 5th, 2025 at 13:24Generous with his time , no side to him and a superb player
He is sorely missed
Completely agree with you Uwe. Steve is a talented and inventive man but he is guilty of overplaying (much like Glenn is of oversinging) and often reminded me of a typewriter. I think Steve found it hard at times when Bob would tell him to slow down, it wasn’t natural for him.
June 5th, 2025 at 13:39I still prefer Steve Morse to any other guitar ‘shredder’ though. He is so much more melodic and diverse and has a very good sense of well thought out compositional skills. He was a breath of fresh air back in the early 80”s to the early 90’s. He did pick up a few ‘bad habits’ during the later 80’s guitar wise, it seemed to affect them all. Meaning the later day guitarists. I am glad I have supported him, good on him and for the Dregs especially. Cheers.
June 6th, 2025 at 00:32@1 Uwe
Criticizing a guitarist for showing musical ideas when he is asked to do exactly that… come on, give him a break! 😃
I mean he wasn’t asked to show how to write a solo for a Purple Song. From a composing or trio musicians point of view it makes perfect sense to have some ways to keep the harmonic structure audible. Or is there seriously anyone who really wants a tutorial from Steve where he shows simple blues licks? I think we got that covered elsewhere…
As for his approach with Purple, be it writing or his take on the older songs, I liked it very much.
It might be at the cost of some heaviness, but the music sounded really rich.
But THAT is up to taste. 😉
For sure it’s a much better fit with i.e. Flying Colors… but in the end, only thing with Purple we have is the “Luxusproblem” of having to choose our favorite version of the songs – if we have to choose at all.
Have a nice day!
June 6th, 2025 at 06:37Steve Morse seems to have some kind of sports approach to music. It’s about going faster, donig more, breaking records.
June 6th, 2025 at 07:31@8
You’re right Max 😊
Whereas RB – in his heyday – was a true poet 🥰
June 6th, 2025 at 10:10Ohh man he has touched my heart several times 😊
Folks, listen to the Dixie Dregs stuff and and you’ll see that Steve’s fast and intense playing makes sense musically.
June 6th, 2025 at 12:06While I don’t listen much to his SMB rockier albums (basically everything from the 90’s onward), I think it’s dismissive to call Steve’s playing soulless or too technical.
This man has recorded some splendid, moving, and downright cool guitar parts throughout his entire career. Here’s one from the Dregs — it’s in my top 5 when it comes to guitar solos (by anyone!).
https://youtu.be/JqsIxqG8JwI?si=sNWHRJEAgmEhc7MX
Listening to the whole track is highly recommended, but his solo starts at 2:17 (in case you’re a busy person).
June 6th, 2025 at 12:48Martin, I’m not denying DP’s debt to Steve, but like any leopard he didn’t change his spots with them. He was great in some things and – like we all are – weaker in others.
His playing with Flying Colors was immaculate, it’s music right up his alley. With Purple, the wealth of his contributions were great, but he could also sometimes clutter things up. He has that tendency that his guitar parts must carry a maximum of melodic, rhythmic and harmonic information as if they became automatically nondescript if he left something unplayed. Ritchie didn’t consider it beneath himself to sometimes just play the lower E string interspersed with some octaves from his D string.
Jon never said anything negative about Steve, but in an interview either very late in his DP tenure or after he had already left he was asked what he thanks Ritchie for and his answer was: “For leaving me so much room to shine with his guitar playing.”
BTW, I don’t think that Steve’s penchant for overdeveloped and basically stand-alone guitar arrangements is an ego thing at all, it is just how he plays music meticulously. There is also, like Max says, a good dose of American love for athletics in his approach, but at the core Steve just wants to create the most comprehensive and musically astute guitar parts. And then sometimes overreaches.
That doesn’t mean I want to wipe Purple’s Morse Era from memory or don’t think it’s musically valid!
June 6th, 2025 at 14:21