Category: news

Mister Steven J. “Steve” Morse is one of American guitarists who has huge fans. some people know him as the founder of the Dixie Dregs, but i know him as the guitar player of Deep Purple since 1994. in the mid 1980s he is the member of Kansas.

Steve Morse

Steve Morse has great live rig setup and he performs in such amazing way. for guitar learner like me, a piece of him is a valuable stuff that will improves guitar techniques and understanding. yes, his old video lesson has been taught us in magnificent way. while the newest one is Steve Morse — The Definitive Steve Morse (DVD), I’d like to share his older one, “Steve Morse: the essential”.

in the “steve morse the essential”, he explained some important issues about guitar learning. here they are:

– opening tuning sound & equipments. in this section, he gave his gear setup and how he use them in live performances.

– learning complex parts. next session is how to learn the song’s parts

– picking. in this section, he showed his picking techniques. how to pinch a plectrum, and how that method is applied on his playing.

– modified blues scale. He shared his blues licks and how he used it on the song “sleaze factor”

– connecting positions. at this part, he explained how to connect licks and arpeggios into song playing.

– simple Simon song analyzing. a song analyzing by Steve Morse, how to play “simple simon”

there are lot of thing can be learned from his video. well, i can’t master them all, but at least his video helps me alot about things those happened in performing a song. hope this post helps.

Steve Morse

here i share you his music sheet in picking exercises:

Steve Morse’s picking exercises

Some say that when we learn guitar playing, it’s a direct fast lane to Bluesmusic, and i believe that. Some of us might said “no! it’s METAL! distortions! the spirit of on-stage performances take control!” or even such like, “you’re totally misunderstood,  the notes will lead us into harmony, yet jazzy or classical, it’s a way in understanding beautiful scientific-audible math.. bla bla..” “blahh..”

Add blues on your playing

yes, i still believe in blues. somehow it connects all guitar players, and connecting guitar players to other music players and the audiences. what is blues, actually? it’s only a music genre, right? what’s so special about it? here some thoughts i have about it.

blues is inside of guitarists’ hands. it’s pentatonic, just like world traditional scales in almost every cultures. when it comes to guitar playing, blues is the place where the wrong notes against the right ones and collaborate. it is allowed us to explore more. No judgements, sins and punishments for the wrong blues notes since they are the part in balancing and perfecting the right blues notes. each note helps each other to become perfect harmony. you can’t be so right in notes without knowing and experiencing the wrong ones.
“the wrong against the right” – quoted from Don Mock: The Blues From Rock To Jazz.

other source i agree with, is quoted from Rod Stewart. on my understanding, he said that in modern music, Blues is the catalyst. each of music genre is connected with blues, and they may be the branches from the blues as root.

one more thing about why it is important in guitar learning is, blues teaches and connects us guitar players in humble way. slow, medium of fast bluestempo will connect various interests. the  bluesnotes trigger the eagerness of beginner guitar players, while the advanced/experienced players will get deep understanding with the history of it. (this music genre carries vast histories among people around the world, see more at wikipedia about blues)

it’s a brief about blues. very interesting isn’t it? well, i hope you can see it through my thoughts about this and i guess I’ll keep loving blues like i always do.