A LESSOf{ WITH STEVE f IORSE

DixieFlyerTake a tour of Steve Morse's smokin' Southern steel olant as hechurns out a dazzling series of rippin' chicken-pickin' licks, down-home slides andBY JIüMY BROWI{

bluesv bends.

STEVE MoRsE, oNE of rock's most innova-t¡ve and well-rounded gu¡tarists, is con-stantly expanding his musical hor¡zonsthrough d¡ligent study, creat¡ve experimention and prolific output. After finish-ing record¡ng his latest solo album,Coast Io Coast (MCA), Morse sat downand shared some of the secrets behindhis monstrous technique. This lessonexplores but a few of the many aspectsof Steve's multi-faceted gu¡tar style andvast techn¡cal vocabulary.

ALTERT{ATE PICXI GThe cornerstone of Steve's technicalarsenal ¡s his fast, clean alternatep¡ck-¡ng technique, wh¡ch enables h¡m toachieve his scorchlng rock lead attack,fast country popping and rhythm¡callycomplex counterpo¡nt. Having made uphis mind to oerfect his Dlectrum tech-n¡que atthe tender age of 15, Steve wassoon winning bluegrass latp¡cking con-tests and dazzling aud¡ences throughoutthe Southeast w¡th h¡s extraordinarychops.

To understand the mechanics oflvorse's pick¡ng techn¡que, we mustfrsttake a look at h¡s unorthodox r¡ght-handoosture. Morse holds his oick betweenh¡s thumb, index and middle fingers(Photo A). This three-fingered grip pro'vides h¡m max¡mum control over the pickand enables him to qu¡ckly revert to tatrp¡ng or touching harmon¡cs w¡th the¡ndex finger without havjng to repositionhis hand. Note how he rests his pinky onthe front of the guitar. Anchor¡ng nispinky this way provides his picking handw¡th greater stab¡l¡ty and a close point ofreference, Steve often uses his p¡nky forvolume or tone swells (Photos B and C)and for f l ick¡ng the p¡ckup selectorswitches on h¡s custorn-designed Ern¡eBall/Mus¡c lvlan Steve Morse gu¡tar.

Palm mut¡ngis also an ¡ntegral aspectof lvorse's r¡ght-hand technique. l\4utingis what enables the D¡x¡e demon to p¡ckfast, squeakyclean runs without annoy-ing string noise. Photo D shows Steve'sright-hand mut¡ng posture. Note how theheel of h¡s palm covers all s¡x strings.

"Pract¡c¡ng through a loud, distortedamp helps remind me of the necessityof mut¡ng," Steve says. "l 've noticed,however, thatwhen I playw¡th d¡stort¡on,

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ldon't have to work as hard to get agood sound. Thus, I tend to become lazyand rely on the amp. I 've found that if Ipract¡ce that way all the t¡me, I don'tsound as good when I play clean. That'swhy I always do a certain amount of pract¡c¡ng with either a clean sound or noamplif icat¡on. "

Morse is very discipllned about prac't ic¡ng. believing that good technique isan essent¡al part of developing andexpress¡ng musical ideas. To avoid boredom and to keep his chops fresh, heusually varies his practice regimen dar-ly. "l tend to get bored with mechanicalpractice, so lchange my practice routine all the t¡me. One thing l l l often dois focus on a particular weakness andcompose an exercise that will attack the

problem. Thal irpgs Keep me from get-ting bored. | ó,c. 'o.eaer. tend to fallback on cena - 'c-'- '! | |afmup exerc¡s-es, espec¡a r! ñ'.!. I n¡ stand¡ng around,waiting wrth ñ) gu{ar during a sound-check wath rh \olurne tumed down."

sclLEs/IRPEGGTOSTo keep ¡ s DcHng chops in top form,lüorse consiantly praclices scales andarpeggios. -l defnrtely feel their benefi-cial effecls on my overall speed andease of e¡ecLitron-- Steve backed up hiswords b) systemat¡cally tearing throughtf'e se\e. d atonic modes ofthe A majorscale (Flg. 1). Beg¡nningeach modew¡ththe Index r¡nger on the 6th str¡ng, heascended and descended two octavesacross all six strings In a single position. using strict alternate picking. "l nor-

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A LESSON WITH STEVE fúORSE

"lally run through each mode posit¡ontw¡ce, the first time beginn¡ng on a down_stroke, the second t¡me beginning on anupstroke." lvlorse continUed. "l also prac_tice d¡fferent f ingerings for each mode...Figure,2 depicts three d¡fierent f¡nger,¡ngs Steve demonstrated for a üo-octave A major scale. He applies tnrs

FIGURII A ¡ÍAJOi OIAIOIII' ÍODES

same fingering approach to each mode."Another great picking exercise that

also sounds kinda cool is sequencing aScalar pattern up the neck on twostr¡ngs. " Steve demonstrates tnrsapproach by playing a climbing sextuptetrun on the 6th and 5th strings ¡n the keyof F, moving up the neck in qu¡ck Dos¡-

tion shifts (Fig. 3). Notice the ¡nterest¡ngmelod¡c contourhere. Morse often usesthis type of ascending run to br¡ng a soloto a dramatic climax.

Figure 4 depicts a technically demandtng stt¡ng4rossing exercise Steve Drac-t¡ces. Each note falls on a differentstring, requiring the p¡cking hand to workovenime to keep up. This pattern is alsogood for stretching the left hand.

Steve went on to demonstrate how hecomb¡nes two overlapping pentatonic"box" patterns to create a ,.super box'that conta¡ns doubled notes on adjacentstrings (F¡9. 5). Taking advantage of nrswide left-hand reach, [Iorse often usessuch patterns to create unusual l icísand melod¡es that contain lots of repeat_ed notes, He demonstrated a very musFcal appl¡cation of the super box Datternshown in Figure 5 by ptaying a variat¡onor rne open¡ng melody from the DixieDregs tune "Holiday" lFree Fat\lFig. q.Photos E and Fdepict his approach ó f¡n_ger¡ng the doubled A and E notes,respectively.

STRIl{G BE1{DIf{G/VIBRATOAnother key aspect of Morse,s muscularlead style ¡s his highty devetoped st/,'ngbend¡ng and ylbfato technique. Recallh¡s w¡ndow-shattering soto in "Blood-sucking Leeches' llndustry Standaq.He ends just about every btister¡ngpnrase w¡th a screaming bend, followedby a brill¡ant, violin-esque vibrato.

Steve often uses several f¡ngers tobend a s¡ngle s|fing lrcinforced finEer-ing) lFig. 7. Photo c). Not¡ce how nehooks h¡s thumb over the top side of thefretboard wh¡le push¡ng the str¡ng with atlfour f ingers. The thumb functions as an

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anchor, keeping the left hand stable asthe f¡ngers repeatedly push and releasethe string. To maintain his fingerstrength for bending, Steve does "stringpushups" with each individual f¡nger.Photo H shows h¡m bend¡ng steel w¡thjust his pinky! To bend or shake a noteon one of the lower strings, he'l l usual-ly pull the string downward, as opposedto pushing it upward.

While on the subject ofstring bending,Steve played a cool, country-soundingoblique bend (Fig.8, Photo l), fretting anunbent C# note on the 1st stringwith hisp¡nky wh¡le bending a G note on the 2ndstring up a whole step w¡th his ring and¡ndex fingers. The bright, major soundproduced by this bend is characteristicof pedal-steel gu¡tar mus¡c. "l've heardAlbert Lee play this type of bend manyt¡mes. The keyto making it sound like anauthent¡c country bend ¡s to pluck thestrings with your f¡ngers" lPhoto -ll.

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More than just a virtuoso flatpicker,Morse is also very sk¡lled aI fingerp¡ck-ing, hav¡ng stud¡ed both class¡cal guitarand banjo; the latter provided the foun-dation for his chicken-o¡ckin' chops.

"We just recorded a country tune onthe new album that's based on a clas-sicafsounding progression, " said Steve.He then played a twangy country l¡ckus¡ng his bare thumb and fingers topluck the str¡ngs (Fig. 9). Note thesophisticated, c lassical-sou nd ingchordal movement and use of pedal-steel-l ike oblioue bends-a oerfectexample of Morse's unjque cross-poll¡-nat¡on of two completely different styles.

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