Guitar Coach Analyses: YES - 'Clap' by Steve Howe 

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Steve Howe the GOAT!!❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

That little Spanish interlude he threw in there isnnot actually part of "Clap". That was just improvised in on the performance. Please do more Yes. Greatest band ever.

Steve is a genius, super creative and his overall style is so unique. You'd love a lot of Yes music, and a lot of Steve's solo stuff. He's still going strong.

Steve Howe (pronounced How) was voted best overall guitarist for 5 years straight by a poll of his peers. He joined "YES" and their first album together was the "YES" album. I suggest " Turn of the Century" from 1977 for a really beautiful song.

Steve Howe is stellar. The best way to approach Yes is to go chronologically starting with their 3rd studio album - The Yes Album (Howe's debut in the band and which also has a better performance of 'Clap') and proceed from there. Also, it's better to do the studio versions of their songs to get the real sense of their work, also because there aren't many good quality live videos of this band.

Nice Billy Strings drop! I caught him in a barn before he blew up and I knew right away he was something else. He had a chat with me and my cousin, he was so excited to show us his new custom guitar with tortoise shell accents. He grew up listening to punk and metal so it comes through in his bluegrass playing in a very unique way. Such a cool guy and deserves the success!

My favorite guitarist. I love his rawness and his exuberant energy. He has also delved much deeper into nylon string classical guitarwork and really excelled in that genre. Steve Howe is simply the most versatile virtuoso in rock. He is sometimes criticized for being too raw and unrefined like Jimmy Page in his approach to lead guitar, but there is an element of danger and risk that both Howe and Page bring to their craft that no amount of technical precision can measure up to. Their relationship with guitar was more like that of trying to manage and negotiate with a shrew that won't be tamed. Check out YES 's albums 'Fragile' and 'Close to the Edge' if you want to find out why Steve was voted as tbe top guitarist in Guitar magazines year after year, and why YES were one of the most highly respected bands in tbe 70s

He was a big Chet Atkins (americana) and Wes Montgomery fan and that comes through in his playing. Pronounced Steve HOW (means hill in older English). Anything of "The Yes Album" is a good start. Another nice jazzy song played live is "Perpetual Change" off of the live Yes Songs album.

Saw him playing this in the Seventies. Always wanted to learn it but never did! Brilliant.

I have been playing that tune for about 25 years. Most satisfying...

Many years ago, before there was the internet, I was a member of the Steve How appreciation society. Once a year if Steve was available, Pam the lady that ran the society would hire the local Church hall where she lived (Beaconsfield) and Steve would turn up with four or five guitars and play. It was always a very small affair, no more than 70 people. The members were charged just enough to pay for the Hall, Steve never took a fee. And to be so up Close was magic. A true master of his craft.

YES! 😊

Listen to turn of the century

He loved Chet atkins

Steve has another famous acoustic piece he plays in concert "Mood For A Day" in many concerts, and some YT vids, he will start with Clap, then play Mood For A Day and then mid way, then end with the last half of Clap. He has many solo albums where he plays so many of his other creations "Masquerade", and "Surface Tension" are some of my favorites "Beginnings" is a classical baroque style piece which he is famous for. There is an older YT video where he plays with Patrick Moraz on harpsichord. "Sketches In The Sun: is another too many to list here. You should listen to the "Relayer: album if you want to here Yes as their most experimentally progressive.

"Sort of like Chet Atkins..." *Exactly* like Chet Atkins. Few people at the time were bringing that American folk and country playing style and vocabulary into British rock music (check out "Siberian Khatru" for an example). That little Spanish interlude was typical in Steve's performances of this piece back then. He'd always leave a hole in the middle of the song to improvise. Early on he'd usually throw in some of Mason Williams' "Classical Gas", which was a hit at the time, but on this tour he'd usually just do a bit of Spanish classical improvising.

There is a great Montreaux jazz festival acoustic guitar concert with Steve Howe from 1979 that is highly recommended.

From Howe's Wiki Page: "Howe was voted "Best Overall Guitarist" in Guitar Player magazine five years in a row (1977-1981) and in 1981 was the first rock guitar player inducted into the Guitar Player Hall of Fame. The only other two guitarists to win the "Best Overall Guitarist" category for the "Gallery of Greats" are Steve Morse and Eric Johnson." "Best" is always a subjective opinion. Five years in a row takes some of the subjectivity out of the discussion. "Overall" is a nice qualifier. Howe loved playing a wide variety of guitars to produce a wide variety of different sounds. His skills are undeniable, even if he, perhaps, spread himself a bit thin while mastering so many different guitars.

Steve Howe mentions at the start that he wrote the song for a one day old boy called Dylan. In September he will release a new album, Guitarscape, with a little bit older Dylan on the drums. Another nice solo piece, from the Fragile album by Yes, is Mood for a Day.

Great reaction to the greatest show on earth. Chet was one of Steve idols. Steve is self-taught like his band mates in YES Jon Anderson vocals and Chris Squire bass. ✨️🎶✨️ Yours Is No Disgrace is a great intro to YES with Steve

Please react to Eric Johnson playing Trail of Tears (Austin City Limits 1988 performance) and also to Steve Howe playing Yours Is No Disgrace live (Yessongs)

None better. Period.

do more Yes. And Focus.

only one of the best in the world.

Check out mood for a day

Travis picking with a plectrum

John Martyn guitar solo is fun to look at.

Look at his hands. About the only guitarist I know who will comfortably barre a C-chord or G-chord shape. That pinkie finger is almost inhumanly long and jointed.

Just going to the garden to burn my guitar. There’s no point 😩

Check out the live version of "Texas Flood" by the actual best guitarist, Stevie Ray Vaughn.