I remember Steve Cropper from "The Blues Brothers" movie from 1980. Great musician. Heck, all those musicians were great! And who can forget "Murph and The Magic Tones"? !
Something I think it's critical for young players to learn: everyone should take turns at the "front" in songs. Don't try to play the whole song yourself. Listen to the Lemon Song. They each take turns at the "front". So, no hot riffs while the singer is singing. No fancy drum fills when the bass has the front. Everyone plays rhythm and everyone is a soloist by turns, and you'll do fine.
Somewhere along the line I learned to incorporate the techniques in this video into my guitar playing, but I couldn’t have explained the why to someone else. You are a rare teacher/explainer.
So, I find this great lesson while looking up a song to play in my choir. 'Soul man' while practicing in Church! How perfect is that!😉🙏 Thank you for the best lessons around! You rock Good Sir!👍🎸
I wish the you, the internet, and RU-vid were around back when I was 20; but still grateful today that all of you great teachers are so willing to help us mere mortals become demi-gods at home!
Keith Richards calls it “pieces of chords.”He and Brian Jones got it. When I started playing (prehistoric days), rhythm guitar was first. It was your internship. The lead guitar player was sometimes a bit older, and most definitely better, than you. That’s how we learned to play with other people; what rhythm is; and how rhythm and chords go together. If you were good enough, you “graduated” to lead guitar at some point. Some guitar players never want to play lead, but most aspire to that lofty peak. Steve Cropper, Curtis Mayfield, and the Motown guitar players set a pretty high bar. I learned so much from Steve Cropper, as did most of “a certain generation” of guitar players. Great vid; what you say is absolutely true!
Soul Man and Clean Up Woman use the same chords but in different order. These triads can also be used for the classic Stax horn lines in Tramp and I Can't Cut You Loose.
Great delivery. Space on a busy stage is so important. I went to university for music after 25 years of bar gigs. Man..,,guide tones and such, make the whole band sound layered and makes the texture of the music more open. Great lesson!
My favorite. One of the greatest ever in blurring the line between rhythm and lead. Always tasteful. He always let the singer shine, taking care to “fill the holes” as he stated it. Above all, his aim in playing was to always serve the song.
About a decade back, I saw Booker T and the MGs at a festival. Every time Steve would step up to take a solo, or do a fill, I'd think "That's *exactly* what I would play right there". Made me realize that, no matter how much I idolized many other players I had grown up with, what I really wanted to be was Steve Cropper.
Thanks for that story, made me smile and think of Keith Richards who once said "Everybody wanted to be like Elvis. I wanted to be like Scotty Moore." 🙂And yes: Steve Cropper is one of the top 10.
@@MarkZabel And 100% true. I *thought* I wanted to be Jimmy Nolan (James Brown's long-time guitar player), but I really wanted to be Steve Cropper. I was raised on Beatles, but a LOT of Stax/Volt as well. What I learned from Steve was how to identify the little things that make a song feel "complete". His playing always had the feel of a producer.
I've noticed times in songs when I was being lazy just playing a standard open chord. Eventually, I got tired of that because I knew it didn't sound quite right and a full chord at the wrong time can really just muddy things up pretty bad. What I learned from this lesson is there is something to be said for studying the particular reasons a player is employing a specific technique. It sheds light on why you are playing it this way instead of that way. You truly do have it broken down in such a way that a player can get a lot from these 5 minutes.
In the 60s Steve was the only guitar player that could get a standing ovation with just 1 note because he knew exactly what note when it should be done and not over do it
I’ve noticed in trying to improve my home recording of original music that in listening to professional music from a recording aspect, how many instruments never step on others with fills and leads.
@@johngraymusic John. Look closely. It's not me. I hate these guys who do this pretending and giving "prizes" or whatever. Like flies. Just ignore. I report them to RU-vid but they keep coming back.
Any time I list my favorite guitarists, I always start with my trifecta of Steve - Steve Cropper, Steve Lukather and Steve Howe (no particular order). Cropper has always been one of my favorites for sure.
I once heard Steve Cropper on NPR. He said that he enjoyed a good solo and fills, but what impressed him most was a fine rhythm guitarist who could drive the melody of a song with chords.
Thanks for your comment. He was certainly that! But generally, as you know, guys like Cropper (also a great writer and producer), Cornell Dupree, Robert White, Joe Messina, Reggie Young, Curtis Mayfield, etc. don't get the spotlight. They "just" make the songs better. Can you imagine "Drift Away" or "Alison" without the little guitar fills?
@@MarkZabel No, I could not. In that regard, Steve was underappreciated. But driving down a mountain one day, I was a little surprised to hear Steve's praise of Don Everly. There's a reason why John Belushi said, "Play it Steve."
This is an incredibly good and important lesson. Thanks for some great examples of the Less Is More approach to playing. It's not about minimalism so much as it's about economy of means and playing with clarity. I love it!!!
I have an album maybe 1966 "Bill Black's Combo Plays Chuck Berry". Obviously Steve Cropper doing all of the leads on a very trebly Telecaster. Worth a listen and can be found here on RU-vid.
The same concept for the busy part of a song is in Changüi as well. The Tres plays a 6th or 3rd harmony to the singers, and then when there is no singing, it does a very short repeated ostinato
Great lesson! I think Steve had some influence on Roy Buchanan too. One of Roy's albums has the two of them playing Green Onions together. A real kick in the slats.
It's very possible that he is. I can definitely say that his playing has been an influence on me, especially in my early years of learning the instrument. I am still using things that I copied from him in my playing today.
Good one, thanks. I love Cropper's playing but have never studied him, you opened a door for me here. Good example of a call and response between guitar and vocals it seems. Playing low G ukulele for 6 months helped me really get away from 'big chords' on guitar. Really made me think about how to utilize just those 4 strings closest to the floor.
These vids really helped me break out of a decades long rut.. it amazing how many little chords you can make from the big bar chords.. I was thinking you might play Duane Eddy, another simple guitarist
Hi Mark, read the word "simple" and I clicked. As you develop (or age) one finds satisfaction in the subtle things. Having a synthesizer (Moog Korg Roland) background yet owning a guitar (Gretsch g5421 & Marshall Origin amp). I 100% agree.
Good one Mark , nicely explained .If you don't already know about Steve Cropper younger guys his work is on Stax records in the band Booker T and the MGs . Also in the Blues Brothers movie . Great player and band .
Near the end of American Graffiti with the sun coming up & the hot rods coming for the showdown, nothing could’ve sounded more badass than hearing “Green Onions” cranking up!! Mercy!!!
I became aware of Steve Cropper way back when Brit guitarists in the bands I liked all began to name drop him in the late 60s . Who ? He played on what ? Like Carol Kaye and Hal Blaine , James Jameson and Bernard Purdie , like the Muscle Shoals Swampers ... once you knew who these people were you suddenly noticed them everywhere .
@@MarkZabel BTW I had the same experience learning to use triads and double stops although for me I was 50 before I got into that kind of a band. And I did clash with the singer in the beginning.
Weird... I had dusted off "The Blues Brothers" and was about to watch it tonight... and THIS pops up in my feed..... Cropper has a substantial part in it....
You really covered some cool stuff here. You mentioned, playing without stepping on the other musician's parts. That was what it was really about. It's so wrecking crewish. It's that studio sensibility that lacks in today's non professionally produced music the way it used to be. Great insight.
You mentioned Curtis Mayfield. He had some interesting guitar licks etc. Didn't he play in an open tuning? Enjoyed the Steve Cropper lesson. He's one of the best.
You got to remember that it was Tommy Tedesco playing on many of those records from the past, and the guitar players of those bands had to learn how to play it like Tony.
It's always ambiguous when you play only an interval. Example: G triad on G7,B8,E7 ... if you drop the root on B8 it's an ambiguous chord. It could just as easily be a Bm triad. If you look at it that way, it's an inverted 3rd (or 6th) interval.
@@MarkZabel geez inverted stuff etc... theory if not explained from start to finish in a practical way, is sooo hard to grasp. even when well explained it gets complicated. very easy to just quit trying to get it, in my opinion.
@@MarkZabel Soul Man is using Dyads for the chords F, G, Bb, C, D but you remove the tonic root note so you're only playing the 3rd and 5th chord tones of those triads. Steve Cropper removes the tonic root note for each triad shape and only plays the 3rd and 5th. When only playing the 3rd and 5th that is a minor3 interval/Dyad/doublestops. When other Motown guitarist play M6 double stops they mostly use the Tonic root note to m3 or M6, they don't remove the root note tonic note is what I'm saying. It would be nice if you made a video lesson comparing how Motown guitarist play M6 doublestops compared to how Steve Cropper removes the tonic note approach. Duane Allman used a telecaster before the allman brothers on the allman joys and hourglass band which he used these Steve Cropper double stops approach and Motown doublestop approach. They are two different camps of double stops.
