Steve Morse Part 3

by Eric Vandenberg

Steve Morse Part III- Composer & everything else...

Welcome to part three

Welcome to this third and final part of my trilogy about Steve Morse. This last episode will focus on Steve as a
composer & arranger, and Ill also include some final thoughts.

The second part of the trilogy basically dealt with Steve as the virtuoso-guitar player, and I hope I showed you
some interesting licks. But we should not see Steve Morse only as a players player, as a guitarist... after all, the
music of the Dixie Dregs, the Steve Morse Band ( with both bands, Steve wrote the major part of the music ) and
Deep Purple show him as an amazing composer, songwriter and arranger.

It doesnt matter whether were talking about amazing leadlicks, intricate counterpoint-duets between bass &
guitar, classical parts for the acoustic guitar or wacky unisono-fusion parts, Steve composed and used all of these
elements.

Melodies

Steve Morse wrote some wonderful melodies, that often get a certain twist by a special trick Steve likes to use:
shifting the accent. Instead of writing a melody with lots of different note-lengths, he used lines that have
constant, repeating note-values ( like 16th-notes etc. ), but he kinda moves around the position of the bass- and
melody notes. ( Like instead of having the bass-notes and / or accents only on 1-2-3-4, he might split them up to
1-2+-3-4+ etc. )

A great example for this can be heard in the song "The Introduction" ( which is the title-song of the debut-album
of the Steve Morse Band ). The interlude right before the solo is a beautiful piece of music IMHO... it is an
ascending chordal part with a quite remarkable melody... and although it sounds like many overdubbed guitars,
Steve pulls this one off live with only one guitar, playing both the melody and the bass note.

Here is that part:

Listen to a MIDI-File of Example 1

As you can see, its all straight 16th-notes, but the melody- and bassnotes kinda jump around. The chords you
have to play are kinda tough to learn, but at least you can concentrate on them as long as you remember that its
straight 16th notes throughout, so you dont have to learn some complex, odd-metered part here.

By the way, the transcription you can see above were done by Steve himself. I asked him to do so a few years
ago, since I had seen a bunch of different versions around. Just wanted to see what he really DID play... so there
ya go !

Steve used some variation of this "shifting accent" method again several times throughout his career, without ever
sounding repetitive. Another fine example can be found in the celtic-inspired "Rally Cry" ( from the 1995- Steve
Morse Band release "Structural Damage" )
This is the middle-part of that song:

Listen to a MIDI-File of Example 2

The only part that might be a problem here is to get used to the bar of 2/4. The chords are pretty simple. You
may use your left-hand thumb to fret some of the bass notes. Oh yeah, in the original recording, this part is
doubled with an acoustic guitar...

More riffs

Native Dance

This is one of my favorite parts Steve ever came up with... it's a part that occurs in the song "Native Dance"
( from "Structural Damage" ). This part is played on electric guitar, the chords are derived from the bass-line.
Later, while Steve played some variations of this line, he added another melody on top of this one through a
guitar-synth set to a steeldrum-patch.
Listen to a MIDI-File of Example 3

Again, pay attention to the way Steve positions the bass-notes and thereby sets the accents. The actual bass note
of the first chord ( D ) occurs on the 1+, the E at 3, D at 4+ etc. Try this for yourself: Make up an arpeggiated
part or a melody and try to take away any static structure... don't put the accents always on the downbeat, move
them around. You might come up with some really cool stuff !

( By the way, I paid tribute to Steve by using my arrangement of this part in my song "Angeldancer, at the very
end... )

Endless Waves

Another one of my favorite Morse-songs would be "Endless Waves", a rather unknown song from the "High
Tension Wires" Album. Its a ballad with acoustic guitars and guitar synth, played in a rather slow tempo ( 63
bpm ).
Check out those first four bars:
Listen to a MIDI-File of Example 4

An interesting thing happens here. Steve is playing all arpeggios, but the way he merges them together, the way
he arranges them make the final result sound like one long, beautiful melody instead of sounding just like a bunch
of arps !

Steve uses this device pretty often, and its something you should try yourself, cuz it not only is an interesting
compositional tool to play around with, it also can help you to make up some wonderful pieces of music. So try
it... instead of just playing some arpeggios ( and make them sound as if youre doing just that ), try to merge
them to one long melody by arranging them the way Steve did in our example !

Our final example for today is the solo-part of "Endless Waves", at least the beginning of that. In our transcription,
you can see the actual solo guitar in the upper staff, and the accompanying second guitar in the lower one. Pay
attention to this rather common chord sequence that still sounds kinda special due to its re-occuring melody part
( the C and B on the B-String ). Steve also uses a Slash Chord ( Am/G ) in this one.

Listen to a MIDI-File of Example 5

General comments and conclusion

About playing those kinda things...

Well, as I said in the second part of this trilogy already: the examples in this trilogy might be difficult, and if you
wanna learn them ( or other guitar parts by Steve Morse ) you really have to sit down and practise a bit.

One very important thing is: if you do find a problem while playing one of these parts, dont keep repeating the
whole thing until the mistake goes away ( it most likely wont, and its way to unproduktive to eg. Repeat a 16
bar exercise over and over cuz there is a tough part in bar 13 ! )

Do it the "Steve-way": Find the problem, isolate it, work on it, solve it.
That means: If you do i.e. have a problem with the small pull-off in bar 2 of the "Endless Waves"-Intro, isolate
that part and practise it on its own, repeating just that little bit till you can nail it. Then add the previous and
following few notes and see if you can still nail it when you play it in context. Finally, play the whole part... so
solve the problem and then go on until you can play the whole exercise. You might have to work your way through
it bit by bit, but ts worth it !

OK, here, at the end of my trilogy and tribute to Steve Morse, Id like to add a few personal thoughts:

There is so much left for me to say and write about Steve, so many musical examples, so many stories and infos
about the man... but instead of going on and boring you to death, Id like to let you go and discover Steves music
on your own. Im sure you can find at least some parts of it you will like.
Yes I am a fan of Steve and he has been a huge influence for me. I consider him a fantastic guitar player, a hard
worker, a great songwriter / composer, and an incredibly nice, warm-hearted person.

Steve might not be extremely popular, not a flamboyant media-star in the eye of the public, but he has a
dedicated following that supports him, and that he would give a lot for. With Deep Purple and some guest spots he
was able to win over another audience, more fans coming from different parts of the world.
All this without "selling out" or doing what he really doesn't want to... he plays the music he truly loves and is
happy with that, while hes out on the road almost all the time, with the Dregs, the SMB or Deep Purple.

I recommend Steves music to every guitar player ( not only shred-freaks ) and every musician in general.
Because what youll hear is not only flawless playing on both the electric and the acoustic / classical guitar, not
only wonderful songs / compositions, but youll hear music straight from the heart of someone who loves what he
is doing, who hung on to it, who does it cuz he achieved the freedom to do it and pay his bills after hard years of
fighting just because he believed in what he was doing.

So before I might sound too pathetic, Ill sum it up: You can hear more than just a lot of notes, great songs,
wonderful melodies... you'll hear a human being offering you whats in his heart. If you get to meet Steve while he
is on the road, be nice to him... and send him my regards !

Thanks for your time, I hope you enjoyed reading this trilogy, hope you found something to practise, learn or
experiment with, and I hope I got a few of you interested in Steves music. If you do have any questions, feel
free to post them in the forums here at iBreatheMusic. Also, check out Steves Site at
http://www.stevemorse.com

Here is a short selected discography with some listening recommendations ( also check out the first part of this
trilogy for more info about Steves discography )

The Dixie Dregs

"The Great Spectacular" ( Demos, 1975, currently only available through Steves management ).. Check out: "TO
Witcher", "What If...", "Kathreen"...

"Freefall" ( 1977 ) "Sleep", "Holiday", "Refried Funky Chicken", "Northern Lights"

"What If" ( 1978 ) "Odyssey", "What If", "Night Meets Light", "Little Kids"...

"Night Of The Living Dregs" ( 1979 ) "The Bash", "Long Slow Distance", "Patchwork"...

"Dregs Of The Earth" ( 1980 ) "The Hereafter", "Pride Of The Farm"...

"Unsung Heroes" ( 1981 ) "Cruise Control", "Day 444"...

"Industry Standard" ( 1982 ) "Bloodsucking Leeches", "Up In The Air"...

"Full Circle" ( 1994 ) "Calcutta", "Ionized", "Sleeveless In Seattle"...

there are more Dregs-releases, including some live-ones, but I recommend to check those albums first. If you do
need more info, check out Steves site !
With Deep Purple:

"Purpendicular" ( 1996 ) "Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming", "Cascades"....

"Abandon" ( 1998 ) "Any Ful Know That"...

s.a.

With the Steve Morse Band / Steve Morse solo:

"The Introduction" ( 1984 ) "The Introduction", "Cruise Missile"...

"Stand Up" ( 1985 ) "Distant Star", "Unity Gain"...
"High Tension Wires" ( 1989 ) "Ghostwind", "Tumeni Notes", "Endless Waves"...
"Southern Steel" ( 1991 ) "Battle Lines", "Simple Simon", "Vista Grande"...
"Coast To Coast" ( 1992 ) "The Oz", "Morning Rush Hour", "Long Lost"...
"Structural Damage" ( 1995 ) "Good To Go", "Just Out Of Reach", "Native Dance"...
"Stressfest" ( 1996 ) "Rising Power", "4 Minutes To Live", "Stressfest"...
"Major Impacts" ( 2000 ) "Well I Have", "Prognosis", "The White Light"
"Split Decision" ( 2002 ) "Busybodies", "Great Mountain Spirit", "Moments Comfort"