R&B Soul - Cornell Dupree, Steve Cropper

Acdeezee86

I’ve been getting very into the music of players like Cornell Dupree and Steve Cropper. i just love all of those double stops and sixths played all over the board, they way they hold the groove and remain melodic.

Technique-wise I find that I am often not playing these songs as crisply and creanly as I’d like.  Being self-taught and having returned to the guitar more seriously just a few years ago I am certain there are gaps in how I approach this stuff. I am hoping to take some lessons soon…

But in the meantime, does anyone have any tips or suggestions for approaching this style? Perhaps some exercises or lessons.

i hace found great videos from Adrian at Anyone Can Play Guitar on youtube and also Eric Haugen’s channel, but any other thoughts, tips, words of wisdom, or resources would be greatly appreciated.

thanks!

Wazmeister

Watch some of Josh Smiths videos, for example..

https://youtu.be/XECUVxTWE-s

545454

This guy has lots of great soul guitar videos

NPP

545454 said:

This guy has lots of great soul guitar videos

first YT channel I subscribed to

EricTheWeary

Dupree did an instructional book a few years ago, it’s on Amazon. Seems to have some nice reviews. 

Lewy

I recall Kirk Fletcher put a nice video on Youtube on "fatback" guitar and an accompanying Spotify playlist too.

Acdeezee86

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions, these are great. Please do keep them coming!

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

My favourite source for anything Soul/Funk/R&B is Tasty Guitar. He's a great player obvs, but more importantly his video tutorials are super-easy to follow.

TastyGuitar.com - YouTube 

Ossyrocks

Love this stuff ^ 

I had the pleasure of sharing a dressing room with Steve Cropper on a ten date short tour in 2013 as my band were supporting. We used to sit and chat, and I’d ask him about his songs and techniques and stuff. The main takeaway I got was how he never rushed, always took his time, and always made it look like anyone could do it, he just made it look so easy. 

Oh, and his guitar was unplayable by anyone except him, really.

Acdeezee86

Ossyrocks said:

Love this stuff ^ 

I had the pleasure of sharing a dressing room with Steve Cropper on a ten date short tour in 2013 as my band were supporting. We used to sit and chat, and I’d ask him about his songs and techniques and stuff. The main takeaway I got was how he never rushed, always took his time, and always made it look like anyone could do it, he just made it look so easy. 

Oh, and his guitar was unplayable by anyone except him, really.

that's awesome! slightly off topic, but what made his guitar unplayable?

Ossyrocks

Acdeezee86 said:

Ossyrocks said:

Love this stuff ^ 

I had the pleasure of sharing a dressing room with Steve Cropper on a ten date short tour in 2013 as my band were supporting. We used to sit and chat, and I’d ask him about his songs and techniques and stuff. The main takeaway I got was how he never rushed, always took his time, and always made it look like anyone could do it, he just made it look so easy. 

Oh, and his guitar was unplayable by anyone except him, really.

that's awesome! slightly off topic, but what made his guitar unplayable?

It was his Peavey Telecaster, he’s used it for years, and it was the only guitar he’d brought with him. First of all the action was quite high, too high for me. It had heavy gauge strings, maybe 11’s or 12’s, and the frets were so low they were virtually level with the board, almost nothing left. When I played it, I went to change to the neck pickup and couldn’t, the switch wouldn’t move, so I asked what that was about? He said he never used the neck pickup so he’d glued the switch so it couldn’t be moved! A unique instrument indeed. He did concede it needed a refret as soon as he could get around to it.

Acdeezee86

That's a wonderful anecdote and some nice insight into the man himself! thanks for sharing

HAL9000

Steve Cropper always strikes me as a human metronome. Extremely precise and very solid playing. He must be someone with a raft of stories and anecdotes to tell but unless it’s passed me by there’s no decent book/biography/autobiography about him; if there was I’d be all over it.