How to Play Soul Music on the Guitar

As an "organic" music genre, soul music, essentially a mix of rhythm and blues with gospel styles, is a type of music you might not associate with the guitar. Many practitioners will tell you, any instrument can be used to uplift the soul and the guitar can go along with soul. Using a guitar in soul music will be a departure from the rigid music-theory play of some professionals, but with a little versatility, a guitar player should be able to follow along.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

1. Catch the rhythms of the soul. Soul music largely depends on rhythm, and not usually a rhythm originating strictly from a drum set, as in pop genres. Soul music, on the other hand, often follows a tempo and cadence produced by vocalists and this makes it a little harder to follow. A trained musician should be able to get an ear for playing chords along to vocals and listening for cues like hand clapping and snapping fingers.
2. Follow a "call and response" pattern as it comes up. One very effective way to include guitar is to play one and only one chord voicing on each line of response to a lead singer's call. You'll hear this often in soul and similar genres.
3. Find minimal chord striking techniques. As in call and response, other variations require minimal chord strumming. Unlike country or pop/rock guitar, where guitar players strum endlessly, soul, like reggae or some jazz compositions, relies more on effective one-beat chord strumming, where the guitar provides "markers" rather than a constant flow of chord rhythm.
4. Be able to anticipate fast changes. In soul, there are often erratic improvisations on tone and tempo. Try to follow these as much as possible by structuring play so that it's not dependent on a rigid rhythm, but responsive to change.
5. Take a back seat. In this genre, it's particularly important that the guitar does not overpower other elements like vocals. Use good judgment to keep the guitar in the background and properly accent what's going on.