If you’re a guitar player who surfs social media for playing inspiration, chances are that you’ve heard the neo-soul guitar style before.

This highly popular style of guitar playing is all the rage on social media platforms and continues to inspire a new generation of players to experiment with fresh ideas and techniques to take the style to the next level.

This article will give you a comprehensive history of neo-soul guitar, its influences, and the five eras that helped establish it as a unique genre.

Neo soul vs neo-soul guitar

Before we talk about all the florid and exciting sounds associated with neo-soul guitar, we need to start by looking at the difference between neo soul and neo-soul guitar.

• Neo soul: This is the music genre that appeared in the mid-90s and early 00s that began to combine elements of hip hop, contemporary R&B, gospel, and jazz music.
• Neo-soul guitar: This is a guitar style inspired by neo-soul music where the melody lines are all played by the guitar rather than by a singer.

The birth of early neo soul (1995 – 2000)

The term ‘neo soul’ was originally coined by Kedar Massenburg, a record producer and the president of Motown Records in the late 90s.

• Neo soul became a term used to market a new style of music that took influence from hip-hop and combined it with contemporary R&B.
• Massenburg was a significant figure that gave rise to the careers of both Erykah Badu and D’Angelo.
• It cannot be overstated how important Massenburg’s contributions to neo soul have been in defining and promoting the genre.

The following artists had a massive hand in shaping the neo-soul sound:

• D’Angelo
• Lauryn Hill
• Van Hunt
• Maxwell
• Erykah Badu
• Musiq Soulchild
• Raphael Saadiq

This list is not exhaustive, but it’s worth mentioning that the trinity of D’Angelo, Lauryn Hill, and Erykah Badu were arguably the most prominent pioneers of the genre.

D’Angelo’s album Brown Sugar, released in 1995, was a landmark record and kickstarted a wave of other crucial neo-soul albums.

Due to their commercial success and widespread influence, the ‘big three’ albums from this initial era are:

1. Brown Sugar, D’Angelo
2. Voodoo, D’Angelo
3. Baduizm, Erykah Badu

It’s also worth noting that both styles of music owe a large part of their identity to the legendary hip-hop producer J Dilla. To this day, many neo-soul artists and guitarists cite J Dilla and other producers such as Flying Lotus, Nujabes, and Q-Tip as major influences in the development of the genre.

A guitar great lies in wait..

Much like Prince’s bands, D’Angelo’s records were often stacked with highly sought-after, musicians. One musician who had a significant influence on D’Angelo’s Voodoo and the neo-soul sound was guitarist Spanky Alford.

• Spanky Alford was a consummate, highly skilled guitarist, credited as one of the founding fathers of neo-soul guitar.
• Spanky’s playing style merged the chordal ideas and techniques of gospel quartet guitar, with the sounds of jazz guitar and R&B playing styles.
• Jonathan Dubose Jr. is another crucial guitar player from the gospel and secular music scene who made huge waves with super clean tone and tasteful chord voicings.

Even today, many of the sounds and stylistic features heard in neo-soul guitar are directly related to the gospel guitar style that originated in churches across the United States.

Spanky Alford and Jonathan Dubose Jr are credited as two important pioneers of the genre, but there are many others that have also made significant contributions:

• Jarius Mozee
• Kerry ‘2smooth’ Marshall
• John “Jubu” Smith
• Isaiah Sharkey
• Chris Payton
• Erick Walls
• Kevin Wilson

Check out our article on the 10 essential neo soul chord progressions to get you started!

The DVD era (2005 – 2008)

Back in 2005, before YouTube and Facebook were barely a twinkle in the now-tech giants’ eyes, DVDs were one of the only sources for learning neo-soul guitar secrets!

Much like the VHS tapes that came before, DVDs were essential for guitar players to study live performances and instructional videos from their favorite guitarists.

You had to go out and buy a tape or disc if you wanted to learn how the greats did it!

• For neo soul as a genre, the DVD era popularized the music and the guitar masters’ education tapes became folkloric legends among guitar players.
• Many of which have been uploaded to YouTube since.

Here are some of the most influential DVD’s that helped neo-soul music reach wider audiences:

Dave Chappelle’s Block Party

Released in 2005, this concert was dedicated to J Dilla and showcased some of the upcoming talents including a young Kanye West, Mos Def, Jill Scott, Erykah Badu, and some important The Roots band members.

This was a huge favorite among guitar players and is still widely viewed as the first must-watch for aspiring neo-soul guitarists.

Another classic go-to for neo soul guitarists. This tape of Spanky Alford showed off his solo guitar playing over a classic hymn.

In 2007, Jonathan Dubose Jr’s solo from a live performance took the guitar world by storm!

Recorded in 2002, this was an hour-long lesson with Spanky himself as he talked about his chord choices, guitar influences, and how to incorporate R&B guitar ideas into playing contexts.