The instrumental foundation for Motown music was made by combinations of percussion instruments, bass guitar, guitar, tambourine and piano.
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee James Jamerson played the bass guitar, inductee Benny Benjamin did the percussion and Earl Van Dyke played the piano on the first Motown songs of 1959 and on. Jack Ashford played the tambourine.
Some Motown songs utilized the marimba and vibraphone. The horn used most was a saxophone and, rarely, a flute, trombone or trumpet was used. Use of a string section was even less common.
Motown's guitar sound was changed in 1967 by guitarists Melvin "Wah-Wah Watson" Ragin and Dennis Coffey when they used the wah-wah pedal for soul songs.
A tire iron in "Dancing in the Streets," snow chains in "Nowhere to Run," and hand clapping and the tambourine on many songs were part of the Motown percussion sound. Sometimes two or three drummers would play at once in unison.
A hole was made in the studio ceiling to act as an echo chamber to create a reverb sound on recordings such as "Dancing in the Streets" and "Please Mr. Postman."