Robben Ford gives a lesson on bringing a jazz influence to your blues soloing

Comments · 207

• MA

  @markheld7933 · 6 months ago

  One of the great highlights in my life while working at Fender was getting to sit at the table to dine  with a group of employees and executives from Fender with Robben Ford and band before their show nearby in Phoenix.  What a great night.  He truly is an inspirational guitarist.  Read everything you can about about him and his thoughts and influences in music.  He's as genuine in this article as he is in person. Fender would regularly invite staff that were "guitar lovers" whenever possible.  Kudos to Mr. Dan Smith, a great man and guitarist loved and appreciated by many Fender employees and guitar players. Dan could tell a story like no one else!  We would regularly hear among the guitar players at work joking that "If I wasn't married and didn't have any bills, I'd work here for free!  And everyone would laugh.  Great place to work and the Management was incredible and Top Notch.  Truly, an amazing place to work! It taught many people  "Never give up on the guitar!:

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• TO

  @tomcripps7229 · 9 months ago

  Robben Ford is a great musician and modest. His sophistication is on another level and while he doesn't liken himself to the more hardcore jazz guitarists, he has their respect. While the jazz guys can do amazing things, many admittingly can't do what Robben does.

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• EA

  @Earl00001 · 9 months ago

  The tone here is on another level!

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• PA

  @paulstaffordcook8799 · 9 months ago

  Jeez, i just love Robben Ford. What an incredible career. And so generous and un-guarded with his knowledge. 🙏

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• PA

  @Paddy126 · 9 months ago

  Robben is playing D superlocrian (Eb melodic minor starting on D, the raised 7th. I never saw it the way he explains it -  as a half whole diminished morphing into a whole tone scale, but it is the same thing. I recall John Etheridge pointing out that there is only one note of difference bewteen D half whole diminished and D superlocrian A is raised to A# - the sharp 5  of the D9#5 Robben demonstrates here. The puzzle is now solved.

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• KE

  @KevinS4U · 9 months ago

  Not only is Robben a great player but he is also one hell of a teacher.

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• GA

  @GazMoz78 · 9 months ago

  Top guy Robben. Absolute master. No guarded secrets, here’s how it’s done 👌

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• TI

  @timstaffell · 9 months ago

  Robben Ford is one of my favourite players....

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• CR

  @crazywisdom2 · 1 month ago

  That Guitar, That tone, That man. <br>What a treat. So much wisdom in all that.<br>Robben is such a treasure. Thank you for sharing ...

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• TO

  @Tonetwisters · 9 months ago

  Back around 1974, I worked for my brother in Tallahassee, who owned a music store. We had the chance to rent BB KING a new Super Reverb when he played at FSU. I went to see him play through that Super (which sounded FAB!). Mr. King played a lot of blues that night; but toward the end of the night, threw in some Jazz stuff, which really surprised me!

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• KA

  @karimgandoura6124 · 9 months ago

  This is a gift for santa Claus. Thanks robben for this lesson

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• DA

  @DavidHendersonMusicChannel · 9 months ago

  What really stands out to me is the restraint here. Most of the time Robben is still playing straight through the V with blues and pentatonic gravity fully intact. The altered sound isn’t a shift in language—it just briefly leaks in for a moment of pressure, then disappears again. That subtle in-and-out is what keeps the blues identity strong, and it’s a great reminder that depth often comes from how little you use, not how much. And that, IMHO, is master-level thinking.

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