Robben Ford Discussion

[BlueRunner]

Inquiring minds want to know!
_________________
- BlueRunner

[BlueRunner]

OK, guess I gotta' do it myself, even if it is a second-hand report:

Toni Jannotta (www.tonijannotta.com), a Ventura-based jazz vocalist, went up to the Clinic, and had a blast. I'd told her a lot about Robben's music and my own Clinic experiences, and she decided she'd better hear and see for herself. Yesterday she gave me a brief report.

Toni's instrumental experience is as a violinist and pianist, and she feels that in her own songwriting and set lists she's very melodically oriented. She also works primarily with jazz musicians who have a big musical bank account in the area of standards from the American jazz songbook. (Toni does a knockout version of "Take Five." Did ya'll know that Dave Brubeck's wife actually wrote lyrics for the piece after the Brubeck/Desmond/Morello etc. record was released?) She found Robben's discussions of his approach to musical theory and songrwriting to be a real inspiration, and found herself re-learning a lot of stuff she hadn't regularly used in a long while. In a specific instance, she confessed that she'd really been having trouble working on a new piece she's writing, in part because she almost feels an obligation to impress her backing musicians with impressive and surprising chord changes. Robben talked about his own experience, and urged her to go back and simplify -- even it it meant just going I-IV-V -- and to put her emotions and feelings into a more simple structure, just to see what would happen. She reported to me that the next day she did just that, but that once she'd been able to put her feelings into what she had, the interesting chord changes that emerged "just happened," and were better than anything she'd been trying to write into the piece earlier.

Her report confirmed something I've always believed: You don't have to be a monster guitarslinger to get a huge amount out of the Clinics. You don't have to be a guitarist at all, or even that experienced a musician. You don't even have to be a fan of the blues, or any other genre. If you just like listening to music, you'll get something out of a Clinic.

One last thing from Toni's report: It sounds as if this time around the number of guys like me (it's always the guys) who just can't stop themselves from constantly going "plink-plink-plink" on their unplugged electric guitars while Robben is trying to speak was minimal or nonexistent.

Toni reiterated something I've heard from other working musician-attendees. They find it amazing that someone with Robben's experience and abilities would take "home time" in the midst of a constantly-busy touring, writing and recording schedule to spend a Saturday sitting around with 25 people and talking and demonstrating so passionately about his art. If one of these days Robben wakes up and decides that Saturdays at home are better spent out in his garden pulling up weeds, he will certainly have earned it. In the meantime, if you haven't availed yourself of a Clinic, don't put it off. The sooner you come to Ojai, the sooner your mojo (whether for playing, writing, performing, or just sitting around listening to your iPod) will get supercharged.
_________________
- BlueRunner

[BlueRunner]

OK, guess I gotta' do it myself, even if it is a second-hand report:

Toni Jannotta (www.tonijannotta.com), a Ventura-based jazz vocalist, went up to the Clinic, and had a blast. I'd told her a lot about Robben's music and my own Clinic experiences, and she decided she'd better hear and see for herself. Yesterday she gave me a brief report.

Toni's instrumental experience is as a violinist and pianist, and she feels that in her own songwriting and set lists she's very melodically oriented. She also works primarily with jazz musicians who have a big musical bank account in the area of standards from the American jazz songbook. (Toni does a knockout version of "Take Five." Did ya'll know that Dave Brubeck's wife actually wrote lyrics for the piece after the Brubeck/Desmond/Morello etc. record was released?) She found Robben's discussions of his approach to musical theory and songrwriting to be a real inspiration, and found herself re-learning a lot of stuff she hadn't regularly used in a long while. In a specific instance, she confessed that she'd really been having trouble working on a new piece she's writing, in part because she almost feels an obligation to impress her backing musicians with impressive and surprising chord changes. Robben talked about his own experience, and urged her to go back and simplify -- even it it meant just going I-IV-V -- and to put her emotions and feelings into a more simple structure, just to see what would happen. She reported to me that the next day she did just that, but that once she'd been able to put her feelings into what she had, the interesting chord changes that emerged "just happened," and were better than anything she'd been trying to write into the piece earlier.

Her report confirmed something I've always believed: You don't have to be a monster guitarslinger to get a huge amount out of the Clinics. You don't have to be a guitarist at all, or even that experienced a musician. You don't even have to be a fan of the blues, or any other genre. If you just like listening to music, you'll get something out of a Clinic.

One last thing from Toni's report: It sounds as if this time around the number of guys like me (it's always the guys) who just can't stop themselves from constantly going "plink-plink-plink" on their unplugged electric guitars while Robben is trying to speak was minimal or nonexistent.

Toni reiterated something I've heard from other working musician-attendees. They find it amazing that someone with Robben's experience and abilities would take "home time" in the midst of a constantly-busy touring, writing and recording schedule to spend a Saturday sitting around with 25 people and talking and demonstrating so passionately about his art. If one of these days Robben wakes up and decides that Saturdays at home are better spent out in his garden pulling up weeds, he will certainly have earned it. In the meantime, if you haven't availed yourself of a Clinic, don't put it off. The sooner you come to Ojai, the sooner your mojo (whether for playing, writing, performing, or just sitting around listening to your iPod) will get supercharged.
_________________
- BlueRunner

[JackD]

Thanks for the report Bluerunner. I was at the clinic (along with you) in August of 2004. I'd love to come out again and go to another--perhaps this summer!