Robben Ford Discussion

[jconstant]

I've got the Handful transcription book here and I have two questions about this tune:

1) It says the key sig denotes F Dorian. I get that what means but I'm not sure why it is that way. When I look at the key sig, I see Eb major and I would call it Eb major. I understand that the F Dorian mode is the Eb major scale starting on F, but why write it this way?


2) Early in the guitar solo, Robben plays this nice little triplet lick in the bar right before the Bb7 (so the chords are going from I to the IV, or Fm7 to Bb7). The notes of this lick are F Ab A C Eb F Ab Bb so I thought I was looking at an Eb major scale- until I noticed that A in there. What scale am I dealing with here?

Thanks!
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"Somebody's got to make some music around here." - Robben Ford

[FatTeleTom]

[jconstant]

[FatTeleTom]

Hmm, could be he was thinking of the F H/W diminished scale there (I hate trying to spell scales without checking myself on an instrument, but that should be F, Gb, Ab, A, B, C, D, Eb).

If I recall correctly, Robben talks about using the diminished scale to go from the I to the IV chord, so that would fit (or was it going from the IV back to the I? Have to thing about that).

Of course, Ab and A are the minor and major third intervals up from F, so he might have just been playing with that minor/major tonality rub.

Do you know the time stamp in the song where that lick occurs?

[jconstant]

Yeah, I thought it might be a diminshed thing at first but with only that A outside of the chord, I figured that's probably not it. It doesn't have that diminished sound.

And yes, it is the diminished scale Robben has talked about that works so well when going from the I to the IV. I've been working on that very part of the Back to the Blues DVD lately.

I think you're probably right with the minor/major thing.

It's the bar starting right at 2:30. Take a listen and let me know what you think.
_________________
"Somebody's got to make some music around here." - Robben Ford

[FatTeleTom]

I haven't had a chance to try playing along with it, but to my (mediocre) ears, I'd agree that it's not a diminished approach there.

So I think he was just thinking minor pentatonic there with the A as an added color note.

What a tune by the way--killer tone, great riff, and great vocals!

I keep hoping to work more on internalizing that "diminished as a I to IV transition" approach. So far, it's hard to make it sound fluid. I think I need to get the diminished stuff under my fingers/ears more comfortably.

[nineacres]

There's a good example of using a diminished run when going from chord I to chord IV on Eric Johnson's Alien Love Child - Live and Beyond. The track is Don't Cha Know and the sequence is at 0.30. He really spells it out very clearly. Also, listen to "World Of Trouble" on the same CD where he uses the same progression several times.
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"Creativeness often consists of merely turning up what is already there. Did you know that right and left shoes were only thought up a little more than a century ago?" - Bernice Fitz-Gibbon 1894-1982

[AlChuck]