Robben Ford Discussion

[roadwarriorfortheblues]

PierreL, can you tell us more about the workshop/master class you attended, please?
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[PierreL]

So, by popular demand ( ), here's a review of Robben's masterclass, which took place the morning of the Montpellier gig (8th October).
First of all, the organisation : that was lousy, to say the least. Apparently, Robben was not aware of the masterclass until a few days before it was
supposed to happen...he finally decided to do it, the day before.
So here we are in Montpellier, the class taking place in a jazz school named JAM.
First weird thing I notice when arriving, is that some students have taken some seats where the teacher is supposed to be, and they have also brought their amp, and are plugged in ! Weird, as I said...
Robben arrives, there does not seem anybody to conduct the masterclass, so he waits for the people in the teacher's spot to move away...
Meanwhile, he sits at a piano and plays some chordal passages for a few minutes, that was quite cool and unexpected of course.
After he while he finally asks those guys to find a seat in the attendants area, and looks for an amp...disappointment, no Fender in sight. So he
plugs his Sakashta in one of the two Roland Jazz Chorus available, strums a few chords, complains that those amps have no body His tech Rick ( usually Larry Carlton's tech) is here too. The place is a bit cold and damp, which makes him uncomfortable, he will worry later on about his voice due to that. Also he says that the nut on the Sakhasta has just been replaced and is too high, which leads to tuning problems (this will carry on during the evening concert unfortunately).

And so the class can actually begin.

It was supposed to last 2 x 2 hours, but as it was not really planned by Robben, he decided to shorten it to about 2 hours.
So during those two hours, he did alternate between anecdotes about his career (LA Express, Miles Davis, Joni Mitchell), his peers (talked quite a
bit about Michael Brecker for instance), the music he listens to (jazz of course...it seems mainly pre 70's jazz as well. He doesn't seem to find the
newer talents to be really inspiring. "No soul" as he says). His advice: don't listen to guitarists
Then he talked about his approach to music making in general (which was also related to anecdotes of course), how he struggled at first as he found
himself not to be on the level of the guys he was working with, and how that forced him to improve.
And then the playing : he did illustrate some things by playing. A "standard" Robben blues at first, of course great. Then he showed how to use the half step/whole step scale over a blues progression. Played a Bb minor blues with Rick on second guitar. Demonstrated how he did incorporate some Hendrix chord style in Riley B. King (he also sings) and Let Me In (from Supernatural), but with Robben's harmonic imput of course. Great moments here.

There are a few Q and A all long of course. Robben is always very courteous, very humble about his art too, and he has a lot of humor too (he needed to, considering how badly organised that thing was...)

As he said, the clinics he does in the US take place over one day, so he can cover more ground and be more specific. Here it was rather improvised.

Still, that was a very interesting experience, both as a guitarist, and as a fan. It's quite a thrill to meet one of your main influences.

Hope it was not too long, sorry if I was too specific about some details.

[roadwarriorfortheblues]

Thanks Pierre! You're so lucky to have been able to attend a workshop like that. It seems when Robben tours in the U.S., especially in Florida, the shows are back-to-back, and hundreds of miles between venues -- there's barely enough time to get to the gig -- and there are no workshops. Your workshop review was great!
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[bongofury]

[Leftbender]

Thanks a lot for the review, Pierre. Must have been quit an experience! Sorry to hear that the organisation of the event was poor.
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"Don't play what's there, play what's not there" Miles Davis

[Bluelobster]

[roadwarriorfortheblues]

Hi Blob

Sorry to hear about your hospital visit & I hope you're feeling better now. Judging from your comments, you seem to be back to your old self
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