Robben Ford Discussion

[stratnut]

When I saw Robben play the thing that I came away with and was able to apply to my own playing immediately, was his use of space. He has tension in his playing, but it comes from his musicality, not from any need to cram notes in. Its tempting to pile ideas on top of each other without any breaks to create excitement and tension. Anyway, my playing improved right away just by allowing myself to stop and breath when I play. I don't have a lot of chops so giving myself a little room allows my ideas to flow better and improves my execution.

[Budda]

I'm with you, there!

Sometimes it can be hard to not play every lick you know, right away.

I know I'm as guilty as the next guy on that front.



One thing I try to do to maintain some "flow" and to keep things under control, is to build on a simple idea. Maybe just keep working with a little 3 or 4 Note Rhythmic Pattern.
And I often try to sing what I'm playing, as I play it. This helps me, as I have to breathe! LOL

I think that vocal phrasing is something that really helps me.

[Leftbender]

Robben listened to many saxophone players in the past, and nowadays advises everybody that tends one of his Master Classes to do so like wise. I think this is a good advice. A saxophone player has to breath, but this doesn't make his solo less natural. Coltrane and Shorter are the ones that are inspiring the most, according to Robben.
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"Don't play what's there, play what's not there" Miles Davis

[Bluelobster]

Well in this case Leftbender's signature sounds so true.
Robben's blues sense plus Mile's concept = sound of silence.

Now i used to "try" to cop from piano lines too , specially from Kind of blue.

[stratnut]

My first guitar teacher turned me on to Charlie Parker. I never was able to play that smooth and fast, and I blame him for years of trying and failing to sound like Bird over basic rock and roll tunes. Oh well I'm sure something seeped in somewhere.

Theres an album out there somewhere (I have it on vinyl but no turntable anymore) called Bird and Miles. They play nothing but very slow ballads and Parker does most of his solos in a relaxed double time. To this day its my all time favorite Jazz album. If you can find it its fantastic.

I also really like clifford brown. He was really really fast without sounding like he was tense. Talk about ideas flowing...whew

[roadwarriorfortheblues]

There's a fascinating 5-part interview on Youtube with pianist Krystian Zimerman. He doesn't use the word "space" but his ideas are thought provoking in relationship to this thread. He comments in the 4th or 5th video segment that music is like words -- when something is missing in a phrase, the whole phrase doesn't make any sense. This is how I, as a listener and beginning guitar player, interpret music.

Earlier, in part 2 or 3, he says music is not sound -- he says music is "organizing people's emotions in time."

Combine the two thoughts and you get: Complete the phrase, and leave space and time for the listener's emotions to resolve.

The interview, by BBC Radio, is full of wonderful quotes and gives a rare glimpse at the mind of this gifted artist.
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Travelling by train of thought