Robben Ford Discussion

[Phonebooth83]

It's a little slow here, so I'd thought i'd post something that I just did that seems to be helping me with my rhythm chops. Hopefully you can take something from it, or add your own angle.


In Don Mock's "Jazz Rythm Chops" DVD he talks about 7 ways to play a swing rythm. For example, below would be the "1 AND 2 AND 3.." of an 8 beat swing pattern.

1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and

Here are at least 7 popular ways to play your chords in a blues: For example, the first way in the list below is to play on the 1,2,3, and 4 only, while the last example is to play on the "and" before 2, the 3 "and" before 4 then on the last "and" before the next bar.

1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and
x.......x.......x........x
x.......x.......x...x..........
x................x...x.........
.........x.......x...x.........
.....x...........x...x.........
x...x.....................x....
.....x...........x...x.........x
This is a great practice to run through your blues progressions and make sure you are using different rythm patterns when you are comping.

I took this a little further and began using these to spice up my lead playing. Take an interval such as a 1,2,3,1 which in c major would be c, d, e, c. Now play it through all of the various rhythm patterns above. You'll find it will give you fresh ideas on a motif or riff and will help open up your mind a little.

Greg

Well, I'm standing in a phone booth, your numbers on the wall....!!