Posted: Sun May 23, 2004 9:47 am Post subject: May 22nd Ojai clinic
Well, where do I start? Another phenonmenal experience with Robben of course.
He seemed to be in a particularly good mood. Maybe part of that was because most of the antendees were returning students and it was a really good and knowledgeable crowd. The clinic started right on time with Robben driving up around 9:45. This was my second time, and I had a friend in tow for his first. Robben had a beautiful old Gibson 355 which he played most of the day, and his new Les Paul R9 which he referred to as his "new best friend." He only played that one for a few minutes.
He gave us most of the same handouts from my first time there a year ago, as well as a couple of new ones. We started off with harmonized scales, and worked through various other chord and scale progressions. The questions were flying as furiously as you would expect, and he answered every one of them with frequent, patient demonstrations of theory. I was fortunate to be sitting directly in front of him, and was amazed at his fluidity and how easily he manages all those chord changes that can span four frets, sometimes including wrapping his thumb around to catch the bass note on the low E string.
It is clear to me that he thoroughly enjoys doing these clinics, and is a great teacher. He never stopped smiling all day. Toward the end of the day, he asked if anyone would like to come up and plug into the Dumble for a private lesson. Three brave souls did this, and the playing level was magnificent. Robben would trade comps and leads with each one, and seemed to enjoy playing backing while the others were riffing. The playing was well beyond my limited abilities.
My goal at these clinics has never been to learn to play like Robben, but to get inside his head a little and use some of his knowledge and technique to improve what I do. I know it will take at least three months to assimilate yesterdays information into my playing, just as it did last year. But as I mentioned to Robben, what I got from the last session caused a dramatic improvement in my playing just from learning some of the chord voicings and lead playing out of the pentatonic box that he demonstrates so well.
It was a pleasure to meet all of the fine people that were there yesterday, and to share that time with such a knowledgeable and capable group of players. It was well worth the six hours of driving up from and back to San Diego. There was one person that had come all the way from Manhatten, and I seem to recall someone else in from Montana.
If you ever get the chance to catch one of these, don't miss it. Whether you want to emulate Robben's playing or just add to your own, you'll get a ton of great information and an opportunity to interact with Robben in a very pleasant and relaxing atmosphere.
Oh yeah, beat up old wrinkled brown cowboy boots Elizabeth. _________________ Ham Fisted Bloozer
Great review, thanks! Can you believe it's been a year since we were there last? People could plug into the big D? That would have been great, except for having to play one's same-old-crummy-licks in front of a tough crowd like that!
The only guy to play last year was that 10-year old who had all the changes to Revelation down, remember? Fun stuff, man.
I remember that ten year old boy well. The dude could play! Kids don't know this stuff is hard. I hope nobody ever tells him! _________________ Ham Fisted Bloozer
Joined: 04 Nov 2003 Posts: 886 Location: SF Bay Area
Posted: Sun May 23, 2004 6:12 pm Post subject:
Tonebutcher, sorry I didn't get a chance to talk with you much. Jim and Vince, it was great to meet you guys, and everyone else who was there.
First I have to say Robben was really on his game. It was wonderful seeing how effortless Robben was in his command of what he was doing. The first clue was when he started up. He pulled out this red 355 and starting tuning it by ear. A couple of folks hit their guitars and he looked up and remarked that "someone is in tune". He had already pulled his into tune. He either has perfect pitch or a very, very good sense of relative pitch. Only about a half hour later after fighting to get the guitar to stay in tune with itself, did he pull out a tuner. Interestingly, no fancy Boss TU12H, he just had one of those little $15 Korg LCD tuners.
He started off talking about the clinic at Musicians Institute and how folks in that setting can be innudated by information to the point where they might lose sight of the music. So he had tried so bring some simplification to them to reconnect what they were studying to what they were studying it for. His first illustration was going though basic triads and inversions all over the fingerboard. Showing how to provide movement in comping over one chord vamps.
One of the main things I got from Saturday is that Robben doesn't think in terms of clasical theory as related to modes and scales. He thinks in terms of chord substitutions that he likes the sound of and then, as he puts it, "the scale that runs through that chord". For instance, while he can explaing using the melodic minor of a raised five, he looks at it as the scale running through an altered dominant chord. Again, his ability to run these scales and arrpegios all over the fingerboard was astounding and reveals years of practice. This wasn't limited to a riff or turnaround device, he knows where these things are any place on the neck.
At one point he was asked about playing though changes and he launched into his usual story about how he keeps moving away from complicated music. When pressed on the subject he offered that most rapidly moving songs were chains of two-fives and that one could skip the two and go straight to the five or whatever alteration one wanted to play with over that five. But he did say in answer to a question about songs with one chord per bar movement, that if there was a whole bar of something, "you ought to know what it is and what fits with it". Kind of puts all his "I'm just a pentatonic blues player" modesty in perspective.
Later in the afternoon, Robben asked if anyone wanted to go over something one on one. I had heard that folks had played along with him at other clinics but at the October one, when he asked, no one moved for a moment and someone who was waiting with another question popped in with it and the moment was lost. So this time I raised my hand straight away. As I was walking up to the front, Robben casually said "plug into the Dumble there" and I felt this huge intake of breath behind me. Robben had been playing though his Deluxe all day and the Dumble combo was sitting there on standby. He asked what I wanted to learn and I asked him about chord movement over blues progressions. As he was demonstrating walkdowns, turnaround and such I had this dialog going in the back of my head. Here I was, playing the exact same chords, on what I thought was a pretty good guitar, plugged into the holy grail of tonedom, and it sounded like sh*t. Robben probably thought I was staring at his hand to follow the chords, I was watching his fingers pressing the strings trying to understand how he was making this big, rich, wonderful sound and all I could come up with were these dead plunks. I don't know what it was like for the others. The guy after me traded choruses with Robben and at the end ripped off a whole tone riff that had Robben spining his head around and thanking him for the idea. Then this fellow Paul who had brought half a class worth of friends with him, pulled out a slide and laid into some great sounding blues that had Robben smiling.
At the last clinic, I came in overwhelmed by the theoretical studying I had been doing and left inspired to "shout at the waves". This time I left feeling like I couldn't play. They say that life always presents you with exactly what you need. What I obviously need is to put in some practice time. Triad's, extensions, altered dominant chords and scales, and tone production, then start shouting at waves. For anyone else who came away thinking that it was all too much to learn, remember, music is Robben's life. He is an extremely talented individual who has dedicated his existence since his teenage years to making music that appealed to his sensibilities. How wonderful that it also touches so many of us. All that we can do is put what we can into developing the tools to let whatever music is within us, out. What an incredible lesson. Thank you Robben. _________________ There are no such things as wrong notes, there's only the look on your face.
My Stuff: www.stevekirbymusic.com
Joined: 13 Jul 2003 Posts: 1043 Location: Boulder, CO
Posted: Sun May 23, 2004 7:24 pm Post subject:
Tonebutcher and Aeolian thanks so much for the recap!
Robben knows his theory inside and out. He may not know all the official names of all the modes but his ears know how to apply all of them.
Still at the end of the day, the thing that hit's me the hardest about Robben's playing is his phrasing and melodic development. Then after that it's his comping. He plays rythm guitar just as creatively as he solos.
Joined: 23 May 2004 Posts: 4 Location: South Orange County CA
Posted: Sun May 23, 2004 7:31 pm Post subject:
Hey guys, I attended this seminar for the first time, not being a very "seasoned" player I was very concerned with not getting most of what would be discussed but as it turns out the lessons Robben gave pretty much served all the players (some of whom were at a pretty respectable level). I came home today, sat down to practice and started with an entirely new perspective on guitar playing - very challening but at the same time refreshing because I wasn't going over the same scales and licks I normally practice.
He may not know all the official names of all the modes but his ears know how to apply all of them.
That's funny because a year ago at the clinic he was describing usage of b5 or tritone substitutions. Someone asked him why it was called "tritone". He apparently did not know. I suggested that it was 3 whole tones from the root chord, essentially dividing the chromatic scale in half. He fingers 3 whole steps on his neck and say's, "Hey, yeah that's it." or something to that effect.
Now if I was 1/10th as good as him at coming up with tasty tritone subs! He's got that stuff down soooo cold.
Hey guys: its Roger from NY. I got back last night from Ojai and I have to say I thought the clinic was terrific. I am less accomplished than most of you but I found the experience to the unique, fun, and a little humbling. I really enjoyed meeting those of you I has a chance to visit with, and my wife and six year old daughter got a charge out of meeting Robben. One problem, my recorder did a poor job. Would someone be so kind as to e-mail me off the board to discuss. I would greatly appreciate it. I found it interesting from a blues/rock perspective that Robben's favorite discs were Coltrane, Miles, Mingus, Evans--players from the jazz genre. At least no one tossed anything at me for my Ramones reference.
Great job guys-- best to you all.
Paul-see you in GC.
R
Joined: 16 Jul 2003 Posts: 762 Location: Southern California
Posted: Mon May 24, 2004 8:35 am Post subject:
What can I say that hasn't been said?
Aeolian and Tonebutcher, it was good to meet you guys. Nice to be able to put a face with the names.
This was my second time at this clinic and even though I thought the first one was a once in a lifetime experience, this time was even better. Time flew by so fast it felt like I was there for an hour, not all day.
The thing that really gets me about Robben is how humble he is. With all honesty, he'll say he's just a blues guitar player (as someone already mentioned), and he means it.
Robben wasn't in a picture taking mood so I got a couple pictures of the amps he brought, which many of you, I know, have seen before. But, here they are:
and
I walked away this time, same as last time, half wanting to practice 8 hours a day and the other half of me feeling like I should just put my guitar on eBay and forget about it.
But then I can't help but think of something Robben said first thing on Saturday when everyone was introducing themselves. A returning student said he was 'inspired' after the first clinic he attended. I felt exactly the same way. And I feel even more inspired after this second time, in part, because Robben really makes you believe its just not all that complicated. And its not about becoming a player of his caliber, unless that's what you want to do. Its about making music, and that's what I'm inspired to do even more than I was before. Realistically, I won't be able to practice 8 hours a day but I'm going to really focus on music more and I'll be a much better player the next time I go to a clinic. Maybe I'll even have the balls to play with him like a few people did on Saturday. (nice job, all of you guys!)
And Elizabeth, I looked at the boots several times that day and thought, "I'm gonna get a picture of those for Elizabeth." But alas, he wasn't hip to pcitures, like I said, and I thought taking a picture of his feet would be just a little too wierd. I do want to be able to go to a clinic again, after all. Maybe next time.
Joined: 04 Nov 2003 Posts: 886 Location: SF Bay Area
Posted: Mon May 24, 2004 11:08 am Post subject:
kirk95 wrote:
Robben knows his theory inside and out. He may not know all the official names of all the modes but his ears know how to apply all of them.
Still at the end of the day, the thing that hit's me the hardest about Robben's playing is his phrasing and melodic development. Then after that it's his comping. He plays rythm guitar just as creatively as he solos.
I think Robben is on a mission to "de-mystify" music. If you listened carefully, every so often he would let a comment slip about the relationship between some chord and it's associated mode and how that mode was derived. Then he would demonstrate that mode all over the fingerboard. I believe he throughly knows all the classical theory but wants to draw the focus away from the terminology and towards the sounds of the relationships.
He used a term that really struck me. "Melodic Intent". He said that you could play any scale or pattern as long as you played it with melodic intent. Often you break down some really cool thing you hear him play and it turns out to be some simple pattern or arrpegio. Those may be the note values, but when he plays them he's trying to create a melody.
He made the same relationships in his comping. From the introductory triad substitutions to my one on one about chromatic chord movement, he is primarily trying to create little melodic statements. Part of his comp phrasing is the rhythmic drive, and part of it is hitting those chords with "melodic intent". _________________ There are no such things as wrong notes, there's only the look on your face.
My Stuff: www.stevekirbymusic.com
Joined: 16 Mar 2004 Posts: 9 Location: Pacifica, CA
Posted: Mon May 24, 2004 1:19 pm Post subject:
It was great meeting everyone at the clinic, and yes, I came away at first feeling like it was time to cash my axes and perhaps pursue a rewarding career in the food service industry! But I know it's just my awe at Robben's technical prowess and that of some of the other players at the clinic. What lingers from the experience however is Robben's absolute joy at making and sharing music.
Yesterday evening I went to a jam session at this funky little bar because I just had to play. Believe me when I tell you that I did not play one new scale or chord I'd learned but my playing was more "on" than it had been in weeks. As I look back on it, the stuff that really stuck from the seminar was about 1) having patience and 2) what Aeolian mentioned about "melodic intent". So at this jam it was so cool to lay back in a groove and really try to play melodic lines and only embellish them when the time was right. No frantic comping or running riffs, just really focusing on making music that I liked. Man, I can't tell you how good it felt. Moreover, I got more strokes on my playing from the other folks in the bar, musicians mostly, than I had in some time.
Thanks again, Robben, for the inspiration and for the lessons - especially the ones that go beyond the scales and chords, and are at the heart of why your music moves us all so.[/i]
Bluewail, I hear ya brudda, on all fronts. One of the things I took away from last years clinic was to "shout at the waves." I quit worrying about what I thought people were hearing, and I started just letting loose and if the clams happen they happen. It's really made a huge difference in my own enjoyment of what I do. People tell me what a great player I am, but I think some of that may be that I really just try to play stuff I like and not hit wrong notes. Sound familiar? I'm not even close to as accomplished as the brave souls that sat eye to eye with Robben on Saturday, but I absolutely enjoy myself far more than I used to, and the chord substitutions I've learned over the past year (thanks to Robben's admonishments to everyone to "learn chords") have made me a far more complete ensemble player than learning to play blistering model runs. _________________ Ham Fisted Bloozer
Joined: 16 Jul 2003 Posts: 534 Location: SF Bay area
Posted: Mon May 24, 2004 8:23 pm Post subject: I love to read your clinic tales...
What a joy to read about your experiences with Robben (I can't help smiling from ear to ear when you encourage my shoe fettish...) What a fantastic community of people this is; I am honored to be a part of it. You guys are the best.
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Thanks to all for the great reports. I can hardly wait until I go up to Ojai for the August Clinic.
