Guitar Tricks Insider April/May Digital Edition | Page 18

SOUND ADVICE

SOUND ADVICE

Robben Ford’s guitar playing is distinctly bluesy with
a jazz player’s know-how for transitions, and a pop
musician’s flair for melodic hooks. His touch with
the 6-string has been sought after by the likes of
Tom Scott, Joni Mitchell, George Harrison, Michael
McDonald, Jimmy Witherspoon, The Yellow Jackets,
Rickie Lee Jones, and Miles Davis. He has over 20
albums as a leader – his latest being Into the Sun.
My favorite story about Robben Ford is when Larry
Carlton gave me a cassette performance of himself,
Ford, Joe Sample, and others live at the Baked
Potato. This was during the Larry Carlton (Rm 335)
album. Larry’s only comment to me was, “Don’t
listen to me. I got it from Robben. Listen to him.”
So let’s do that.

Sound
Advice

n
e
b
b
o
R
Ford

Are there specific elements that make up
your style?

BY JOHN STIX

The main ingredient for me is melody. Whatever
I play has always got some continuity. That’s the

“THERE’S NO PROBLEM
WITH CLICHÉS. THEY ARE
FINE. BUT YOU NEED TO
TAKE THEM IN SO THEY
ARE A PART OF YOU –
AS OPPOSED TO YOU
ARE PLAYING THIS LICK,
THIS THING THAT CAME
FROM OUTSIDE THAT YOU
HAPPEN TO PUT ON LIKE
A HAT. IT’S GOT TO COME
IN AND BECOME YOUR
LICK.”

whole idea. Melody is the main ingredient.
It’s not licks. I don’t play licks. I never
played licks. I think that is the downfall
of a lot of players. They lose track of
musicality. It’s not about licks. You learn
your instrument. What I did was I played
the guitar so damn much that I knew
where the notes were. If I hit this note in
relationship to that note I knew what it was
going to sound like because I had done it
so many times before – So that’s knowing
the fretboard. You’ve got to know the
fretboard. Beyond that I just hammered
out musical ideas. I took the hard road in
that way – having never had any teachers
and not really studying in a technical way.
It was more a product of just finding it. It
was always coming from the perspective of
melody or a composer’s mind.
It’s hard because when you play blues
the clichés are so standard. Blues
guitar is the first thing you can learn
using licks. How do you avoid the
clichés?
There’s no problem with clichés. They are
fine. But you need to take them in so they
are a part of you – as opposed to you are
playing this lick, this thing that came from
outside that you happen to put on like a
hat. It’s got to come in and become your
lick. It’s just like language; it’s identical
to having a conversation. You learn how
to talk before you learn how to read.
When you use words they don’t belong
to anybody. So you don’t have to be selfconscious about using words. You don’t
have to make up your own words.
The latest manifestation of all this
experience and inspiration finds its
way into your new album Into the
Sun. For me the cut that stands out is
“Rose of Sharon.” You must be proud
of “Rose” because you start the album
off with it.
Yeah. My feeling was that it was the best
song on the record and so why not lead
with that? I also liked the idea that the

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DIGITAL EDITION

APR/MAY

APR/MAY

DIGITAL EDITION

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