RIFFING
“ The notes that he wants you to hear louder , you ’ ll hear louder . And the notes he wants you to hear softer , you ’ ll hear softer . All the great blues players did that .”
I
’ ve been a fan of Robben Ford ’ s playing since 1974 when I first heard him on the Tom Scott Tomcat album . I think he was real young when he did that . Since then , I ’ ve heard him play with everybody from George Harrison to Joni Mitchell , Miles Davis and Charlie Musselwhite . I have always loved Robben ’ s playing and his tone . I think my favorite stuff that he ever did was in the bluesy / jazz kind of music . When I was a kid I had the record Schizophonic . That ’ s the one where he ’ s playing sax and guitar . I think it ’ s always been hard for Robben to make a record that satisfied both him and the record companies . A lot of people have the same dilemma – especially musicians as talented as he is – when you can do so many kinds of things and there ’ s always somebody telling you what they think you should do .
One of his problems , which is obviously not a problem , is his versatility . He can play so many different types of music convincingly that sometimes it can be hard to make the decision which direction to go in . I like him playing blues type stuff and I always like him playing jazzy stuff , too . Of all the cats capable of playing jazz and jazz-oriented music , he is the only one that to me can be really convincing in a straight blues or straight rock kind of setting . Most cats that are good enough to play in the jazz arena don ’ t have the straight-ahead feel and the emotional thing that Robben has in that kind of respect . We have a similar tone and attack . He accents very authoritatively . Within a phrase his volume will go up and down , and the notes that he
DECEMBER SPECIAL DIGITAL EDITION GUITAR TRICKS INSIDER 9