I’m a keyboard player, not a guitar player… But Robben’s phrasing and harmonic language has always been top in my book…. Some of my favorite guitar solos of all time are Robbins solos on the early yellow jackets records. My God… The tone, the phrasing,… It brought me to tears. I’m very familiar with the scales you mentioned, but your use of them and your own phrasing and melodic sensibility or just great, Steve. Great job as a fellow educator, I have great respect for anyone who can put all those pieces together in such a good way
I saw Robben Ford on the Supernatural tour in 1999, long before smartphones. My brother recorded the show with a mini disc recorder. “Nothing to Nobody” is one of my favorite tracks… you can hear my shouts of approval on the bootleg. Thanks for bringing me back!
Truly magic, both from Robben and from Steve. Steve, when you first were playing through the changes, that first chorus (which I realize now you intentionally played straight ahead) had me thinking - nothing special here, THEN the second chorus and my jaw dropped - SO many juicy outside beautiful tones spilling out. I had the pleasure of meeting Robben on Zoom during the pandemic and he even critiqued my playing (along with critique from Allen Hinds and Jon Herington (Steely Dan)). I have a clip of that on my channel. It made my musical life to see Robben reacting to my playing. Your content is amazing Steve - thank you for more content about Robben's technique - explained so thoroughly and easy to understand.
Steve I really want to thank you for this amazing video!!! With your understandable language and your reassuring smile you guide us to the land of the Gods. 😀👍👍👍
Great lesson. I messed around with it, but changed the chords to Cm and A♭9 to change things up a bit. You are right about that 5th, there is severe tonal pressure to lower the 5th to a ♭5 when you change to the 9 chord when playing the lead bits. I also experimented by changing the A♭9 to an F#major(♭5).
1:53 "pretty nasty clash" but I loved it! That's the kind of stuff that gets my attention. You can't hang out there but it's a cool place to pass through.
There’s a great track that Robben guests on that’s under the radar. It’s by a band called Quiet city and the song is called I Know your name, he has that 90s blue line tone on it even though the song is from 2021 I believe. Check it out, his playing is sublime 😎
Your phrasing is immaculate. Have you ever considered coming up with a funky blues fusion kind of instrumental guitar album? I could listen to your style all day! Cheers 😊
Bro, you gained a new subscriber. managed to really convey the Robben Ford vibe, without sounding like a copy. Robben is on my top list. There are some videos on my channel where I try to improvise, and Robben was the guy who showed me that it's possible to improvise without being exclusively dependent on licks.
Beside learning the theory, I also approach new scales referring back to already established scales and shapes. Lydian dominant = mixolydian with a sharp four.
Still watching and will re-watch, but when would I use the lydian dom scale/ triad licks during a progression? As some outside-y type licks before the 5 chord? We're in A minor and the Dominant is E7 of course, but I would slide into a lydian dom thingy (just a half step up from the 5th) before resolving to the 5 chord? Is that right?
You could technically play it over any dominant 7, but it tends to work better in a blues when moving to the IV (as the I is acting as the V of IV, likewise on the V before going back to I. You could also do it on the IV even though this isn't the V of anything! Also works great on a bVII7, so in A this would be G7. Loads of possibilities!
Incredible ideas here - I’m getting Scofield vibes as well. Can’t wait to try this all out. Thinking of a Gmaj arpeggio is great way to avoid that natural 4 over F.
Have you ever released any books Steve? I’d love to purchase a book with in depth explanation of this style of playing. You make it less scary and easier to grasp. Too many online “educators” show a blistering lick in a key and don’t explain the context of the chord tones like you do.
Thanks for the kind words - nothing in the pipeline - I may do one in future, but for now I'm trying to get all this stuff down in an online video course! 💪🏼
Beautiful playing and great lesson :) ButI am a little confused on the theory : I have always learned tha the lydian scale has a #5, but no b7, while your lydian scale example does have a b7. What am I missing ? ;)
Many thanks! 🙏🏼 Lydian has the #4 and is the 4th mode of the major scale whereas the lydian dominant has #4 and b7 and is the 4th mode of the melodic minor scale 👍🏻
Im struggling to create licks for a similar back door dominant style chord but in my song we vamp from Ami7 to D7 (3x) and at the end it goes from Fmaj to Bb13. So the back door dominant of C Ionian. But it then resolves down to Ami instead of C. I feel like I’m just working in Bb Lydian Dominant with scalar bits and struggling to come up with actual melodic riffs esp when compared to the A Dorian the vamp stays in.
A couple of things I'd recommend here - try and nail your triads when moving between chords to really underline the harmony. The other thing is try to do a side by side comparison of what's different between say Bb LD and F Ionian - Bb C D E F G Ab / F G A Bb C D E - the point of difference between Ab and A is something you could get a lot of mileage out of as you travel between chords. Hope that helps! 💪🏼
If you also want to hear a great example of Robben doing this, check out the tune Midnight Comes too Soon. At the end of the tune,he just solos back and forth between B minor and G7. There are a number of versions on RU-vid.
@@SteveAllsworth The live versions of the tune he really spends some time digging into those changes after the lyrics. Cantaloupe Isle is another good tune to practice lydian dominant on that D flat 7.
From Video notes: Guitar:: Fender Deluxe Tele with Bareknuckle Yardbird pickups Amp: Fender Deluxe Reverb Pedals: Analogman King of Tone (for both clean/dirty sounds)
Hmm, technically you could go F7 - E7 back to A7 or A major, but it just doesn't quite resolve as nicely, that's why you tend to have it in minor blues. F7 to A7 definitely sounds weird!
