Robben Ford - The Blues And Beyond Instructional DVD
Today I thought I'd give you a quick review of a good guitar instructional DVD I like to check out now and again. It's Robben Ford's "The Blues And Beyond" from Warner Bros. Classics and it's chock full of good stuff to get you out of those same-old pentatonic ruts you might find yourself in (like us all!;)
He covers a nice assortment of topics - playing through more jazz-like changes, Rhumba blues groove playing, diminished scale usage (good for playing from the I to the IV and back), chord voicings and more advanced blues soloing techniques.
As always, Ford's playing and chord wizardry is a joy to watch and you can get so much just from soaking in his smooth playing and approach to the guitar. When I was younger, I hated anything that even smelled "jazz like" when it came to the blues, but Robben Ford's playing really opened my eyes to a more complex harmonic structure that still sounds like good blues. It's certainly not your gut-bucket style (which I love), but he has real emotion in his playing and if you're willing to give it a chance, I think it will grow on you.
The DVD also contains a few songs performed by his trio (with Roscoe Beck on bass sporting one of the gayest haircuts known to man;) including a smoking version of an old Magic Sam tune "Bad Luck Blues". There is also an interview with Robben where he talks about his influences and equipment. Very cool.
You can grab the DVD along with the others in the series (he has a more basic blues one out as well as a "best of") from Amazon via my search box.
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