Chords for Guitar Lesson: Robben Ford On "Revelation" - Jazz/Blues/Fusion

[G] What's up guys, welcome to class.
Today we're looking at very cool licks by Robin Ford.
This
is from his album Talk to Your Daughter and it's on the song Revelation.
And if you want to check
it out in the original recording it's at 3.49 out in the song.
So I'll just show you the lick
and then we'll talk about it after that.
_ _ _ _ [Eb] _ [Em] _ _
[A] _ [Eb] _ _ [G] _ [G] _ [Am] _ [G] _ _
[G] _ _ _ _ [G] _ [Eb] _ [Em] _ _
[Eb] _ _ _ [G] _ [G] _ [Am] _ [G] _
Okay, so I've divided this into four separate licks.
It's one long stretch but we'll take it
one at a time.
And it's in the key of G and so typical for blues that he's playing kind of a mix
of minor and major.
The first [N] lick is like this.
_ So it's minor right?
[Eb] And then [E] he continues
_ [G] with the small triplets.
[Db] _
[N] _ _ _ _ So [Em] _ [B] _
[G] [C] this _ [Ab] _ [Gbm] _ [E] [Gbm] one here [C] is a chord you need to kind of watch out for.
It's that
B7 chord which isn't really in the key of G minor or G major.
And it has kind of a diminished feel
to it so [Ebm] that's why he's playing it kind of like a diminished thing.
And then chromatic from [E] here.
And we're back to G.
[Dm] [Ab] Right, [C] _ it's kind of from that diminished thing there.
And the end.
[Eb] _ _ [Bb] _ [E]
[G] So yeah, tonally maybe it's not too much to say about it but it's the rhythm.
You need to notice
that he's playing so much on the beats you know.
It's not so syncopated.
It's like one, two, three,
[C] four, putting it down there.
_ [E] Yeah, so the whole thing is like [Cm] this [Db] and [Gm] _ _ _ [C] _ [Ab] _ [N] _
_ _ _ [E] _ [Am] that's it.
One thing
technical about lick number two is that he's kind of playing this note [B] here.
[E] He's playing on
with the right [Bb] hand on more strings than he's playing on with the left hands.
The left hand
is only on the first string and then he's using the left hand to mute the other strings so you
can play on them and still just get that top note.
It's a common way to give that note on the top
there a bit more weight you know. _
[G] _ [C] _ [N] So yeah, I've got a cool way to practice this for you guys.
In the practice tracks, the first practice track is the whole thing right.
And then we have a
backing track of course which is just the comp.
I also made practice tracks for each example
so you can practice what is so important and that is getting in and out of these different licks
right.
So if we take now practice track example one, he's going to [G] play the entire track but
there's only going to be guitar on example one.
So try to play example one with the track and
then improvise on the rest of the chords and then each time we get to example number one
try to play into that example.
I'll try to show you what I mean. _
_ [Eb] _ [Em] _ _ [Cm] _ _ _ [Gm] _
[G] _ [Dm] _ [G] _ _ [G] _ _ _ _
_ [Eb] _ [Em] _ _ [B] _ _ [G] _ _
[G] _ [Am] _ [G] _ [Gb] _ [G] _ _ _ _
Okay it's not so easy.
You can do the same thing with all the other examples.
For example
let me take example number three.
_ [G] _ _ [G] _ [Eb] _
[Em] _ _ [A] _ [Eb] _ [G] _ _ [G] _ [Am] _
[G] _ [C] _ [G] _ _ _ _ _ [B] _
[Em] _ _ [A] _ [B] _ [G] _ _ [G] _ [Am] _
[G] _ _ _ _ _ _ [G] _ [Eb] _
[Em] _ _ [A] _ [Eb] _ [Cm] _ [G] _ _ [F] _
[G] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ [Eb] _
[Em] _ _ [Cm] _ _ [Em] _ [G] _ [G] _ [Am]
[G] Okay you get the idea.
So try this for yourself.
It's a little different way to practice maybe.
It's fun.