We’ve discussed the Blues teaching genius of Robben Ford for before, but using his 1992 “Playin’ the Blues” series — a DVD and a book with a CD — you can build an extremely strong Blues base for your guitar playing.


The DVD is Robben teaching you live and the DVD comes with a TAB booklet.  Robben is a laid back teacher, but he’s much more watchable in this early DVD than he is in his “Blues Rhythm Guitar” DVD and that means you can learn better and faster.

Having the CD and book to go with the DVD are all a necessary purchase
because you can work at your own speed and the book is well designed
with lots of images, diagrams and large TABs that are easy to read.

When you get confused or lost — fire up the DVD and let Robben remind you how to play the phrase.

If you’re starting out learning The Blues on guitar, I think this mix of “Playin’ the Blues” with Robben Ford using both the DVD and CD/book make the best overall solution because Justin Sandercoe can sometimes wobble all over the place and Blues You Can Use can sometimes be unfriendly and stale.

The young Robben Ford is your ultimate Blues guitar instructor and he’ll
teach you to play as he does — and that can mean using only your first
and fourth finger to play everything — so keep in mind that when you
follow the brilliance, you are sometimes stuck in the shadow of the
genius’ maniacal
manifestations, and you need to know sometimes it’s okay to go your own
way after mastering the master.

2 Comments

  1. David Boles – New York City – David Boles was born in Nebraska and holds an MFA from the Oscar Hammerstein II Center for Theatre Studies at Columbia University in the City of New York. He is an author, dramatist, editor, publisher, and teacher who writes across the live stage, print, radio, television, film, and the web. With more than 50 books in print, David continues to write 2MM words a year and has authored over 25K articles. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild, the Authors Guild, and PEN America, and founded The United Stage advocacy platform on the principle that playwrights have a duty to direct their own work. Read the Prairie Voice Archive at Boles.com | Buy his books at David Boles Books Writing & Publishing at BolesBooks.com | Study with Script Professor at ScriptProfessor.com | Touch American Sign Language mastery at Hardcore ASL at HardcoreASL.com | Explore the Human Meme podcast at HumanMeme.com | Train with Boles Bells at BolesBells.com.
    Gordon Davidescu says:

    Sounds like he’s a great teacher, David. I hope to learn from him when the time comes for me to pick up a guitar! 🙂

  2. David Boles – New York City – David Boles was born in Nebraska and holds an MFA from the Oscar Hammerstein II Center for Theatre Studies at Columbia University in the City of New York. He is an author, dramatist, editor, publisher, and teacher who writes across the live stage, print, radio, television, film, and the web. With more than 50 books in print, David continues to write 2MM words a year and has authored over 25K articles. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild, the Authors Guild, and PEN America, and founded The United Stage advocacy platform on the principle that playwrights have a duty to direct their own work. Read the Prairie Voice Archive at Boles.com | Buy his books at David Boles Books Writing & Publishing at BolesBooks.com | Study with Script Professor at ScriptProfessor.com | Touch American Sign Language mastery at Hardcore ASL at HardcoreASL.com | Explore the Human Meme podcast at HumanMeme.com | Train with Boles Bells at BolesBells.com.
    David W. Boles says:

    He’s super, Gordon. You will like him a lot.

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