Sounds Very Familiar (Page 2 of 2)

Thanks for that footage jim.  I love Robben, wish we could see him live.  This is a question for any guitarist.  Several years ago, my hubby tired to find a guitar teacher to improve some of his skills, he didn't have much luck.  One guy in particular really frustrated him, because he was trying to make him relearn something he's done forever.  You know how a guitarist uses him thumb and bends it over the neck to the top string, he told him it was wrong, poor technique.  Ever since then, I've noticed how most guitarists use their thumb over the top, including Robben. Is it technically poor form?  Jim mentioned Eric Johnson earlier-his Ah Via Musician was ranked #1 Underrated Guitar's Greatest Albums...he said making it was like Olympic training. He is so tuned in he can tell the difference in battery brands. He's another guy I discovered from this site.

Jess- do you by any chance have the tab book for Robben's Handful of Blues?

Angela, I don't have the Handful Of Blues book. The book I got was The Best Of Robben Ford.

Saw Robben last night in Chico, Ca. @ The Big Room @ Sierra Nevada Brewing, very good blues show indeed. Robben has Volker Strifler accompanying on guitar and vocals. This made for a double-barrelled guitar assault by two incredible players. More than a couple people I talked to thought Volker's vocals had a Stevie Ray sound to him. The Big Room was built expressly for live music and lives up to it's billing. For all the equipment heads out there, Robben played the entire show on a '55 gold top Les Paul through a single Fender Super Reverb. Coupled with the house system it made for a very clean sound except that he kept coming unplugged and tangled, but Volker more than took up the slack. Can't wait to see Joe next time he plays this venue. Hey Joe if you didn't already know, Bob is workin' on gettin' you back in there later in the year.

                                                                                                     J Dawg

Some guitarists actually use their thumb over the top of the neck to play and/or mute strings while playing chords--like Hendrix.  Other times it is used over the top of the neck when soloing to anchor bends.  I personally consider it poor technique to NOT anchor your bends with your thumb--ouch!  Maybe his teacher was classically trained and is taking that approach, but when you play blues and/or rock and you bend a string 1 1/2 to 2 steps, you need all of the leverage you can get.  When teaching this techniqe to my students, called "reinforced bends", we grab miscellaneous guitar magazines in my studio and "look" for the thumb over the top and rarely is it not there.

This absolutely blows me away when I hear of guitar teachers frusterating their students!  It seems anyone who owns a guitar thinks that they can teach.  Guitar is supposed to be fun.

I'm glad to hear that your hubby's teacher was well respected and a good guitarist.  Hey, if he got a write-up in Guitar Player--that's more than I've ever gotten!  But to say that it was "wrong, poor techniqe" to place your thumb over the neck, I still disagree.