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I’ve been working through a rhythm course by Robben Ford and come across this bit of strangeness.
He’s demonstrated a blues in Bflat which he breaks down in the following lesson. Its a jazzy blues and as you can imagine there’s more chords and voicings than a regular I IV and V 😰.
One of the chords he uses as a substitute over the Bflat (ie I chord) is an Aflat which he discusses and I get it. In the breakdown where he’s talking about it he plays it with an Aflat as the bass note just as you would expect.
However, in the demonstration itself, he appears to be playing an A in the bass and that’s what’s also tabbed. That’s the bit I can’t understand. Here’s a pic from the performance to show what I mean. The part he’s playing is where the red bar is in the tab below (its soundslice)
Robben makes a very deliberate repositioning of his fingers to play this shape and…its Robben Ford… so it’s not a mistake 😂!
So is he really playing an A? or is he just muting the low E string and the tab is wrong? It’s hard to tell from the soundtrack itself.
An Aflat would make sense as it’s the flattened 7 of B and so continue the theme of B7 he’s used earlier (not shown in the pic). Then again an A would be the maj7 of B so could presumeably make for a more jazzy contrast to the flattened 7th? It doesn’t sound obviously bad when I try it but it’s a low note so gets a bit lost anyway.
I’m tending towards thinking he’s just muting here, his fingers not quite in the right position for fretting.
What do you think?
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Hey Andy, On it’s own, out of context, I would see that chord as a D7#9/A, or second inversion D7#9. D is the 3rd degree in the key of Bb, so this would be a 3 major rather than the expected minor at that position. A jazzy passing chord? I’m pretty much just guessing though. I’d need more context and Robben’s explanation to get better than that. I’d love to hear an explanation if someone can pin it down better.
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That doesn’t make much sense to me…
I can certainly see how an Ab triad over a Bb produces a Bb13 (Bb D F Ab C Eb), but A doesn’t make any sense, unless the guitar is tuned down a semitone! In that case what he plays is indeed an Ab something… But that seems far fetched!On the other hand, the said chord doesn’t have to have A as the root; the thing is also an F(b9)/A. In the context of a blues in Bb, that would make sense since F is the V…
…or, as you said, he may just be muting that 6th string. The position of his hand doesn’t look like he is actively fretting that 6th string. But the tab says that A note is actually played, so…
I would love to have the full chord progression: we need more context!
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I had another look…
The preceding bars are labeled Eb7. The notes that are actually played are (Bb G Db F), so that chord is actually an Eb9/Bb (without root, presumably played by the bass)). In the key of Bb, that’s the IV chord.
The first chord of the next bar is (Bb G C F), which can be interpreted as an F13/Bb. So that would be the V chord. As I said in my previous reply, the final chord on this bar can be viewed as an F(b9)/A, which is still a V chord.
The tab says that the next chord is Bb7, which is the I chord, so fundamentally we seem to have a IV V I sequence here – with lots of enrichments, inversions and bass runs! But hey! this is supposed to be jazz, isn’t it?
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Many thanks both of you for your thoughts on this..
The first chord of the next bar is (Bb G C F), which can be interpreted as an F13/Bb. So that would be the V chord. As I said in my previous reply, the final chord on this bar can be viewed as an F(b9)/A, which is still a V chord.
I think you’ve nailed it 👍.
Here’s a bit more context and I’ll add a photo of the two verses he plays below.
It’s an 8 bar blues but at no point is there any mention of exactly what the progression or key actually is. The bass walks around a lot so it’s a little opaque to my ear. My first thoughts based on what was described was that the first 4 bars were either: Bb7-Bb7-Eb7-Eb7 (ie I I IV IV or maybe Bb7-Bb7-Eb7-Bb7. (ie I I IV I) but I couldn’t make the chord fit in either of those two, hence the question.But if those first 4 bars were Bb7-Bb7-Eb7-F(something) and a I I IV V with the F missing from the tab, it would make much more sense. You’ll see in the tab below the next 4 bars are tabbed as Bb7 C9 Bb7 and F7 with the majority of that being a sort of descending turnaround.
Robben’s message here was basically
a) keeping things simple (all relative right!)
b) try to keep a common note across the progression. In this case it’s the F on the B string and that’s driving a lot of the voicing selection.
c) use lots of 9 chordsI noticed he also uses exactly the same chord in the 4th bar of the second verse two and this time it looks certain that he’s actually fretting and playing it.
One other thing that’s mentioned, that you’ve also picked up on, is not playing the root of the Eb7 but the 5th instead, the Bb on the low E string. Described as an acquired taste.
I have to say, the whole piece does sound very cool so I was keen to understand it better and getting a new voicing for a V chord is a bonus. I always seem to end up playing the same D7 shaped triad rooted on the 5 string for a V chord!
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