You might think that teaching is one way that guitarist Robben Ford has of giving back to his near-cult following, especially among blues and jazz devotees. But you’d only be half-right. He’s a player’s player—as opposed to a household name—because of the inspiration he brings to other musicians, and Ford says he needs to keep teaching to keep his own inspiration high.

“I’m not the greatest guitar player in the world,” insists the impressively humble string-bender, when reached at his home in Ojai, California. “I’m not the fastest or the flashiest, but I really believe in communication, and that is the single most important thing about music. And I actually need to pass this along, to remind myself that music is primarily about spirit, not technique.”

That attitude will come in handy when Ford joins host Emile D’eon for a hands-on seminar called Electric Blues You Can Use, as part of the Guitar Workshop Plus. This year’s session, happening August 8-13, will be held on Squamish’s Quest University campus for the first time. And other guest instructors will include shred monster Greg Howe, tap-happy bassist Stu Hamm, and open-tuning specialist Michael Friedman.

For his part, Ford—no stranger to the Toronto-based Workshop series—is still contemplating exactly what he’ll bring to show-and-tell. But he does tend to pull musicians away from overly academic approaches.

“These days, people are practically trained to not trust their instincts. It becomes all about technique. Whenever I teach, the goal is to encourage the intuitive aspect of finding joy in making music. You always have to start by helping people get a handle on something kind of tangible, but then we work towards that goal of expressing that more essential quality—the quality of really connecting with music in a truly heartfelt and personal way.”

This, you could say, is the innate, cut-through-the-bullshit feeling that brought this California native to the serious attention of bandleaders like Charlie Musselwhite, Jimmy Witherspoon, Tom Scott, Joni Mitchell, and George Harrison—and that was all before 1975! (Stints with Miles Davis, Charlie Haden, and Sonny Landreth came later.)

“It’s something that just somehow happens in each situation. It’s my chop,” he adds with a quiet chuckle. “As far as other chops go, I can’t really show someone a hundred ways to play over a II-V-I progression. But I do seem to have an ability to convey this thing. It takes a little time when you’re teaching. It’s always a little frightening, I have to say, to find yourself in front of a bunch of people with their guitars, staring at you. I’ve done it a lot, but it’s new every time.”

Musicians of all levels can sign up, and the whole shebang will set you back nine hundred bucks—more if you want room and board on campus. Application details can be found at the Guitar Workshop Plus Web site, or call (905) 567-8000.