5 Ways to Play Like Chick Corea
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3/11/2016 5 Ways To Play Like Chick Corea — www.keyboardmag.com https://www.readability.com/articles/ye9fkvfr 1/7
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Transcript of 5 Ways to Play Like Chick Corea
3/11/2016 5 Ways To Play Like Chick Corea — www.keyboardmag.com
https://www.readability.com/articles/ye9fkvfr 1/7
keyboardmag.com
5 Ways To Play Like Chick Coreaby Andy Laverne • 2 min read • original
By Andy LaVerne
For over five decades, Chick Corea has inspired and delightedlegions of fans and musical disciples. Like his former employerMiles Davis, he can’t be pigeonholed. Chick’s musical endeavorsspan from Mozart to Monk. Any musical situation Coreaparticipates in contains a strong, immediately identifiable creativecore. I can say from my personal experience playing piano duetswith him that his energy and openness are contagious andinspiring. The following concepts are just the tip of the iceberg, butif you incorporate them into your own playing, you’ll be channelingChick’s core.
3/11/2016 5 Ways To Play Like Chick Corea — www.keyboardmag.com
https://www.readability.com/articles/ye9fkvfr 2/7
1. Pentatonics and Quartal Voicings
Ex. 1a illustrates five-note scales that Chick often incorporates intomany of his right hand lines. The quartal (fourth-based) left-handstructures are signature chords that compliment the pentatonicscales.
Ex. 1b demonstrates how Chick sometimes anchors his quartalvoicings with those constructed from roots and fifths.
3/11/2016 5 Ways To Play Like Chick Corea — www.keyboardmag.com
https://www.readability.com/articles/ye9fkvfr 3/7
Ex. 1c is a right-hand pentatonic-based line with a signature Coreastamp: the grace note.
Ex. 1d puts all these components into action. Check out Chick’salbum Now He Sings, Now He Sobs for more examples.
2. Comping
Ex. 2a illustrates how Chick’s accompanying is so compelling thatit can work as solo piano. Again, notice his frequent use of quartalvoicings.
3/11/2016 5 Ways To Play Like Chick Corea — www.keyboardmag.com
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In Ex. 2b, Chick uses diminished structures, built from secondinversion triads in the right hand over quartal voicings in the left.
Ex. 2c uses quartal structures underneath right major triads. Manyof these comping techniques can be heard on Chick’s arrestingalbum Three Quartets.
3. Single Note Lines
In Ex. 3a, Chick uses a melodic line in the tradition of Beboppioneer Bud Powell (a major influence), distributed between twohands, and at lightning speed. Ex. 3b demonstrates how Chick oftenthinks of each finger percussively, like a drummer.
Notice
3/11/2016 5 Ways To Play Like Chick Corea — www.keyboardmag.com
https://www.readability.com/articles/ye9fkvfr 5/7
how distributing these patterns between the right and left handslets you execute them fluidly.
Ex. 3c again shows how Chick divides melodic and rhythmicstatements between both hands. Weaving lines throughout both the
black and white keys makes them sound more chromatic and lesstied to specific chord changes. Check out Chick’s Akoustic Band andElektric Band albums for more riveting right-hand lines.
3/11/2016 5 Ways To Play Like Chick Corea — www.keyboardmag.com
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4. The Maj7#5 Chord
Chick was one of the first musicians to use the six-note augmentedscale, as well as one of the first to play the major seventh chord witha sharp fifth. Demonstrated in Ex. 4, this dissonant sonority can beheard on recordings from his avant-garde period, such as those withthe band Circle.
5. Slash Chords
Another signature Corea sound is his extensive use of “slash” (orcompound) chords, shown here in Ex. 5. F/F# is a diminishedsound, E/Eb is a Spanishtinged. Gb/C is half- diminished. Db/A is,once again, a maj7#5 chord, and Gb/Ab is a dominant seventh with asuspended fourth. Corea often played such slash chords with hisgroup Return To Forever.
07-2011 5 Ways to Play Like Chick Corea by KeyboardMag
3/11/2016 5 Ways To Play Like Chick Corea — www.keyboardmag.com
https://www.readability.com/articles/ye9fkvfr 7/7
Jazz pianist, composer, and longtime Keyboard contributor AndyLaVerne has played with Chick Corea, as well as Frank Sinatra andStan Getz. He’s Professor of Jazz Piano at The Hartt School ofMusic at the University of Hartford, and his latest CD is Live FromNY! Visit him at andylaverne.com. Jon Regen
*Chick Corea play-along book/CD featuring the author onpiano.
Original URL:http://www.keyboardmag.com/fusion/1301/5-ways-to-play-like-chick-corea/28333
