Chick Corea is one of the true giants of this music. A name that’s synonymous with dizzying technique, stunning harmonies, and an unmistakeable creativity that is apparent on every one of his records…
But here’s the question for anyone learning to improvise and searching for their sound: What can a regular musician actually learn from him and apply in the practice room?
Like many iconic players, he’s mastered the ins and outs of the art from, and this makes him an amazing resource for building a vocabulary over the fundamental chords in the jazz repertoire.
You just have to know where to look and pay attention to all the little details. Today, we’ll explore how Chick Corea approaches one of the most common sounds in music – dominant chords.
Having tools to play over a stretch of one dominant chord is particularly useful for the improvising musician. In fact, there are many situations where you might encounter an extended dominant sound:
- The Blues
- Bridge of Rhythm Changes
- Standards like Sweet Georgia Brown, Dig, One Finger Snap
- An open vamp or free playing
Essentially any situation where you have a static sound and you need to create melodic interest and motion.
The musical problem we’ll be exploring today with Chick Corea’s solo is: How do you create melodic ideas, interesting phrases, tension & resolution, and compelling musical shapes when you’re playing one simple chord?
Inside we’ll isolate 7 essential techniques that every improviser should know…
Chick Corea’s Samba Yantra
First let’s take a look at the form and melody of Chick Corea’s composition Samba Yantra…
This tune comes from Corea’s 1968 landmark trio album Now He Sings, Now He Sobs with Roy Haynes and Miroslav Vitous:
The song form is 12 bars long, consisting of a four bar melodic phrase followed by eight measures of an F7 vamp…
And after two times through the form, there is a 2-bar tag that leads to the solos or the end of the tune:
The harmonic backdrop to all of this is an extended F7 or F7sus sound over an F pedal:
You hear 4ths and open 5ths over the root, an ideal setting for experimenting with different harmonic and melodic ideas over a sustained chord. And for the curious musician, a great way to see how a master deals with improvising on one sound.
If you look closely at the melody you’ll notice triadic structures with half-step movement and desceding 4ths…
This sequence starts inside the harmony, moves progressively outside then returns within the space of a 4 bar phrase:
And this pattern might be a sonic interpretation of the “yantra” referenced in the title of the tune – a shifting pattern moving in and out of the harmony, layered over a sustained and unchanging background.
The title Now He Sings, Now He Sobs comes from I Ching, an ancient Chinese book that I was into in the ’60s…And it has a section named “Now He Sings; Now He Sobs – Now He Beats The Drum; Now He Stops.” The poetry of that phrase fit the message of the trio’s music on [this album] to me. You know, the gamut of life experiences – the whole human picture and range of emotions. ~ Chick Corea (interview 2014)
Chick Corea: 7 Dominant tactics
Let’s take a look at seven techniques Chick Corea uses to navigate the F7 sound in Samba Yantra…
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