10 Hot Licks in Honor of Chick

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10 Hot Licks in Honor of Chickby George Colligan • 2 min read • original

By George Colligan

http://www.keyboardmag.com/fusion/1301/10-hot-licks-in-honor-of-chick/28383

http://www.keyboardmag.com/fusion/1301/10-hot-licks-in-honor-of-chick/28383



Chick Corea is one of the most influential and importantpianists in modern music. His influences run from bebop andEuropean classical music to Afro-Cuban, Brazilian, Flamenco, funk,and beyond, but his pianistic language has a certain signature. Hereare 10 licks in the style of Chick that will elevate your own pianoexplorations. Remember to use small ideas to make your own bigideas. What follows are just the “words”—your job is to build yourown sentences and paragraphs!

1. Four-Note Patterns

For starters, this four-note pattern is based on perfect fourth andmajor second intervals. I consider it to have a suspended sound, inthat there’s no sense of major or minor to it, which makes it moreversatile. This pattern can fit over a Dmin7 chord, but also workover the following chords: Gmin7, Amin7, Cmin7, EbMaj7#11,CMaj7, BbMaj7, G7, F7, D7sus11, C7sus11, and G7sus11. Thisillustrates just how useful even four-note ideas can be fordeveloping your improvisation.

2. Chromatic Planing

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What academics call “chromatic planing” refers to moving the sameintervallic structure, regardless of the official key center. ChickCorea might play this in his right hand and compliment it bymoving perfect fourths in his left hand. Practice this pattern bymoving it around in whole steps, minor thirds, and any other wayyou like.

3. Smooth Hand Lines

This is a variation of our first four-note pattern, except that itmoves in a way that fits under the hand nicely. I find that many ofCorea’s lines are technically quite smooth, which lets you play themquickly. Notice how this line turns back and forth, giving theillusion of complexity, while still using the same four notesthroughout.

4. Fingering Variations

A further variation of Ex. 1 is arpeggiated up an octave. A hallmarkof Corea’s style is that he often uses the same type of hand motionwith many types of intervallic structures. By using the same basicfingering shapes with slightly different notes, you can open yourplaying to new possibilities.





5. Intervallic Alteration

Here’s how Chick Corea often alters the interval arrangement of afamiliar melodic idea. Here, instead of the suspended structure weillustrated in Ex. 1, we use a triad with a flatted ninth type of sound.This pattern works on dominant 7b9 chords or #9#5 chords. It evenworks on regular dominant chords.

6. Diminishing Returns

The diminished scale is one of the most useful scales in jazz, and isbuilt using a series of half-steps and whole-steps. For instance, inthe key of C, the diminished scale would read C, Db, Eb, E, F#, G, A,Bb, and C. It’s a symmetrical scale, and one which French composerOlivier Messiaen called a “mode of limited transposition.”

7. Bebop and Bud



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This is a variation of our previous diminished scale idea, with ashape influenced by the style of Bebop pioneer Bud Powell, who wasa big influence on Corea. This melodic idea ends using a sixth,imbuing a humorous, almost Thelonious Monk sound to thepattern. (Monk was another strong influence on Corea’s playing.)

8. Chromatic Concepts

Many musicians in the post-bop era of the 1960s often played thistype of lick, either on its own, or combined with another melodicidea. This pattern can be thought of as using a combination ofsurrounding goal notes and chromatic tones, both hallmarks ofmany bebop lines.

9. Pentatonic Patterns

Here’s our good friend the pentatonic scale. Corea uses thisfrequently, but often in unexpected ways. One application is usingthe minor pentatonic scale whose root is the major seventh of theunderlying chord. For example, you’d play the G minor pentatonicscale over Abmaj7. Try it—it works!

10. Scalar Shapes





Varying your hand motion can create compelling shapes from ascale. Here we use the same pentatonic scale as in Ex. 9, but it isplayed in a smooth, Corea-like fashion.

07-2011 10 Hot Licks in Honor of Chick by KeyboardMag

Pianist and composer George Colligan has worked with CassandraWilson, Buster Williams, Don Byron, Ravi Coltrane, and many otheracclaimed artists. Most recently, he joined drummer JackDeJohnette’s new quintet, and released Pride and Joy on the Piloolabel. Colligan is Assistant Professor of Jazz Piano at the Universityof Manitoba. Find out more at georgecolligan.com. Jon Regen

*The author live at Small's.

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10 Hot Licks in Honor of Chick

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