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The Jazz Solos of Chick Corea

• Humpty Dumpty Pictures To Print
• Humpty Dumpty Chick Corea Lead Sheet Printable

The first set of music books presented here are jazz solo transcription books that I completed in 1988. These pages of notes are timeless. Here is the introduction to the books to further explain how they came about and what the musician can hopefully learn from them.

Humpty Dumpty (English Traditional) sheet music for Piano - 8notes.com. Corea Scores - Chick Corea and Bobby McFerrin (5 items) by pal-previews2013-14 updated 2013-12-29 1- jazz sol. transcri. SCORES (250 items). Super Kid has requested that I do another tune real quick, Chick Corea's Humpty Dumpty. Here's the track/lead sheet. High Wire – The Aerialist (Chick Corea) 139 Humpty Dumpty (Ornette Coleman) 143 Humpty Dumpty (Chick Corea) 144 Hungry Heart (Paul McIndless) 145 I If You Went Away (Marcos Valle) 147 Images (Oliver Nelson) 149 I’m Home (Greg Mathiesen) 152 In Blossom (Kent Glenn) 153 Infant Eyes (Wayne Shorter) 154 Inner Space (Chick Corea) 155. Humpty Dumpty is a character in an English nursery rhyme, probably originally a riddle and one of the best known in the English-speaking world.He is typically portrayed as an anthropomorphic egg, though he is not explicitly described as such.The first recorded versions of the rhyme date from late eighteenth-century England and the tune from 1870 in James William Elliott's National Nursery.

As a young person learning to improvise, I often wondered what it would be like taking music lessons with Sonny Rollins or Chick Corea, two of my favorite musicians. Imagine the incredible musical secrets they could pass on to me. However, something happens when a great improviser improvises - something that goes beyond what can be expressed in words and concepts. It's quite often the case that the improviser can't really put into musical terms how they approach a particular chord change. How many times have you heard the classic response, 'Oh you'll hear it'. After years and years of hard work we'll no doubt, 'hear it', but until that time comes, how can we get a glimpse into the art of creating great melodies? I think transcribing solos from records is a piece in this puzzle.

Learning a McCoy Tyner solo off the record is a lot like taking a private lesson with him. We get a close glimpse as to how this master improviser approaches a particular song, passage, or chord change. Even without McCoy present to explain how he played a certain phrase, the notes speak for themselves and hidden improvising techniques come to the surface. It's in this process of using great improvisations as training wheels that we gain a foundation which later enables us to create our own excursions into 'pulling beautiful melodies out of a hat'.

Most of the great musicians that I've come in contact with have done solo transcribing at some point in their lives. I remember once walking into Chick Corea's home and hearing him playing Bud Powell's 'Celia'. After playing the melody of the tune he proceeded to carve a solo that had me convinced it was 1956 and I was experiencing Bud Powell first hand. Bird learned from Lester, Bud learned from Bird, Chick from Bud, and I'm learning from all of them. The Lineage continues.

The level of accuracy in a transcribed solo is crucial. Wrong notes convey strange concepts. They trick us into believing that what went on over a chord change wasn't really anything special. In contrast, the right notes reveal inner secrets of improvisation and they just plain sound 'right'. I've gone to great lengths to try and put down the most correct notes possible. I have a tape recorder that allows me to halve the speed, resulting in music that sounds an octave lower and twice as slow. To transcribe these solos I went to one-quarter speed to attempt maximum accuracy. For those impossible moments of 'ghost notes' and uncertainty, I made guesses that hopefully reflect my knowledge of the artists' style. Even after all this scrutinizing, there still might be some mistakes. If, while playing, you discover a wrong note, please send me the information and I'll update the book. With all of your help, by the year 2010 we'll have a collection that revels in accuracy.

I'm a transcriber from way back and there are a few things I've learned in the process that might help you get more out of these solos. The ideas are listed in a suggested order of attention:

LEARN THE SONG - Learn the tune that the improvisation is based on. Learning the tune means learning the melody as well as the chord changes. There is a great lesson in hearing how the soloist interprets the melody, compared to how it may be written in a lead sheet format. Knowing the original chord changes is important because much can be gained from seeing how the improviser moves from the original set of changes to substitute changes while soloing.

LISTEN TO THE SOLO - A transcribed solo can convey only the technical makeup of an improvisation. The real 'essence' of the solo is revealed through listening. The way a soloist approaches playing time, articulation, and the interaction among the accompanists and the soloist are things that repeated listening will expose. If you could endure ten hearings per day for a week straight, imagine how well you'd know the solo inside and out and how easy it would be to transfer it to your instrument. A good transcription deserves a lot of attention.

LEARN THE SOLO - The first thing I do when learning a solo is to compare what I might do over a particular chord change with what the soloist does. This sometimes reveals hidden secrets about how the improviser looks at things. For instance, say we have an E7 chord and my approach would be to play a mixolydian type of sound over the chord. We look at what Chick plays over the chord change and discover that he's playing a similar line that he played earlier in the tune, but at that time he was playing over an F minor/major chord. When we analyze Chick's line over E7 we discover that his approach over the E7 is an altered sound, not a mixolydian sound, and somehow he's thinking F melodic minor over E7. When we explore further, we discover that F melodic minor equals E7 altered and he's using this as a substitution. What surfaces in this analytical process is the CONCEPT behind the actual lick. If you learn the lick and fail to grasp the CONCEPT, all you've gained is a new lick, (which isn't so bad). On the other hand, if you understand why that lick worked, then a new a set of rules apply and the original lick becomes a launching pad for many more. Now when you see E7 altered, try fitting in some F melodic minor lines. New territory indeed.

Not all lines have an obvious CONCEPT lurking behind them. Some melodies are within the standard chord change and their beauty is articulated through an outstanding order of notes. In this book, I've written the basic set of chord changes as well as the changes that reflect what I believe to fit the CONCEPTS behind the lines. (The chords in parenthesis are the CONCEPT changes). You'll also notice (Dim.) and (Blues) written next to some changes. (Dim.) refers to the diminished scale, (over C7 this would be: C, D flat, E flat, E, F sharp, G, A, and B flat). I've made special note of this because a diminished approach to playing over a dominant chord is quite different than a mixolydian or altered approach. The (Blues) means the soloist is playing some form of the blues scale, overriding the actual chord change at hand. In the key of C this would be: C, E flat, F, G flat, G natural, B flat, and B natural. The great improvisers know just the right mix of playing within the chord change and then floating over it all with the (Blues) approach.

My views about what the soloist was thinking may not match yours. This shouldn't be a major issue. What is important is that you see how the improvisers come up with melodies which can't always be labeled 'legal' according to textbook harmony. Part of the magic lies in breaking the rules elegantly.

In some of the piano transcriptions I've periodically listed chords or parts of chords along with the single lines. These were included because I was curious as to what the improviser was using to make the chord sound a certain way. These are essential notes in the chord, not necessarily the whole chord.

Every so often I'll wonder, while practicing a solo, if I've made a mistake in transcribing a particular note. Is that a mistake or did he mean it that way ? Unless you know Sonny Rollins personally, you'll never be sure if on TENOR MADNESS in the 15th chorus, 8th bar, third beat, did he really mean to play D natural instead of D flat? The note seems wrong, but in checking it with the quarter speed tape machine it is indeed the note that was played. In these instances I'll opt for playing a better note in the others place and at the same time having respect for the original note.

Piano players occasionally hit two notes at the same time, one half step apart. At slow speed this sounds like a clash. Was it intentional? At regular speed usually one note will dominate over the other. That's the note that I'll play.

A fairly common occurrence among jazz improvisers is the art of laying back so far on the time that a new beat is gained-or lost, or really who knows which way is up or down. Do we write it as it really is, complete with 64th notes, or write it as it would of been had the soloist 'obeyed' the meter, with 'lay-back' scribbled under it. I do a little of both, which ever seems easiest to communicate the event that's happened.

Believe me, any artist who is transcribe-able is capable of a few strange notes or rhythms. I ought to know. There's a book of my solos transcribed by Jennifer Batten, (THE TRANSCRIBED GUITAR SOLOS OF PETER SPRAGUE-Woodshed Books) that, as long as it's still available, keeps me in touch with the presence of human error.

Good luck in your quest to play the perfect melody. It's my hope that these transcriptions give you some insight into how jazz heroes bend reality. A great melody will last forever and, once it's in your possession, you're a rich man. Keep it rolling...

Peter Sprague
January, 1988

Example from McCoy Tyner's solo
on The Night Has a Thousand Eyes

Song Title	Album or CD Title	Catalogue Number
Armando's Rhumba	My Spanish Heart	Polydor 825 657-2
Eternal Child	The Eye of the Beholder	GRP
Fickle Funk	Secret Agent	Polydor PD-1-6130
500 Miles High	Light as a Feather	Polydor PD 5525
Friends	Friends	Polydor PD-1-6160
Got A Match	The Electric Band	GRP-D-9535
Highwire, The Airelist	Joe Farrell/Skateboard Park	Xanadu 174
Humpty Dumpty	The Mad Hatter	Polydor PD-1-6130
Inside Out	Inside Out	GRP GRD-9601
King Cockroach	The Electric Band	GRP-D-9535
Litha	Stan Getz/Sweet Rain	Verve V6-8693
Night Streets	My Spanish Heart	Polydor 825 657-2
The One Step	Friends	Polydor PD-1-6160
Quartet No.1	Three Quartets	Warner Bros. BSK 3552
Quartet No.2, Pt.2	Three Quartets	Warner Bros. BSK 3552
Quartet No.3	Three Quartets	Warner Bros. BSK 3552
Samba Song	Friends	Polydor PD-1-6160
Señor Mouse	In Concert, Zurich	ECM-2-1182
Sicily	Friends	Polydor PD-1-6160
The Slide	Tap Step	Warner Bros. BSK 3425
Spain	Light as a Feather	Polydor PD 5525
Starlight	Light Years	GRP-D-9546
Tap Step	Tap Step	Warner Bros. BSK 3425
Tones for Joan's Bones	Blue Mitchell/Boss Horn	Blue Note
Waltz (Lyric Suite)	Lyric Suite for Sextet	ECM 1260
Windows	Stan Getz/Sweet Rain	Verve V6-8693
Additional transcribed Solos by Chick Corea in a Supplemental Book -$5
Chicks Tune	Blue Mitchell/The Thing to Do	Blue Note BLP-4178
Con Alma	Stan Getz/Sweet Rain	Verve V6-8693
Light as a Feather	Light as a Feather	Polydor PD 5525
O Grande Amour	Stan Getz/Sweet Rain	Verve V6-8693
Song for John	Stanley Clarke/Journey to Love	Nemperor NE 433
Speak Low	Joe Farrell/Skateboard Park	Xanadu 174

Chick Corea - Humpty Dumpty

You may also be interested in the following sheet music

Humpty Dumpty Pictures To Print

Humpty Dumpty Chick Corea Lead Sheet Printable