Tips from Chick Corea

[AndyV]

Found this on an old hard drive the other day.

[FwLineberry]

#14 - never beat or pound your instrument...

Chick claims not to remember in the following vid, but you can't help wondering if George's story might have been the inspiration for that one (03:14 for the Chick story, but the whole vid is worth watching.)

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[Gabor]

Very useful list. Of course it is way easier to keep those if you are Chick Corea... #2 woud be a stopper for me in many cases

Regarding mimicry here is what Miles Davis thinks about it

[MattR]

I read the list but didn't catch whether he thinks we should be playing with intention or not.

[vintagelove]

You know, I have to disagree with this line of complete relaxation playing a guitar.

I see this advice a lot from keyboard players. They don’t understand the way you touch the strings is EVERYTHING. The guitar, especially a clean guitar, is a rather plain sound, we have to do everything we can to make it sound interesting.

a great trumpet player on the other hand can absolutely LAY INTO a b5 and that’s the coolest sh@t you ever heard. On guitar, if you don’t put some funk on it, will sound downright “meh”.


ps, I play both instruments, and have a functional knowledge of brass and woodwinds.

[AndyV]

Humans like to make lists. It's a lot easier to make the list than to remember to do the items on the list. RE #14 ... Nobody wanted to play the same piano after Dave Brubeck played it the previous week. I am definitely guilty of #8 and guitarists in general tend to let their fingers do the walking' because we don't have to breathe to play like horns do.

[Greentone]

Good list. SPACE!

[Doctor Jeff]

#2, 5, 13, 15--Space, the Final Frontier...

RIP George Duke, what a great guy and great musician.

[sgcim]

Found this on an old hard drive the other day.

Thanks for posting this. I used to work every week with this keyboard player, who was a Scientologist, and a strong follower of Chick. On one gig he came up to me after I played a solo, and said, "You play with INTENTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" at the top of his lungs.I didn't know wtf he was talking about.
Now I know where he got it from!
To this day, the drummer on that gig imitate him, and tell each other, "Man, you pay with intention, man....."

[DaveF]

Absolutely superb advice. Sadly, widely ignored in Jazz.

[AndyV]

Most of my solos might be described as unintentional!

[yebdox]

I transcribed it, so you can cut and paste:

CHEAP BUT GOOD ADVICE FOR PLAYING MUSIC IN A GROUP
– Chick Corea


1) Play only what you hear.
2) If you don’t hear anything, don’t play anything.
3) Don’t let your fingers and limbs just wander – place them intentionally.
4) Don’t improvise on endlessly – play something with intention, develop it or not, but
then end off, take a break.
5) Leave space – create space – intentionally create places where you don’t play.
6) Make your sound blend. Listen to your sound and adjust it to the rest of the band and
the room.
7) If you play more than one instrument at a time – like a drum kit or multiple keyboards,
– make sure that they are balanced with one another.
8) Don’t make any of your music mechanically or just through patterns of habit. Create
each sound, phrase and piece with choice – deliberately.
9) Guide your choice of what to play by what you like – not by what someone else
will think.
10) Use contrast and balance the elements: high/low, fast/slow, loud/soft, tense/relaxed,
dense/sparse.
11) Play to make the other musicians sound good. Play things that will make the overall
music sound good.
12) Play with a relaxed body. Always release whatever tension you create.
13) Create space – begin, develop, and end phrases with intention.
14) Never beat or pound your instrument – play it easily and gracefully.
15) Create space – then place something in it.
16) Use mimicry sparsely – mostly create phrases that contrast with and develop
the phrases of the other players.

[citizenk74]

To me, #11 is the most important one. Thank you for posting this.