Chick Corea's Version of 'Greensleeves'
chick corea’s solo version of ‘what child is this’ (adapted from his track on the compilation cd ‘jazz to the world’ – various artists – 1995 – blue note)
this track uses many of the techniques that are typical of chick corea’s approach to solo piano. as with the transcription of brubeck’s solo of the same song, the whole solo has not been transcribed. rather, some of the main sections have been selected, and strung together to make a playable arrangement.
typical of this style is the use of an ostinato bass figure. this one bar repeating phrase is used as an introduction, and also is returned to, from time to time, as an interlude, as a bass figure over which to lay either a chordal vamp or an improvised line in the right hand. the good thing about these repeating bass figures is that, once learned, it is fairly easy to put your left hand on ‘auto-pilot’ and give your full concentration to your right hand improvisation.
the rhythm used in this bass figure is also used in the bass figure when the melody begins in the first 16 bars. here a pedal tone (a) starts each bar, and the remaining notes are a pair of fourths that are played to complete the bar using the same rhythm used in the introduction. the chord symbols are a bit irrelevant here – even misleading. when playing ‘modally’, the two things that are most important are the fundamental tone emphasized in the bass (a low ‘a’ in this case on the downbeat of each bar) and the scale choice over this tone. looking at the key signature (no sharps or flats) and melody, with no accidentals, the obvious choice would be c major (a aeolian)
the ‘b’ (chorus?) section in c major takes a more conventional approach to harmony, with chords changing regularly. the chords though, are perhaps a little unusual – certainly different from the simple traditional ‘folksy’ chords. i have noticed that chick often uses a sound over a tonic chord that is slightly unusual. i think of it as a major triad built on the 3rd degree of the scale over the tonic. for c this would be an e triad over a c bass note (usually written e/c). he usually doesn’t resolve this. (examples are bars 22, 25 and 31)
there are several good opportunities to solo in a ‘modal’ fashion. either can be inserted between choruses or sections. over the intro/outro section with the ostinato bass figure, and over the ‘a’ section, chick seems to use the aeolian mode (parent scale c major) fairly exclusively . this has that mediaeval sound that fits this melody so well.– it is amazing how hip a simple major scale can sound when played by a master improviser – lots of 4th and 5th intervals – careful note choice – pentatonic patterns (mainly using the c major pentatonic - c,d,e,g,a) – lots of ornaments on notes – one of his favorites being diatonic grace notes rather than the chromatic notes that most choose.
a fair slab of this track has chick improvising over the dominant chord in am - an e7susb9 chord. over this section, the flavor is distinctly spanish – like many of his other well known songs. here the scales are more varied – but the main characteristics of this spanish sound are the b9 against the root (f is the b9 against the root, e) and the inclusion of the major third (g#) as a note option. the scale choices then become e,f,g#,a,b,c,d (5th mode of a harmonic minor scale). i like to think of this as an e7 chord and an f triad. lots of interesting patterns can be made by alternating these in a melodic phrase. another possibility is to use this set of notes – e,f,g#,a,b,c,d#e. this scale can be divided into 2 halves. the first is the top 4 notes of an a ascending melodic minor – e,f,g#,a. the second part of the scale is the top 4 notes of the e ascending melodic minor – b,c,d#,e. this scale has some interesting intervals – you can think of it as an f major 7 chord with leading tones under each note e,f - g#,a -b,c - d#,e. introducing a d# (eb) also adds that b5 that is a (the!) note in the am blues scale. so another flavor can be added to the mix.
one other way to look at a scale in a modal way, is to limit the note choice, omitting several of the notes – using pentatonics is the way that most of us do this, but 4 note scales are also good to use. over this section try the notes e,f,a,b either as a left hand chord (played in the octave below middle c) or use these notes melodically!
footnote
among other versions that are interesting are the coltrane version with mccoy tyner on piano – a modal version using ‘so-what’ type chords to improvise over. unfortunately i have not got a recording of this – i remember hearing it once on radio.
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