There are a couple of things which Chick often apply to get that Spanish sound going. The most important thing to make anything sound Spanish is the employment of a half tone step between the first and the second, making it a flat 2nd or flat 9th. Be it in the scale used, or be it in the chord sequence: + Use of the Phrygian mode. You will find this mode in La Fiesta and Yellow Nimbus. Or derivatives of the Harmonic Minor scale (such as the Phrygian Dominant mode which is applied in Spanish Fantasy and Touchstone if I remember correctly); + Use of the Andalusian Cadence or a variation of it (iv > III > bII > I(7) so in the key of A that would be Dm > C(M7) > Bb(M7) > A(7) ). The "theme" of La Fiesta is built on this (but uses only the last 3 chords of this cadence, the 4th starts of the B section as a modulation to A major), it occurs in Love Castle and Trance Dance. Basically the Spanish distinguish the Por Ariba variant which is in the key of A-La Fiesta, and one which is Por Medio and in the key of D-Trance Dance/Love Castle. It's the same interval set, just in different keys. + Just vamping on a half tone chord change where the chords are Major. Again, that's basically just the last half of the Andalusian Cadence. Spanish Fantasy part 4 uses that vamp for the solo and Spanish Sketch is built on that. Chick loves to embellish some of his Dominant 7ths with the Flat 9. So A7 becomes A7b9 which is again coming from the Harmonic Minor scale. Space Circus pt1 (AKA Children's Song #3) uses that chord (and actually ends on it). Another thing regarding Flamenco like sounds is that a lot of this music is guitar based and therefor often is based around E or A as a tonal center (though capo's are used, including by Paco). As far as I remember, Chick bases his Flamenco influenced songs mostly on the tonal centers of D, C, Bb, A, E.. But what about Spain? Ironically, I personally find Spain one of the least "flamenco" like songs from his ouvre when it comes to the harmony. While the flat 9th makes an appearance (mostly as embellishment) and the first two chords (Gmaj7, F#7) have this half tone thing going on, but apart from the title, it's harmonically one of the least Flamenco sounding ones and the chordal patterns are pretty standard (it's basically 2 ii-V-I's, one in the key of D, the other in the key of B). I regard Spain more as a Latin song (given its Samba flavoured rhythm) than a Flamenco one. You can spice it up though and give it more of a Flamenco tone (as Paco and McLaughlin would do). Spain perhaps feels more like a Spanish danse and in that sense can be regarded as a more optimist Flamenco kind of sound, but most people associate Flamenco with a serious tone (similar to the blues. The Portugese have Fado, the Spanish have Flamenco) and associate some of the things I pointed out earlier as typical Flamenco.
thanks for the detailed explanation! Does the scale Chick is playing in the video - the one he says he doesn't;t know the name of ... does that actually have a name?
💥 Absolute genius. Chick Corea has the rare gift of never run out of excellent ideas, and do exactly what he thinks, and NEVER do anything he doesn't want. These 2 characteristics I haven't seen on anybody else simultaneously. 🎉❤❤❤
In Arabic and Turkish music it's Maqam Hijaz Kar and in Western music it's known as the double harmonic scale and I believe it's also referred to as Oriental Scale. Double harmonic being you literally take 2 harmonic minor scales and join them. For example, the F harmonic minor and C harmonic minor, take the last 4 notes of F harmonic minor (C,Db,E,F) and C harmonic minor (G,Ab,B,C) to create C Double harmonic.
I remember first listening to Zyriab; the whole concept of the song was new to me, but I liked it right from the start. It had a natural drive to it with a climax on the piano improvisation!
translating into words it would be i think: phrygian, with phryigian harmony, (b2maj7 , b7min7 as most obvious cadential chords) but an added major third on the tonic. make sure to clash the root/b2 and b3/3 in interesting ways
You prolly dont give a shit but if you guys are bored like me atm then you can watch all of the new series on InstaFlixxer. Have been binge watching with my girlfriend for the last weeks xD
Good evening master. I suggest that you put on the virtual piano so that the lesson is clearer for us because it will allow us to see the notes well. Happy New Year
@@IRACEMABABU Perhaps not as this video is done. But more of a preset up for those that may need it. Obviously this video is not a lesson so in a workshop or lesson content it can be useful for some musicians. Not sure if there would be any bad or lazy musicians here. We really cannot afford to be that way.
Flamenco is folk music for folk dance, which belongs to the primitive (primal) type of music. There are no exact rules in folk music, no 'written' harmonies. Their basis are roughly Middle-Eastern / Egyptian / gypsy scales (Moors did conquer Iberian peninsula) which can be made up with a Western Phrygian scale. Easy way to make them, is to use any minor scale, then flatten the 2nd note by a semitone. Afterwards, a player can drop any other degree in the scale, often making ambiguous scales with no tonal centre. Because the singing in such folk music is continuous (often some sorrowful lamentation that goes on forever) and has no tonal pivot or reference point; it just goes on and on.
Well, that's not exactly the case with Flamenco. Flamenco is not folk music, some of it is based on folk music, some of it is influenced by Gregorian chant, some has African influence, some has Moorish influences. It is a very demanding and difficult music to dominate, it is rhythmically complex and it has plenty of rules (mostly melodic and interpretative) and very concise structure, based on poems of 3, 4 and 5 octosyllabic verses. Some of it is tonal, most of it is modal or bimodal.
@@RaulMannolaX Flamenco is folk dance music. In words of maestro Segovia, it is beautiful folk music, but Flamenco players are often crude and unsophisticated.
Well, you have wrong references, Andrés Segovia was a classical guitarist, he didn't really like Flamenco, and said some stupid things about Paco De Lucía.. There's a lot of literature about Flamenco's history, you should read some of it.. As early as in 1850 there were professional Flamenco artists in Spain, then there was the Classical music, both religious and secular, and the Folklore which was very different from Flamenco.
@@RaulMannolaX Not at all. Maestro Segovia was born in the very land of the Flamenco, he knew the tradition, and knew very well the limitations of the Flamenco players. Paco de Lucia is a fine guitarist of the Flamenco, but he is unimaginative, and unable to make anything out of the raw material at hand. Segovia, on the other hand, had a superior talent and finer understanding of music, he saw the possibilities, and he had rescued the Spanish guitar from the wreckage of the lousy Flamenco players. Without him, there would be no classical guitar, and without the classical guitar and his playing that enchanted many engineers, there would be no electric guitar. Maestro Segovia and his genius allowed the music we hear today. He himself said, first he rescued the guitar from the noisy hands of Flamenco players, and then he rescued it from the poor repertoire.
Not exactly, because flamenco is between modal and tonal and it doesnt follow the usual relationship between chords, but the notes are the same of the phyrigian dominant
No it’s not the Phrygian dominant or major he goes up the Phrygian then down with root , major seven , minor seven , #5 , 5 , 4 , major 3 rd , minor 3 rd , minor second, root . A nine note scale I have no idea what it’s called 😅 but it sounds amazing
I think the scale he can't remember at 1.16 is the Phrygian mode. He played it straight, followed by a variation (which will have another name). I'm fascinated by the variation, which now calls for a bit of research. Any suggestions?
minor harmonic scale from the root of that "resolution chord" (resolving on the root) or minor melodic from the b2 of that chord (resolving on the root of the chord)? can also try minor melodic from the b6 of that chord (resolving on the P5 then)
With all due respect to Mr. Corea, let me mention Chano Domínguez, a great jazz-flamenco pianist, just in case you don´t know him. He is a must reference in this genre, imho. Also worth saying, he is from Cádiz, so you barely can get more flamenco that that. Here´s a link, in case you guys are interested ruclips.net/video/R1AWImHUQys/видео.html
..exactly, harmonic minor five it's called. if you want it more oriental a sharp 7 is great & of course phrygian is used in flamenco music a lot too. ;)
How do I get interesting modern thematic development going in improvisation F ex on a standard jazz song How to expand and add to the theme? Is slonimsky any use?
transcribe solos you like and analyse what they are doing - while doing this work also practice implementing these things you are learning in your own improvisation
by taking a melodic fragment which lasts just a part of a bar (maybe half a bar) and playing around with it until you get bored by it or until you stumble upon something else which you then want to play around with. Move it up and down the scale, change the rhythm, invert it, retrograde it. If you find it hard to come up with a melodic fragment out of thin air, just pick it from the melody line and start playing with it. Gary Burton is someone I often hear playing around with the melody line. Maybe as an example: take the song Soon recorded by Burton with Chick and Metheny (the album is Like Minds). Listen to Chick's solo and how his opening phrase is derived from the melody line. Then listen how things progress and how he is making sure he accents certain parts which are again also accents in the melody. The thing is is that you can basically hear the melody all the time throughout the solo. It's a great example I think of melodic development. I think this is one of the often overlooked parts when it comes to transcribing solos and studying them. Most people try to copy the solo and see that as the "study". Others figure out which scales are used and come to the disappointing conclusion that many of their idols rely on the same basic scales everybody else does (it's not that they know some secret scale which makes them sound more "pro" than the others, their C dorian is just like your C dorian). What I think one should look for, not just in hearing but actually by looking visually at the page, is the fragments and how these fragments are twisted and developed into lines. Visually that is often easy to see because you are basically looking at literal visual patterns.
Cmajb9 is the one he defines as the one to come back to. Then he's probably doing C# and D#, I can also hear a G# somewhere but can't tell exactly other accidentals he's playing. Scale for improvisation is Phrygian.
the common chords on this particular "palo" would be Fm, Eb7, Db7 and C(addb9). The scale is just prhygian but can use both major and minor third, even on the same scale.You can also use the major seventh
you can't understand flamenco music without understanding the origins of the oriental mix of ethnic Phoenician safardies and Arabs from the ancient Iberian Peninsula
Title says flamenco scales. At the relevant point of the video he plays a scale and a variation but doesn’t describe any technicalities of it and says he’s forgotten what it’s called.
'El Palo' en flamenco es como 'La Clave' ... parece que primero hay que sentir El Palo y con este las cadencias armónicas vendrán a su tiempo ... si empezamos por la armonía e ignoramos 'los palos' , terminamos sonando 'payo' y 'cruzaos' … ... ruclips.net/video/5UxH33Rkzwg/видео.html ...
Today is a sad day in our music world. The legend has transcended to another realm where he returns to forever... but the legend’s legacy will never end.
Easiest way to think about it is: Whichever chord you wanna turn into a Flamenco Chord, just think the Harmonic Minor chord that's a 4th above. So if we're in C Maj, think of Fminor harmonic (F, G, Ab, Bb, C, Db, E)
There are a couple of things which Chick often apply to get that Spanish sound going. The most important thing to make anything sound Spanish is the employment of a half tone step between the first and the second, making it a flat 2nd or flat 9th. Be it in the scale used, or be it in the chord sequence:
+ Use of the Phrygian mode. You will find this mode in La Fiesta and Yellow Nimbus. Or derivatives of the Harmonic Minor scale (such as the Phrygian Dominant mode which is applied in Spanish Fantasy and Touchstone if I remember correctly);
+ Use of the Andalusian Cadence or a variation of it (iv > III > bII > I(7) so in the key of A that would be Dm > C(M7) > Bb(M7) > A(7) ). The "theme" of La Fiesta is built on this (but uses only the last 3 chords of this cadence, the 4th starts of the B section as a modulation to A major), it occurs in Love Castle and Trance Dance. Basically the Spanish distinguish the Por Ariba variant which is in the key of A-La Fiesta, and one which is Por Medio and in the key of D-Trance Dance/Love Castle. It's the same interval set, just in different keys.
+ Just vamping on a half tone chord change where the chords are Major. Again, that's basically just the last half of the Andalusian Cadence. Spanish Fantasy part 4 uses that vamp for the solo and Spanish Sketch is built on that.
Chick loves to embellish some of his Dominant 7ths with the Flat 9. So A7 becomes A7b9 which is again coming from the Harmonic Minor scale. Space Circus pt1 (AKA Children's Song #3) uses that chord (and actually ends on it).
Another thing regarding Flamenco like sounds is that a lot of this music is guitar based and therefor often is based around E or A as a tonal center (though capo's are used, including by Paco). As far as I remember, Chick bases his Flamenco influenced songs mostly on the tonal centers of D, C, Bb, A, E..
But what about Spain? Ironically, I personally find Spain one of the least "flamenco" like songs from his ouvre when it comes to the harmony. While the flat 9th makes an appearance (mostly as embellishment) and the first two chords (Gmaj7, F#7) have this half tone thing going on, but apart from the title, it's harmonically one of the least Flamenco sounding ones and the chordal patterns are pretty standard (it's basically 2 ii-V-I's, one in the key of D, the other in the key of B). I regard Spain more as a Latin song (given its Samba flavoured rhythm) than a Flamenco one. You can spice it up though and give it more of a Flamenco tone (as Paco and McLaughlin would do). Spain perhaps feels more like a Spanish danse and in that sense can be regarded as a more optimist Flamenco kind of sound, but most people associate Flamenco with a serious tone (similar to the blues. The Portugese have Fado, the Spanish have Flamenco) and associate some of the things I pointed out earlier as typical Flamenco.
good stuff. i didn’t realize pertinent useful comments like this existed on youtube
This was really helpful thanks man :)
best comment in the history of youtube
thanks for the detailed explanation! Does the scale Chick is playing in the video - the one he says he doesn't;t know the name of ... does that actually have a name?
💥 Absolute genius. Chick Corea has the rare gift of never run out of excellent ideas, and do exactly what he thinks, and NEVER do anything he doesn't want. These 2 characteristics I haven't seen on anybody else simultaneously. 🎉❤❤❤
In Arabic and Turkish music it's Maqam Hijaz Kar and in Western music it's known as the double harmonic scale and I believe it's also referred to as Oriental Scale. Double harmonic being you literally take 2 harmonic minor scales and join them. For example, the F harmonic minor and C harmonic minor, take the last 4 notes of F harmonic minor (C,Db,E,F) and C harmonic minor (G,Ab,B,C) to create C Double harmonic.
I remember first listening to Zyriab; the whole concept of the song was new to me, but I liked it right from the start. It had a natural drive to it with a climax on the piano improvisation!
That piano sounds fantastic.
translating into words it would be i think: phrygian, with phryigian harmony, (b2maj7 , b7min7 as most obvious cadential chords) but an added major third on the tonic. make sure to clash the root/b2 and b3/3 in interesting ways
Rest in peace great master!
You prolly dont give a shit but if you guys are bored like me atm then you can watch all of the new series on InstaFlixxer. Have been binge watching with my girlfriend for the last weeks xD
@Thatcher Walker definitely, have been watching on InstaFlixxer for since november myself :D
@Thatcher Walker Yup, I have been using InstaFlixxer for since december myself :)
God bless him. Thanks for sharing the lesson. RIP. 💐
Good evening master.
I suggest that you put on the virtual piano so that the lesson is clearer for us because it will allow us to see the notes well. Happy New Year
Use your ears !
@@IRACEMABABU yes that is true, however its considerate to have an overhead to see the keyboard :)
@@NelsonRiverosMusic Is it considerate to ask Chick to use such an installation just to take in account the lazyness of some bad musicians ? Not sure.
@@IRACEMABABU Perhaps not as this video is done. But more of a preset up for those that may need it. Obviously this video is not a lesson so in a workshop or lesson content it can be useful for some musicians. Not sure if there would be any bad or lazy musicians here. We really cannot afford to be that way.
AWESOME 👍🎶
You are the best, im your fan
same here. greeting from bali island
I’m a guitarist and love your music and this lesson. Thank you for sharing your wisdom. 🙏🏼
ruclips.net/video/we3mrteiIvg/видео.html
Flamenco is folk music for folk dance, which belongs to the primitive (primal) type of music. There are no exact rules in folk music, no 'written' harmonies. Their basis are roughly Middle-Eastern / Egyptian / gypsy scales (Moors did conquer Iberian peninsula) which can be made up with a Western Phrygian scale. Easy way to make them, is to use any minor scale, then flatten the 2nd note by a semitone. Afterwards, a player can drop any other degree in the scale, often making ambiguous scales with no tonal centre. Because the singing in such folk music is continuous (often some sorrowful lamentation that goes on forever) and has no tonal pivot or reference point; it just goes on and on.
Well, that's not exactly the case with Flamenco. Flamenco is not folk music, some of it is based on folk music, some of it is influenced by Gregorian chant, some has African influence, some has Moorish influences. It is a very demanding and difficult music to dominate, it is rhythmically complex and it has plenty of rules (mostly melodic and interpretative) and very concise structure, based on poems of 3, 4 and 5 octosyllabic verses. Some of it is tonal, most of it is modal or bimodal.
@@RaulMannolaX Flamenco is folk dance music. In words of maestro Segovia, it is beautiful folk music, but Flamenco players are often crude and unsophisticated.
Well, you have wrong references, Andrés Segovia was a classical guitarist, he didn't really like Flamenco, and said some stupid things about Paco De Lucía.. There's a lot of literature about Flamenco's history, you should read some of it.. As early as in 1850 there were professional Flamenco artists in Spain, then there was the Classical music, both religious and secular, and the Folklore which was very different from Flamenco.
@@RaulMannolaX Not at all. Maestro Segovia was born in the very land of the Flamenco, he knew the tradition, and knew very well the limitations of the Flamenco players. Paco de Lucia is a fine guitarist of the Flamenco, but he is unimaginative, and unable to make anything out of the raw material at hand. Segovia, on the other hand, had a superior talent and finer understanding of music, he saw the possibilities, and he had rescued the Spanish guitar from the wreckage of the lousy Flamenco players. Without him, there would be no classical guitar, and without the classical guitar and his playing that enchanted many engineers, there would be no electric guitar. Maestro Segovia and his genius allowed the music we hear today. He himself said, first he rescued the guitar from the noisy hands of Flamenco players, and then he rescued it from the poor repertoire.
@@zvonimirtosic6171 You say so many so stupid things that I stop this conversation right here right now. Don't bother answering.
Thank you for your generosity.
Thanks so much for sharing ‼️ Hope you are well God loves you deeply Shalom 🤗🐼❤️✝️💐 Philippians 4:8
Shalom!!!
Amen
So you are the jazz machine with scales or something like that. I just found you out. Nice to meet you.
ありがとう！！！
Bravo!! Thank you!!
Чик Корея,ты моя юность,то чем я жил и живу.
The scale is called phrygian dominant. fifth mode of the harmonic minor scale i believe
Not exactly, because flamenco is between modal and tonal and it doesnt follow the usual relationship between chords, but the notes are the same of the phyrigian dominant
@@MelbanaMusic ok, even if its neither tonal or modal, I would still use that name of the scale. whats the alternative?
@@lydoel phrygian major
No it’s not the Phrygian dominant or major he goes up the Phrygian then down with root , major seven , minor seven , #5 , 5 , 4 , major 3 rd , minor 3 rd , minor second, root . A nine note scale I have no idea what it’s called 😅 but it sounds amazing
He said it was C major starting on E so it is actually just phrygian
That was incredible. Perfect brief description of Flamenco musicals the small piece at the end. Genious.
I think the scale he can't remember at 1.16 is the Phrygian mode. He played it straight, followed by a variation (which will have another name). I'm fascinated by the variation, which now calls for a bit of research. Any suggestions?
minor harmonic scale from the root of that "resolution chord" (resolving on the root) or minor melodic from the b2 of that chord (resolving on the root of the chord)? can also try minor melodic from the b6 of that chord (resolving on the P5 then)
Chances are it's the phrygian dominant.
Interesting thing is the resolution is in the tension. This sound has a lot to do with tension and release.
I thought5 the keyboard was talking at first
Phrygian mode/scale is often used in Flamenco music.
With all due respect to Mr. Corea, let me mention Chano Domínguez, a great jazz-flamenco pianist, just in case you don´t know him. He is a must reference in this genre, imho. Also worth saying, he is from Cádiz, so you barely can get more flamenco that that. Here´s a link, in case you guys are interested
ruclips.net/video/R1AWImHUQys/видео.html
It would be great if you could talk about Paco De Lucía.
Edit Hasta Siempre.
Mestre.
🙂🙏
I suppose it could be harmonic minor scale, say starting on the 5th . I.e. Fm harmonic minor, but starting on C (not F).
..exactly, harmonic minor five it's called. if you want it more oriental a sharp 7 is great & of course phrygian is used in flamenco music a lot too. ;)
@@aljoschahunger In the early example he also added the ♮7, B.
Also, Phyrigian mode
That's exactly the phrygian dominant scale in C. I really don't get why he didn't mention the prhygian mode at all.
How do I get interesting modern thematic development going in improvisation
F ex on a standard jazz song
How to expand and add to the theme?
Is slonimsky any use?
transcribe solos you like and analyse what they are doing - while doing this work also practice implementing these things you are learning in your own improvisation
Check out Kapustin! His way of placing the chromatic is very interesting.
by taking a melodic fragment which lasts just a part of a bar (maybe half a bar) and playing around with it until you get bored by it or until you stumble upon something else which you then want to play around with. Move it up and down the scale, change the rhythm, invert it, retrograde it. If you find it hard to come up with a melodic fragment out of thin air, just pick it from the melody line and start playing with it. Gary Burton is someone I often hear playing around with the melody line. Maybe as an example: take the song Soon recorded by Burton with Chick and Metheny (the album is Like Minds). Listen to Chick's solo and how his opening phrase is derived from the melody line. Then listen how things progress and how he is making sure he accents certain parts which are again also accents in the melody. The thing is is that you can basically hear the melody all the time throughout the solo. It's a great example I think of melodic development.
I think this is one of the often overlooked parts when it comes to transcribing solos and studying them. Most people try to copy the solo and see that as the "study". Others figure out which scales are used and come to the disappointing conclusion that many of their idols rely on the same basic scales everybody else does (it's not that they know some secret scale which makes them sound more "pro" than the others, their C dorian is just like your C dorian). What I think one should look for, not just in hearing but actually by looking visually at the page, is the fragments and how these fragments are twisted and developed into lines. Visually that is often easy to see because you are basically looking at literal visual patterns.
😍😍
Does anybody know what chords he’s playing in the flamenco part?
Try slowing down the video and you can work a lot of it out.
@@arthurmee thats actually a great tip, thx I’ll check it out
Cmajb9 is the one he defines as the one to come back to. Then he's probably doing C# and D#, I can also hear a G# somewhere but can't tell exactly other accidentals he's playing. Scale for improvisation is Phrygian.
the common chords on this particular "palo" would be Fm, Eb7, Db7 and C(addb9). The scale is just prhygian but can use both major and minor third, even on the same scale.You can also use the major seventh
U Guys are fuxking 🐐🐐🐐 salute!
The expectations raised by the title were not fulfilled.
When are you gonna play Love Castle for me Chick
I love Chick, but this is not really sharing.
The scale is not complicated. The chords are basic.
Why not spell them out?
you can't understand flamenco music without understanding the origins of the oriental mix of ethnic Phoenician safardies and Arabs from the ancient Iberian Peninsula
That's like saying you can't understand today's English without understanding Old English
Title says flamenco scales. At the relevant point of the video he plays a scale and a variation but doesn’t describe any technicalities of it and says he’s forgotten what it’s called.
Et la gamme des scientologues dont tu fais partie???
Surprisingly inarticulate and effectively meaningless.
'El Palo' en flamenco es como 'La Clave' ... parece que primero hay que sentir El Palo y con este las cadencias armónicas vendrán a su tiempo ... si empezamos por la armonía e ignoramos 'los palos' , terminamos sonando 'payo' y 'cruzaos' …
... ruclips.net/video/5UxH33Rkzwg/видео.html ...
Cierto
You need a close mic for your voice. It is hard to hear in the room.
Oh! Think he learned music trascribing from vynils
ruclips.net/video/we3mrteiIvg/видео.html
Today is a sad day in our music world.
The legend has transcended to another realm where he returns to forever...
but the legend’s legacy will never end.
Te queremos, y love you desde granada
😀👏👏👏👏👏👍
Easiest way to think about it is: Whichever chord you wanna turn into a Flamenco Chord, just think the Harmonic Minor chord that's a 4th above. So if we're in C Maj, think of Fminor harmonic (F, G, Ab, Bb, C, Db, E)
🙏🏾👏🏾👏🏾🙏🏾
We miss you so much Chick ❤❤❤ thank you for your great music
Great player, poor teatcher.
I UNDERSTOOD THAT EXPLANATION COMPLETELY AND IM A DRUMMER
MAYBE TAKE MUSIC THEORY PERHAPS, LEARN TO READ RHYTHM, HARMONY AND MELODY
We will miss you!
Thank you so much for doing this ❤️
very interesting topic
Mitico
I have no words for u sir.Definitely want to meet you once in life.