Transcription of Chick Corea on Armando’s Rhumba

Chick Corea did a nice solo piano version of his own composition called Armando’s Rhumba on Legends of Jazz. Here is the youtube video :

Here’s the transcription of the video from roughly 0m44s to 1m33s :

armandos-rhumba-by-chick-corea-part-1

A few points to take note :

Harmonizing Melody

• We see how Chick Corea manage to harmonize the original melody of the tune beautifully, instead of just playing it with both hands unison.
• The melody need not always be harmonize a third away. From the transcription, we see a mixture of fifths, and thirds and many others.  What’s more important is the chord at that instant you plan to harmonize.

Salsa Groove

• The tune should be played with a strong salsa groove to it. With the clave beat in your head, even though there’s no salsa drumming or a steady bass tumbao to guide you.  This will strongly effect your phrasing, and accents.
• Check out this video when Chick Corea is playing with Bobby McFerrin. Note how McFerrin was doing the bass tumbao when Chick Corea was improvising a solo.

Bar 9 - 12

The left hand part of these four bars were very blurry, my best guess was a rolling of left hand with two C notes an octave a part, with the intention of a C pedal tone through these four bars.

Have fun and Enjoy ……