Recorded by Chick. Preserved by the Academy.
Chick Corea: The Piano Workshop
About a decade ago, Chick Corea sat down at his own piano, in his own studio, and recorded everything he knew about playing it. Eight sessions. More than six hours. In his own words.
Though Chick is gone, what he wanted you to know about the piano is right here, exactly as he made it.
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The most complete piano teaching Chick ever recorded
Chick taught constantly, but almost always in passing: a masterclass here, a clinic there, an answer to a question backstage. The Piano is different. He cleared the time, put a camera over the keys, and worked through the whole instrument the way he actually thought about it: comping, harmony, improvising, practice, time, technique.
None of it is theory from a book. It is Chick at the piano explaining how he did it, playing it, and then explaining it again more slowly. The overhead camera stays on his hands, and every session has slow-motion playback for when you need to see exactly what the fingers are doing.
He never treated the piano like a test to pass. He treated it like a playground. That comes through in every session, it is contagious, and it is all still here.
Here is four minutes of it.
Chick recorded this short lesson for the Academy. Watch how he works: no lecture, no theory for its own sake, just three things you can do this week to fix your time, explained the way a bandmate would explain them.
The Piano is six hours of exactly this. Same man, same directness, but at the piano, with the camera over his hands, and with room to go deep.
The subject of this clip alone gets a 55-minute session in the workshop. There are seven more like it: comping, harmony and voicings, improvising, practice, technique, his recording rig, and a bonus session on composing and free playing.
“In 4 minutes Chick gave the most direct advice to get better. So concise, just gotta do it.” A viewer’s comment on this clip, with 300-plus likes.
Get All Eight Sessions · $149Eight sessions. Six hours with Chick at the piano.
Every session is filmed from above the keys, with slow-motion playback whenever you want it. Below is four seconds of it, at half speed.
01
Comping
31 min
The basics of comping and how to think like an orchestra. Extensive demonstration, including playing behind a vocalist.
02
Harmony & Voicings
53 min
Chick’s introduction to harmony and voicings, learning in gradients, chord demonstrations, and advice for classical players curious about jazz.
03
Improvisation & Soloing
29 min
What goes on in Chick’s head while he plays, which may surprise you, and a demonstrated answer on spontaneity versus rehearsal.
04
Practice
65 min
Principles of practice, purpose and intention, the teacher and mentor system, and methods for building chops. Includes the Scarlatti sheet music Chick plays on camera.
05
Rhythm & Time
55 min
Time rapport, basic Afro-Cuban grooves, and how to own your mistakes.
06
Technique
56 min
General rules for technique, getting a tone out of the piano, and avoiding hand injuries.
07
Open Questions
46 min
Chick’s own recording process and a complete walk-through of his rig.
08
Bonus Session
35 min
Questions on his composition Humpty Dumpty, free jazz, avoiding unwanted patterns in your playing, and developing a sense of time.
Also included: Chick’s book, free
A PDF of A Work in Progress: On Being a Musician, Chick’s own notes on practicing, creating and the working life of a musician.
Some of the questions Chick answers
Every session was built around questions from students. A sample of what gets answered, at the piano, in his own words.
- The three kinds of comp, and the one Chick likes best for talking back to a soloist. Comping
- “Who said you need to learn all those chord shapes?” What Chick told a student worried about the sheer number of shapes and scales. Harmony
- What a two-five-one actually is, and how Chick enriches one, starting from a Bud Powell tune. Harmony
- The one piece of advice he gives every classical pianist who wants to move into jazz. Harmony
- What Chick thinks about while he plays. The answer is not what you expect. Improvisation
- The two-step method Chick used to keep improving his own improvising. Improvisation
- Does a solo have a plan? Chick’s answer, demonstrated on a piece Mozart wrote as a small child. Improvisation
- The four things Chick says make practice work, and how they let you practice, in his words, 24 hours a day. Practice
- Why Chick never did finger exercises, and what he suggests if velocity is your goal anyway. Practice
- What to do when the band is rushing, and why telling them so never works. Practice
- How Chick practiced hand independence, and the one way of practicing he says you should never do. Rhythm & Time
- The secret behind his duets with Herbie Hancock when nobody is keeping the time. Rhythm & Time
- Chick’s trick for killing a bad habit for good. Rhythm & Time
- The one idea that covers all of piano technique. Technique
- How to get a tone out of any piano, including the terrible ones on the road. Chick gave up piano for two years in the sixties because of them. Technique
- Why some players never get a true legato, whatever their fingers do. Technique
- What the three pedals actually do, including the middle one almost nobody uses. Technique
- Where the “extra blue” notes in Humpty Dumpty come from. Chick plays them to show you. Bonus Session
Plus his gear walk-through, what “new” really means when you are tired of your own licks, and the one-minute ritual he did before every show.
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If you only half-know the name
Chick Corea (1941–2021) was one of the most recorded and most awarded pianists in the history of jazz: 29 Grammy Awards, an NEA Jazz Master, a member of Miles Davis’s band on In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew, the founder of Return to Forever, and the composer of Spain, La Fiesta, Windows and dozens of other pieces musicians still learn today.
He was also a teacher by temperament. He answered musicians’ questions for decades, and he founded the Chick Corea Academy so he could keep doing it for anyone who asked. This workshop is where that teaching is most complete.
Who is this for?
A pianist with some experience who wants to take it to the next level. Or one who has been stuck in the same rut for a while and wants to hear how Chick thought his way out of his.
You don’t need to be advanced, but you should already play: Chick talks to you as a fellow musician and gets to the piano quickly. Musicians on other instruments who think at the keyboard will get plenty from the harmony, rhythm and practice sessions.
From the people who took it
Comments left inside the workshop by students.
“
Chick’s section on Soloing and Improvisation blew my mind. His explanation of how decision and action are one and the same gave me no time to think. I tried this on my piano improvising over Spain. What a relief! Everything became fresh.
Piano Workshop student
“
I am learning a lot building a music vocabulary I did not have before, and ways to approach comping. Before I started, when my friend and I talked music we could not communicate. Now I can help him to think in terms of music. I am liking now knowing something about music I can use.
Piano Workshop student
“
I think I have learned the most in this lesson as of yet. You answered a question I had: can a classical pianist who focuses only on Bach, Beethoven and Mozart use the form of a given composition and play it through improvisation? My answer is yes.
Piano Workshop student, on the Improvisation session
“
I enjoyed this so much, and the way you express how you feel it. Being truly with yourself. I think that may be why your sound touches so many of us. Personally, I choose you as one of my main sources to understand, and to try to transmit, what happens inside.
Piano Workshop student
What it is worth, and what you pay
Chick’s own advice, in the clip above, was to apprentice yourself to someone whose playing you want. For most of us, that was never going to be Chick Corea. This is the closest thing there is: six hours at his piano, on the subjects he chose, at your own pace, for as long as you want it.
$149
Eight sessions. Under $19 a session. One payment, lifetime access.
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Eight sessions. More than six hours. Lifetime access.
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