That Riff in Spain [Video]

by Ari • 14 Jan 2021 — 11 minute read

Chick Corea’s Spain and the tough Riff…

I collect challenging bass lines by way of asking for them in bass groups: What tune is technically hard for you? One that is requested over and over is the iconic riff in “Spain” by Chick Corea. And I’m happy to oblige in this Talking Technique.

My hope is that you don’t just view this episode as a “how-to-play-that-line” tutorial but rather as something much more useful: a tutorial on how to get a challenging rhythm under your fingers, and to do so with precision. In this tutorial I give you several ideas on how to approach such a line. And of course there are plenty of technique tips for the challenging string-crossing maneuvers in Spain.

I take you through the elements of the riff – shining a light on how hidden repetitions create some of that awesome coolness factor. I break it down into bite-sized segments, note by note, at full tempo and then slowed down to allow you to catch all the nuances. Before long, you are ready to put it all together and have some fun with it!

 

Included is a PDF transcription to help you navigate the riff.

Download the practice Tracks and Exercises below:

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    Bassist, author, educator.

    Groove enthusiast and learning nerd.

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    Hi. I'm Ari.

    As a bassist, I have toured/played/recorded with a variety of rock, Jazz, and funk bands, I have worked with some incredible producers (Keith Olsen) and musicians (Paul Hanson, Muriel Anderson) and I toured Brazil with Stu Hamm as a duo.

     

    As a bass teacher, I have taught at London Bass Day, Gerald Veasley’s Bass Boot Camp, SBL, Truefire, notreble… I even ran my own music school for a few years before gigs took me back on the road.

     

    One thing to know about me is that I teach because I am absolutely fascinated with the learning process. And I am obsessed with helping others realize their musical potential.

     

    When I started playing bass, I excelled very quickly because I had an amazing teacher who taught me using a powerful method. This method transformed my playing so quickly that I passed a bunch of high-level university auditions and even tested out of entire classes at university even though I had been playing for only a very short time.

     

    That’s what, many years later turned into one of my books, co-written with Wolf Wein, called “The Pattern System for the Bass Player”. I created entire systems of learning based on some of these ideas and wrote books and created courses together with Wolf. Our bass books have sold over 30,000 copies and garnered rave reviews.

     

    I started teaching online in 2009 and have embraced technology as a powerful learning tool since then, never losing sight of the importance of providing feedback and personalized guidance to learners.

     

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