Joe Hubbard Breaks Down Chick Corea’s “Spain” in New Bass Course
Bassist and renowned educator Joe Hubbard has released a course called Playing Through the Jazz Standards Vol. 2: Spain by Chick Corea, which guides you through one of the “most iconic and deceptively challenging tunes” in jazz repertoire, he explains. It features 12 lessons and nearly three hours of instruction to help you understand and tackle the piece.
The course follows up on Volume 1 on Charlie Parker’s “Donna Lee.” “Spain” has an entirely different rhythmic and harmonic vocabulary with samba grooves, modal harmony, and a unique syncopated melody.
“Most players underestimate Spain because it has such an accessible sound,” Hubbard says. “They think they can wing it. But the tempo is fast, the samba groove is completely unforgiving if you don’t understand the feel, and the modal harmony requires real vocabulary. It separates serious players from everyone else very quickly.”
Playing Through the Jazz Standards Vol. 2: Spain by Chick Corea includes backing tracks performed by Hubbard and drummer Tom Brechtlein, who played with Corea, and pianist Santiago Bosch. They recorded a performance remotely, which is presented as a Music Minus One track to let students play alongside world-class musicians.
“There’s a reason Tom played with Chick for a decade,” Hubbard says. “He understands this music from the inside. When you’re locking in with his groove, you’re getting the real feel — not a simulation of it. That changes how you practice. It changes what you hear. It raises your game whether you realize it or not.”
Although the focus is on “Spain,” Hubbard extrapolates the ideas into the bigger picture. Lesson 11 takes specific lines from his solo on the track and applies them to another standard.
“Bars 5-9 of Spain use essentially the same chord changes as Autumn Leaves,” he explains. “The point of Lesson 11 is to show students that what they’re learning isn’t just Spain-specific vocabulary. It’s transferable. Once you understand the concepts, you can apply them across dozens of standards that share similar harmonic movement.”
Playing Through the Jazz Standards Vol. 2: Spain by Chick Corea comes with 20 downloadable PDFs, two professional backing tracks, and a bonus 10-page practice booklet called The Focused Bassist. It’s available now with a launch price of £267 (~$349 USD) through October 12th, 2024. After that, it rises to the regular price of £297 (~$388 USD).
Visit Joe Hubbard’s website for more info, and watch his introductory video below.
In his time with No Treble, Kevin has met hundreds of amazing bassists and interviewed icons like Jack Casady, Victor Wooten, Les Claypool, Marcus Miller, and more. He's a gigging bassist performing jazz in Northern Virginia and bluegrass with The Plate Scrapers up and down the East Coast. Kevin appreciates all genres of music, from R&B to metal and everything in between. Connect with Kevin on Facebook and check his performance schedule on his website.
