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Learn how to play the classic
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Learning Focus Music Style Wonderland in a jazz piano
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Accompanying Funk
accompaniment and beautiful
Chords Smooth Jazz right hand harmonies.

Groove

Do you want to learn how to play jazz piano like Herbie Hancock? Herbie Hancock is well-known
for being a pioneer for many jazz styles, but what makes Herbie’s piano style unique? In this jazz Play Beautiful Piano With
piano lesson, you are going to learn what I call the Signature Herbie Hancock Groove. This is a Only 2 Chords
groove that Herbie Hancock loves to use on many of his jazz compositions, including Watermelon
Man, Cantaloupe Island, and Chameleon. In this jazz piano lesson, you will learn: Lesson Level 1 Level 2
Learn a simple approach to play
A Beginner Herbie Hancock Signature Groove and improvise beautiful piano
A Late Beginner Herbie Hancock Signature Groove music right now for beginner
and intermediate piano students
An Intermediate Herbie Hancock Signature Groove
using only 2 chords!
Herbie Hancock common chords
How to use Herbie Hancock slides and bass lines

Whether you are a beginner jazz piano student, or you have experience playing jazz piano, you will
How to Play a Funk Piano
learn practical chords, rhythms, and grooves so that you can transform any song in the Herbie
Solo
Hancock style. Let’s dive in!

Herbie Hancock Chords

Lesson Level 1 Level 2
The rst step to playing piano like Herbie Hancock is to learn the 2 chords that Herbie loves to use Learn to play a funk piano solo
using essential techniques for
in his compositions. These chords are F minor 7 and C9sus4. For example, below is a fun way to
beginner and intermediate
play these chords:
pianists such as Funky 4ths,
Stacked 4ths and the C Blues
Scale.

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Herbie Hancock Stock Chords for Jazz Piano; F Minor 7 to C9sus4

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If you don’t know these chords, you can learn your minor 7 chords in our Minor 7 Chord Theory &
Application course. Alternately, you can learn chords like C9sus4 in our Piano Chord Extensions
course.

The two chords that you just learned are the basis of many Herbie Hancock tunes. However, you’ll
especially nd them in Watermelon Man and Cantaloupe Island. Now that you understand the
two chords, next you will learn the 3 Signature Herbie Hancock Grooves.

Herbie Hancock Piano – Beginner Groove

If you are a beginner jazz pianist, then this is the Herbie Hancock groove for you because it is easy
to play and sounds great:

Beginner Herbie Hancock Signature Jazz Piano Groove; works on Watermelon Man,
Cantaloupe Island, & Chameleon

If you struggle to read notation above, you can learn this Herbie Hancock Signature grooves with
our Smart Sheet Music, which shows a digital light-up keyboard along with the sheet music.

The groove you just learned sounds good because it breaks up the harmony of the the two chords
you already learned in an interesting rhythmic way. To explain, below is an explanation of how we
developed the harmony and rhythm for this groove.

Harmony
If you look at the harmony of this Herbie Hancock piano groove, we are simply breaking up the
notes of the chord. For example, the rst two notes Eb and C outline the rst chord, F Minor 7. The
next two chords, D and Bb, outline the C9sus4 chord. If you look at the left hand, you are simply
playing the roots of each chord. On the last beat, you add an Eb, which comes from the C9sus4
chord.

Rhythm
If you look at the rhythm of this groove, it is very syncopated because the right hand is accenting
beats in-between the primary beats. To clarify, syncopation is where you accent notes on the “and”
of a measure where you count “1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &.”

If you struggle putting the hands together, I recommend our Two Hand Coordination Exercises
course (Beginner/Intermediate, Intermediate Advanced), which helps you master grooves.

Another excellent resource to help you lock into the groove is our backing track, which can be
downloaded on this page after logging into your membership. Next, you will learn the Late
Beginner Herbie Hancock jazz piano groove.

Herbie Hancock Piano – Late Beginner

Groove
If you are more on the late beginner or early intermediate side, then this is the Herbie Hancock jazz
piano groove for you! Checkout the groove below:

Intermediate Herbie Hancock Signature Jazz Piano Groove; works on Watermelon Man,
Cantaloupe Island, & Chameleon

Harmony
For the intermediate groove, we will use the same harmony as before, except we will add two new
elements: pivot notes and slides

Pivot Notes

We can ll in the Beginner groove by using pivot notes, which are notes just below the chords. For
example, you can use the F underneath the chords as a pivot note for both the F Minor 7 and
C9sus4 chords.

Slides

The second harmonic element that you can add to the beginner piano groove is slides. For
example, it is common when playing funk and blues to slide from the b5 of a chord to the 5th of the
chord. Therefore, in this groove, we will slide from the B to the C. Alternately, you can also do a
slow or “lazy” slide from the G# to the A on the F Minor 7 chord. For a deep dive on using slides in
your improvisation, checkout our 10-Lesson Blues Challenge (Beginner/Intermediate,
Intermediate/Advanced)
Rhythm
For this groove, you will start to add more rhythmic movement in the left hand compared to the
beginner groove. For example, we will ad a B natural a a lower neighbor note to our target note C.
Additionally, at the end of the phrase we will also add an F to anticipate the next measure, which
starts on an F Minor 7 Chord.

If you are enjoying this groove, you can learn many similar grooves in our Funk & Smooth Jazz
Grooves & Licks courses (Beginner/Intermediate and Intermediate/Advanced).

Next, you will learn the Herbie Hancock Intermediate groove.

Herbie Hancock Piano – Intermediate

Groove
If you are an intermediate or advanced pianist and want to play jazz piano like Herbie Hancock,
this is an essential Herbie groove for you. Check out the notation below:

Late Beginner Herbie Hancock Signature Jazz Piano Groove; works on Watermelon Man,
Cantaloupe Island, & Chameleon

Below is a quick analysis of how this groove differs from the beginner and late beginner grooves.

Harmony
For this groove, we are using the same chords as previous grooves, but we are making them a lot
bigger. For example, we are using 3-note chords on the F Minor 7. Additionally, we are adding
double slides to the rst chord to make it very bluesy.

Rhythm
Compared to the beginner and late beginner grooves, this groove has a lot more motion in the
bass. For example, we are lling in beats 3 and 4 with 8th notes, which creates a lot of excitement.
Furthermore, adding 8th notes at the end of the measure helps carry on phrase to the next.

Herbie Hancock – Soloing and Improv

Now that you can play the Herbie Hancock grooves, my nal recommendation is to try soloing
over this chord progression. To get started with this, I recommend using a scale like the F Dorian
scale:
 F Dorian Scale for Piano

If you are not sure how to create interesting funk lines, you can learn in our Funky Blues Soloing
courses (Beginner/Intermediate, Intermediate/Advanced). If you want to learn how to create
super hip jazz lines with more interesting scales and techniques, I recommend our Breaking Down
a Jazz Solo courses (Beginner/Intermediate, Intermediate/Advanced).

Finally, I recommend that you share what you’ve learned by posting a video in our Piano
Challenges Facebook group. This is a private piano community full of enthusiastic pianists here to
encourage and support you on your piano journey.

That’s all for today’s piano lesson. If you enjoyed this lesson, I recommend subscribing to our
weekly piano Quick Tips emails. This way, you’ll never miss a lesson.

See you in the next piano lesson.

Your teacher,

Jonny May

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