Corcovado Tutorial
In this lesson we will explore the tune “Corcovado” by Antonio Carlos Jobim. The Corcovado is an iconic mountain in Rio de Janeiro.
“Corcovado” is an introspective tune. The protagonist described in the lyrics sits in his apartment and looks up at the mountain – he is in a contemplative mood while playing his guitar, creating soft sounds.
The Importance of the Intro
The original recording of this song has an introduction which is not written down in the Real Book. As such international players will often not know the introduction. We examine the introduction harmony and melody to set up the start of the tune.
The deceptive simplicity of “Elevator music”
Soft Latin music tunes like “Corcovado” are often described as “Elevator music”. Yet there is a surprising amount of harmonic sophistication in this “easy-listening” music. This tune is very well constructed, so this solid construction hides the harmonic complexity of the music in chords that are actually simple to play on the piano. As players we are demonstrating our mastery of the music by making it easy to listen to.
Related Lessons
In this lesson Jovino breaks down and demonstrates how to feel 2/4 time which is commonly played in Brazilian music a...
One of the best ways to learn a piece of music is to first learn how to accompany it. This tutorial demonstrates usin...
We start this course with a brief overview and history of Brazilian music and we distinguish the key differences betw...
Practice Tips
-
Find these "thumb lines" and play around with the idea of adding moving lines to the chords.
-
Play into the open sound of the minor 6 chords and explore their dominant 7 counterparts. Am6 can be interpreted as a D7 chord and you can play D Mixolydian #11 over it to get the Brazilian sound.
-
Most players around you will not know the introduction to this tune. Learn it well and incorporate it into your performance to set yourself apart from the rest of the players.
Fantastic lesson and such a beautiful tune.
There are two different versions of this song Corcovado in Piano Groove. The initial Am6 measure is different. Which one is correct? Thanks,
Hi Edwin,
Great question.
Neither are ‘correct’ or ‘incorrect’ – they are just different performances/arrangements of the same song.
We have a lot of creative freedom when interpreting jazz standards and creating arrangements. Jovino also frequently mentions that the RealBook changes for Jobim’s songs are often incorrect.
If you listen to a handful of recordings of this song on YouTube or Spotify I’m sure you will hear that each one has unique characteristics in terms of the arrangement, chord voicings, melody, and improvisation.
On a related note, this lesson is an excerpt from Jovino’s full seminar here:
pianogroove.com/live-seminars/jobims-standards-for-beginners/
I hope that helps and please let me know if I can be of further assistance.
Best,
Hayden