Herbie Hancock
Herbie Hancock
Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancockis an American pianist, keyboardist, bandleader, composer and actor. Starting his career with Donald Byrd, he shortly thereafter joined the Miles Davis Quintet where Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the post-bop sound. He was one of the first jazz musicians to embrace synthesizers and funk music. Hancock's music is often melodic and accessible; he has had many songs "cross over" and achieved success...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPianist
Date of Birth12 April 1940
CityChicago, IL
CountryUnited States of America
Sometimes you can practice something but what you wind up playing when you're out doing a gig is not what you practiced. What you learn is not necessarily what you practice.
Sometimes it was good and sometimes it wasn't, but I had to stand up for all of it or else I couldn't play any of it. I learned how to be courageous from that experience.
So, he taught me how to play a simple riff and I somehow found a couple of other notes to play, then I learned how to watch his left hand and I learned where the notes were.
I've got to learn how to do this. That's my instrument, and he can do it. Why can't I?
That's when I began to understand what a chord is. So I learned theory to find a shorter method to take things off a record.
I get bored easily, but later I learned that it is OK to do something that others have done.
We were listening to a lot of different people, but we were listening to a lot of real innovators, and we were full of ideas.
I've started something called the Rhythm of Life Foundation to encourage the technological community to develop ideas and software that directly effect the advancement of humanity.
I started playing piano when I was 7. And I started with classical lessons. Then I really got exposed to jazz.
Things that happen to you are events. It's what you do with them that determine whether they're going to be problems or solutions.
Things like creating in the moment, being in the moment, trusting your instincts, not being afraid to go outside the comfort zone.
And you allow yourself to play off that plane. You're in this dark room of unknowns, you allow yourself to go there.
Another convention is that the drummer and bass player are timekeepers, but there's no reason they have to be bound to that.
Even during the major avant-garde period of jazz in the late '60s and early '70s, the songs usually had melodies, some harmonic starting-off point, or something to unify a particular piece in the beginning.