An Analysis of Freddie Hubbards Solo and Improvisatory

Techniques on One Finger Snap

Written by Brandon Ritchie
Freddie Hubbard was born in Indianapolis, Indiana on April 7, 1938. According to the
biography on his website, he demonstrated early talents on many instruments before settling
on trumpet. (Hubbard, 2010) He quickly became interested in jazz and noticed by many of the
big names in jazz of the time. It wasnt until the 1960s when Freddie started working with
Herbie Hancock, who wrote the song One Finger Snap, which was later recorded and released
on the album Empyrean Isles, which also included Ron Carter on bass and Anthony Williams on
drum set. (Hancock, 1964)
Compositional Background
One Finger Snap follows a twenty bar form that begins on a C7sus4. The interesting
thing about this chord in particular is that Herbie Hancock not only plays the fourth of the
chord, but also plays the third a seventh above the fourth, which is slightly unusual for this kind
of chord. The following chord is a Bb-7 chord, but the musicians tend to treat this as either a
Bb-7 or an Eb7sus4. You can hear this sometimes when Carter will still play the root Bb, but
Herbie will play the Eb7sus4 over the top. The next section is the exact same type of chord, just
play up a perfect fourth, following the circle progression that is common in jazz. The next
section is interesting, as it takes a break from sitting on one chord for four bars, and instead
changes chords every bar. Herbie wrote this section to act as a iii VI ii V I progression,
allowing the improviser to have a little more harmonic interest to work with in this section. The
final chords of the form work as a harmonic pull back to the top of the form. In the following
example you will find an analysis based on Henry Martins article Jazz Harmony: A Syntactic
Background. (Martin, 1988)

An Analysis of the Chord Changes to One Finger Snap

Improvisational Techniques
Freddie Hubbard uses multiple techniques that can all be heard in the solo he plays on
this piece. Starting simple, we can look at the types of scale patterns he uses. In measure 25 of
his solo you can find a nice arpeggio based on the Bb-7 chord, as shown in the following
example. You may also notice that this is the famous pattern used in the television show
Woody Woodpecker. Freddie also uses scales in thirds, allowing him to add some interest to his
lines, as can be seen in measure 27.

Measures 25 - 27

Freddie also used bebop scales in his improvisation, allowing him to have pre-planned patterns
of chromaticism to add even more interest to his lines, which can be found in measure 81.
Another thing that can be found in Freddies playing is that he had planned patterns
that he knew would work over the changes he was playing. This shows that he took the time to
practice these patterns to make sure he knew when he could play them and make them sound
good. The same patterns can be found in multiple places during his solo, including measure 36,
which he then plays again in measure 116.

Measure 36

Measure 116

You can see here that he knew this lick ahead of time and knew that it would work on this
chord. In measure 37, we find another lick that was prepared ahead of time, which can then be
found again in both measures 78 and 97.

Measure 37

Measure 78

Measure 97

These are just a few of the patterns that Freddie used in his playing, but they are some of the
more prominent parts that can heard during his solo.
Freddie also liked to use manipulations of the patterns he had already played during his
solo to make them work over other changes. In measure 57 you can find a pattern that Freddie

used, then manipulated in measure 69 by changing one note, making it work over the new
chord.

Measure 57

Measure 69

During his solo, Freddie also will take something that he played early and modify the ending,
making it almost deceptive in nature, making the listener think that something is going to
happen, but then playing something different. Measure 105 is a good example of where he
takes what he played earlier and changes the ending, getting more use out of one of his
prepared licks that he used in measure 25.

Measure 25

Measure 105

One can also hear an extended technique that trumpet players, as well as saxophone
players, like to take advantage of. On trumpet, the player can find alternate fingerings for notes
and rapidly trill between the alternate fingering and the original fingering to get a quick
rhythmic passage that the player may not have been able to make use of otherwise. Measure
120 is one of the places that Freddie makes use of this technique, using the alternate fingering
of 1 and 2 with the original fingering of open to play rapid triplets, as shown below.

Measure 120
These are just a few of the improvisational techniques that can be taken away from this
solo. Using these ideas, a musician can learn to manipulate and use their own patterns in as
many ways as possible, allowing them to get more use out of less material.
Pedagogical Uses
While it is a good exercise to have a student transcribe solos to get their ears working, a
good musician must also be able to use the things they find in these transcriptions. One of the
first things to do is find parts of the solo that the student enjoys and learn how to make them
work for their own playing. Provided with this paper are three licks that can be used to start
this process.
The first thing included is a lick that can be played over a short ii V pattern. The
student would be advised to start to learn this pattern in all twelve keys, working in a way that
would allow them to do it without the music. After the student begins to get the pattern under
their fingers, they can begin to apply it so some of the songs they may be learning. This specific
example can be used over the ii Vs that can be found in any rhythm changes chart, e.g. Oleo.
As you can see in the example below, you can take the pattern and apply it to these changes,
allowing a musician to always have something that they can always have in the back of their
mind for these changes.

Changes to the A Section of Oleo with Patterns Inserted

The same thing can be done with the other two patterns provided. Each of these can also be
altered to work over other types of chord changes, e.g. altering a major ii V pattern to fit over
a minor ii half-dim V7, or vice-versa.
The next step to learning how to use this analysis is to figure out how these patterns can
be used on top of chords that would not always be their first intention. A good example is to go
back to the lick in measure 57 and figure out what chords the arpeggio can work over.

Measure 57
As we can see, the pattern works over Ebmaj7, but with a little bit of thought the student can
also find that it would work over a Gm7 chord, an E half-diminished 7 chord, an Fmaj7 chord if
you count the notes as extensions, and the list goes on and on.
Once a student starts to understand some of these concepts, they can begin to also
work on preparing their own licks. If you look at measure 36, Freddie knew that if he started on

that note at that time, the voice leading from the Ab to the G would happen right on the
downbeat. This is the type of thought process that a musician has to begin to think about when
they decide that they want to begin improvising.

Measures 37 38

Conclusion
The main point of this paper was to help musicians understand how to take what they
are transcribing and put it to use. As can be seen in the above writing, there are many ways to
take and use whatever someone may find if their own analysis.

Bibliography
Hancock, H. (1964). Empyrean Isles [Recorded by H. Hancock, F. Hubbard, R. Carter, & A. Williams].
Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, United States.
Hubbard, D. F. (2010). Retrieved from Freddie Hubbard The Official Website:
http://www.freddiehubbardmusic.com/landing.php
Martin, H. (1988). Jazz Harmony: A Syntactic Background. Annual Review of Jazz Studies 7, 9-30.