When veteran bassist and educator Joe Hubbard decided to build the second volume of his Playing Through the Jazz Standards series, he had one goal in mind: create the most comprehensive, systematic breakdown of a jazz standard that the bass education world had ever seen.

The tune he chose? Spain by Chick Corea.

“Spain is one of those tunes that gets called at jam sessions all over the world,” says Hubbard. “It has this accessible, modern sound that makes intermediate players think they can cut corners with it. They can’t. The tempo is fast, the Brazilian samba groove is completely unforgiving, and the modal harmony requires real vocabulary to solo over convincingly. It exposes you very quickly if you’re not prepared.”

Hubbard — who studied at Berklee College of Music and spent a decade in one-on-one study with the legendary jazz improvisation teacher Charlie Banacos — has been teaching bass players how to master jazz standards for over four decades. His approach is rooted in what he calls systematic vocabulary acquisition: the idea that jazz improvisation is not spontaneous creation, but the deployment of concepts and phrases that have been deeply internalized through focused, intentional practice.

A World-Class Production

What sets this course apart from anything else currently available in the bass education space is the calibre of musicians involved.

Hubbard recruited Tom Bretchlein — who played drums with Chick Corea for approximately ten years and currently performs with Al Di Meola — and Santiago Bosch , a South American pianist who graduated Magna Cum Laude from Berklee and Suma Cum Laude from the Berklee Global Jazz Institute, and has performed alongside John Patitucci, Kenny Garrett, and Kurt Rosenwinkel.

Together, the three recorded a complete trio performance of Spain — remotely, with Tom and Santiago submitting their video tracks for editing into a seamless ensemble performance. The result is a Music Minus One backing track of rare quality: students practice Spain not with a MIDI file, but with musicians who have performed this music at the absolute highest level.

“Tom has a direct lineage to Spain,” Hubbard notes. “He lived inside this music with Chick for a decade. When students lock in with his backing track, they’re experiencing the real feel of this tune — not an approximation of it.”

Inside The Course

The course spans 12 comprehensive video lessons — just under three hours of instruction — covering every element of the tune from the ground up. Lessons move through the iconic syncopated unison melody, a complete harmonic analysis, three dedicated lessons on the Brazilian samba bass line, and a two-part bar-by-bar breakdown of Hubbard’s complete bass solo.

Lesson 11 is perhaps the most distinctive offering in the series: Hubbard takes specific lines from the Spain solo and demonstrates how to apply them directly to Autumn Leaves — showing students how vocabulary learned through one tune can be extracted and used across the broader jazz standard repertoire.

“Bars 5-9 of Spain use essentially the same chord changes as Autumn Leaves,” Hubbard explains. “Once you understand how to create lines over those changes in Spain, you’ve got vocabulary that applies to dozens of other tunes. This isn’t about learning one song. It’s about learning a system.”

The course also includes 20 downloadable PDFs featuring complete transcriptions, chord charts, fretboard diagrams, scale charts, and practice exercises, along with two professional backing tracks and a bonus 10-page practice strategy booklet titled The Focused Bassist — which covers the neuroscience of learning, structured practice methodology, and focus training techniques.

Built on Decades of Real Experience

Hubbard is quick to distinguish his approach from what he calls the “information dump” model prevalent in online music education — courses that present content without giving students the tools to actually internalize and apply it.

His teaching methodology is structured around Bloom’s Taxonomy, moving students from basic recall through understanding, application, analysis, evaluation, and ultimately to creative generation of original musical ideas.

“Most bass courses never get students past the first stage — remembering information,” he says. “Real mastery means being able to create original lines using concepts you’ve internalized. That’s what improvisation actually is. And that’s what this course is designed to produce.”

Volume 1 of the series — covering Donna Lee — has attracted over 300 students since its release, with strong demand driving the development of Volume 2.

Playing Through the Jazz Standards Vol. 2: Spain by Chick Corea is available now at a launch price of £267 ($349 USD), reduced from the regular price of £297 ( $388 USD). The launch price is available through October 12th, 2024.

Full details and enrollment at: www.joehubbardbass.com/playing-through-the-jazz-standards