You problably know the feeling of trying to come up or with lines and then even though you know the notes are right it is impossible to get it to sound like jazz.
In this video I am going to show you some things that you need to be aware of when trying to come up with lines and which will help you jazz phrasing really a lot. One thing that is really interesting about this is that it is actually possible to write jazz licks that really are not possible to phrase well.
This is about how you play the notes and a little about which notes you play, and for me it was really a huge part of getting my bop lines to sound good.
How to learn good Jazz Phrasing
I am going to cover two things: First how to write lines like this and later I’ll talk about how to hear it in examples and get it into your system so that you don’t have to think about it, because that is what you eventually want to have. Phrasing is something you hear and feel not something you think about while you are playing.
The Lick that doesn’t swing
Have a look at this lick: Harmony is clear, the notes are mostly chord tones. Target notes make sense but it sounds heavy.
This line has direction and it spells out the chords, but the melody sounds heavy because it asks for accents on the heavy beats: 1 and 3. There is no place where we have a not popping out to make it dance.
In short: That sounds more like Megadeth than Charlie Parker.
Writing better line with Better Phrasing
Luckily you probably already have a good idea about how a good jazz solo sounds. If you try to sing the phrasing of that then you get a much more.
If you pay attentiont to what you are singing and slow that down then you start to notice that the accents in the phrase are not on the beat, so accents are on the off-beat
In Jazz, or bebop, the accents are naturally on the off beats. The question is then how do you make melodies where you can create those accents.
Let’s look at an example:
In the example above the accents are the higher notes in the phrase, so the C on 1-and plus the A on the 3-and.
The rule you want to notice here is:
If a note is higher (in pitch) than the following note and not on the beat. Then you can give it an accent.
In the line above there are therefore two notes that can get an accent.
Using your technique to make it easier to phrase
Very often the easiest way to accent something is not to play that note a lot louder but instead to play the surrounding notes a little softer. Using legato is a great way to naturally do that.
The way I use this is to pick the note that gets an accent and then use a pull-off to play the following (lower) notes.
Another example of a line where this strategy will give it a natural phrasing is shown below:
Bebop Phrasing on a II V I
Of course this way of thinking and using this rule can also be applied to a complete II V I lick as shown below.
You will notice that the accents are on 4-and in bar 1 and on 2-and in bar 2. The line also ends with a classic “bebop” phrase where the descending interval is the sound that gave the genre it’s name.
Learning to hear good phrasing
Besides writing lines it is also important to listen to great solos and it can be useful to analyze transcriptions to find places where there are accents in the solo.
Be sure to listen to bebop and hardbop artists to get the most out of this. You also want to keep in mind that even if you don’t analyze it then just hearing good phrasing in huge amounts will also help you a lot.
How Wes Montgomery Gets it Right
As an example of an analysis of a solo let’s have a look at the opening phrase from Wes Montgomerys solo on Four on Six off the Smokin’ at the half note album.
The first part of the pickup is a sliding 5th interval which is on the beat. This is not a bebop 8th note line so or ideas about accents doesn’t really apply.
The next phrase is a Gm pentatonic phrase an here Wes is playing 8th notes. The phrase is essentially a descending scale run and he does in fact accent the top note (a C).
The ascending arpeggio that follows does not allow any accents, but the descending Dm triad in bar 3 does, and here the first note does get an accent.
The way to better phrasing
For me it was a combination of knowing how to phrase bebop themes and lines, composing lines with the accents in the right place and certainly also training my ears by listening and playing along with great examples.
I would suggest you find a way to mix in all of those approaches if you are working on your phrasing.
A short cut to improve your Bebop Phrasing
One way to speed up the process could be to check out this webstore lesson with analysis and examples of lines that are easy to play and have great phrasing.
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