Tag Archives: charlie parker guitar licks

10 Classic Charlie Parker Licks That Will Make You A Better Player

If you want to learn to play Jazz, then nothing is more useful than checking out Charlie Parker, but you can learn a lot more than just where to add a chromatic note or which arpeggio to use. The 10 examples in this video will show you that but also some great ideas you can use for making better licks which is probably the real genius of Charlie Parker!

#1 Classic Parker With Odd Note Groupings

This example is one that you will find in a lot of Parker solos., and there are a few things to pick up here.

  1. Triplet arpeggios are great! Here it is a Gm7 arpeggio over the C7 chord with an F# leading note.
  2. The main thing here is the groups of 3-notes are a nice way to create an interesting flow on top of the changes. He is playing this with the chromatic phrases, but it can also work with a lot of other things like diatonic triads

Here you have a line using Dm, C and Bb triads as 3-note groupings on the C7

#2 Voice-leading Creates Beautiful Melodies

Another thing that Parker uses very frequently, especially in BLues is to play relatively simple melodies and then just lead the voice-leading turn it into beautiful music

 

So he is nailing the changes AND telling a story by just changing one note from D to Db which turns it into a great example of motivic development.

You can also add some extra chords in your solo to get more movement in the lines:

#3 Embellish The Chords

 

This line is from the solo on Billie’s Bounce, and Parker turns Gm7 C7 into Gm GmMaj7 Gm7 C7 and even adds this nice wide trill to the first Gm triad.

In fact, he uses the same technique in the theme, but with a different melody. It is also worth noticing how he changes up the sound by following up this fairly dense line with a really basic F blues lick with a lot of repeated notes.

#4 Don’t Be Afraid Of Chromatic Passing Chords

Another example of using more dense harmony is this part of a Rhythm Changes solo:

Using chromatic passing chords is something that didn’t really become that common in Jazz until after Bebop, but Parker was ahead of his time. Here he is turning Dm7 G7 Cm7 F7 into Dm7 Dbm7 Cm7 F7.

He probably thought: As long as you get to the right place then it doesn’t matter what route you take.

This next example is a great example of taking a very simple one-bar idea and then creating a 10-12 bar story with it.

#5 Arpeggios And Rhythm!

 

This is amazing! He is playing a very simple arpeggio melody, repeating it, and then developing it. This is a great example of how to develop a simple descending arpeggio with rhythm! That you can make a million variations of!

Let’s check out another real strong use of an essential melodic technique

#6 Motivic Development – Simple But Effective

 

The line on this Bb7 is really just using a Dø arpeggio, but then making the main motif a little more interesting with some 16th notes and moving around where it is played so that it is first on beat 3 (with an upbeat) and then on beat 2.

Changing the last note also gives it a typical blues call-response sound.

#7 Triad Inversions Are Bebop Gold

Chances are that you are not practicing your diatonic triad inversions. Most people don’t get beyond the root position triads, and that is a pity because you can make some great lines with them:

 

Here is a fairly simple short example of Parker using a 2nd inversion C minor triad, and in general you will find a lot of triad inversions in his solos, so just go practice that! You can thank me later!

Here is another example with a Bb major triad in 2nd inversion:

#8 Scale Runs Made Beautiful

The next example will show you two very common Bebop devices.

Here you have Parker inserting an arpeggio in a descending scale run. This way of breaking up scale runs to make them sound more interesting is all over Bebop, and in this case he is inserting an F major triad which is the triad from the 3rd of Dm7 which also adds the complete sound of the chord to a simple descending scale melody.

#9 How Grown-Ups Use Chromatic Passing Notes

You have jazz licks with chromatic passing notes, and then you have Parker licks with chromatic passing notes. Just check this out.

This is a lot more interesting and unpredictable than just adding a chromatic leading note before an arpeggio and he is really skipping around and adding leading notes in the middle of arpeggios. You really want to open up how you think about this!

#10 How The Pros Use Diatonic Triads And Arpeggios

You also want to be able to put together different diatonic triads and arpeggios to create more inspired melodies. Here Parker is doing that by playing the arpeggio from the 3rd, Dm7 as a triplet and then using that to transition into a Bb major triad adding scale runs in between to give it a great flow.

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5 Charlie Parker Licks – This is How To Play Bebop Blues

If you want to study Jazz Blues and learn how to play solos that really mix Bebop lines and Blues licks then one of the best sources has to be Charlie Parker!
In this video I am going to go over 5 Charlie Parker licks from him and this is fantastic material for playing changes and getting that mix of bebop lines with blues phrasing.

The Licks are also great examples of how to create melodic ideas that last several bars and connect several phrases which are also why Parker clearly was a genius innovator in Jazz.

The Most Famous Charlie Parker Lick – Opening of the Solo

This first example is an opening phrase that Parker uses in both Now’s The Time and Billie’s Bounce. The first part is really just an F major 2nd inversion triad with some chromatic approach. This is followed with a more bebop encircling and trill. From here he runs down an F major pentatonic scale and repeats the root in a dotted quarter note rhythm.

The lick really starts with a blues phrase and then morphs into a bebop line to go back to a repeated simple rhythm.

Parker really bringing the Blues

Where the first example is somewhere in between the blues and bebop, this is more directly Blues phrasing and melody.

The core idea is a motif that is repeated and developed through the first 4 bars. The basic motif is a major pentatonic line.

The first repetition is changing the A to an Ab. This way of marking the transition from F7 to Bb7 is quite common for Parker. The idea is to play an F major phrase on F7 and then repeat or develop that phrase but play it in F minor on the Bb7.

Keeping the b7 untill we need to move on

Another typical Parker choice is to delay the b7, the Eb over F7 in this case, until the song is moving to Bb7. This is clear here where the Eb does not appear until bar 4.

Charlie Parker’s Riffs

Bebop is as a style famous for long lines and surprising twists and turns. But Parker certainly developed from the swing era checking out people like Lester Young and Coleman Hawkings. And Charlie Parker does play riffs as well as bebop lines.

This example is a clear example of a riff. A simple motif that is repeated and developed in a basic way through the changes.

The main motif is a basic F major melody build around an F major triad. The development is also following the F major -> F minor that I alread mentioned, and the riff stays pretty in tact and true to the original phrase.

Start in Blues and end in Bebop

This shorter example demonstrates how Parker starts with a basic Blues leading note lick and connects this to a Bebop trill and F7 arpeggio to get the best of both worlds.

Blues Phrasing and Bebop Phrasing

One of the traits of Blues phrasing is sliding or bending to notes. In Jazz, we mostly do this with sliding. In this example, you see a beginning which is starting with sliding to the 5th. The first part of the phrase is more blues based. Using basic chord tones from the triad, being rhythmically free. The part of the phrase on the F7 is using a trill followed by a scale run that is a very typical Bebop phrase.

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Charlie Parker This Is The 5 Way He Uses Arpeggios

Everybody can play a Cmaj7 arpeggio, but not everybody can do it like Charlie Parker.

Knowing and using arpeggios is a part of jazz, but there are a lot of ways to create great melodies with them. In this video I am going to go over 5 ways that Charlie Parker uses arpeggios in his solos. If there is one place you want to learn this then it is probably the father of Bebop.

An you do want to have some ideas that are not just running up and down the arpeggio or up the arpeggio down the scale which is exactly what this video can show you.

We often forget that a the difficult part is not what notes to play over a chord, it is how t play them. For me this is something that I have learned from transcribing and analyzing solos like I am doing in this video.

How to learn from Charlie Parker

This video is covering the 5 ways that Parker played arpeggios, taken from his solos and then I discuss how you can put that to use in your own playing with examples where I have made Jazz Licks using the same techniques with arpeggios.

Content of the video:

0:00 Intro

0:29 It’s about how you play the arpeggio not what notes are in it

1:05 #1 The Bebop Arpeggio

1:28 What is the Bebop Arpeggio and How To Practice it

2:32 How You can use The Bebop Arpeggio in your solos

3:06 #2 Honeysuckle Rose Arpeggio

4:11 Two Ways to use the Honeysuckle Rose Arpeggio

5:27 #3 Melodic Trail off

6:45 Using Melodic off in a II V I lick

7:27 #4 Voice-Leading Arpeggios

8:44 How To Use this principle in your own lines

9:27 #5 Rhythmic Displacement

9:50 How Charlie Parker sets up the Rhythmic idea

12:03 Explaining the Poly-rhythm

12:38 Like the video? Check out my Patreon Page!

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