Bebop is a beautiful but difficult musical language to learn.
Bebop is a beautiful but difficult musical language to learn.
Sometimes it works better to hear how the phrases sound and try to play them. This way you get a feel for how you should phrase them, and add to your bebop soloing techniques.
This started as a lesson on how arpeggios are used in bebop but then I got really into the licks and liked them so much that I ended up just making a lot of really solid traditional bebop lines.
You should check out the licks but also try to isolate small phrases and make your own licks with them. That is how it really becomes a part of your vocabulary.
1 Inserting 2nd voice and using trills
In the example below I am using two voices in the Dm7 line. The 1st voice is on beats 1 and 3 and in between are the counter-point melodies. This way of adding extra melodies is a great way to add surprising skips and have short changes of direction in the lines
2 Using a chromatic enclosure to resolve
Chromatic enclosures are a great way to create suspensions and movement in a line. In this line, the Dm7 line is first suspending the F with a 4-note enclosure. I am also using chromaticism to move from the G7 to Cmaj7.
3 Adding Arpeggios in Scale-runs
Inserting arpeggios in scale melodies is a good way to change things up. This is what is happening with the Am triad on the Dm7 chord.
The G7 line is using a G augmented mixing it up with an Abm triad.
4 Arpeggio Patterns to get large intervals
Using Arpeggios played in inversions and patterns is a great way to have melodies that are closely related to the harmony and add larger, more surprising, intervals.
On the Dm7 I am using a 1531 pattern of the F major triad. The triad of the 3rd. The G7 line has a Bdim arpeggio, again the arpeggio from the 3rd.
5 Voice-leading ideas as great bebop lines.
Many great bop lines are made from voice-leading concepts. This example is turning a Dm7 – DmMaj7, Dm7 Dm6 into a great super-imposed bop line.
Notice how the Dm to DmMaj7 uses basic arpeggios and introduces a large range.
6 2-note enclosure and motivic chromaticism
The line on the Dm7 is starting with a 2-note enclosure. The G7 line is using the G augmented triad and adding octave-displacement.
The last half of the G7 bar is a chromatic phrase that is moved and repeated on the Cmaj7 to develop the melody.
7 Moving phrases on the G7 chord
Another way to move phrases is illustrated on the G7 line in this example. The motif uses a maj7th interval that really makes it stand out.
8 Chromaticism and Maj7 inversions
Chromaticism as a means to suspend the sound of the chord is a good way to keep the line moving forward and also a way to add an outside phrase to a line.
The line below opens with a double-chromatic enclosure resolving back into the chord on beat 3.
9 Extended arpeggios in Bebop Soloing
Using 9th arpeggios is also a good option for bebop lines. The line here below is using a DM9 arpeggio and playing the last part of it as an 8th-note triplet.
The G7 line is using a Bdim arpeggio and breaking up the 8ht note flow with a trill.
10 Triplet and embellishing dim arpeggios
The Dm7 line is using the Fmaj7 arpeggio, again the arpeggio from the 3rd of the chord. This time it is played as an 8th note triplet.
The entire line on the G7 is based around a pattern of a B (or Abdim) that is embellished with passing notes and played in an inversion.
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