Bebop is famous for having solos of long 8th note lines and bebop licks are often a lot of notes. But an important part of what makes the lines really beautiful and breaks up the constant flow of 8th notes.
In this video, I am going to go over some great lines from Bebop Masters like Dexter Gordon, Clifford Brown and Sonny Stitt. The way they use embellishments and construct lines is a great resource for learning and enhancing your own playing.
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The most important part of sounding like jazz, whether you play in that genre or in another, is probably to have some Bebop as a part of your playing.
This video is going to demonstrate 5 easy bebop licks on a C7 chord in a very position and quickly connect it to a scale and an arpeggio. I will go over how you can add some bebop flavour and chromatic phrases to your playing in this position.
Learning and adding to your vocabulary
Finding practical and playable solutions is essential if you want to learn something like the jazz language and this video should give you some easy to apply examples and ideas. This is also how I work and have worked with learning new material.
Keeping Bebop simple: Chord, Position, Licks
The examples I am going to cover are all found around this chord, which is C7 in the 8th fret:
which is closely related to this arpeggio.
And in that position you could think of this C7 or F major scale:
I find that this is an area of the neck that is a good starting point if you want to add something new to your C7 vocabulary because it is very close to the chord and the Cm pentatonic scale so we have an overview already.
Chromatic Passing note idea 1
This first example is adding a chromatic note on the top E string. The melody is adding a note between the 9th and the root. From there it is a descending scale run ending with a C major triad.
Notice how the end of the phrase is no on the beat which is also typical for bop lines.
More Chromaticism and a bit of Blues
In this example I am using a longer chromatic run on the B string. On this string we already have 3 strong C7 notes: 5,13 and b7.After a short bluesy phrase with those the lick is descending from b7 to 5 in halfsteps again reconnecting with the chord by playing a descending C major triad at the end.
Pivot arpeggios and arpeggios from the 3rd
This example uses two really strong bebop concepts. First this way of using an arpeggio inversion where I am using Em7b5 in first inversion but starting with the high note and then skipping down. If you want to check out how George Benson uses this I have that in a video here.
The other example is adding a chromatic note between b7 and the root which is also extremely common.
Two note chromatic approach
Here the chromatic approach is two notes and inserted between F and E in the beginning of the lick. The rest of the line is using an Em7b5 arpeggio and ends on the root on the high e string. Again ending on the 1&
Encircling: Diatonic above, chromatic below
Encircling a chord tone with a chromatic note and a scale note is also a very common bebop melody. This example is first encircling the 5th(G) with A and F# before it continues with first the arpeggio from the 5th: Gm7 and then a C7 arpeggio.
A few closing Bebop remarks
Besides the devices I talked about in this video it is also important to remember that bebop lines are based on the chords your are playing over. This means that you want to use those chord tones as target notes and as start and ending points of your melodies when you are improvising.
If you want to explore more bebop and especially focus on the phrasing then I have this WebStore lesson with some exercises for that:
If you have any questions, comments or suggestions for topics then please let me know. Leave a comment on the video or send me an e-mail. That is the best way for me to improve my lessons and make them fit what you are searching for.
If you want to learn Bebop then there are few people better to check out than Sonny Stitt. In this video I transcribed and analyzed two bebop licks from his solo on Au Privave from the Stitt plays Bird. These great licks are fantastic examples to learn from and contain some solid ideas you can add to your vocabulary.
How to Learn Bebop
Often when you work on learning bebop all your solos are just up and down scales and arpeggios. Stitt has some beautiful ways to add variation both melodic and rhythm that I will try to explain in this lesson.
On a side note it is also worthwhile checking out this album because Jim Hall is playing on it as well.
Sonny Stitt Bebop Lick #1
This first example is a clear example of how he isn’t only running up and down . The first bar is really a descending melody with D, Bb, A, G and F. But he breaks up that movement by adding a lower chord tone: D. This is similar to some of the ideas that George Benson used in the All The Things You Are line that I talked about in this video: Why George Benson lines are Amazing
On the C7 Sonny Stitt uses triplets as a variation for the 8th note lines. First a chromatic run from the 3rd(E) to the 5th(G) and then a descending C7 arpeggio.
The line ends with a short scale run from A to F.
Sonny Stitt Bebop Lick #2
The 2nd example uses a lot of similar ideas. On the Gm7 the low D is again used as a note to insert into the melody and break up the scale run. This happens twice and at the end of the Gm7 line he also adds a chromatic approach to the D.
The C7 line also makes use of the low D, but is for the rest using two arpeggios that work really well over a C7: Bbmaj7 and Eø. Both are played as ascending 8th note triplets. I this case Stitt is suspending the resolution of the C7 and continue into the F bar with a chromatic encircling of the C, so the resolution isn’t until beat two of that bar.
The rest of the F7 line is a descending melody built around a Dm triad and flowing into another encircling of the Bb. From the Bb the line ends with an ascending Bbmaj7 arpeggio.
Applying this to your own playing
For now I will focus on adding the idea of adding notes to descending scale runs on the Gm7.
The first part of Example 3 here below is a Gm7 scale (or F major if you will) and in the 2nd half I have added lower chord tones to the descending scale run. In this example I find that it works better to use the Gm triad as lower notes, so that is what I have used. You can of course experiment and discover what you prefer.
Example of using this concept in your own playing
The example here below is using the D pedal point idea on the Gm7. As you can see it can be placed differently in the bar without loosing its effect. I am using the low D twice on the Gm7.
The C7 line is first an ascending Eø arpeggio played as an 8th note triplet. From there it is a descending chromatic run ending up with an enclosure of the A on Fmaj7.
Adding the same idea to the dom7th chord
Adding the same type of idea to the V chord in the II V works as well. Here the Gm7 line is similar to the one above except the D,C,Bb is replaced with a chromatic passing note phrase: C B Bb.
On the C7 the phrase starts with a descending scale rund and then adds the lower G between the D and the C. From the C I use the passing note again and then skip down to a G to approach and resolve to the 3rd(A) of F.
Bebop lines and their construction
If you have followed any of the classes of Barry Harris then you are probably familiar with the idea of writing lines like this where you have a scale run or an arpeggio and then you add embellishments to it in the form of extra notes, chromaticism etc. This way of thinking is a great way to describe the language which is why I use it here as well.
If you want to play lines like this then it is very useful to work on construction them in this way and get the ideas into your ears in that way.
From Bop to Bach: Forward motion and Target Notes
If you want to take a closer look at one of my solos with my analysis you can check out this lesson which also includes some thoughts on how to construct solo lines, but then using forward motion and target notes:
If you have any questions, comments or suggestions for topics then please let me know. Leave a comment on the video or send me an e-mail. That is the best way for me to improve my lessons and make them fit what you are searching for.
Checking out bebop jazz guitar licks is a huge part of learning a style of music like Bebop. This also means out how to incorporate what makes them Bebop Guitar them into your playing. This would be true both for phrasing and specific arpeggios, chromatic enclosures that are being used in Bebop.
In this video, I will go over 3 good examples of Bebop Jazz Licks. I will analyze them and discuss how they are constructed. In the process I also go over what the building blocks of this type of jazz lick is.
The Bebop Dominant
Bebop is very focused on dom7th chords. Therefore I have made examples of V I progression in the key of G major. It is of course also possible to use these on a II V I in G major.
In general the people who play bebop and teach it (like Barry Harris) will focus more on the dominant than the II chord in a cadence.
Bebop Jazz Guitar Lick #1
One of the really common Bebop phrasing ideas is to use 16th note scale runs in the middle of an 8th note line to create some variation. The first example here below has this in the middle of bar 1. The easiest way and to play this and get it to sound good in terms of phrasing is to use pull-offs towards the target note.
Another very common device is using chromatic enclosures which what you see in the 2nd half of bar 1. The enclosure targets and emphasize the 3rd of D7 on the 1 of the 2nd bar.
The first half of the 2nd bar is in fact just a D7 arpeggio. The line is first a descending D7 arpeggio and then displacing the last three notes an octave. This yields a very beautiful and melodic 6th interval between the F# and the D.
At the end of the line, I included a D augmented triad that nicely resolves to the 9th(A) of Gmaj7.
To practice playing the 16th note trills with legato you can take this exercise through a position of 3 notes per string major scale. I have only written out the first 3 string sets.
Bebop Jazz Guitar Lick #2
This example contains two ideas that you will find in a lot of bebop lines. The first is playing a 7th arpeggio with a triplet, which is how the line starts. In the line I am playing a descending Em7 arpeggio.
From here the line skips back to A for a descending scale run.
In the 2nd bar, you’ll first hear a 16th note triplet trill between root and b9. This is again executed with legato. From here the line continues down the arpeggio. Inserts a leading note a half step below the 3rd of D7. From there it uses another octave displacement before resolving to the 3rd(B) of G
The triplet idea can be practiced in position as shown in the exercise here below. It’s an extremely good alternate picking exercise if you use that technique. You should notice that it will also work really well with sweeping (as I demonstrate in the video)
To work on the trill (and work on your legato technique) you can do this exercise. You do this by taking the trill idea from the line above through a G major scale position.
Bebop Jazz Guitar Lick #3
The ascending 7th chord arpeggio with an added leading note is a very typical for bebop licks. In this example I am using that on an F#m7(b5). F#m7(b5) is the arpeggio from the 3rd of D7 and a great arpeggio to use over a D7.
From the high E I add a chromatic leading note and make a short chromatic run before going to C on the 1 of bar 2.
The 2nd bar is first a descending Cmaj7 arpeggio that then continues to the b9(Eb) on beat 3. From here the line uses octave displacement and continues with a line to resolve to the 3rd of G, and tagging it with a G. Another trademark bebop move.
To practice the arpeggios you can, of course, take them through the scale. There are several ways you can do this. You can check out one of them here below.
Making new licks with the building blocks
The main point of this lesson is of course that you can start making your own lines that sound more like bebop. To demonstrate how you might do that I have included two bebop licks that use the ideas that I used in the first three licks.
Derived Bebop Lick #1
In this first line I start with the opening idea from Lick no 3, but now I am using it on a D7 arpeggio. This is followed by a 16th note scale run fill as in the first example.
In bar 2 I continue with a descending scale run. This leads into the 3rd of D7 where I use the same octave displacement idea that I used in Lick no 2, only now played an octave higher.
In this way we end up with the lick shown here below:
Derived Bebop Lick #2
In the last lick I am starting with the 16th note trill idea from Lick no 1. This is followed by a scale run that leads into two arpeggios chained together, an Am7 and a F#m7(b5). The line ends with the “bebop” ending that resolves to a D and then drops down to the 9th(A)
I hope you can use these exercises and building blocks and the process to start incorporating some more bebop into your lines. Bebop is a very rich melodic language with a great amount of things you can use even in more modern bop based jazz guitar solos.
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