Building blocks for Bebop Licks/ jazzy lines

[Dairwolf]

Hi everyone.

I want to expand my lick vocabulary and I want to dive into the world of jazz guitar, especially Bebop.

I am familiar with the building blocks of sequences in metal/ shred guitar, where you take a number of notes out of the major/ minor or pentatonic scale (or be that another scale) and then repeat and combine them.

Now I want to know how to create Bebop lines. I found this great video of a saxophone player.

The Secret to Creating Sick Bebop Lines

Am I rigjht in assuming that there are basically two steps to creating Bebop lines, the steps being 1. deciding what notes to take from a scale/ arpeggio (in this video he takes the notes of a Eb maj7 arpeggio) and then 2. playing around those notes using targeting/ passing notes?
And do you think that in theory, the ways that one specific note can be targeted are limited? I thought it´d be helpful to learn to targeting notes first before combining notes. That´s why I am looking for “targeting patterns”, if you want so.

Do you know other ways to create lines? Looking forward to your recommendations.

[Jacklr]

I’ve also been getting into Jazz recently and it seems a big part of the sound of Jazz is soloing based around arpeggios. I found standards where I could solo with one scale the whole way through, and while that was much easier, to my ear, it didn’t sound very Jazzy.

@Dairwolf

“targeting patterns”

Have you heard of the concept of “Enclosures”? It’s an incredibly powerful arpeggio/passing note based approach (although it works well with pentatonic scales as well) that has helped me sound a lot Jazzier while also giving me a little more freedom

Here’s a quick example that show’s how effective it can be:

How to shred Gypsy Jazz very very hard

Here’s a more in depth look at what enclosures are:

How to Use Enclosure to Create Great Bebop Lines

[Dairwolf]

No, I hadn´t heard about enclosures but I guess that is exactly what I was looking for, thanks! Do you know further ressources that go through “types” of enclosure? The guy from the second video has a book out, I might buy that one.

[jptk]

Back when I was in college, many years ago!, we had to transcribe solos. Learn the lines over the key chord progressions (ii v i’s) etc and use them. Learn what notes are being targeted and how. Create variations on those lines and make them your own.

[Jacklr]

Tbh I haven’t found a great deal of resources on enclosures, this video has quite a few examples, might be enough to give you a framework to build from

15 Approach Note and Enclosure Exercises That Every Jazz Musician Should Know

EDIT:

Also Jens is great for this sorta stuff:

The Real Secret About Chromatic Phrases And Great Jazz Licks

[Dairwolf]

These are great too, thanks!

[Milkweed]

Here is a video by Christian Miller, a good English guitarist and teacher.
Here he goes over some basics he learned from Barry Harris. (Barry Harris is a HUGE name in jazz education. YouTube is thick with videos of him playing and teaching.)
One of the most important aspects of bebop soloing is placing chord tones on the beat. (Not all the time but a lot of the time.) So called “bebop scales” have 8 notes to facilitate this, espeically when played descending.
It’s a lot to absorb but a few of the basics are easy enough to grasp and start working with.
Intro to Barry Harris —Improvising Lines by Christian Miller

[Ram]

Learning these ideas will be helpful. I also strongly recommend picking up the Charlie Parker Omnibooks. There are two volumes. Real Books are useful. A recent release was ‘New Standards’ by Terry Lyne Carrington which has more modern takes.

[Ram]

Also, regarding bebop, the artists of that era are primarily chordal/arpeggio based. Trying to think within scales rather than intervals will just be confusing. You will be much better served thinking intervals/arpeggios/chords.

[Dairwolf]

Great ressources and recommendations, thank you very much!

“Thinking intervals/ arpeggios/ chords” means taking the notes of a chord and then adding enclosures/ targeting notes/ passing notes, right?

[Ram]

Exactly right.

I am trying to save you a decade of suffering I went through working all this out. Ha.

One more thing I will add would be learning rhythm and how to swing and keep a primary rhythm is MUCH more important than any substitutions or re harmonizations you will ever hear. If your rhythm is spot on you can do almost ANYTHING. Seriously. Notes are nowhere near as important. Rhythm should be your number one priority. Ironically, very few people put it up there where it belongs; however, it does separate the wheat from the chaff.

Have fun! If you are not having fun your done so have fun.

[Milkweed]

Ram, that’s quite a chart you provided. May I ask where it’s from? LOTS of info there.

[Ram]

A fellow posted it on the internet and I saved it. It was a bunch of info I had discovered in various resources over the years. I liked that he had put it all on a page. I cannot recall the group or person. I just enjoyed the brevity and always enjoy an organized page.

[Milkweed]

Thanks, Ram. It is concise and well organized. I saved it for future reference.

[Mcollinsdowden]

Good stuff in this thread about how to target notes.

When choosing which notes to target, you can focus on “guide tones”, chord tones that outline the changes between chords (especially 3rds & 7ths). Here’s a good article about that: How to Use Guide-Tones to Navigate Chord Changes | Learn Jazz Standards

[JakeEstner]

Bebop is a much more complicated language than a lot of other styles of improv, especially those that are common on the guitar.

I think that combing through many of the linked resources might get you somewhat in the ballpark of incorporating a few surface level elements of the music into what you might already play. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

But most people who do learn how to improvise even ‘ok’ with this language, it takes a lot of time and dedicated study, and in most cases I think work with a teacher experienced in teaching this music - even if infrequently - is essential. But again that’s for like, ‘being able to play jazz’ which is different than just exposure to some elements.

Some relevant misc:

• I think more or less any ‘rule’ you might come across online will have a lot of exceptions. For example, chord tones on downbeats, or a certain amount of chromaticism, or always accenting upbeats, etc etc. I’ve transcribed and listened to a lot of bebop and have not found any basic truths like that that apply across the board.
• Listening and transcribing, but (most importantly, listening) is primary. Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, Sonny Stitt, Dexter Gordon, Dizzy Gillespie
• Bebop is a specific subgenre of jazz, so the way Charlie Parker lines are constructed is different than early Coltrane, which is different from late Coltrane, which is different from Woody Shaw, different from Chick Corea, on and on.
• If I had a gun to my head and somebody said I had to recommend just one thing and only thing, I’d probably say to listen to, play, and sing as much Charlie Parker as possible. Play the lines in different fingerings, keys, octaves, try to sing along as you play. Certain things are just hard to codify or explain in a youtube video - sometimes there’s no better access or connection to the music than just experiencing in yourself - and you may wind up making your own observations.

[Milkweed]

I agree with this.
For those who want a rules-based approach, Barry Harris is a great place to start. (He has a lot of rules that he teaches, and they definitely give you a bebop flavor.) There’s a guy----name escapes me at present–with a YouTube channel called Things I Learned from Barry Harris. He’s a guitarist, so he’s demonstrating everything on a guitar. That’s one way to make headway down that road.

I enjoy hearing Charlie Parker play, but bebop is not really my thing. (I listen to Charlie Christian more often than Charlie Parker.) I think Miles Davis had the right idea: there’s more to music (even jazz) than that.

[Jbc2020]

Pat Martino Linear Expressions, Bird Omnibook that covers alot, there’s also Bird for guitar w tab if u need it. Lots out there, anything by Joe Pass, imo…all depends what style Jazz really but…I keep going back to Bird all these yrs later

[Milkweed]

Years ago a teacher put me to work on Martino’s Linear Expressions. Great stuff. Had some problems with a few “activities”. In retrospect, that may have been when I went down the rabbit hole of “changing my picking.” Years later, my main habit with picking is changing it!

[osbug]

Bebop Guitar Improv Series

This course from Richie Zellon is specifically about learning to play bebop on guitar. He addresses soloing with arpeggios and enclosures quite a bit. I started it, but didn’t have the time to really commit. It’s not an easy course and he says to expect to spend a year plus on it. Totally worth it, and even though I haven’t worked my way through it, I still learned a bit.

edit: He also has a youtube channel that has a lot of good stuff!