Playing Bebop heads: 26-2 and similar

Is it possible to play Bebop heads like 26-2 where you have alot of one note per string arps using 2WPS?
Im struggling with the first two bars - it is really a torture with picking.
I know crosspicking would be the real answer here, but how about 2WPS?
Do people use 2WPS to pick one note per string arps (across 3 or 4 strings)?

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Playing 26 2 with 2WPS sounds a bit cumbersome to me but certainly one could do if that’s comfortable. I play the first 2 bars with alternate picking (1 note per string arps) - I’m not sure if I’m doing crosspicking or string hopping but it works and I can get it up to tempo. What part of the head is the hardest? Is it the Db arpeggio? I don’t have much advice other than to practice slowly or to throw in some pull offs when you can. I think you can even play the head at the original tempo with string hopping (that might be what I’m doing)…btw, great tune!

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I can do it pretty easy using legato, but i wanted to articulate all the notes. That Db arp was a tough spot. I spent a whole day with this tune today and finally its coming together. I also alternate pick it and found a fingering that works for me.

First i tried slanting the pick for each string change, but that was so awkward. Then i said screw it, and let my hands figure out the natural way and it worked much better.vIm not sure if i hop the strings or crosspick it, but it works with a few errors here and there. Just need to work on it some more, but it is coming together.

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aesthetically I like the sound of SOME slurs for these types of heads, I find you can arrange most bebop material with 1WPS and the occasional slur pretty easily, and any 1nps stuff can be sweeped. But I’m commenting on the aesthetics of it. If you do want to pick everything then I think most of this can be arranged so there are minimal slant changes. The hardest stuff is when it’s a stream of 8ths/16ths, but heads like 26-2 and most of the parker stuff (yes I know 26-2 is coltrane not bird) have a lot of rests and rhythmic breaks.

If anybody is curious I did a video demo for my fingerings for confirmation (the tune 26-2 is based on) where I go through a lot of detail for the choices I used to get it up tto tempo and sounding smooth

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I would really like to see your Confirmation video!

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U got it! I actually posted it another forum about 6 years ago, hope it’s ok with Brendan/Troy to link to a different forum.

I didn’t know about pick slanting at the time but the fingerings are all about smart placement of slurs and sweeps so there are really zero cross picking or twps kinds of challenges but i think it sounds more like the original this way - the pick/slur decisions were made more for sound thatn speed.

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Awesome! Yeah totally fine with us :slight_smile: If you’d like to (additionally) post the YouTube links so they embed nicely inline here that’s fine too. But of course up to you, I get that it may make more sense in original context!

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oh ok good call:

performance:

lesson/explanation

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@tommo! Apropos the recent take on Confirmation posted, I’d not seen the later part of this thread!

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Fwiw, here’s another take on the tune Confirmation upon which 26-2 is based. The FordScales fingerings aren’t necessarily the most efficient, but empowered with CtC skills, not so out of the realm of the possibility either. They just lay where they lay, and one might get some new ways of doing things out of them? Enjoy!

My apologies in advance for a wildly off-topic post, but for one second there I thought you meant you were playing Tool’s Forty-Six & 2 as a bebop head, which was sort of a really bizzare thing to picture. :rofl: Then I realized I had the numbers wrong, haha.

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