Give me some tips on playing bebop improvise solos

[estew72]

apparently my improv solos in jazz are too "progressive rock" for my fellow bandmates

[StratKat]

Bebop?


Simple, follow song lines and cut it up choppy with snappy endings to the notes. It adds excitement to the phrasing. Stay away from minors and use relative Majors abit.

[Cassius]

Well not knowing what your prog rock solos sound like ( arpeggio runs up and down and varying, stuff like that?? i cant comminucate what i guess very well hehe :) ) i can only suggest listening to as much bepop as you can, and practice jamming slowly concentrating on your interpretation of the style...... sorry, just vauge shots in the dark :D

[thamiam]

The three main characteristics of bebop

1)Syncopated Rhythms - Learn the upbeat, love the upbeat, live the upbeat. Start your phrases before the bar, and end them after the bar. Pickups, trills, glissandos, etc. are encouraged.

2)Reharmonization - Play the upper extensions of chords. Beboppers rarely land on the one or the five. They love to start phrases on the third, seventh or ninth, and absolutely love to end phrases on the thirteenth (sixth). Also, when you see a dominant chord, tritone substitutions are definitely fair play.

3)Rhythmic and Harmonic modulation - Somebody mentioned this as "AAB" soloing in a different thread. Play a lick, play it again with slighlty different notes and phrasing, then play something else that connects to the first part of your next phrase. The head of "Now's the Time", "Dizzy Atmosphere", "Billie's Bounce" and a lot of otheres are based on this principle.

These are definitely bebop ideas, and if you try to play them in a more modern jazz setting they might sound dated. But bebop is what you asked for, and bebop is what you'll get.

And listen a lot. I'd recommend picking up the CD's 'Bird & Diz', which is a compilation on Verve, and "The Quintet: Jazz at Massey Hall" which is Bird, Diz, Bud Powell, Mingus & Max Roach all playing on stage together in Toronto. Those two are the pinnacles of pure bebop.

One more note - Beboppers generally don't play a lot of pentatonics. Not saying you shouldn't play them in jazz, becasue they are definitely used a lot (Coltrane was a master), but the classic bebop sound usually doesn't involve too many pentatonic scales.

[NuttyGambler]

The more I see posts like the previous, the more I see I know nothing about the guitar and genre styles.

Hats off to ya and cheers!

[dannydigital]

yeh that is good stuff. the trumpet and trombone player in my band are in university jazz band III and do lots of jazzy bebop solos. theyre awesome. i wish i could contribute :(

[tramampoline]

Originally posted by thamiam
The three main characteristics of bebop

1)Syncopated Rhythms - Learn the upbeat, love the upbeat, live the upbeat. Start your phrases before the bar, and end them after the bar. Pickups, trills, glissandos, etc. are encouraged.

2)Reharmonization - Play the upper extensions of chords. Beboppers rarely land on the one or the five. They love to start phrases on the third, seventh or ninth, and absolutely love to end phrases on the thirteenth (sixth). Also, when you see a dominant chord, tritone substitutions are definitely fair play.

3)Rhythmic and Harmonic modulation - Somebody mentioned this as "AAB" soloing in a different thread. Play a lick, play it again with slighlty different notes and phrasing, then play something else that connects to the first part of your next phrase. The head of "Now's the Time", "Dizzy Atmosphere", "Billie's Bounce" and a lot of otheres are based on this principle.

These are definitely bebop ideas, and if you try to play them in a more modern jazz setting they might sound dated. But bebop is what you asked for, and bebop is what you'll get.

And listen a lot. I'd recommend picking up the CD's 'Bird & Diz', which is a compilation on Verve, and "The Quintet: Jazz at Massey Hall" which is Bird, Diz, Bud Powell, Mingus & Max Roach all playing on stage together in Toronto. Those two are the pinnacles of pure bebop.

One more note - Beboppers generally don't play a lot of pentatonics. Not saying you shouldn't play them in jazz, becasue they are definitely used a lot (Coltrane was a master), but the classic bebop sound usually doesn't involve too many pentatonic scales. Nice post man :cool:

[SonicTonic]

Check out the Charlie Parker Omnibook. This is book has Parker's pieces and improvisations in standard notation for various instruments. They have a C edition for piano/guitar.

[Jimmy James]

Originally posted by SonicTonic
Check out the Charlie Parker Omnibook. This is book has Parker's pieces and improvisations in standard notation for various instruments. They have a C edition for piano/guitar.

Charlie Parker for Guitar is pretty cool too. Transcribes o' bunch o' solos and shows you what he's doing and how to play it.:D

[BigRed]

The technique in bebop is what makes it unique, hit all those dotted eighth notes hard - listen to ornothology and parkers mood and get the phrasing down in your head - you've got to learn to count it before you try and play it, the melodies you'll solo through require chordal phrasing and scales - soloing in the root won't get you much. I'm one of those "stuck in the pent" guys on the guitar but my first insturment was an alto sax and I did learn to play some parker tunes - they are great for your head and you'll work hard to nail them. Have fun!