bebop chops

[Me2]

http://www.guitarplayer.com/story.as...storycode=8676
This is a class article. But I'm having trouble using the techique on other chord progessions and on minor keys and different chord voicings. Any help?

[SeattleRuss]

Here's a link from the archives here:
http://www.ibreathemusic.com/forums/...ht=bebop+scale

I didn't read the entire article that you posted the link to - just skim read it.
I think the various incarnations of the "bebop scale" are good to check out, mainly for getting the concept of "chord tones on strong beats" that can result in using this scale. However, keeps some things in mind:

These constructs work when starting phrases right on the beat and when one plays straight eighth notes ( or other even divisions) because the added note (these are 8 note scales) automatically places chord tones on the beat. That article mentioned Pat Martino and George Benson. If you were to bring up the "bebop scale" in conversation with either of them, they would tell you that they don't and never have thought that way. They learned their bebop vocabulary from lots and lots of listening.

Typical bebop phrasing is full of swing eighths, triplets, etc...with rests too...lol. Trying to force the "bebop scale" to continue to work it's magic for you and jump through these hoops is an excercise in futility.

Definitely check it out but if you want to play convincing bebop, listen to it a lot, transcribe some bebop solos of the greats. You'll find that these great phrases you hear are made up of chord tones and chromatic notes placed with great feel and rhythmic variety - not created by thinking in terms of the bebop scale or any scale for that matter.

[silent-storm]

I agree with everything above, but should add that the bebop scale is kind of a way of classifying things that the players of that era were already instinctively doing. Learning licks get a real bad rap these days, but when playing in an older style like bebop it is how people learned to do what they do. They help you inject a flavour of something that you know will work right into your solo and you can always vary and make it your own later on. When Charlie Parker died, Mingus commented on 'how is anyone going to know what to play now?'

[SeattleRuss]

silent-storm wrote:

Learning licks get a real bad rap these days, but when playing in an older style like bebop it is how people learned to do what they do.

Very true. Lots of real dedication back then. Amazing what some players of that era were able to accomplish without schools, instructional videos and the internet.