Your Online Guide to Playing Better Jazz Guitar
Bebop Guitar Vocabulary
Throughout my time spent as a professional jazz guitarist and educator, there has been a common thread that has come back time and again in my lessons, the classes I teach, the conversations I have with friends and peers, and in my own practice routine, Building Bebop Vocabulary. I’ve read and seen tons of material that lays out long Bebop lines, countless pages of scales and patterns as well as full transcriptions of Bebop solos from some of the greatest names in the genre. Though all of these ideas and concepts have a place in jazz education, I’ve found that most people find them a bit daunting, to say the least.
It’s hard to memorize a four-bar phrase, then transpose it to all 12 keys, in different tempos, before finally applying it to a tune or chord progression that you’re working on. It’s also very hard, and time consuming, to study all of the different scales and fingerings for these scales that many books and other learning material lay out as the key to studying and learning to play Bebop jazz. So, over time, through careful study, experimenting in my lessons and workshops and through thousands of hours in the practice room, I’ve come up with some approaches to learning Bebop that have worked well for me, as well as my students, in learning and internalizing the Bebop sound.
Below are a series of articles that I’ve written that explain and present my approach to studying and learning Bebop guitar. This is not by any means a complete approach, but there is enough material here to keep anyone busy for years on end. Also, as with any student of jazz, I’m learning more about the genre and how to study and teach it every week, so check back for new articles and lessons being posted on my site, and linked to from this page for easy bookmarking.
If you have any questions regarding these articles, or suggestions for further lessons on the subject, feel free to comment on this page, or if you’d rather, you can send me a note via my contact page. Enjoy!
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Building Bebop Vocabulary
- Adding Chromatic Notes to Arpeggios
- The 1 Lick Every Jazz Guitarist Should Know (Video Lesson)
- Bebop Scales for Guitar
- Bebop Scale Patterns
- Learning and Applying Enclosures
- 3 to 9 Arpeggios with Related Bebop Scales
- How to Learn Bebop Tunes for Jazz Guitar
- Brazilian Bebop: How Hermeto Pascoal Can Help You Navigate ii-V-I’s
- Bebop Scales: Definitions and Application
5 Responses to "Bebop Guitar Vocabulary"
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wow..what a excellent blog… so helpful …
I’m a professional musician as well and i was searching i got in this awesome blog…
thanks for sharing all of this great tools and everything.
i ll be in the Us soon and im looking forward to be part of this great jazz people there.
keep it up !!
greetings from Colombia, South America
Hey Leo,
Glad you like the site, thanks for checking it out! Have fun in the US!
Hey Matt,
Would love to see a series on George Benson licks,double stops. I love the way he mixes bebop and blues togther!
Thx
Ken
Hey Ken,
That’s a great idea, maybe I’ll dig into an article like that, check out his solo on Billie’s Bounce, great double stops in there!
Hey Matt,
thx for the quick response, i’ll keep watching on jazzguitarbe for info.
thx again
Ken