5 Must Know Bebop Phrases for Guitar

5 Must Know Bebop Phrases for Guitar www.mattwarnockguitar.com ww w.mattwarnockguitar.com

Learning how to play jazz guitar means learning the language that great players before us have have used in their lines, solos and melodies. mel odies. In this lesson, you will learn 5 classic Bebop phrases for guitar, how they are built, why they work and how to expand on them in your practicing and improvising. So grab your guitar, turn up your amp and let’s dig into these great-sounding phrases as you dig deep into the realm of Bebop guitar vocabulary. If you want to explore more Bebop Phrases, check out my in-depth article (with videos) “21 Bebop Scale Patterns for Jazz Guitar.” Guitar.”

Bebop Phrase 1 - Charlie Parker Arpeggio When learning classic Bebop licks, phrases and vocabulary, vocabulary, the first place to go is the music of Charlie Parker. Parke r. In this first Bebop phrase, you will learn a very easy to play, but important approach to playing arpeggios in a Bebop fashion. Charlie loved to take a normal 1-3-5-7 arpeggio, arpeggio, for any given chord he was on, and then start a 1/2 step below the root, followed by the given arpeggio. You can see this in the example below where I have applied this phrase to each chord in a ii-V-I-VI progression in the key of C major. What really makes the phrase “pop” is the use of a very famous jazz rhythm, an 8thnote followed by a triplet that starts on the & of the first beat in each bar. This is commonly used jazz guitar rhythm, rhythm, and one that should be a part of your soloing vocabulary as you continue your your development as a jazz guitarist.

Click to hear audio for this phrase phrase..

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Bebop Phrase 2 - Enclosed Root The second Bebop phrase is one of my all-time favorites, an enclosure applied to the root of any arpeggio or scale you are playing at the time. In the example below, you can see an enclosure applied to the root of a C Major Scale, which I arrived at by ascending the 2-octave Cmaj7 arpeggio in the first bar. The enclosure is built by playing 1 fret above the root, 1 fret below the root, then finally landing on your target note, the root. In the case of this scale, you would play Db-B-C, building an enclosure around the root of the key, C. Once you have worked this enclosure out in C major, take it to any other scales or modes you know or are working on in the practice root in order to get a full view of the importance of this phrase, and the melodic possibilities it can open up in your soloing.

Click to hear audio for this phrase.


Bebop Phrase 3 - Enclosed 5th The 3rd Bebop Phrase we’ll look at is a variation of the previous one, only this time there is an enclosure on the 5th of the scale. You can see this demonstrated in the phrase below, where I first ascended the Dm7 arpeggio and then descended the D Dorian Scale, adding in an enclosure around the 5th on the way down. Once you have worked this pattern out, try playing the enclosed root and enclosed 5th phrases back to back, to hear and feel how they sound similar yet different when applied to a scale such as D Dorian. And as always, you can take this enclosed 5th phrase and apply it to any scale you know or are working on in the practice room. To explore these ideas further, check out my in-depth article “Bebop Guitar Vocabulary Enclosures.”


Bebop Phrase 4 - Honeysuckle Rose Melody The next Bebop phrase is inspired by the Honeysuckle Rose melody written by Fats Waller. In this phrase, you are starting on the root of each m7 and 7th chord, it doesn’t work so well on Maj7 chords so I haven’t demonstrated that idea here, and then moving down 2


chromatic notes to the b7, followed by an ascending minor triad that resolves to the 6th of the chord. Basically, what you are doing is playing R-7-b7-6 of each chord, but the triad delays the resolution to the 6, so you get R-7-b7-2-4-6. This is a great sounding phrase, that fits well under the fingers and can be used over multiple harmonic situations, such as the m7 and 7th chords in the example below. Have fun with this phrase, it’s a must know jazz guitar lick for any developing jazz guitarist.


Bebop Phrase 5 - 3 to b9 Arpeggio The last Bebop phrase that we’ll learn in this lesson is a 3 to 9 Arpeggio, in this case, a 3 to b9 arpeggio over a 7th chord to be specific. The concept behind this phrase, is that as you descend, or ascend if you want, any 7th scale, such as the Mixolydian scale below, you can play a Dim7 arpeggio starting on the 3rd of the scale to “reset” your line back to the root of the scale. You can see this below where the G Mixolydian scale runs down from G to B, the 3rd of the scale, then a Bdim7 arpeggio brings the line back to the root, allowing you to get double mileage out of a single octave of the same scale. Go slow with this lick at first, it will take some time to recognize the 3rd as you are playing through the scale, and feel free to use the Arpeggio Up and Scale Down approach that I laid out below to get started with this lick in the woodshed.


To learn more about these arpeggios, check out my in-depth article “Bebop Guitar Vocabulary - 3 to 9 Arpeggios.” Click to hear audio for this phrase.

Bebop Phrase Practice Tips After you have learned to play the above 5 Bebop Phrases in the given keys, here are some practice ideas and exercises that you can do in order to take these patterns to the next level in your woodshedding and jazz guitar soloing. 1. Learn all phrases at a variety of tempos, from 30 to 200+ if possible. 2. Learn all phrases in 12 keys, and at a variety of tempos in each key. 3. Put on a backing track, either a static chord to start or a ii V I jazz chord progression, and practice improvising over those chords using any/all of these phrases in your lines. 4. Put on a jazz blues chord progression and incorporate as many of these phrases as you can into your improvised lines. 5. Put on a jazz standard backing track and improvise over it using any/all of these phrases during the course of your solo.


For any of the improvisational exercises, make it a goal to sound as organic as possible with these ideas. So, the goal should be to work on getting into and out of each phrase in a smooth fashion, rather than just running the phrases themselves during your solos.

Do you have any questions about this lesson? If so, please visit the Matt Warnock Guitar Facebook Page and I’ll be glad to help you out with any questions you may have.


5 Must Know Bebop Phrases for Guitar

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