6 Bebop Etudes When learning to improvise in the bebop idiom guitarists usually encounter tricky fngerings, harmonically harmonicall y dense progressions and ast tempos. All o these require a air amount o technique on the instrument compared to say using one mode to improvise over one chord or our bars at a medium tempo. This article eatures eatures 6 bebop bebop etudes that use perpetual perpetual motion and help help develop some o the techniques required required or playing bebop. Each bebop etude can also be used to arm up at the beginning o a practice session to help you take your improvisation chops to the ne!t level. Though the etudes are are not ritten to sound sound completely musical, musical, each o the our note patterns ound ith each e!ample can sound musical hen mi!ed ith other "a## licks and rhythms rhythms.. $o besides developing your technique, you are also e!panding your "a## language. Each o the etudes is applied over a cycling dominant progres progression sion starting on %&, but you can thro in these patterns over rhythm changes or changes or any bebop orkout that eature descending ii'()s. The tab fngerings are only suggestions suggestions and * recommend recommend starting rom rom a di+erent di+erent place on the neck hen you have played through the positions * rote out.
ebop Etudes E!ample The frst e!ample uses a cool pattern * learned rom atching a antastic arry %reene (ideo lesson hich is , /, 0, &. This is the pattern or the frst chord 1%&2, and the octave o the root is 3ipped or the ne!t chord 4. * the pattern continued to ascend or each ne chord in the cycle, you ould quickly run out o rets on the guitar hich is hy the octave is loered or the 5 nd chord in the bar.
ebop Etudes E!ample 5 The second e!ample uses another pattern * learned rom the arry %reene (ideo lesson hich is , b, 0, &. The rd 7 b movement is one o the most common "a## patterns and is oten associated ith the great "a## sa!ophonist 4harlie 8arker. ecause o this, it is important that "a## guitarists have the 'b pattern don in all -5 keys and in positions across the guitar neck.
ebop Etudes E!ample ebop guitar etudes e!ample is a variation o the frst e!ercise and the pattern is , 0, /, &. This bebop e!ercise orks particularly ell as a arm up because it eatures a 9 th interval hich can be tricky to apply all over the guitar neck. The fngerings in the last bar begin to get tough so i you are fnding them di:cult start the e!ercise in a higher octave on the guitar neck.
ebop Etudes E!ample 9 The frst e!amples eature the & th as note o resolution beteen each chord, so to mi! things up the note o resolution in ebop Etudes e!ample 9 is the /th. The /th o the chord resolves to the root o the ne!t chord hal ay through the bar. $ince the note o resolution is changing * decided to change the pattern to -5/ patterns to sho ho di+erent our note groupings ork in this e!ercise.
ebop Etudes E!ample / esides using the same pattern or each chord, hy not mi! to di+erent patterns together; This ne!t bebop etudes e!ample shos ho you the ormulas that have already being looked at in earlier e!amples can be mi!ed. The etude starts ith , /, 0, 5nd and descends ith a -5/ pattern.
ebop Etudes E!ample 6 This last etude looks at ho diminished arpeggios can be used to outline the cyclic progression. The frst hal o the bar is a straight diminished arpeggio hereas the second hal eatures a , b, &, / patterns, but you could easily use a , b, /, & pattern or the frst hal o the bar too.
8ractice ebop Etudes Each o the patterns in this article eatures ascending eighth notes in the frst hal o the bar and descending eighth notes in the second hal. To get more mileage out o each etude you could reverse this by starting ith a descending pattern and fnishing ith an ascending pattern.
=ou can also try mi!ing the patterns up in di+erent bars by starting a ne pattern in each as demonstrated in the e!ample belo.
To sho ho these bebop etudes patterns can be musical here)s a lick * composed using the frst and second patterns as a basis. * used rhythmic, chromatic, and chord type subs taught in my >*ntroduction to ?a## *mprov) eook to make the line sound musical.
* you ant to apply any o these patterns to a regular ii'&, (&, and * ma"or & change the our note patterns to ft the chord type. =ou could also try starting on a di+erent dominant &th chord ithin the cycle. * have only scratched the surace o each o this practice technique to keep the lesson to a reasonable si#e but you could e!periment ith any our note grouping be it triads, ' arpeggios, or even normal arpeggios.
