Finally, a popular jazz guitar teacher on youtube says "it's not about the scales" and "it's not about running arpeggios". I am obsessed with melody these days--composed and improvised melody. From Parker to Coltrane, every great jazz musician has paid close attention to how melodies are constructed. Although jazz has many different periods, a lot the jazz we listen to is informed by Swing and Trad/ Dixie land jazz. Melody and rhythm are king. Arpeggios and scales are tools, spices, what have you, that can only function if they are cooked into the rue that is melody--the melody of the tune or an original melody that you play over the tune. Melodies have form, melodies have pattern, melodies are crafted in a global manner--they don't just function over a single chord or progression. What you said about mulitple voices is a HUGE omission from a lot of jazz pedagogy these days. Bebop is more than enclosures. Bebop is melody, Bach is melody. Harmony is a color that informs the melody, harmony is "one of" the means--not the end.
Thanks Jens,Maybe the thing to keep in mind with Charlie Parker,is the fact that he was a musical "Globalist" listened to all kinds of music.He loved country and western music.A friend of mine Mordecai Applebaum( Played Oboe with The Pittsburgh Symphony) who hung out with him in New York City said at that point he was listening to Wagner obsessively.Charlie Parker had been homeless on the West Coast,also institutionalized in the Camarillo mental hospital ,hence "Relaxin':at Camarillo".(He even played in the Camarillo hospital band ! ) Even though Charlie Parker was shunned by mainstream,and racist American Orthodoxy,as a Native American I see Charlie Parker as a Hayoka,one who does the Unorthodox ,and sees into the Spiritual Realm deeply. No,wonder he didn't play the Bebop Scale !!!!!
I used to do the weekly Barry Harris workshops in NYC in the ‘80’s. Awesome! Guitars, trombones, saxes, trumpets, etc... everybody. He’d feed us some lines to create a chorus of a standard and... when everybody (kind of) had it, he’d make everybody stand up... and “dance” while we played it! Barry Harris... incredible!
You are an awesome teacher! Thank you so much for sharing all of your valuable experiences. You help those who love and live music to share a part of you! What more could a teacher want for their students!❤
I experience the same problem. I have to watch each lesson few times. Thats because he speaks VERY fast and ABSOLUTELY without a semantic accent. Is he really a teacher? Unfortunate students and subscribers. By the way, thanks for your lessons Jens.
Lick #1 has Tenor Madness in the middle of it! Bebop is rich with language applicable to any genre soloing. Bebop also starts to really ingrain the fact that people in jazz copy each other - you will hear the same 10 or so licks 100 times each if you sit and listen to bebop for an afternoon. There's a reason for that: it sounds great, really melodic. If it ain't broke - copy it
Thank you for another great one - as usual breaking down the complex into its basic building blocks (and making music). You've got the most approachable yet deep jazz guitar content around in my opinion.
Great video. Every player regardless of genre should study bebop. When I started studying bebop I felt that I quadrupled my musicality and ability within a couple of years. Good lesson!
I just noticed the chapter markers! Thanks for that. This is a great way to log and think about the BeBop progressions we hear so often. Also, -1 for blocking our view if that gorgeous Yamaha SG!
When I started being interested in jazz as a teen I tried to unlock the Parker-secret. "Learn the bebop scale, kid" the jazz-authorities advised me unison. But all this scale did was turning my impro into some sort of blues plus chromatics. Definitely not the Parker-vibe. When I finally transcribed Parker-solos for guitar I've found a treasure: Tons of arpeggios with color tones, chromatics and tasteful voice leading. Way too fast for me to play it. What I did not find was any "bebop scale". Well, I was just a kid and didn't have the guts to tell the authorities.
I just saw your comment. Please read my comment about the Bebop scale. It is not elementsry..but it starts at a primary level. A little about myself. I have been playing guitar and piano since the late 60s. Chet Atkin sat the age of 14.. Taught guitar at 17 to pay for gas I am mostly self taught even though I have had teaching from many teachers..classical -jazz etc I don't claim to be an expert but I have helped many people. taught.
Thanks! Actually Frans has died quite a few years ago, but his impact on the jazz environment around here was huge, to say the least, and we have tons of anecdotes about how he tortured his students every now and again :D
I was thinking how the contour of the licks reminded me of Honeysuckle Rose & you said it was similar on the last minute. My friend & fine player, Larry Koonse, played all the Hank Garland guitar parts on the movie Crazy.
Jens is the goat jazz teacher. I remember I asked him a question in the comments and he responded and answered me..... not saying he is going to answer every comment in the comments but I felt so cool and , of course , it was really helpful. Thanks jens for your totally bad ass channel. U make it really fun and informative for free !!! I hope everyone can Chip in on venMo , cash app ect...
Jens, this is exactly what I've been thinking as I've been studying! I know what my improv should sound like and at the same time can't stand what I'm improvising. I can copy the masters and realize they have " it " absolutely and somehow I have to make the ears, mind, to hand recognition. If I can do that I can finally speak the language properly and hopefully inspire the next person! But on the other hand when I do copy a "cats " solo they analyze absolutely perfectly and musically say a lot. When I try my own it feels like I have nothing to say so I'm not happy about it. Another point is that when their playing at 200+ BPM and you slow it down the real players have a tremendous amount of articulation that you don't hear at the faster speeds. To me the improv's sound perfect as played and possibly/usually better at slow tempo's, as I can hear the articulations that I can transcribe.
Bebop is like Latin. If you are a botanist, it sure helps to know how to pronounce Latin. If you are a linguist, it helps to understand Latin, so that you may see how it forms the roots of so many words. Like Latin, it is a lingua franca, but different in that it is not a dead language.
Fascinating discussion, particularly the notion of several voices in one melody. Immediately brought to mind the suites for cello, violin, and lute by Bach.
I loved my old teacher as a person, and the point he was able to get me to as a player. That said I always felt behind the 8-ball when we started learning jazz. While I could play over plenty of simple progressions, even something like a 2-5-1 with a tritone sub would throw me off. If the notes weren't entirely in the scales, it completely messed me up. When I wanted to start playing more arpeggio oriented stuff I was basically given a shape chart of important arps, and then told to follow the changes. Sure it sounded a little better, but this kind of stuff was never mentioned. "Throw in some chromatisism or quote a lick", but where? Your videos pretty much help answer most of the problems that my old teacher couldn't.
Hi Jens, passing through found your channel, excellent take on things. Way back until injury finished me I was a jazz saxophone player. It's fascinating how people arrive at Bop these days. All good of course Regarding Bird play any music you want and run a recording of anything Bird plays at the same time, (with just a touch of imagination) strange but you will find it nearly always kind of fits.That is the genius of Bird,
Great video Jens. I just bought my first arch top last week and have discovered that I've learned more than I thought watching your lessons. My fingers have started walking places I didn't know about and It's coming out really good. Thank you for the teaching and yes a jazz guitar does make a difference
In the 50's I used to attend lessons at Frans Elsen's pad in Voorburg. At 82 I'm still playing my tenor sax. Now listening more to Scott Hamilton than Parker.
The first jazz-line I ever played was a mixolydian bebop-scale phrase on a BB King CD - not played by BB but by one of his saxophone--players. As someone rooted in blues the sound blew me away though it was a common bebop-phrase but most of the blues-players would never consider this scale-option.
Your videos are really good. I like that you cover each topic from a couple different angles through different applications or giving developing info, and most importantly your playing sounds really good on the ear!
3 voices ...yeesss!...I come from a classical background so I applied the contrasting dynamics and phrasing to my jazz straight away. Django - especially his electric stuff - I found out was full of this approach.
The _Angel_Song_ record has both Frisell and Konitz on it (plus Dave Holland and Kenny Wheeler), and is def worth checking out for anyone who hasn't heard it.
I also think there's a semantics/usage aspect of this conversation. I think of "bebop" as almost a catch-all term for melodic language that is A) rooted in the functional, cadential harmony of the 32-bar American song form, and B) after Charlie Parker. If I refer to myself as playing (or trying to play) bebop, that's really what I'm referring to.
re: your question "What would you rather learn - a system or a creative choice?" I feel a system can serve as a platform for creative choice. So, both. :) Cheers!
"You always play the same things and it all sounds like crap!" Ouch, that must have hurt :-( Still, moments like that can become great incentives if you don't let them crush you.
I thought about it..it seemed, first, your teacher was being hard.. maybe even crass. I thought about it and realized this was valid pedagogy..as it was his job to get you prepared for the real world. In the music world as other fields..there is stuff competition. He was preparing you and it made you a better musician.
@@JensLarsen Years of wasted money and frankly traumatizing "teachers" wiped away in minutes! I always somehow had a feeling that academia helps to make Jazz less accessible than the other way round.. And together with something else I watched last night I seem to have found that this impression was accurate. Your angle makes Bebop and forms of traditional Jazz really really well accessible for anyone with a solid understanding and experience of harmony, chord progression and chordal notes. I think the scales-orientated approach is completely counterproductive and musically nonsensical where it pertains to improvising in interesting ways. Thanks so much!
Another great lesson Jens. Thanks! A suggestion....any chance that you could put the written examples closer together at the end for a recap. I am jumping all over trying to find each one. Just a thought!! For future videos maybe. Thanks!!
Hi Jens, how are you? May I suggest a video about Coleman Hawkins? As far as playing through the changes as melodically as possible, I think it's hard to bit him (and probably Benny Carter as well). Anyway, playing through the changes is the most challenging topic for me, and I would love if you could make more videos about it. Thank you. Regards from Brazil.
Thanks! I've stopped making videos on specific people for now because they don't get watched, but I do have quite a few videos on playing changes: th-cam.com/video/r_HZSUfOKwM/w-d-xo.html Maybe you find those helpful :)
I think you could say that this sequence comes from first, Billie's Bounce M.m. 9-10, and then Tenor Madness, m.m. 9-10. "The textbooks for playing Jazz are the recordings of the Masters." Listen, hear, and you shall be free.
Great lesson. But I kind of disagree with the comment that bebop scale was conjured up "just to sell books not to teach people music". I believe the bebop scale goes back to jazz musician and educator David Baker who played trombone in the ensemble of jazz composer George Russell, another pioneer jazz educator and theorist. After injuries from a car accident, Baker could no longer play trombone and became a cellist, composer and educator. As an amateur in the 1980s, I found David Baker's books helpful and I think it is not fair to dismiss him in this way. While Baker's three volume publication "how to play bebop" introduces the bebop scale, it nowhere claims that playing the scale up and down will produce anything resembling bebop lines. Instead it discusses many aspects of line construction with quite some overlap to what you are saying in this video.
Jens - Thanks for the great lessons. Can I suggest doing a study of Jim Hall's "Careful"? It is so full of things to learn to raise one's level of playing ... but especially Jim Hall's use of dissonance in this piece that is fascinating and wonderful. Yes??? ....
@@JensLarsen In particular, I love this solo version on video, recorded in 1989 during a visit to a radio studio in Hilversum, Netherlands (of all places!): th-cam.com/video/5PzshdVRavk/w-d-xo.html
@@JensLarsen Ah, OK. But maybe a lesson on dissonance in melodic structure, or similar, could use bits of this piece by way of example? Just a thought. No arm twisting ... ;-) Best!
Amazing vid as usual, jens, thanks for being such an amazing teacher and resource for all of us. Question, have you looked into George Garzone’s chromatic triadic approach? Any vids on this or how to implement it into solos would be awesome! Thanks again 😃
very good video, the book analysis would be very interesting, another topic that we would like would be phrases from saxophonists adapted to the guitar, greetings ,,,,,,,,,
Thank you! Actually most jazz lines from bop and on are pretty generic and not very instrument specific. If you play jazz you are probably already playing stuff that horn players play as well.
@@JensLarsen Right, I noticed that, and I tried to copy it. But it doesn't seem to add it to my older videos, in retrospect. Do you need to add the "Content:" line before the timestamps? :)
Yes, I believe it is valuable. When I first heard Synister Gates (lead guitar for Avenged Sevenfold) it was to learn a solo for a student. While he did the typical sweeping arpeggios and scale runs, I noticed a healthy dose of chromatic notes that separated him from other players. Those notes usually connected chord tones so it seemed deliberate. I wondered whether he studied bebop and I found out that he did while attending GIT.
Transcribing is only a piece of the pie. Sonny Stitt and Cannonball Adderley had very specific ways that they would articulate the notes. Talk to a saxophone player who is familiar with Sonny Stitt. Once you've learned a solo, go back to that saxophonist and get some insight non dynamics, articulation, and tonguing techniques (Stitt is pretty consistent with his tonguing). Then, bring that back to your own instrument. As Jens often says, "it's more than just the notes" :)
Enjoyed and agree with commentary on scalar thinking - Bebop scales, Dim scales etc - too much. I learned from a VanEps protege in the 70s - his emphasis was on first on technical and aural facility with all inversions of 4-6 note chords (mostly 4) , chords substitution - (functional harmony as I've heard you call it) and then peeling these apart into melodic lines, triads, dyads etc. and mixing it all together musically. One thing I notice you often do in videos when describing a piece of a line that I wonder about - your last example you have Dm7 and you start on the F and then drop to A, then C, then E. You refer to that A,C, E as a Am arp. I know that Am7 (and Fmaj7) are substitute chords to have in mind in that context, but why analyze it other than simply being the 5, 7, 9 of the Dm7? My guess it that you think more in terms of triad building blocks than I do. I think of them more as fragments of a fuller chord.
Thanks! I don't really think of substitute chords when I play, but I do when I analyze and when I practice. I have practiced using an Fmaj7 or an Am triad over a Dm7 so that I don't have to think about it and so that I only think the chord I hear (which is Dm7). Giving it numbers is useless when you play (for me anyway) and the reason why I call it Am is just that it is a triad, so it is something that I have practiced technically once, but I have also learned to use it in a lot of places so that I don't have to practice things more than once. Does that make sense?
@@JensLarsen Perfect sense. Many years after my lessons I was surprised to come across Van Eps exhaustive studies on triads. These were not at all emphasized by my teacher over 3 years with him - and he worshipped Van Eps. I can grab all kinds of 4 note chord inversions very quickly and reduce them to triads easily - but I am aware there are lots of little triad shapes that can be found and played more efficiently than laying off a note of a 4 note chord shape - a growth area for me after only 53 years of playing!
man i've played guitar for 20 years but trying to understand what anyone's playing theoretically from in front just goes over my head, can't actually understand how you're getting those chords from those melodies, get pretty lost as to what the notes of the chords are, I just know shapes and how to find the root. Need a better place to start, somewhere between 7th chords and all that fret board theory. I have a pretty hard time hearing changes in jazz enough to learn just the chords of a song because tempos, notes and bass are all over the place, it's pretty hard to get your head around it as a musician. Trying to explain an art form just doesn't make sense to me personally.
Jens, would it be right to say that in that Parker line, he is using leading tones to kind of give that jazzy chromatic sound without actually doing enclosures etc?
I think you will find that it is rarely the notes that really makes something sound like Jazz. Just like playing the pentatonic scale doesn't make something sound like Blues
Hey, there's an old Barney Kessel instructional video in which he talks about how the first thing any jazz musician needs is to be able to play what they hear in their head. So how do you do that? All the bebop legends and all the people we all listen to, when they performed, they listened to what they heard in their head and had enough mastery over the instrument to execute what they heard. So how do you develop that skill? That's the most necessary skill to develop right?
So make sure to play a lot of the things you want to hear by coming up with lines for your solos and transcribing the lessons of the people you know. There is no magic involved, if you are really familiar with the music you will be able to hear those meloides and play them.
@@JensLarsen Isn't there some specific method like listening to a lick, trying to find it in one go, not fiddling around until you find it or something? Isn't there a method to do it to get there faster rather than just learning some licks, which we already do anyway. I'm talking about instantly being able to play what you hear or play a phrase that someone else played. Like they do in Indian classical music.
@@aadityakiran_s I think this is the 3rd time you ask me the same question? If you are just looking for a shortcut then you will probably be disappointed. Maybe you should ask yourself if you really want to learn Jazz? It is not magic it is a basic skill that you learn through training in Indian classical music and in Jazz, but you have to know the music and not sit around and wait for magic solutions.
@@JensLarsen I wasn't looking for any shortcut, Jazz is most of what I listen to but I've been transcribing licks for some time now but I still can't play instantly what I hear in my head. Just know how to figure out something by ear that's all. I wonder when that stage will come.
jens i got a question? in the video about solid body guitar as a jazz guitar. you said a stratocaster is good. but a strat has a single coil in the neck. would it be better to play an ibanez or epiphone they have a humbucker in the neck?
The strat tone on the neck lockup is great for this if you need something brighter then the bridge can work but most of the time you might want to turn the tone control down to take out the highs
Finally, a popular jazz guitar teacher on youtube says "it's not about the scales" and "it's not about running arpeggios". I am obsessed with melody these days--composed and improvised melody. From Parker to Coltrane, every great jazz musician has paid close attention to how melodies are constructed. Although jazz has many different periods, a lot the jazz we listen to is informed by Swing and Trad/ Dixie land jazz. Melody and rhythm are king. Arpeggios and scales are tools, spices, what have you, that can only function if they are cooked into the rue that is melody--the melody of the tune or an original melody that you play over the tune. Melodies have form, melodies have pattern, melodies are crafted in a global manner--they don't just function over a single chord or progression. What you said about mulitple voices is a HUGE omission from a lot of jazz pedagogy these days. Bebop is more than enclosures. Bebop is melody, Bach is melody. Harmony is a color that informs the melody, harmony is "one of" the means--not the end.
This was an eye opener for me. Took guitar and started to practice immediately!
Thank you very much! I really appreciate the support! 🙂
Thanks Jens,Maybe the thing to keep in mind with Charlie Parker,is the fact that he was a musical "Globalist" listened to all kinds of music.He loved country and western music.A friend of mine Mordecai Applebaum( Played Oboe with The Pittsburgh Symphony) who hung out with him in New York City said at that point he was listening to Wagner obsessively.Charlie Parker had been homeless on the West Coast,also institutionalized in the Camarillo mental hospital ,hence "Relaxin':at Camarillo".(He even played in the Camarillo hospital band ! ) Even though Charlie Parker was shunned by mainstream,and racist American Orthodoxy,as a Native American I see Charlie Parker as a Hayoka,one who does the Unorthodox ,and sees into the Spiritual Realm deeply. No,wonder he didn't play the Bebop Scale !!!!!
Yes, and he was aiming to study with Pierre Boulez before he died
I used to do the weekly Barry Harris workshops in NYC in the ‘80’s. Awesome!
Guitars, trombones, saxes, trumpets, etc... everybody. He’d feed us some lines to create a chorus of a standard and... when everybody (kind of) had it, he’d make everybody stand up... and “dance” while we played it! Barry Harris... incredible!
You are an awesome teacher! Thank you so much for sharing all of your valuable experiences. You help those who love and live music to share a part of you! What more could a teacher want for their students!❤
"Now I'm playing Bebop lick #7" -- OUCH, I feel attacked LOL!
Haha :) I think we all do
Yes that is the same as bebop lick b8 :-)
A lot of great stuff packed into 15 mins Jens, will be watching this one a few times, thanks
Thanks Frank! :)
I experience the same problem. I have to watch each lesson few times. Thats because he speaks VERY fast and ABSOLUTELY without a semantic accent. Is he really a teacher? Unfortunate students and subscribers. By the way, thanks for your lessons Jens.
I watch his videos a lot.
Lick #1 has Tenor Madness in the middle of it! Bebop is rich with language applicable to any genre soloing. Bebop also starts to really ingrain the fact that people in jazz copy each other - you will hear the same 10 or so licks 100 times each if you sit and listen to bebop for an afternoon. There's a reason for that: it sounds great, really melodic. If it ain't broke - copy it
Bebop is a language just like blues. You could make the same observation about blues I think :)
Thank you for another great one - as usual breaking down the complex into its basic building blocks (and making music). You've got the most approachable yet deep jazz guitar content around in my opinion.
I concur.
Jens, your channel is GOLD! Thank you!
Glad you enjoy it!
Great video. Every player regardless of genre should study bebop. When I started studying bebop I felt that I quadrupled my musicality and ability within a couple of years. Good lesson!
Thanks Tim! :)
This lesson felt like a piece of the Bebop puzzle
fell into place, an "aha" moment, if you will.
Good job, many thanks.
Thanks! 😃 Glad you like it! :)
yep, this is a masterpiece lesson. really help on how to think about melodies
I just noticed the chapter markers! Thanks for that. This is a great way to log and think about the BeBop progressions we hear so often. Also, -1 for blocking our view if that gorgeous Yamaha SG!
That's great Sir Jens, inspiring at the same time👌👍
Thank you!
Bebop is such an awesome style, my favorite indeed! Awesome work Jens!
Thanks RC!
@@JensLarsen Absolutely my man!
When I started being interested in jazz as a teen I tried to unlock the Parker-secret. "Learn the bebop scale, kid" the jazz-authorities advised me unison. But all this scale did was turning my impro into some sort of blues plus chromatics. Definitely not the Parker-vibe. When I finally transcribed Parker-solos for guitar I've found a treasure: Tons of arpeggios with color tones, chromatics and tasteful voice leading. Way too fast for me to play it. What I did not find was any "bebop scale". Well, I was just a kid and didn't have the guts to tell the authorities.
I just saw your comment. Please read my comment about the Bebop scale. It is not elementsry..but it starts at a primary level. A little about myself. I have been playing guitar and piano since the late 60s. Chet Atkin sat the age of 14.. Taught guitar at 17 to pay for gas I am mostly self taught even though I have had teaching from many teachers..classical -jazz etc I don't claim to be an expert but I have helped many people.
taught.
One hell of a lesson,Jens. I gotta grab the guitar, print the chart, and rewatch. 🤘🏻
Go for it Bradford! :)
Great melodic concepts and licks, this is super useful! Very cool that you gave your teacher a shout out.
Thanks! Actually Frans has died quite a few years ago, but his impact on the jazz environment around here was huge, to say the least, and we have tons of anecdotes about how he tortured his students every now and again :D
Another beautiful lesson, Jens. Thank you for sharing !
I was thinking how the contour of the licks reminded me of Honeysuckle Rose & you said it was similar on the last minute. My friend & fine player, Larry Koonse, played all the Hank Garland guitar parts on the movie Crazy.
Jens is the goat jazz teacher. I remember I asked him a question in the comments and he responded and answered me..... not saying he is going to answer every comment in the comments but I felt so cool and , of course , it was really helpful. Thanks jens for your totally bad ass channel. U make it really fun and informative for free !!! I hope everyone can Chip in on venMo , cash app ect...
Jens, this is exactly what I've been thinking as I've been studying! I know what my improv should sound like and at the same time can't stand what I'm improvising. I can copy the masters and realize they have " it " absolutely and somehow I have to make the ears, mind, to hand recognition. If I can do that I can finally speak the language properly and hopefully inspire the next person! But on the other hand when I do copy a "cats " solo they analyze absolutely perfectly and musically say a lot. When I try my own it feels like I have nothing to say so I'm not happy about it. Another point is that when their playing at 200+ BPM and you slow it down the real players have a tremendous amount of articulation that you don't hear at the faster speeds. To me the improv's sound perfect as played and possibly/usually better at slow tempo's, as I can hear the articulations that I can transcribe.
Next Level insights. You inspire many musicians worldwide. Bravo!
Glad you think so!
4:05 Bebop Lick #7 is an absolute classic, Jens!
I try 🙂
Superb lesson sir. I’ll be watching this a few times
Thank you 🙂
Very nice linear stuff & picking too. Enjoy your musical insight on your posts.
Thank you 🙂 Glad you like it
Thanks for this Jens, I enjoyed it, and it looked like you really enjoyed making it! 😀
It was fun to make this one :)
Bebop is like Latin. If you are a botanist, it sure helps to know how to pronounce Latin. If you are a linguist, it helps to understand Latin, so that you may see how it forms the roots of so many words. Like Latin, it is a lingua franca, but different in that it is not a dead language.
Fascinating discussion, particularly the notion of several voices in one melody. Immediately brought to mind the suites for cello, violin, and lute by Bach.
I loved my old teacher as a person, and the point he was able to get me to as a player. That said I always felt behind the 8-ball when we started learning jazz. While I could play over plenty of simple progressions, even something like a 2-5-1 with a tritone sub would throw me off. If the notes weren't entirely in the scales, it completely messed me up. When I wanted to start playing more arpeggio oriented stuff I was basically given a shape chart of important arps, and then told to follow the changes. Sure it sounded a little better, but this kind of stuff was never mentioned. "Throw in some chromatisism or quote a lick", but where? Your videos pretty much help answer most of the problems that my old teacher couldn't.
Awesome and inspirational video as always. Greetings from Chile!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Hi Jens, passing through found your channel, excellent take on things. Way back until injury finished me I was a jazz saxophone player. It's fascinating how people arrive at Bop these days. All good of course Regarding Bird play any music you want and run a recording of anything Bird plays at the same time, (with just a touch of imagination) strange but you will find it nearly always kind of fits.That is the genius of Bird,
Awesome lesson given from a unique perspective; thanks Jens!
My pleasure!
Great video Jens. I just bought my first arch top last week and have discovered that I've learned more than I thought watching your lessons. My fingers have started walking places I didn't know about and It's coming out really good. Thank you for the teaching and yes a jazz guitar does make a difference
In the 50's I used to attend lessons at Frans Elsen's pad in Voorburg. At 82 I'm still playing my tenor sax. Now listening more to Scott Hamilton than Parker.
The first jazz-line I ever played was a mixolydian bebop-scale phrase on a BB King CD - not played by BB but by one of his saxophone--players. As someone rooted in blues the sound blew me away though it was a common bebop-phrase but most of the blues-players would never consider this scale-option.
Jens you gave me a light bulb moment last week - Charlie Parker and the comment that his solos go somewhere - not just licks.
Thanks! Yes, his music was certainly beyond a bunch of licks :)
Great stuff Jens....!!!!⭐️🎶🍏🖍
Thank you chris! 🙂
Your videos are really good. I like that you cover each topic from a couple different angles through different applications or giving developing info, and most importantly your playing sounds really good on the ear!
Thank you, Joshua 🙂
This is a key lesson. And those licks are so cool!
Thank you, Pat 🙂
Thank you for your very educational work and which offers stimulating work ideas!
Glad you like them!
@@JensLarsen Thank you again! Your work helps me improve my practise, and understand better about jazz ;-)
These are brilliant. Bought the book and has been really instructive. Thanks for everything you do!
Awesome, thank you!
SUCH A HARD CONCEPT BEBOP IS! Thanks from the heart for your tireless work.
3 voices ...yeesss!...I come from a classical background so I applied the contrasting dynamics and phrasing to my jazz straight away. Django - especially his electric stuff - I found out was full of this approach.
J'aime beaucoup tes explications et les exercices "simples" que tu donnes. Tes pdf sont très généreux... mille mercis! Dank u well
Thank you! Glad you like them 🙂
The _Angel_Song_ record has both Frisell and Konitz on it (plus Dave Holland and Kenny Wheeler), and is def worth checking out for anyone who hasn't heard it.
Yes! Amazing album!
My hero Jens Larsen! You will make me a jazz player, I know that you would help me become a better jazz player. Thank you.
You are a great man Jens. i love you my teacher.
from oldest country, iran
Thank you! 🙂
I never really need to request anything because everything I wait for comes to me on this channel.
Haha! Thank you very much! That's a huge compliment :)
My God that's a beautiful Gibson!!! Great lesson Jen's!!! You da man!!!
Great lesson,thank you,Jens!Keep following and appreciate!
Thank you! 😃
I also think there's a semantics/usage aspect of this conversation. I think of "bebop" as almost a catch-all term for melodic language that is A) rooted in the functional, cadential harmony of the 32-bar American song form, and B) after Charlie Parker. If I refer to myself as playing (or trying to play) bebop, that's really what I'm referring to.
Enfim, você dedicou um vídeo a esse tema! Qdo falei a você sobre escalas bebop, há algum tempo atrás , achei que não havia gostado.
Congratulations.
You have such a great magnetism. Great teacher thank you. I hope we meet one day
I hope so too!
re: your question "What would you rather learn - a system or a creative choice?" I feel a system can serve as a platform for creative choice. So, both. :) Cheers!
Sure, whatever works for you 🙂
This is awesome. Thanks Mr. Jens!!! Greetings from Colombia!
You're very welcome!
Well done! I hope you are having the opportunity to teach a lot of people how to be musicians that people will enjoy listening to.
00:45 "the least you could do" - Laughing out loud! :)
Got to keep the discussion going 🙂
@@JensLarsen :) So true! A good discussing is always a good challenge!
I'm not playing the guitar anymore on the keys these days... But I really do dig BeBop Jazz... Wanting to learn more of it on the keys... ☮️🔥
Great! Go for it 🙂
This is one of the most helpful videos for me. Thanks so much for sharing. Love the videos!
Really good video. Practical and wise.
Glad you liked it!
This is FANTASTIC!
Thank you Jens
You are great, thanks for your very interesting lessons.
Glad you like the videos 🙂
I need to play that around the “circle” a few times😎
Awesome video! 🎸
Glad you enjoyed it
"You always play the same things and it all sounds like crap!"
Ouch, that must have hurt :-(
Still, moments like that can become great incentives if you don't let them crush you.
You go to school to learn, and I knew he qs like that 🙂
I thought about it..it seemed, first, your teacher was being hard.. maybe even crass. I thought about it and realized this was valid pedagogy..as it was his job to get you prepared for the real world.
In the music world as other fields..there is stuff competition. He was preparing you and it made you a better musician.
Excellent, it really helps!
Great to hear!
@@JensLarsen Years of wasted money and frankly traumatizing "teachers" wiped away in minutes! I always somehow had a feeling that academia helps to make Jazz less accessible than the other way round.. And together with something else I watched last night I seem to have found that this impression was accurate. Your angle makes Bebop and forms of traditional Jazz really really well accessible for anyone with a solid understanding and experience of harmony, chord progression and chordal notes.
I think the scales-orientated approach is completely counterproductive and musically nonsensical where it pertains to improvising in interesting ways. Thanks so much!
Thank you for your videos Jens. They have given me so much to work on!
Another great lesson Jens. Thanks! A suggestion....any chance that you could put the written examples closer together at the end for a recap. I am jumping all over trying to find each one. Just a thought!! For future videos maybe. Thanks!!
thanks for sharing, Jens!
Glad you like it 🙂
Hi Jens, how are you? May I suggest a video about Coleman Hawkins? As far as playing through the changes as melodically as possible, I think it's hard to bit him (and probably Benny Carter as well). Anyway, playing through the changes is the most challenging topic for me, and I would love if you could make more videos about it. Thank you. Regards from Brazil.
Thanks! I've stopped making videos on specific people for now because they don't get watched, but I do have quite a few videos on playing changes: th-cam.com/video/r_HZSUfOKwM/w-d-xo.html
Maybe you find those helpful :)
another great tutorial jen ...can you do a bebpop micro licks video in future ?
Thanks! What is micro licks?
I think you could say that this sequence comes from first, Billie's Bounce M.m. 9-10, and then Tenor Madness, m.m. 9-10. "The textbooks for playing Jazz are the recordings of the Masters." Listen, hear, and you shall be free.
Great lesson. But I kind of disagree with the comment that bebop scale was conjured up "just to sell books not to teach people music". I believe the bebop scale goes back to jazz musician and educator David Baker who played trombone in the ensemble of jazz composer George Russell, another pioneer jazz educator and theorist. After injuries from a car accident, Baker could no longer play trombone and became a cellist, composer and educator. As an amateur in the 1980s, I found David Baker's books helpful and I think it is not fair to dismiss him in this way. While Baker's three volume publication "how to play bebop" introduces the bebop scale, it nowhere claims that playing the scale up and down will produce anything resembling bebop lines. Instead it discusses many aspects of line construction with quite some overlap to what you are saying in this video.
Jens - Thanks for the great lessons. Can I suggest doing a study of Jim Hall's "Careful"? It is so full of things to learn to raise one's level of playing ... but especially Jim Hall's use of dissonance in this piece that is fascinating and wonderful. Yes??? ....
Great suggestion! You will always learn something from transcribing Jim Hall!
@@JensLarsen In particular, I love this solo version on video, recorded in 1989 during a visit to a radio studio in Hilversum, Netherlands (of all places!): th-cam.com/video/5PzshdVRavk/w-d-xo.html
Jens Larsen Yes! This tune is great and you almost can’t tell it’s a blues it’s so angular and dissonant
I stopped doing the videos analyzing players, people were not really interested and they were bad for the channel 🙂
@@JensLarsen Ah, OK. But maybe a lesson on dissonance in melodic structure, or similar, could use bits of this piece by way of example? Just a thought. No arm twisting ... ;-) Best!
Bebop on guitar is hell 😉😊🇩🇰🇸🇪
Great lesson though 👍
That's the lick from Groovin' High.
I SO want to learn how to play BeBop. My life will be rendered incomplete if I don’t learn this well. 🤷🏻♂️
You are great 👍 from Nepal 🇳🇵
Thank you Jens! This is awesome!
I love the 1st phrase. VERY BeBop,Pops!
Hey
I love your material.
Your approach is fabulous
Thank you! :)
Good video Jens. Thanks
vividly workin
3:24
8:06
9:48
11:00
11:58
13:24
4:02 😂👍
Another great clip! Very good topic and excellent content! Thanks, Jen:-)
Glad you like it, Jon
I've always found that bebop 'scales' don't add up to much. A handy tool perhaps for widdly-widdly guitarists coveted by metal bands.
"Is Bebop worth studying, what do You think?" ...yes, 'cause it's cooool
Exactly!
Amazing vid as usual, jens, thanks for being such an amazing teacher and resource for all of us. Question, have you looked into George Garzone’s chromatic triadic approach? Any vids on this or how to implement it into solos would be awesome! Thanks again 😃
very good video, the book analysis would be very interesting, another topic that we would like would be phrases from saxophonists adapted to the guitar, greetings ,,,,,,,,,
Thank you! Actually most jazz lines from bop and on are pretty generic and not very instrument specific. If you play jazz you are probably already playing stuff that horn players play as well.
One thing is the unexpected trill. I do trills but don’t know how BeBop guys hit you with that UNEXPECTED trill!!??
The 3 Bebop Licks You Need To Know: th-cam.com/video/2iFZdLf7a1o/w-d-xo.html
Hi Jens, How do you get these chapters embedded in the player up there?
@@PlayLikeTheGreatscom That is automatic from YT if you have the table of contents in the description :)
@@JensLarsen Right, I noticed that, and I tried to copy it. But it doesn't seem to add it to my older videos, in retrospect. Do you need to add the "Content:" line before the timestamps? :)
Yes, I believe it is valuable. When I first heard Synister Gates (lead guitar for Avenged Sevenfold) it was to learn a solo for a student. While he did the typical sweeping arpeggios and scale runs, I noticed a healthy dose of chromatic notes that separated him from other players. Those notes usually connected chord tones so it seemed deliberate. I wondered whether he studied bebop and I found out that he did while attending GIT.
Yes.
Best guitar teacher on youtube!
Yes! Great video.
I have a question: How do you go about copying ones style?
I want to learn the style of Stitt.
Transcribe his solos
That is easy to explain: learn his solos and play them along with the record (which is maybe less easy but still worthwhile)
Transcribing is only a piece of the pie. Sonny Stitt and Cannonball Adderley had very specific ways that they would articulate the notes. Talk to a saxophone player who is familiar with Sonny Stitt. Once you've learned a solo, go back to that saxophonist and get some insight non dynamics, articulation, and tonguing techniques (Stitt is pretty consistent with his tonguing). Then, bring that back to your own instrument. As Jens often says, "it's more than just the notes" :)
Enjoyed and agree with commentary on scalar thinking - Bebop scales, Dim scales etc - too much. I learned from a VanEps protege in the 70s - his emphasis was on first on technical and aural facility with all inversions of 4-6 note chords (mostly 4) , chords substitution - (functional harmony as I've heard you call it) and then peeling these apart into melodic lines, triads, dyads etc. and mixing it all together musically. One thing I notice you often do in videos when describing a piece of a line that I wonder about - your last example you have Dm7 and you start on the F and then drop to A, then C, then E. You refer to that A,C, E as a Am arp. I know that Am7 (and Fmaj7) are substitute chords to have in mind in that context, but why analyze it other than simply being the 5, 7, 9 of the Dm7? My guess it that you think more in terms of triad building blocks than I do. I think of them more as fragments of a fuller chord.
Thanks! I don't really think of substitute chords when I play, but I do when I analyze and when I practice. I have practiced using an Fmaj7 or an Am triad over a Dm7 so that I don't have to think about it and so that I only think the chord I hear (which is Dm7). Giving it numbers is useless when you play (for me anyway) and the reason why I call it Am is just that it is a triad, so it is something that I have practiced technically once, but I have also learned to use it in a lot of places so that I don't have to practice things more than once.
Does that make sense?
@@JensLarsen Perfect sense. Many years after my lessons I was surprised to come across Van Eps exhaustive studies on triads. These were not at all emphasized by my teacher over 3 years with him - and he worshipped Van Eps. I can grab all kinds of 4 note chord inversions very quickly and reduce them to triads easily - but I am aware there are lots of little triad shapes that can be found and played more efficiently than laying off a note of a 4 note chord shape - a growth area for me after only 53 years of playing!
man i've played guitar for 20 years but trying to understand what anyone's playing theoretically from in front just goes over my head, can't actually understand how you're getting those chords from those melodies, get pretty lost as to what the notes of the chords are, I just know shapes and how to find the root. Need a better place to start, somewhere between 7th chords and all that fret board theory. I have a pretty hard time hearing changes in jazz enough to learn just the chords of a song because tempos, notes and bass are all over the place, it's pretty hard to get your head around it as a musician. Trying to explain an art form just doesn't make sense to me personally.
BEE- BOP, SKIDDL-EY- BOP!!
Jens, would it be right to say that in that Parker line, he is using leading tones to kind of give that jazzy chromatic sound without actually doing enclosures etc?
I think you will find that it is rarely the notes that really makes something sound like Jazz. Just like playing the pentatonic scale doesn't make something sound like Blues
Hey, there's an old Barney Kessel instructional video in which he talks about how the first thing any jazz musician needs is to be able to play what they hear in their head. So how do you do that? All the bebop legends and all the people we all listen to, when they performed, they listened to what they heard in their head and had enough mastery over the instrument to execute what they heard. So how do you develop that skill? That's the most necessary skill to develop right?
So make sure to play a lot of the things you want to hear by coming up with lines for your solos and transcribing the lessons of the people you know. There is no magic involved, if you are really familiar with the music you will be able to hear those meloides and play them.
@@JensLarsen Isn't there some specific method like listening to a lick, trying to find it in one go, not fiddling around until you find it or something? Isn't there a method to do it to get there faster rather than just learning some licks, which we already do anyway. I'm talking about instantly being able to play what you hear or play a phrase that someone else played. Like they do in Indian classical music.
@@aadityakiran_s I think this is the 3rd time you ask me the same question? If you are just looking for a shortcut then you will probably be disappointed. Maybe you should ask yourself if you really want to learn Jazz?
It is not magic it is a basic skill that you learn through training in Indian classical music and in Jazz, but you have to know the music and not sit around and wait for magic solutions.
@@JensLarsen I wasn't looking for any shortcut, Jazz is most of what I listen to but I've been transcribing licks for some time now but I still can't play instantly what I hear in my head. Just know how to figure out something by ear that's all. I wonder when that stage will come.
jens i got a question? in the video about solid body guitar as a jazz guitar. you said a stratocaster is good. but a strat has a single coil in the neck. would it be better to play an ibanez or epiphone they have a humbucker in the neck?
The strat tone on the neck lockup is great for this if you need something brighter then the bridge can work but most of the time you might want to turn the tone control down to take out the highs
@@JuddOakes i have a yamaha pacifica guitar. i bought a low guass
pick up for the neck. the guitar has a humberbucker in bridge. as it is i can get it?