This belongs on a plaque in every music school in the country:
--
There is no way to write “how to get through 8 bars of ‘All the Things You Are’ using a bebop formula” because there is no bebop formula. Each melody simply has to be a bebop melody for the music to be true bebop. There are no shortcuts."
This is a brilliant post; I love the comparison of bebop moving jazz forward to counterpoint moving European composition forward.
The great guitarist Ted Dunbar used to make all of his students learn a list of 38 bebop heads. For the guitar students, we had to play three of them ("Con Alma", "Giant Steps", "Moment's Notice") as chord melodies. Happy to share the list and chord melodies!
Here it is! If you're a guitarist, try playing chord melodies where noted; basic chord voicings will do, nothing fancy. Ted encouraged us to play these every day.
Ted Dunbar’s List of 38 Bebop Heads To Play Every Day
Ethan, Barry Harris used to frequent the 11 St. Bar in Manhattan. A few times I sat at his table and he graciously indulged my questions as a non-musician. Surprising answers! One time he regaled us with Monk stories before sitting in on Round Midnight and Ruby. The pianist who runs Smalls was there often. He told me about the bar: "I fucking love this place."
I loved this post and the comments it generated! The simile of bebop (in jazz) to counterpoint (in EAM) is apt; more than that, bebop is a contrapuntal practice in itself, with the handling of passing tones and enclosures crucial to controlling time and space in an improvised line through harmony.
I agree that learning the heads (especially Bird's melodies) in all the keys is one of the deepest dives into that music and best use of one's practice time. Bird's blues lines in particular, but also the rhythm changes heads and then proceeding to everything else. Any one piece of Bird's music, whether a melody or a solo, can be a course of study in itself.
Ethan, when you talk of "bebop melody", I think you mean the small figures in the motive to sub-phrase dimension that make up many of Bird's melodies, or Barry's "number figures"?
It's also good to get the downward dominant scales with "rules" applied, major and minor 6th diminished in both directions, and arpeggios nailed down, among other things. This is good for general technique. To my mind, these are not so much the ideas as what connects the ideas (melodies) together.
In the words of Walter Bishop Jr., "Once you get it under your fingers, and into your ears, then you start to hear things." That's the sequence!
I don't remember who told my friend & I to start practicing Bird heads through the keys (might've been Billy Harper?) but it was definitely a game changer for me! (BTW Brian, I sat next to you once when subbing at a Charlie Persip big band rehearsal—it made a big impression on me!)
I love it! Both of these references are in my stacks. I spent a lot of time with the Lydian Chromatic Concept in my early years. The "river trip" discussion is seared into long-term memory. It's no wonder that I wasn't a first-call pianist at jam sessions here.
George Russell and Ferruccio Busoni both taught at NEC. Ethan, are you able to share any anecdotes about the latter composer? I continue to study his music after many years; marvelous scores published by Breitkopf & Härtel. Grazie. JA
Thanks very much. Yes, Marc is the grand master of this music. I've learned a lot by listening to him, even though I could never hit his standard of performance.
I don't think anyone has an answer for this beyond learning the tunes and what you can of the solos (they are very difficult of course, maybe too difficult). At some point maybe one's ears tune up and one can hear whether the phrases are "true" or not
For me the foundation was learning a bunch of Bird melodies in 12 keys. Crucial was moving to the next key BEFORE you have a chance to memorize the individual notes, which forces you to a) learn the blueprint of the melody, and b) learn the hell out of the landmarks of all those keys. After I'd spent several months doing this on a handful of tunes (Scrapple, Donna Lee, Anthropology, & Billie's Bounce were the first batch I think) I suddenly noticed I was playing real bebop-sounding lines (and in weird keys). I still make all my students do this.
Classical music person, here. We are not, by and large, asked to do this, but I've been doing the learn-it-in-all-keys-throughout-the-range starting right after the first read-through in the original key with flute etudes and choro tunes for a while now and I really don't understand why classical pedagogues have missed the boat on this. You really do, as you say, learn how every note in the tune functions and what the stylistic tropes are.
Ethan's mention of Foster playing with Barry Harris brought up one of those indelible memories from the 11th St. Bar. Mr. Harris sat in on a couple of tunes at the end of the night. The place was filled with his students including a young Japanese female drummer. Barry gave an impromptu master class on reharmonizing A Nightingale Sings in Berkley Square.
I was outside having a smoke when Barry was escorted to his car. I told him how much pleasure his music had given me over the years. He told me that he had visited Ben Riley recently who did not recognize him. I asked why and Barry said, "we old." As his car pulled away I put palms together and bowed. As his car pulled away I turned around and the Japanese drummer was doing the same. I think she understood.
Brian, as I have mentioned I don't play and cannot sing. But I've been listening to bop melodies since I was 16. I sing sing Ornithology and even Ko Ko in my head. What up with that?
I remember you comparing the Blues to European counterpoint and that idea has infected how I think about literally everything. I can’t cook dinner without wondering what the most formative and fundamental type of dish to make is.
This belongs on a plaque in every music school in the country:
--
There is no way to write “how to get through 8 bars of ‘All the Things You Are’ using a bebop formula” because there is no bebop formula. Each melody simply has to be a bebop melody for the music to be true bebop. There are no shortcuts."
--
Thanks and right on!
thanks Mark!
This is a brilliant post; I love the comparison of bebop moving jazz forward to counterpoint moving European composition forward.
The great guitarist Ted Dunbar used to make all of his students learn a list of 38 bebop heads. For the guitar students, we had to play three of them ("Con Alma", "Giant Steps", "Moment's Notice") as chord melodies. Happy to share the list and chord melodies!
Love Ted Dunbar. By all means drop the tune list here if it just a copy/paste!
Here it is! If you're a guitarist, try playing chord melodies where noted; basic chord voicings will do, nothing fancy. Ted encouraged us to play these every day.
Ted Dunbar’s List of 38 Bebop Heads To Play Every Day
1. Airegin
2. Anthropology
3. Au Privave
4. Bebop
5. Budo
6. Ceora
7. Cheryl
8. Con Alma (chord melody)
9. Confirmation
10. Cookin' at the Continental
11. Daahoud
12. Dat Dere
13. Dewey Square
14. Dig
15. Donna Lee
16. Four
17. Freedom Jazz Dance
18. Giant Steps (chord melody)
19. Gingerbread Boy
20. Groovin’ High
21. Half Nelson
22. Jordu
23. Joy Spring
24. Little Willie leaps
25. Milestones (old)
26. Moment’s Notice (chord melody)
27. Oleo
28. Opus de Funk
29. Ornithology
30. Parisian Thoroughfare
31. Prince Albert
32. Quicksilver
33. Room 608
34. Scrapple from the Apple
35. Sippin’ at Belle's
36. Tricotism
37. Vierd Blues
38. Yardbird Suite
Amazing, thank you
Here is a spotify list of all those tunes, plus some from Ethan’s post Bird is the word, where those were not already included.
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2mHhKr7siDGkq40tSNWucL?si=2894f618385947fa
Fantastic!
please do!
Ethan, Barry Harris used to frequent the 11 St. Bar in Manhattan. A few times I sat at his table and he graciously indulged my questions as a non-musician. Surprising answers! One time he regaled us with Monk stories before sitting in on Round Midnight and Ruby. The pianist who runs Smalls was there often. He told me about the bar: "I fucking love this place."
That must be my buddy Spike Wilner. And we miss Barry Harris…
Yes, Spike Wilner. A fellow Zen practitioner.
I loved this post and the comments it generated! The simile of bebop (in jazz) to counterpoint (in EAM) is apt; more than that, bebop is a contrapuntal practice in itself, with the handling of passing tones and enclosures crucial to controlling time and space in an improvised line through harmony.
I agree that learning the heads (especially Bird's melodies) in all the keys is one of the deepest dives into that music and best use of one's practice time. Bird's blues lines in particular, but also the rhythm changes heads and then proceeding to everything else. Any one piece of Bird's music, whether a melody or a solo, can be a course of study in itself.
Ethan, when you talk of "bebop melody", I think you mean the small figures in the motive to sub-phrase dimension that make up many of Bird's melodies, or Barry's "number figures"?
It's also good to get the downward dominant scales with "rules" applied, major and minor 6th diminished in both directions, and arpeggios nailed down, among other things. This is good for general technique. To my mind, these are not so much the ideas as what connects the ideas (melodies) together.
In the words of Walter Bishop Jr., "Once you get it under your fingers, and into your ears, then you start to hear things." That's the sequence!
I don't remember who told my friend & I to start practicing Bird heads through the keys (might've been Billy Harper?) but it was definitely a game changer for me! (BTW Brian, I sat next to you once when subbing at a Charlie Persip big band rehearsal—it made a big impression on me!)
Is the "bebop melody" a question of "I know it when I hear it" or does it have ballpark characteristics you could point to?
Yeah, I think it’s just the stuff Bird and Bud played, really. There are others, but especially those two.
I love it! Both of these references are in my stacks. I spent a lot of time with the Lydian Chromatic Concept in my early years. The "river trip" discussion is seared into long-term memory. It's no wonder that I wasn't a first-call pianist at jam sessions here.
George Russell and Ferruccio Busoni both taught at NEC. Ethan, are you able to share any anecdotes about the latter composer? I continue to study his music after many years; marvelous scores published by Breitkopf & Härtel. Grazie. JA
I really love Busoni. Best for me are the late piano pieces, collected now on a superb Marc-André Hamelin set. I wrote about this a long time ago, this review is due for a proper edit https://www.talkhouse.com/ethan-iverson-talks-marc-andre-hamelins-busoni-late-piano-music/
Thanks very much. Yes, Marc is the grand master of this music. I've learned a lot by listening to him, even though I could never hit his standard of performance.
Great, what is the best way of practicing bebop?
After learning tunes
I don't think anyone has an answer for this beyond learning the tunes and what you can of the solos (they are very difficult of course, maybe too difficult). At some point maybe one's ears tune up and one can hear whether the phrases are "true" or not
For me the foundation was learning a bunch of Bird melodies in 12 keys. Crucial was moving to the next key BEFORE you have a chance to memorize the individual notes, which forces you to a) learn the blueprint of the melody, and b) learn the hell out of the landmarks of all those keys. After I'd spent several months doing this on a handful of tunes (Scrapple, Donna Lee, Anthropology, & Billie's Bounce were the first batch I think) I suddenly noticed I was playing real bebop-sounding lines (and in weird keys). I still make all my students do this.
Classical music person, here. We are not, by and large, asked to do this, but I've been doing the learn-it-in-all-keys-throughout-the-range starting right after the first read-through in the original key with flute etudes and choro tunes for a while now and I really don't understand why classical pedagogues have missed the boat on this. You really do, as you say, learn how every note in the tune functions and what the stylistic tropes are.
(And yes I know Donna Lee is not really a Bird melody but still good language)
Ethan's mention of Foster playing with Barry Harris brought up one of those indelible memories from the 11th St. Bar. Mr. Harris sat in on a couple of tunes at the end of the night. The place was filled with his students including a young Japanese female drummer. Barry gave an impromptu master class on reharmonizing A Nightingale Sings in Berkley Square.
I was outside having a smoke when Barry was escorted to his car. I told him how much pleasure his music had given me over the years. He told me that he had visited Ben Riley recently who did not recognize him. I asked why and Barry said, "we old." As his car pulled away I put palms together and bowed. As his car pulled away I turned around and the Japanese drummer was doing the same. I think she understood.
Brian, as I have mentioned I don't play and cannot sing. But I've been listening to bop melodies since I was 16. I sing sing Ornithology and even Ko Ko in my head. What up with that?
Supporting Jimmy Jones in the photo you posted is my late husband, John Levy on bass.
I remember you comparing the Blues to European counterpoint and that idea has infected how I think about literally everything. I can’t cook dinner without wondering what the most formative and fundamental type of dish to make is.
Inversion!