Should you learn how to play “bebop”?
Yes, almost certainly. But it depends what you mean by “bebop”. In this post I first explain why you should learn bebop ‘language’ and then summarise what that means. To begin, you need to be able to distinguish between the bebop style of jazz played since the 1940s and the rhythmic, harmonic, and structural practices that grew from that style.
Bebop: more than just an historical style
As a style of jazz, bebop was played in the 1940s and 50s most famously by Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Kenny Clarke, et al. Bebop, like all the other styles of jazz, never stopped and people still play it today. But some of the most prominent hallmarks of the style have persisted as a kind of foundational core to the sound of mainstream jazz. Let’s look at why you should learn them.
Why you should learn bebop: it is powerful
Put simply, in many places, like Australia and North America, the ability to fluently improvise through chord changes using a bop-derived approach is a key to getting into prestigious university and college programs and is generally fundamental to being taken seriously as a jazz player. Want to be respected at jam sessions, pass that audition, or get a solo chair in big band? Learn to solo fluently through chord changes.
That is not to say that this is how everyone must play. Everyone is free to express themselves as they wish. Imagine how boring jazz would become if everyone played just the same way. However, even if you have no plans to play mainstream jazz or bebop in your future, you should become able to do it and then set it aside if you want to. It is a key to opportunities, a privileging way of being able to play. Make your choices artistic ones and not because you never took the time or effort to learn what jazz musician, educator, and musicologist David Baker called the “lingua franca” of jazz. Another musician and musicologist, Derek Baily (1992), derided bebop-language as formulaic, dull, and its use in education as authoritarian. That’s fine, and it can be those things. Learn how to do it, then make informed creative choices to play whatever you want to play after that.
What kinds of bebop thing you should learn?
A full discussion of the bebop style is beyond the scope of this post. There are excellent resources available, however. One of the best is probably Scott Deveaux’s book The Birth of Bebop: A Social and Musical History (1997, University of California Press). Another good useful one is David Baker’s Jazz Improvisation (1983).
Here is a very quick overview of just a couple of features of bebop playing.
The most-focused upon elements of bebop tend to be harmonic and melodic. The bebop style heralded a strong shift in favour of “vertical” improvisation. That is, focusing chord-by-chord on the underlying harmony of a tune and playing something different for just about every chord as the chords change. That is instead of a “horizontal” approach which can include key centre playing in which a single scale is used across multiple chords or even all the chords of a tune – like using a major blues scale throughout a blues progression. Horizontal improvising also encompasses melodic approaches in which improvised solos are more closely based on the head of a tune, like highly decorated variations or “hot choruses”.
The other important, and socially powerful in the world of jazz education, aspect of bebop-derived jazz is the predominance of long streams of quavers (eight notes) punctuated by syncopations and triplets. These lines are further syncopated through off beat and eccentric accents and articulations. Again, please listen to the music and read about it elsewhere.
Just learn it (and discard later if you wish)
The point here is a pragmatic one: you need to be able to do these things unless you are comfortable with missing out on a lot of opportunities. You don’t need to make it the only thing you do. Established jazz musicians play in all sorts of other ways. But be like them, and be able to do this.
Learn how to solo through chord changes.
REFERENCES
Bailey, D. (1992). Improvisation: its nature and practice in music. London: Da Capo.
Baker, D. (1981). Jazz pedagogy: a comprehensive method of jazz education for teacher and student. Van Nuys, CA: Alfred Music Publishing.
Baker, D. (1983). Jazz Improvisation: a comprehensive method of study for all players (Revised ed.). Van Nuys, CA: Alfred Publishing Co.
DeVeaux, S. (1997). The birth of bebop. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Johnson, D (interviewer) (2007). The basics of David Baker, part 2. https://indianapublicmedia.org/nightlights/the-basics-of-baker-part-2-our-conversation-with-jazz-educator-david-baker.php.
