The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #1

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    Hello guys! i got this idea of playing phrases that are part of the typical bebop language , sharing 'em in this thread , or maybe just suggest transcription material of little phrases , devices etc that are essential clichés of the bebop language !
    What do you think ?

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    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #2

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    Well, this is a great idea of course, and it is something I wondered about many years ago when seeking out this elusive "language" of Jazz... I think I was expecting to find something like a lexicon of the top 100 phrases, licks, lines, runs, patterns etc... But I kept running into suggestions like: "Go to the records, it's all there..... learn all the Bird heads, it's all there.... get the 3 volumes of How to Play Bebop by David Baker, it's all there....."

    After years of searching, I think we all end up realising that there is no one source that serves to provide us with all the material we seek. And I trawled through a dozen Jazz Lines books before I realised that every one of the Greats rolled their own lines, sometimes based on some older lines, sometimes not so much. This is actually a good thing, it makes for such diversity that we can listen to different players forever without finding everything overly predictable. I just wish I had realised it in the beginning, I mean, when I was a kid bugging out on Kind Of Blue (which I still do!), the way all the players were speaking the same language but with very different stylings was the clue I should have picked up on. Listen to what Trane has in common with Cannon, or even Miles with Bill Evans.

    Whether it's phrasing, note choices or ways to embellish target tones. There's essentially only a small number of common "mini lines" (the bebop lick, the honeysuckle lick, ways to approach or encircle chord tones etc etc). Beyond that is the hard bit - what to do with them! Linking Jazz words to make great Jazz sentences into great paragraphs and full stories requires years of shedding those little ideas all over the neck in all kinds of contexts using your own unique approach and imagination.

    So before people start sharing tips for what material to start shedding, I caution the newcomer to be very careful about choosing their weapons. I spent a year trying to improvise using certain lines I learned from the David Baker books, only to realise I didn't really like them! I eventually turned them into something I did like, but I would have been better off stealing "words" from my favourite players, and learning to speak Jazz with these words. I just can't imagine that any great, or even "good" players developed their craft from collecting hundreds of lines from books. I'm pretty sure they get further by stealing a few ideas from their fave players, getting inside the DNA of these ideas, and then developing their own.

    That said, in the early days, there is still much to be learned from analysing what makes the old cliches tick. So, yeah, let's see what the good folk of this forum bring to the table on this one !

  4. #3

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    one of my favorite things for this are the little 5-4-3-2 phrases Barry Harris teaches. They're like little tiles you can put together in endless ways

  5. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by joe2758
    one of my favorite things for this are the little 5-4-3-2 phrases Barry Harris teaches. They're like little tiles you can put together in endless ways
    Can you please share an example , that sounds very interresting !

  6. #5

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    Nothing more bebop then starting a phrase with the syncopated upbeat sliding into an 8th note triplet of chord tones (135, 357, 57R, 7R3) So target in each note of the chord from a half step below with a syncopated eighth note that becomes an eighth note triplet .

  7. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by NSJ
    Nothing more bebop then starting a phrase with the syncopated upbeat sliding into an 8th note triplet of chord tones (135, 357, 57R, 7R3) So target in each note of the chord from a half step below with a syncopated eighth note that becomes an eighth note triplet .
    Yeaah i get what you say , especialy on the II , at least that's how i do it , semi tone lower syncoped to 8th and an arpegios , can be continued with a chromatic leading to the 3rd of the V !
    but a video would help a great deal bro if you can do that for the thread would be very awesome ! just to make sure we get it !

  8. #7

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    sure man, here are the ones that I have worked into my bones for a dominant 7 chord:

    so "5" starts on the 5th degree, down to the 7th (major 7 even though dominant chord, more like a neighboring tone), tonic, 4th, then 3rd. just plain old 8th notes at first. so that's your "5"

    "4" starts on the 4th degree, then down to 2nd, b3, 3rd

    "3" starts on 3rd goes down to 5th, b7th, 2nd

    "2" can just be 2, b7, 7, 1

    so run 5 into 4 into 3 into 2: 5th, down to maj 7th, 1, 4 (into "4 now"), 2, b3, 3 (into "3" now), down to 5, b7, 2nd (into "2" now), b7, 7, 1


    so now just come up with endless combos. use them to start and end scale lines or arpeggios or other licks you know etc. A ton you can do with simple ideas that have been shedded to death.

  9. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by joe2758
    sure man, here are the ones that I have worked into my bones for a dominant 7 chord:

    so "5" starts on the 5th degree, down to the 7th (major 7 even though dominant chord, more like a neighboring tone), tonic, 4th, then 3rd. just plain old 8th notes at first. so that's your "5"

    "4" starts on the 4th degree, then down to 2nd, b3, 3rd

    "3" starts on 3rd goes down to 5th, b7th, 2nd

    "2" can just be 2, b7, 7, 1

    so run 5 into 4 into 3 into 2: 5th, down to maj 7th, 1, 4 (into "4 now"), 2, b3, 3 (into "3" now), down to 5, b7, 2nd (into "2" now), b7, 7, 1


    so now just come up with endless combos. use them to start and end scale lines or arpeggios or other licks you know etc. A ton you can do with simple ideas that have been shedded to death.
    thanks for sharing bro , but i just would like to hear how it sounds before delving into the harmonical content of it , can you share something we can hear ?
    I just would like this thread to be ear oriented the intellectual explanations come after the fact !
    Last edited by mooncef; 09-27-2016 at 11:40 AM.

  10. #9

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  11. #10

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    Can't make videos now, sorry, working 12 hour days but it's not that hard to figure out , honestly.

    The other thing I picked up from Pasquale Grasso , which I'm sure is a Barry Harris thing is for note chromatic runs from each degree of the major key. We know which scale degrees are major and which scale degrees are minor obviously. On the minor scale degrees, just go up or down chromatically

    E.g., 2nd degree of C major is D, which is minor

    D-Eb-E=F and down the same way from F back to D ( chromatically in half steps)


    4th° of C major is F which is major

    'pattern is whole step, half half ascending
    F-G-Ab-A

    descending down from the eight would be slightly different
    A-G-Gb-F

    You can come by and scale degrees and get a whole bunch of combinations of chromatic Four runs. Again, it's a very simple concept once you know your major and minor scale degrees .

    EDIT: Say you are in C major, E is the third scale degree and A is the sixth scale degree, both are minor .

    follow the rule and play a four note ascsending chromatic run first from the E, then from the A. Those eight notes will get you one of the most identifiable Thelonious Monk tunes ever
    Last edited by NSJ; 09-27-2016 at 11:55 AM.

  12. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by joe2758
    sure man, here are the ones that I have worked into my bones for a dominant 7 chord:

    so "5" starts on the 5th degree, down to the 7th (major 7 even though dominant chord, more like a neighboring tone), tonic, 4th, then 3rd. just plain old 8th notes at first. so that's your "5"

    "4" starts on the 4th degree, then down to 2nd, b3, 3rd

    "3" starts on 3rd goes down to 5th, b7th, 2nd

    "2" can just be 2, b7, 7, 1

    so run 5 into 4 into 3 into 2: 5th, down to maj 7th, 1, 4 (into "4 now"), 2, b3, 3 (into "3" now), down to 5, b7, 2nd (into "2" now), b7, 7, 1


    so now just come up with endless combos. use them to start and end scale lines or arpeggios or other licks you know etc. A ton you can do with simple ideas that have been shedded to death.
    Bro can you give a harmonic contest (chords ) and intervals to play , i still don't get it is this sort of a voice leading guideline ?

  13. #12

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    Yeah the examples above are all over dominant 7th, or ii-V7 since we combine them in bebop often. so, no, it doesn't really have to do with voiceleading-- more like a way to get out of running scales and arpeggios and more toward playing phrases that sound like "language."

  14. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by joe2758
    Yeah the examples above are all over dominant 7th, or ii-V7 since we combine them in bebop often. so, no, it doesn't really have to do with voiceleading-- more like a way to get out of running scales and arpeggios and more toward playing phrases that sound like "language."
    Ohh i see i'll try those , i those at first you were talking about cells (as in randy vincent's book)

  15. #14

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    Yeah, it's just basic intervals associated with the major scale that can be made dominant or minor as necessary. There's no need to think about "voice leading" at this level, which is that of lines. If you know the difference between a major seventh in a minor seventh and a major third and the minor third , and going up in either whole steps are half steps from the root, that's pretty much the basics right there. It's just 12 notes at the end of the day .

    The real work is in the phrasing, the accents, using legato as a baseline artculation, reserving staccato for emphasis, Playing loud versus playing soft, Learning how to do ascending and descending slurs, displacing rhythms, syncopating lines . That's what makes Jazz jazz and bebop bebop .

  16. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by NSJ
    Yeah, it's just basic intervals associated with the major scale that can be made dominant or minor as necessary. There's no need to think about "voice leading" at this level, which is that of lines. If you know the difference between a major seventh in a minor seventh and a major third and the minor third , and going up in either whole steps are half steps from the root, that's pretty much the basics right there. It's just 12 notes at the end of the day .

    The real work is in the phrasing, the accents, using legato as a baseline artculation, reserving staccato for emphasis, Playing loud versus playing soft, Learning how to do ascending and descending slurs, displacing rhythms, syncopating lines . That's what makes Jazz jazz and bebop bebop .
    Yep i get you , voice leading is the glue that makes lines , but hear we are focusing on the bebop phrasing ! i have to try those intervals and see how they mix together !

  17. #16

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    Quote Originally Posted by joe2758
    sure man, here are the ones that I have worked into my bones for a dominant 7 chord....
    I think a video demonstrating this would be grand. ;o)

  18. #17

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    I'll see if I can find some time for a quick one. I feel bad I haven't had time to continue with the Mickey Baker videos, but almost all my precious little practice/me time has been going toward this wedding gig (very much non-jazz) I have coming up. This shouldn't take long though; I'll see what I can do

  19. #18

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    Quote Originally Posted by joe2758
    I'll see if I can find some time for a quick one. I feel bad I haven't had time to continue with the Mickey Baker videos, but almost all my precious little practice/me time has been going toward this wedding gig (very much non-jazz) I have coming up. This shouldn't take long though; I'll see what I can do
    Thanks!

  20. #19

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    Here's the complete Barry Harris note sequences , 54321

    5: 5 7 1 11 3 (5 as the highest note)
    4: 11 9 #9 3
    3: 3 5 b7 9
    2: 9 b7 7 1
    1: R 7 b7 9 13 5
    Last edited by NSJ; 09-27-2016 at 03:40 PM.

  21. #20

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    The other thing is, if tonal music is a basic V-I cadence, you can always spruce up your V7 lines by mixing and matching basic V7 mixo (scales or arpeggios ) with four (4!) different melodic minor based lines built on

    a half step above the V7 (eg, instead of G7, b9 melodic minor or Ab mm)
    a whole step below the V7 (eg, F7 mm instead of G7)
    a P4 above the V7 (eg, C mm)
    a P5 above the V7 (eg, D mm)

    lots and lots of Chromaticism there. Mix and match to taste. You are basically playing 4 modes of melodic minor at the same time if you mix and match em. So much freedom within a very simple framework to remember it .

    all that is only half the job --what to play.

    Im convinced that It is only precursor to the real beauty of this music --how to play.

    thats what I've been shedding, (and will be foe the next several months, solid ) after putting in copious time on the instrument, the fingerboard, the nuts and bolts of what to play (scales arps intervals chords cadences progressions subs etc).

    Imfeel like ill I'll actually be tenuously ready foe prime time then. And only then.

    What to play is only the beginning .

    thr art lies in how to play it

  22. #21

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    the barry harris vids are just gold

    the harmony of the line is not as important as its rhythm - its even more about generating the relevant rhythmical effects than it is about making pretty tunes

    great post! thanks joe

    i'm finding that the bridge of rhythm is a great place to hear this stuff start to happen - so that first vid is right on the money for me right now.

  23. #22

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    Great post Mooncef. Though I'm not sure I get NSJ's post.

  24. #23

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    Navdeep, where did you learn the "1" phrase? I don't think it's on the DVD? I look forward to trying it out. I'll throw it into the mix if I get to make this vid
    Last edited by joe2758; 09-28-2016 at 09:40 AM.

  25. #24

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    Quote Originally Posted by NSJ
    Here's the complete Barry Harris note sequences , 54321

    5: 5 7 1 11 3 (5 as the highest note)
    4: 11 9 #9 3
    3: 3 5 b7 9
    2: 9 b7 7 1
    1: R 7 b7 9 13 5
    Thanks! That's a handy summary.

  26. #25

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    Quote Originally Posted by joe2758
    Navdeep, where did you learn the "1" phrase? I don't think it's on the DVD? I look forward to trying it out. I'll throw it into the mix if I get to make this vid
    Just talking with a guy who attended one of Barry's seminars here once. He was invited wants to be a guest lecturer at Columbia college here in Chicago. I don't have any of his videos, but one day.

    I played all of them and it made total sense to me . All of it passed the ear test to me .

    I've also met young kids in their 20s here who are really good players who would love nothing more than to go to New York to attend his weekly seminars. That's really cool to hear .

    The guy is pushing 90 man . Let's hope 90 doesn't push back . Complete fucking genius of the highest caliber .

    Edit: I should add that I've studied Barry's materials only vicariously through Alan, Roni and Pasquale. I should really really get those videos and listen to his wisdom first hand. For guitar students, I recommend Alan's book immensely.
    Last edited by NSJ; 09-28-2016 at 10:54 AM.