How to Fuse Bebop with Modern Concepts

Bebop brought some pretty impactful changes to jazz — with complex harmonies and fast rhythms, it was very different from the trad jazz that came before. But there’s so much we as modern jazz musicians can learn from bebop, especially when we merge it with more modern concepts. 

Today we’re going to look at some etudes from Ryan’s resource with Jazz Lesson Videos titled 25 Modern Bebop Etudes. We’ll check out how you can use these concepts in your playing, but first, if you want to dive deeper on anything we talk about today, make sure to check out the resource, as well as our accompanying YouTube video “How to Fuse Bebop with Modern Concepts” to see how Ryan plays through these examples. 

Now let’s get playing!

Contents

Superimposing lines

Superimposing ii-Vs

Chromatic cells

False fingerings

Matrix cycle resolutions

Superimposing lines 

The first etude we're going to check out is over “Yardbird Suite.” This is one of Ryan’s favorite Charlie Parker tunes. 

The concept we're going to talk about in this etude is superimposing other chord changes on top of the ones that are given. Let's check it out.

So as you can see, we're definitely superimposing some other chord changes on top of the ones that Charlie Parker wrote. So over Dmaj7, we're playing right inside of the chord using C#s, F#s,  and everything diatonic to D major. 

Now when we start on G and C, we're also inside of the chords, but we're starting our circle of fourths pattern that's being played on top. So we do a three-note cell in G—G, A, Bb, G, and up to C. And then over D7, C7, and B7, we continue the circle of fourths and ignore the chord changes that are being given. Instead, we're playing our own on top. So after G and C, we do a four-note cell in F, and resolve to Bb. Then a four-note cell in Eb, and then resolve to Ab. 

The interesting thing about this is it has a little bit of tension with the harmony of the chord changes, but there are a lot of common tones with this as well. There's a Bb in C7 there's an Eb or D# in B7, and also there is an Ab, where I resolve in B7 or G sharp. So even though it has the pull of playing around the circle of fourths, it has some common tones as well. So we have that pull on top of those changes while still being inside of the chords a little bit, and we resolve to the sixth of that dominant chord. 

Superimposing ii-Vs

The second chord substitution area we’ll check out in this Etude is on bars 11, 12, and 13. In the second A section, where we had the turnaround going to E7, Charlie Parker has written D7, C7, B7#11. Instead, let’s play a regular ii-V-I to E. We’ll play F#m7 to B7b9 or B7alt to E. The line Ryan chose goes like this. 

Now we're taking the first measure as F#m7. We’ll start on 3 and then from the “and” of 4 in that first bar all the way through B7#11, we’re playing a tritone away on Fm7 (since the #11 is F, we’re just playing a scale based off of that) and then getting back to E. 

So this is kind of a tritone substitution, while it's also us superimposing a regular ii-V-I on something that Charlie Parker did not write that way. But the harmonic movement of that is still a ii-V-I, ultimately giving us a V-I resolution. 

So something you can do is play regular ii-V-I progressions when the ii isn't there, or also when the V isn't there. Then you substitute it ourselves rather than working with what's written. And when it all resolves, it goes to the same place, E7, and that’s the important part. 

That said, you can practice playing different kinds of ii-V-I progressions over other ii-Vs, or altered ii-Vs that are still going to the same one chord. It's a really cool trick, and it sounds inside and outside at the same time, while still resolving to the same tonic chord. 

Chromatic cells

Now let's move on to our second tune—we're going to check out an Etude on “I Hear a Rhapsody.” 

This tune is in two main key centers—D minor and F major, which are relative major and minor scales.

In this section, we're playing chromatic cells starting on F#, even though the first chord is F, because all of our chromatic cells are trying to land on Gm7. So we're kind of aiming for B flat here. 

With everything before that, we're really kind of thinking about the Dø7 chord or D7alt, our V-I. You notice a lot in this etude that we're superimposing some kind of altered V and then resolving a couple bars later. It's a cool way of playing different sounds on a progression that eventually leads to a new tonic chord. 

In this case, our new tonic chord is going to be Gm7 in this phrase. So we're playing D7alt and playing chromatic cells around D7alt, starting on that third. We're ignoring F major and Bb and really just playing two long bars of D7alt that resolves G. You can try this on any tune that has an altered progression, eventually leading to a new tonic chord. Just thinking about the whole progression as an altered V, play chromatically around that and then resolve. We can also start on a different note of D7alt and still get to the Gm, our tonic.

Here’s something to try: think about two altered bars of V and then resolving to a new tonic. 

False fingerings

For the second part of this etude, we're going to look at this second A section. This is a lick Ryan picked up from Joe Henderson, and it's sort of a false fingering technique. 

We're playing low D natural to the palm key D, with no octave key, so it shoots up an octave, but it has a kind of a different sound to it. It's a cool thing that you can do with any palm keynote when you want to jump up.

It’s an interesting thing and it has kind of a cool swing groove to it.

Try this with different spatula key notes, and see if you can get some cool rhythms out of it. It swings really hard. And you can check out more Joe Henderson to hear some of  these ways of fingering those notes. 

Matrix cycle resolutions

Moving on to our third etude, this one is going to be over Giant Steps. We're going to look at this second chorus, the first eight bars. You'll notice that we sometimes ignore the chord that we're playing on, if it gives us a different sound that eventually resolves to a new tonic chord. Giant Steps is one big sequence, right? We're going V-I, V-I, V-I and so on at different speeds in what we can call a matrix. 

This Giant Steps matrix is C#, F, and A for us on Bb instruments. So we're always going to those I chords with either ii-V or just V-I progressions. You can use these as resolution points anytime we have a new major chord. 

For example, if we look at what we played over A major to C7, to F major to Bm, to E7 to A, we are really looking for A major as our landing point. We're kind of ignoring the C7 chord and the F major chord. As you can see, we're playing a Bbm sound over F major that eventually resolves to A. Let's check that out.

Realistically we're not even thinking about those chord changes. We're really just thinking about how can we get to A major? We're playing Bbm over F. That doesn't really fit, but we know it will eventually get us to A7, because Bb melodic minor is a tritone substitution of E7, which is the V chord, eventually resolving to A. 

Even though we’ve placed this in a different way, it doesn't sound wrong, because the direction in which our ear is looking is for that next major chord. So it just sounds like a little bit of pull that eventually resolves to a new tonic chord.

At any speed that these progressions are going, even in a matrix like Giant Steps, where the chords are very outlined, each major chord sounds like a new home. That A major chord is a little bit of a stronger resolution point than the F because of the phrasing that we're using here, and we can superimpose that tritone substitution of the V chord toward the tonic chord that we're targeting.

Then that leads us to a new section where we can try and do the same thing over the next sequence of progressions. Just remember the number one thing is knowing where you're targeting to resolve a phrase. Usually resolving in three or four bars is kind of like the standard, and what you play before that doesn't matter as much as knowing when to resolve. So you can get away with playing a lot of different things on major chords, minor chords, dominant chords, as long as you know where you're going to land eventually. 

Well that’s all for today, but if you want to see how Ryan plays any of the examples we talked about, make sure to check out our accompanying YouTube video, “How to Fuse Bebop with Modern Concepts,” as well as the resource 25 Modern Bebop Etudes. We’ll see you next time!