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Exercise
— switch — The Cycle Shells with Color Rootless Voicings Bud Powell Left Hand The Turnaround Tritone Substitution Reharm the V Diatonic Sevenths Secondary Turnaround Minor ii–V–i Minor ii-V-i with ♭9 Minor Turnaround Diatonic 7ths in Minor Backdoor Progression Twelve-Bar Blues Minor Blues Bird Blues Blues Stride LH Blues Walking Bass Rhythm Changes Boogie Blues Shuffle Rhythm Changes Bridge Blues Rootless (Evans) Coltrane Changes Blues Pedal Point Standard Intro Blues Block Chords Two-Handed Comping Blues Freddie Green Charleston Comping Bebop Blues Comp Freddie Green Comping Blues Guide Tones Walking Bass Charleston Blues Tritone-Sub Walking Bass Bud Powell Blues Drop Two Two-Handed Modern Blues Stride Bass Stride with Melody Quartal Voicings Upper Structure Triads Hybrid Voicings Kenny Barron Voicing Sus Chord Vamp The Mu Chord Maiden Voyage Chord 4-Way Close Pedal Point Lydian Vamp Phrygian Vamp Bossa Nova Guide Tones Bebop Scale Dominant Bebop Dorian Bebop Bebop Minor The Enclosure ii-V-I Lick Pentatonic Patterns Plain Locrian Melodic Minor Dorian ♭2 Lydian Augmented Lydian Dominant Mixolydian ♭6 Locrian ♮2 Altered Scale Harmonic Minor Phrygian Dominant Half-Whole Diminished Whole-Tone Scale Minor Blues Major Blues Aeolian (Natural Minor) Dorian Mode Ionian (Major) Lydian Mode Minor Pentatonic Mixolydian Mode Phrygian Mode Whole-Half Diminished
(MED. SWING ♩=80 )
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Jazz Piano · Tonic-Minor Bebop Vocabulary
Bebop Minor
Melodic minor + chromatic between 5 and 6, all twelve keys
Play exercise
Eight notes per octave: 1, 2, ♭3, 4, 5, ♯5, 6, 7 .
C bebop minor: C D E♭ F G G♯ A B C . The
chromatic between 5 and 6 (G♯ in C) is the bebop trick — it
pushes scale-step counting from 7 notes to 8 per octave, which
means ascending eighth notes from the root land 1, ♭3,
5, 6 — the minor sixth chord — on every downbeat. The
chromatic passes; the chord tones land.
This is the tonic-minor bebop scale, for the i chord voiced
as m6 or m(maj7). Distinct from the dorian bebop scale
(which keeps the ♭7 and adds its chromatic between ♭7 and the
root, for m7 chords): different chord context, different
chromatic placement.
Now 2 octaves, both hands — the same pattern extended up and back with fingering marked above every note in each hand.
Intervals 1 – 2 – ♭3 – 4 – 5 – ♯5 – 6 – 7. Melodic minor + chromatic ♯5.
Why ♯5 Eight notes = the m6 chord tones (1, ♭3, 5, 6) on every downbeat.
Jump to
Cm Fm B♭m E♭m A♭m D♭m F♯m Bm Em Am Dm Gm
X
X
12fr
F
m
X
X
12fr
F
m
X
X
17fr
B
m
X
X
17fr
B
m
E
m
X
X
10fr
X
X
10fr
E
m
A
m
X
X
15fr
X
X
15fr
A
m
X
X
13fr
F
m
X
X
13fr
F
m
X
X
18fr
B
m
X
X
18fr
B
m
X
X
11fr
E
m
X
X
11fr
E
m
X
X
16fr
A
m
A
m
X
X
16fr
X
X
14fr
G
m
X
X
14fr
G
m
The Daily Drill
Land on the downbeat
3 min Play one key with a metronome ticking quarters. Eight eighth notes from the root, and the chord tones land on the click every time. The ♯5 passes; you don't feel it as a tension, just as motion. 8 min Cycle three keys at a time. ♩ = 90 to start. Don't rush the chromatic — it's a passing note, not a destination. 4 min Compare to dorian bebop : play both scales back-to-back in the same key. Bebop minor raises the 7 and adds a chromatic between 5 and 6; dorian bebop keeps the ♭7 and adds its chromatic between ♭7 and root. Different chords, different landings. 3 min Apply: improvise a bebop line over a Cm6 vamp using bebop minor. The line should breathe — long swung eighths interrupted by triplet enclosures, with the bebop scale as the connective tissue. Three bebop scales, three chromatics All the bebop scales (major bebop , dominant bebop , dorian bebop , bebop minor ) work the same way: add one chromatic to a parent scale so it has 8 notes instead of 7, placed so that chord tones land on strong beats. Major bebop : ♯5 between 5 and 6 (over I major — downbeats spell the major 6th chord). Dominant bebop : ♮7 between ♭7 and root (over V7). Dorian bebop : also ♮7 between ♭7 and root, but over m7. Bebop minor (this exercise): ♯5 added to melodic minor — ascending from the root, the downbeats spell the minor 6th chord (1, ♭3, 5, 6), the tonic-minor sound.
Eight notes per octave. The chromatic is what makes the line bebop. Same trick, four different scales, one purpose.