← All exercises
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 )
60
Jazz Piano · Bebop Vocabulary
ii-V-I Lick
A canonical chord-tone melodic phrase, twelve keys
Play exercise
One of the most common bebop melodic shapes for a ii-V-I:
descend the Dorian scale on the ii (5-4-♭3-9), arpeggiate
chord tones on the V (5-3-♭7-13), then hold the 3 of the I as
resolution. Eight eighth notes for the ii-V (4 each), one whole
note for the I.
The phrase works in every key because the chord-tone targets
stay the same relative to each chord. The 13 of V (E for G7) is
the same note as the 3 of I (E for Cmaj7) — the line lands on
that note on the V and just holds it through the resolution.
Bebop ears expect chord-tone landings on downbeats; this is
what that sounds like, in distilled form.
ii line 5 – 4 – ♭3 – 9 (Dorian scale, descending)
V line 5 – 3 – ♭7 – 13 (chord-tone arpeggio with 13 resolution)
Jump to
C F B♭ E♭ A♭ D♭ G♭ B E A D G
C
3
2
X
O
O
O
D
m
7
2
1
1
X
X
O
G
7
3
2
1
O
O
O
F
3
2
1
X
X
O
G
m
7
1
3
1
1
1
1
3fr
C
7
3
2
4
1
O
O
B
1
3
2
4
X
X
C
m
7
1
3
1
2
1
X
3fr
F
7
1
3
1
2
1
1
E
1
2
3
4
X
X
F
m
7
1
3
1
1
1
1
B
7
1
2
1
3
1
X
A
1
1
1
3
X
X
B
m
7
1
3
1
2
1
X
E
7
1
3
2
4
X
X
D
4
3
1
1
1
X
E
m
7
1
2
3
4
X
X
1
3
1
2
1
1
4fr
A
7
4
3
2
1
X
X
G
A
m
7
1
3
1
1
1
1
4fr
D
7
2
3
1
4
X
X
1
3
2
4
X
X
B
C
m
7
4
2
1
X
O
O
F
7
1
3
1
2
1
1
E
3
1
2
O
O
X
F
m
7
1
3
1
1
1
1
B
7
2
1
3
4
X
O
2
1
3
X
O
O
A
B
m
7
1
3
1
2
1
X
E
7
2
1
O
O
O
O
1
2
3
X
X
O
D
E
m
7
2
O
O
O
O
O
A
7
1
3
X
O
O
O
G
4
3
2
1
X
X
2fr
A
m
7
2
1
X
O
O
O
2
1
3
X
X
O
D
7
The Daily Drill
Hear the common tone
3 min Pick one key. Play just the ii line, then just the V line, then the I resolution. Notice how each ends on a note that's already in the next chord. 10 min Cycle three keys at a time. Play the lick straight through, then improvise a variation over the same chord progression. Same skeleton, different ornamentation. 4 min Transpose by ear, not by reading. Pick a key you've never played a lick in (E♭ minor?), think about what scale tones "5, 4, ♭3, 9" map to, and play it slowly. 3 min Apply to a tune. The ii-V in Autumn Leaves first eight bars — play this lick over each ii-V as it goes by. Why these particular chord tones The 5, 4, ♭3, and 9 of ii are all diatonic to the parent major scale of the I. The 5, 3, ♭7, and 13 of V are diatonic to the same parent scale (the 13 of V equals the 3 of I, which is why the line resolves so cleanly — they're literally the same pitch). So the entire lick stays within the parent major scale. That diatonic alignment is what makes the line sound "inside" rather than chromatic; bebop adds chromatic passing tones as variations , but the skeleton is always diatonic.
One lick, twelve keys. The bebop ear, modelled in eight notes.