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Joined: Feb 2008
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What is the difficulty level of most of the Bud Powell faster bebop masterpieces? I find that I can play sixteenths pretty clean but I can't swing as fast as Bud Powell can. Right now, I am trying to play some bebop lines of "Get Happy", which can be found on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9P-kpOiT6Eo
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Bud was in a class by himself. Ever heard him play Cherokee? Check it out if you haven't.
Bebop is as complex as any other style, but there are certain bebop patterns and motifs which can be played in all keys. Charlie Parker used to play Rhythm Changes in all 12 keys as a warm up exercise.
Bebop is made up of II-V-I and I-VI-II-V-I progressions. Get all the progressions in all 12 keys down and then start learning bop riffs and play them with a metronome. Listen to Bud, Bird, Miles, etc. Soon you will be able to play over changes at faster tempos. It just takes regular hands-on work. Good Luck
katt
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David Baker publsihed a 3-book bebop method (available through Aebersold at www.jazzbooks.com). The bottom line, though, of his "method" is actually quite simple. First learn his "bebop scale" for major, minor and dominant chords, and practice that scale, through some standard patterns, on typical ii-V chord progressions. After that, he lists 40-some bebop heads (melodies) and suggests learning each of those in several different keys. His rationale is that the language of bebop is stored within these typical melodies and that by learning them you'll be learning the language of bebop. Difficulty level? In some senses, bebop lines are patterns, some easier and some more difficult, and the mastery of some musicians comes into play in how they weave those lines together in a coherent and clever melody.
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I'd say that bebop is fairly difficult. I mean, it takes quite a bit of focused effort to learn it.
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Also to pick up some more bebop study, find a copy of the Charlie Parker Omni Book. It has tunes like Donna Lee, Confirmation, Orinthology and may others. The heads and some solos are written out and if you can get the Bird CD's to see the transcriptions played, this is a great way to cover a lot of material and be able to apply it.
Also if you are in the Boston area, look up the great bebop and improv teacher Charlie Banacos and see if he can take you as a student. I studied with the jazz guru for over a year and learned a lot of bebop skills working with Charlie
katt
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Hi Hot Wings.
Bud Powell's style is intermediate to advanced in my book. If you really want to hurt yourself, try playing Art Tatum's up tempos. Previous poster brought up something good about jazz vocabulary though-you should always take any musical idea that resonates with you and learn it in all 12 keys. Make a major, minor, and dominant riff out of it as well. You can never build too much vocabulary as a musician.
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How hard is Bud's Cherokee? Is he playing swing eighth notes in his improv solo or is he doing sixteenths?
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Wings, Bud Powell's Cherokee is very advanced. Here is one link to the tune by Bud http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=uon2Gu6jgf8 He is playing double time, very, very fast. There are even some Tatum overtones in this arrangement. Bud must have been at his prime on this one! Check it out
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Get Happy is pretty fast too. I had lots of trouble playing that at that tempo.
When Bud Powell's Cherokee is played at full speed, it just sounds like a bunch of random notes. However, when you slow it down, you get some really neat bebop lines!
Yeah, I have been playing Art Tatum's style for 6 months and I am better with that than this fast bebop stuff. Are those fast bebop lines like finger busters - the same way Art Tatum busts fingers who play his Tiger Rag?
Are most hard bop, bebop lines the same? For instance, does Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson, and McCoy Tyner use the same bebop lines as Bud Powell(but just in a different way - different style)?
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Are those swing notes though in Cherokee?
Man, I'm having a tough time remembering all those notes and the corresponding time(Bud Powell). I find it easier to remember Art Tatum's stuff(probably because I'm more familiar with the vocabulary).
I was trying to learn Bud's solo at 1:00 and it is very difficult to learn which chord changes go with which notes.
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Transcribing Bud and Tatum is going to be a life long study for anyone motivated enough to get into it. It may be just concentrating on 8 bars at a time and moving on to another 8 bars until everything adds up to the entire piece before it jells and is finally digested so to speak.
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(I just realized that I'm feeling a little pedantic today...sorry if this offends!)
There's lots of confusion, especially with novices, about what a swing eighth note is...for some, it is almost like a dotted-eighth, sixteenth rhythm, and for others it is more like a quarter-eighth triplet feel.
However, it is much more of a continuum than that. Older styles, like say a Guy Lombardo style, it is a much more distinct dotted eighth, sixteenth, with short, clipped notes while later styles, say Gerry Mulligan and Chet Baker's California cool bop is much more relaxed.
But in the bebop heyday, late 40s through to the 50s and 60s hard bop, the "swingness" largely depended on feel and tempo. Really burning tempos, the eight note feel really evened out, for many performers. At times, for dramatic effect, they might have exaggerated the feel to the more short and clipped style.
Just remember that dotted eighth, sixteenth or triplet feel is really just a notational thing. The actual feel is what it is.
As always, I suggest some focused listening, paying attention to the feel and the effect. There are really no hard and fast rules.
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