Do you have a question about playing jazz guitar? Post it in the comments section below.</P< font>
36 Responses to "21 Bebop Scale Patterns for Guitar"
1. Drew Engman says:
Reply
Nice set of exercises and variations, very usable right out of the box. Thank you!
June 5, 2011 at 10:10 pm
1. José Arboleda says:
Reply
Excelent lesson.,great man…
September 5, 2012 at 2:33 pm
1. Matthew Warnock says:
Reply
Thanks Jose, glad you dug it!
September 5, 2012 at 2:40 pm
2. Matt Warnock says:
Reply
Thanks Drew, yeah once you get the fingering down for the scale you can apply them right away, or you can apply each little pattern to any bebop scale fingering, or any scale
fingering like the major modes if you want, they’re good all around
June 5, 2011 at 10:20 pm
3. Olmon says:
Reply
Thanks, I’m a bassist looking to expand my jazz vocabulary, great stuff. Question, Im know that Cmajor works over Dm7 but what other minor scales can you use Cmajor over?
Thanks. Also does this formula work in reverse (playing Dm7 over CMajor)?
June 13, 2011 at 8:54 am
4. Matt Warnock says:
Reply
Hey,
You can technically use Cmajor over any minor chord in the key, so Dm7 (iim7), Em7 (iiim7) and Am7 (vim7), and vice versa, you can use D Dorian, E Phrygian and A Aeolian over Cmajor7 if you want, they all share the same notes and key centers. What I would probably do though, is focus on
outlining the arpeggio for each chord, and then add bebop lines in using arpeggios, and the bebop scale over the iim7 and V7 chord. Check out this lesson on arpeggios with bebop vocabulary, might help out as well:
http://www.mattwarnockguitar.com/instant-bebop-adding-chromatics-to-basic-arpeggios
June 13, 2011 at 8:58 am
1. Ben says:
Reply
Why bother with modes ? I mean, modes are related to a chord, not a scale. ” on Cmaj7 you can play D dorian” is completely nonsense. On all degrees you can play Cmaj scale, this is way easier for a student to understand.
This said, modes are very practical to work to hear the colours of each of them.
July 5, 2011 at 9:08 am
1. Matt Warnock says:
Reply
Ben,
Modes are good for adding colors to chords, yes you can play Cmajor over any chord in the C major scale, Cmaj7, Dm7, Em7 etc, but the cool stuff happens when you play different modes over each chord, like C Lydian over Cmaj7, or C phrygian over Cm7 instead of Dorian, that sort of coloring can be a very cool way to extend ideas and add different colors to one’s playing.
July 5, 2011 at 9:36 am
5. David Henderson says:
Reply
is there a link somewhere to Jon Bremen’s Bebop scale fingerings?
July 5, 2011 at 9:02 pm
1. Matt Warnock says:
Reply
Yeah you can find them here for major, dominant and minor
It seems to sound good if i mix C and F# patterns:) one after another
For example root and fifth enclosures.
July 10, 2011 at 8:13 am
1. Matt Warnock says:
Reply
For sure! I talk about this in my article on Tritone Division Soloing, check it out.
Great article Matt. I really like the way you introduce just one concept at a time. I haven’t had any Jazz Guitar students for over five years so I haven’t stayed current with the genre, especially bebop (which my lids replaced with hip-hop in our house). Your step by step illustration of Bebop conventions is excellent Matt. In this lesson, bebop is a great way to
incrementally melodize scales where rhythm is relatively predictable if not constant and contours are relatively uniform.
I did some bebop workshops with David Baker years ago.
This has been a great updater. Thanks for all your work.
(BTW, it would be cool if I could not just LIKE your article but also post a comment to my FB wall)
September 2, 2011 at 10:12 am
1. Matt Warnock says:
Reply
Thanks Taura, glad you liked the article. Yeah I feel that breaking things down and working on them step by step is the easiest and best way to internalize these, or any musical concepts.
Feel free to copy and past the address to your FB page or any other site you want to post it on, spread the word!
September 2, 2011 at 10:23 am
8. Russell says:
Reply
thanks a million for this Matt,it cleared up a lot for me,it’s a lot of info so it’ll take a while to sink in,but thanks for this!!!!!.
November 9, 2011 at 8:49 pm
1. Matt Warnock says:
Reply
No problem, have fun with these patterns!
November 10, 2011 at 3:30 am
9. Eric says:
Reply
Great set of exercises Matt. It’s nice to have these written out rather than trying to reinvent the wheel with my students. I have a few that I am going to direct here.
May 28, 2012 at 6:57 pm
1. Matthew Warnock says:
Reply
Thanks Eric, glad you’re able to use the licks with your students, thanks for checking out the article!
May 28, 2012 at 7:00 pm
10. Jeff says:
Reply
Matt,
From example 4, bar 2. You didn’t enclose the root after ascending the 3 to b9 arp. Was that deliberate? I’m pretty sure in example 5 you enclosed the root every time, even after you played the ascending arp.
I realize these are just exercises, but is the main idea to enclose the root *every* time, or just on the initial pass down the scale, but not after reascending from the arp?
Thanks,
Jeff
June 10, 2012 at 4:02 am
1. Matthew Warnock says:
Reply
Hey Jeff, for that lick, the 3 to b9 arpeggio, when I use the arpeggio in bar 2 I just use the arpeggio not the enclosure on the root in that bar, so I use the enclosure in bars where there is no 3 to 9 arpeggio but when there is that arp I just use it and not in combination with the enclosure in this lick. Hope that helps
June 10, 2012 at 6:03 am
11. Jeff says:
Reply
Okay, thanks, Matt. The only reason I asked was because in example 5 you enclosed the 5th before and after the arp, regardless. I guess, like anything else, there are no hard and fast rules. Thanks!
June 10, 2012 at 7:01 am
1. Matthew Warnock says:
Reply
For sure, you can add as many of these into your lines as you want, when I’m blowing over tunes I combine any/all of them throughout my solos. These exercises are just to separate them to practice, once you get them down go for it, mix and match as your ears please. It’s all good!
June 10, 2012 at 9:01 am
12. Tom L says:
Reply
I don’t suppose you could do bass clef version of this lesson could you? would be massively appreciated!
September 18, 2012 at 6:22 pm
1. Matthew Warnock says:
Reply
Hey i haven’t done any hass stuff on my site yet, might have to check that out.
September 19, 2012 at 1:08 am
1. Tom L says:
Reply
Well what your doing is useful and insightful, I may not be a solo/virtuoso bass player but it’d be nice not to read your lessons a 3rd away ;)
September 20, 2012 at 10:03 am
13. Stush says:
Reply
Thanks Matt for that lesson, I have homework to do now and I look forward to it. I am definitely fascinated by what I call the mystery of bebop. I have struggled real hard to find get this sound and I think you have put me on the right track.
For the most part I was just playing by ear which was more of a miss and hit affair. This has been with its frustrations (more) and joys (few). Of the few joys, I sort of realized, or even “felt”
that when I use let me call it a motif of four consecutive notes starting from any point of the scale. Say I start from E to
F,Gb,G, something “bebopish”, something sweet happens -though I hasten to add that the sweetness is augmented when I descend. So I took to “injecting” this four notes
anywhere and wherever, even as I play freely. At times I would sound nice but deep down I know its guess work. Thats why your lesson here is so liberating for me.
However this leads me to my question. Why is it that the
bebop scale “sweetens” when you descend? Must one always play the bebop scale descending?
Pardon my english and thanks so much for the lesson. I`ll let you know of my progress.
Shalom.
Stush, The Gambia.
December 31, 2012 at 1:11 pm
14. AJ Green says:
Reply
Head spinning! Could be enough stuff here for this years practice. Thanks Matt!
January 25, 2013 at 4:29 pm
15. Bill Sargeant says:
Reply
Thanks for your article. It is very helpful. Just to be clear: the reason all the patterns are descending (other than ascending arpeggios) is because that’s part of the style?
February 14, 2013 at 2:54 am
1. Matthew Warnock says:
Reply
That’s right. After you get them under your fingers, you can apply them ascending as well as descending. But to start off, working on each pattern descending gets the right sound and feel of each line under your fingers and into your ears.
February 14, 2013 at 8:20 pm
16. Bill Sargeant says:
Reply
Matt,
Would if be possible for you to post of video of you blowing over some standards or blues with some of these patterns? I would really like to see how the “finished product” comes out so that I might better bridge the gap between practicing the patterns as written (in all keys) and applying them to actual playing. Thanks again for this important lesson.
February 28, 2013 at 10:23 pm
1. Matthew Warnock says:
Reply
HI Bill, thanks for checking out the site. I am adding more videos to this page so stay tuned for future links as I post them.
Cheers.
March 1, 2013 at 10:25 am
17. Joe says:
Reply
I was looking for some patterns and licks with the bebop scale and ran into your website. I’m a piano player, but couldn’t find what I was looking for on any piano sights. Most of their stuff is geared for the beginner. I like your explanations, not too long or too short, just right! Examples are great! I’ve had
problems playing a tune like Speak Low but I think this page is the answer I’ve been looking for. Thanks Matt
March 23, 2013 at 7:13 pm
1. Matthew Warnock says:
Reply
That’s great Joe, glad the article is helpful and translates well to the piano. Enjoy the site!
March 23, 2013 at 7:14 pm
18. Vitor Guerreiro says:
Reply
Hi Matt. Greetings from Portugal.
First off, great site. Tons of info, technical and theory based exercises, very clear…excellent work.
My question is regarding bebop scales in general. I´ve read somewhere that when using the bebop scale the chord tone must fall on downbeats. Is this always applied? I mean, sometimes, when i practice bebop scale with arpeggios and enclosures, the chord tones fall on the upbeat. Is this a thing that i must correct right away or is something that is going to correct it self?
Thanks!
May 21, 2013 at 12:55 pm
1. Matt Warnock says:
Reply
Hey, I think you might want to think that way to begin with, but it can be a bit tricky and sound forced if you always do that. So maybe try it out and see how it fits your playing, but for me it would be more important to work out common phrases from the Bebop Scale, and to
get those sounding organically in your playing than worrying about where you put chord tones and non-chord tones. As long as it sounds good and fits it should be cool, but if you find the chord tones on down beats to be helpful in the learning process than try it for a while and go from there. Cheers
May 21, 2013 at 5:49 pm
1. David says:
Reply
I see some places that say the diminished and bebop scale can also be pentatonic. A little confused as there are 8 notes in those scales.
Can they somehow be used as pentatonics??
Seems like they can.
May 27, 2013 at 4:45 pm