Originally published March 9, 2015, lightly edited for clarity.
Bebop arpeggios are the chord-tone vocabulary of bebop-era jazz — arpeggios worked through every chord change so that strong beats land on chord tones. As I have stated in past posts I look at music as a language like any other. What makes music unique is that it is a language that communicates feelings only. If I were asked “what makes a good line, technically speaking, whether it be a bass line or a solo, what technically needs to happen to make it sound good or not?” I would answer this by saying that it comes down to the musicians ability to control not function numbers rhythmically. As your words need to come out in a certain order to make sense when you speak, the way it works in the language of music is that you need to control what goes where in the rhythm. The style of jazz playing known as bebop is centered in this concept. Because of this, I think it is very healthy for musicians to spend some time working in this style even if they do not want to end up playing jazz. The following video covers how to organize bebop arpeggios on your bass neck so you can start applying this concept. Bebop is one of the styles I teach. If you want guided work on bebop vocabulary, online bass lessons via Zoom are available.
