
THE PRACTICE DILEMMA
The word practice is often an intimidating word. When students hear this, they immediately think of it as a chore. Others are intimidated by practicing because they never know what to practice. Yet, others don’t practice because they never seem to have the time. These are barriers that prevent students from reaching their fullest potential. While talent exists, mere talent is not sufficient to advance. This music talent must be nurtured with hard work, personal development, practice, and single-minded concentration. These are the ingredients that will transform a musician’s skill level and ability. Practicing should always be looked at as a means of advancement. It is a process where happiness and motivation come as a result of seeing where you were, to where you are, to where you will be. In this resource, we will discuss the different kinds of practices you can do. While it is difficult to find time to get behind your instrument daily, these principles will help you get more done in less time. They will increase your efficiency, effectiveness, and level of time of progression.
​
Mental Practice
Mental practice means to know what you are going to practice before you practice. It is having a specific plan before sitting behind your instrument. For instance, if you want to progress with Latin music, immerse yourself in listening and reading Latin music and instructional books. Have in mind exactly what you want to work on before working on it. This will give you specific goals to accomplish and prevent you from playing aimlessly on your instrument only regurgitating what you know. Mental practice requires preparation. You must have a decisive and specific plan of what to work on and how you will progress before sitting down on your instrument. This can entail writing down specific concepts you want to learn, or studying an instructional video and having clear and specific concepts to work on. Mental practice will help you single-mindedly concentrate on one area of your instrument where you will become a master at it. As alluded to above, too many musicians play their instruments casually without having any clear goals on what to accomplish. If you consider yourself a casual musician playing an instrument to release stress, then this doesn’t apply to you. However, if you are a serious learner and want to advance, mental practice will help get you there.
Visualize Practice
Visualize practice means to visualize how you want to look, feel, sound, and play your instrument. It is having a clear picture of yourself playing your instrument. Visualizing can also involve mentally seeing yourself playing something before playing it. For example, if you always wanted to learn crossovers on the drum set, you can picture yourself doing crossovers and how it would look before applying it. Or, if you have always been drawn to showmanship, you can envision yourself doing a stick twirl before physically trying it with the stick. Visual practicing also helps immensely when watching instructional videos and live performances. I have been blessed to have a photo-graphic memory. So much of my learning and progress have come from remembering something I watched on an instructional DVD or online video. Although it is difficult to retain every single aspect taught in that video, there are some drum licks that I immediately programmed into my subconscious mind and was able to execute them on the drum set. Visualizing what someone is doing and how they are doing it are paramount to practice. Lastly, visualizing yourself can help you perform successfully. Many athletes have used this method of seeing themselves perform well before playing. Whether you are performing live, in the studio, in a recital, or in a competition, envision yourself performing well, and this can ultimately help transcend how you play.
​
Singing Practice
In 1926, notable jazz singer, Louis Armstrong sang, “Heebie Jeebies”, which became a national bestseller. While singing the song, he didn’t know all the lyrics and invented a gibberish melody to fill time. This was the inception of scat singing, which means the voice was used in imitation of an instrument. Later, Ella Fitzgerald, Cab Calloway, and Al Jarreau were key influences of scat singing. Just like scat singing mimicked the sound of an instrument, you can also sing rhythms you want to play. When you can say it, it makes it much easier to play it. There have been many times in my playing where I struggled to play something I created. However, when I sang the phrase out loud, it helped me physically transfer this to the drum set. Singing a rhythm can give you clarity on how to articulate an idea on your instrument. We have the ability to make a variety of sounds with our voices and can use this to our advantage when playing our instrument.
Note Taking Practice
With the vast information technology era we live in, it can get very overwhelming focusing single-mindedly on one concept. Just type in “music lessons”, and you will come across millions and millions of hits! After a long day of work and family obligations, it can be difficult finding time with getting behind your instrument. A good antidote to this is studying an instructional book, DVD, or online class series. For instance, I have made it a goal to methodically work through all my drum DVDs. I have sticks, a pad, and notebook available. I take careful notes on what I am learning and frequently pause the DVD to mimic what I am learning on the drum pad. There are times I can only do this 20 minutes a week and other times a few hours a week. Regardless of the duration, there is always incremental progress. I have now gone through numerous DVDs (and still have many to explore). This “note taking practice” has greatly enhanced my playing level, and it has given me many new teaching insights. When I am able to get behind my drum set, I will review what I learned in my notes, and thus, have brand new material to practice. Note taking practice is a great tool to use when single-mindedly beginning and completing concepts on your instruments. It avoids the common mistake students make, which is jumping all over the place and not knowing what to practice due to excessive amount of information available.
Inspirational Practice
We have all seen amazing acts of talent. Whether on a television show or YouTube, there have been amazing displays of God-given talents from people of all ages. I have seen videos of 14 and 15 year old drummers playing in worship bands at their church who have captivated and inspired me. Inspiration is what fuels desire, motivation, and innovation. We all fall into ruts when playing our instruments, but it is inspiration that propels us out of these times of stagnation. It is important to have various influences at your instrument. Listening, reading, researching, and watching your influences will inspire you to grow and try new things on your instrument. Not only does inspiration serve as a platform to learn new concepts, but it also is a means of daring to move forward. It provides a way to explore the unknown on your instrument, exploring new ideas that may have never been explored. As a musician and full-time business owner, my time is very limited, so I make every effort to make the most of my practice sessions through careful planning and preparation. Sometimes this isn’t enough to help me reach my fullest potential when I practice, so I either listen to the music of my favorite artists on my smartphone Pandora stations or listen to CDs of instructional music books I have while I am driving. This puts me in the mode of practice and provides great inspiration to develop new ideas. Conversely, if I am doing something completely unrelated to drumming and then just transition into practicing, I am much less prone to feeling inspired to generate new ideas. In John C. Maxwell’s book, Becoming a Person of Influence, he states: “When you consistently listen to others, you never suffer for ideas. If you give people opportunities to share their thoughts, and you listen with an open mind, there will always be a flow of new ideas.” Just like listening to others generates ideas you would never think of on your own, listening to your influences will provide new possibilities on your instrument!
In Brian Tracy’s book, Maximum Achievement, he states that: “Whatever thought or action you repeat often enough becomes a new habit.” He goes on to say: “The main reason for so much underachievement and frustration is simply that people do not know how to get the most out of themselves. They don’t know how to apply themselves for maximum performance and happiness.” In other words, hard work, repetition, commitment, planning, and discipline are the means of advancing on your instrument. While it can be difficult spending hours on your instrument every day, these practice principles, if rightly applied, will stir your creativity just like stirring cream begins to permeate in a cup of coffee. Further, putting these principles into practice a little bit every single day will enhance your playing and infuse motivation to keep practicing!
THE PRACTICE DILEMMA
The word practice is often an intimidating word. When students hear this, they immediately think of it as a chore. Others are intimidated by practicing because they never know what to practice. Yet, others don’t practice because they never seem to have the time. These are barriers that prevent students from reaching their fullest potential. While talent exists, mere talent is not sufficient to advance. This music talent must be nurtured with hard work, personal development, practice, and single-minded concentration. These are the ingredients that will transform a musician’s skill level and ability. Practicing should always be looked at as a means of advancement. It is a process where happiness and motivation come as a result of seeing where you were, to where you are, to where you will be. In this resource, we will discuss the different kinds of practices you can do. While it is difficult to find time to get behind your instrument daily, these principles will help you get more done in less time. They will increase your efficiency, effectiveness, and level of time of progression.
​
Mental Practice
Mental practice means to know what you are going to practice before you practice. It is having a specific plan before sitting behind your instrument. For instance, if you want to progress with Latin music, immerse yourself in listening and reading Latin music and instructional books. Have in mind exactly what you want to work on before working on it. This will give you specific goals to accomplish and prevent you from playing aimlessly on your instrument only regurgitating what you know. Mental practice requires preparation. You must have a decisive and specific plan of what to work on and how you will progress before sitting down on your instrument. This can entail writing down specific concepts you want to learn, or studying an instructional video and having clear and specific concepts to work on. Mental practice will help you single-mindedly concentrate on one area of your instrument where you will become a master at it. As alluded to above, too many musicians play their instruments casually without having any clear goals on what to accomplish. If you consider yourself a casual musician playing an instrument to release stress, then this doesn’t apply to you. However, if you are a serious learner and want to advance, mental practice will help get you there.
Visualize Practice
Visualize practice means to visualize how you want to look, feel, sound, and play your instrument. It is having a clear picture of yourself playing your instrument. Visualizing can also involve mentally seeing yourself playing something before playing it. For example, if you always wanted to learn crossovers on the drum set, you can picture yourself doing crossovers and how it would look before applying it. Or, if you have always been drawn to showmanship, you can envision yourself doing a stick twirl before physically trying it with the stick. Visual practicing also helps immensely when watching instructional videos and live performances. I have been blessed to have a photo-graphic memory. So much of my learning and progress have come from remembering something I watched on an instructional DVD or online video. Although it is difficult to retain every single aspect taught in that video, there are some drum licks that I immediately programmed into my subconscious mind and was able to execute them on the drum set. Visualizing what someone is doing and how they are doing it are paramount to practice. Lastly, visualizing yourself can help you perform successfully. Many athletes have used this method of seeing themselves perform well before playing. Whether you are performing live, in the studio, in a recital, or in a competition, envision yourself performing well, and this can ultimately help transcend how you play.
​
Singing Practice
In 1926, notable jazz singer, Louis Armstrong sang, “Heebie Jeebies”, which became a national bestseller. While singing the song, he didn’t know all the lyrics and invented a gibberish melody to fill time. This was the inception of scat singing, which means the voice was used in imitation of an instrument. Later, Ella Fitzgerald, Cab Calloway, and Al Jarreau were key influences of scat singing. Just like scat singing mimicked the sound of an instrument, you can also sing rhythms you want to play. When you can say it, it makes it much easier to play it. There have been many times in my playing where I struggled to play something I created. However, when I sang the phrase out loud, it helped me physically transfer this to the drum set. Singing a rhythm can give you clarity on how to articulate an idea on your instrument. We have the ability to make a variety of sounds with our voices and can use this to our advantage when playing our instrument.
Note Taking Practice
With the vast information technology era we live in, it can get very overwhelming focusing single-mindedly on one concept. Just type in “music lessons”, and you will come across millions and millions of hits! After a long day of work and family obligations, it can be difficult finding time with getting behind your instrument. A good antidote to this is studying an instructional book, DVD, or online class series. For instance, I have made it a goal to methodically work through all my drum DVDs. I have sticks, a pad, and notebook available. I take careful notes on what I am learning and frequently pause the DVD to mimic what I am learning on the drum pad. There are times I can only do this 20 minutes a week and other times a few hours a week. Regardless of the duration, there is always incremental progress. I have now gone through numerous DVDs (and still have many to explore). This “note taking practice” has greatly enhanced my playing level, and it has given me many new teaching insights. When I am able to get behind my drum set, I will review what I learned in my notes, and thus, have brand new material to practice. Note taking practice is a great tool to use when single-mindedly beginning and completing concepts on your instruments. It avoids the common mistake students make, which is jumping all over the place and not knowing what to practice due to excessive amount of information available.
Inspirational Practice
We have all seen amazing acts of talent. Whether on a television show or YouTube, there have been amazing displays of God-given talents from people of all ages. I have seen videos of 14 and 15 year old drummers playing in worship bands at their church who have captivated and inspired me. Inspiration is what fuels desire, motivation, and innovation. We all fall into ruts when playing our instruments, but it is inspiration that propels us out of these times of stagnation. It is important to have various influences at your instrument. Listening, reading, researching, and watching your influences will inspire you to grow and try new things on your instrument. Not only does inspiration serve as a platform to learn new concepts, but it also is a means of daring to move forward. It provides a way to explore the unknown on your instrument, exploring new ideas that may have never been explored. As a musician and full-time business owner, my time is very limited, so I make every effort to make the most of my practice sessions through careful planning and preparation. Sometimes this isn’t enough to help me reach my fullest potential when I practice, so I either listen to the music of my favorite artists on my smartphone Pandora stations or listen to CDs of instructional music books I have while I am driving. This puts me in the mode of practice and provides great inspiration to develop new ideas. Conversely, if I am doing something completely unrelated to drumming and then just transition into practicing, I am much less prone to feeling inspired to generate new ideas. In John C. Maxwell’s book, Becoming a Person of Influence, he states: “When you consistently listen to others, you never suffer for ideas. If you give people opportunities to share their thoughts, and you listen with an open mind, there will always be a flow of new ideas.” Just like listening to others generates ideas you would never think of on your own, listening to your influences will provide new possibilities on your instrument!
In Brian Tracy’s book, Maximum Achievement, he states that: “Whatever thought or action you repeat often enough becomes a new habit.” He goes on to say: “The main reason for so much underachievement and frustration is simply that people do not know how to get the most out of themselves. They don’t know how to apply themselves for maximum performance and happiness.” In other words, hard work, repetition, commitment, planning, and discipline are the means of advancing on your instrument. While it can be difficult spending hours on your instrument every day, these practice principles, if rightly applied, will stir your creativity just like stirring cream begins to permeate in a cup of coffee. Further, putting these principles into practice a little bit every single day will enhance your playing and infuse motivation to keep practicing!
THE PRACTICE DILEMMA
The word practice is often an intimidating word. When students hear this, they immediately think of it as a chore. Others are intimidated by practicing because they never know what to practice. Yet, others don’t practice because they never seem to have the time. These are barriers that prevent students from reaching their fullest potential. While talent exists, mere talent is not sufficient to advance. This music talent must be nurtured with hard work, personal development, practice, and single-minded concentration. These are the ingredients that will transform a musician’s skill level and ability. Practicing should always be looked at as a means of advancement. It is a process where happiness and motivation come as a result of seeing where you were, to where you are, to where you will be. In this resource, we will discuss the different kinds of practices you can do. While it is difficult to find time to get behind your instrument daily, these principles will help you get more done in less time. They will increase your efficiency, effectiveness, and level of time of progression.
​
Mental Practice
Mental practice means to know what you are going to practice before you practice. It is having a specific plan before sitting behind your instrument. For instance, if you want to progress with Latin music, immerse yourself in listening and reading Latin music and instructional books. Have in mind exactly what you want to work on before working on it. This will give you specific goals to accomplish and prevent you from playing aimlessly on your instrument only regurgitating what you know. Mental practice requires preparation. You must have a decisive and specific plan of what to work on and how you will progress before sitting down on your instrument. This can entail writing down specific concepts you want to learn, or studying an instructional video and having clear and specific concepts to work on. Mental practice will help you single-mindedly concentrate on one area of your instrument where you will become a master at it. As alluded to above, too many musicians play their instruments casually without having any clear goals on what to accomplish. If you consider yourself a casual musician playing an instrument to release stress, then this doesn’t apply to you. However, if you are a serious learner and want to advance, mental practice will help get you there.
Visualize Practice
Visualize practice means to visualize how you want to look, feel, sound, and play your instrument. It is having a clear picture of yourself playing your instrument. Visualizing can also involve mentally seeing yourself playing something before playing it. For example, if you always wanted to learn crossovers on the drum set, you can picture yourself doing crossovers and how it would look before applying it. Or, if you have always been drawn to showmanship, you can envision yourself doing a stick twirl before physically trying it with the stick. Visual practicing also helps immensely when watching instructional videos and live performances. I have been blessed to have a photo-graphic memory. So much of my learning and progress have come from remembering something I watched on an instructional DVD or online video. Although it is difficult to retain every single aspect taught in that video, there are some drum licks that I immediately programmed into my subconscious mind and was able to execute them on the drum set. Visualizing what someone is doing and how they are doing it are paramount to practice. Lastly, visualizing yourself can help you perform successfully. Many athletes have used this method of seeing themselves perform well before playing. Whether you are performing live, in the studio, in a recital, or in a competition, envision yourself performing well, and this can ultimately help transcend how you play.
​
Singing Practice
In 1926, notable jazz singer, Louis Armstrong sang, “Heebie Jeebies”, which became a national bestseller. While singing the song, he didn’t know all the lyrics and invented a gibberish melody to fill time. This was the inception of scat singing, which means the voice was used in imitation of an instrument. Later, Ella Fitzgerald, Cab Calloway, and Al Jarreau were key influences of scat singing. Just like scat singing mimicked the sound of an instrument, you can also sing rhythms you want to play. When you can say it, it makes it much easier to play it. There have been many times in my playing where I struggled to play something I created. However, when I sang the phrase out loud, it helped me physically transfer this to the drum set. Singing a rhythm can give you clarity on how to articulate an idea on your instrument. We have the ability to make a variety of sounds with our voices and can use this to our advantage when playing our instrument.
Note Taking Practice
With the vast information technology era we live in, it can get very overwhelming focusing single-mindedly on one concept. Just type in “music lessons”, and you will come across millions and millions of hits! After a long day of work and family obligations, it can be difficult finding time with getting behind your instrument. A good antidote to this is studying an instructional book, DVD, or online class series. For instance, I have made it a goal to methodically work through all my drum DVDs. I have sticks, a pad, and notebook available. I take careful notes on what I am learning and frequently pause the DVD to mimic what I am learning on the drum pad. There are times I can only do this 20 minutes a week and other times a few hours a week. Regardless of the duration, there is always incremental progress. I have now gone through numerous DVDs (and still have many to explore). This “note taking practice” has greatly enhanced my playing level, and it has given me many new teaching insights. When I am able to get behind my drum set, I will review what I learned in my notes, and thus, have brand new material to practice. Note taking practice is a great tool to use when single-mindedly beginning and completing concepts on your instruments. It avoids the common mistake students make, which is jumping all over the place and not knowing what to practice due to excessive amount of information available.
Inspirational Practice
We have all seen amazing acts of talent. Whether on a television show or YouTube, there have been amazing displays of God-given talents from people of all ages. I have seen videos of 14 and 15 year old drummers playing in worship bands at their church who have captivated and inspired me. Inspiration is what fuels desire, motivation, and innovation. We all fall into ruts when playing our instruments, but it is inspiration that propels us out of these times of stagnation. It is important to have various influences at your instrument. Listening, reading, researching, and watching your influences will inspire you to grow and try new things on your instrument. Not only does inspiration serve as a platform to learn new concepts, but it also is a means of daring to move forward. It provides a way to explore the unknown on your instrument, exploring new ideas that may have never been explored. As a musician and full-time business owner, my time is very limited, so I make every effort to make the most of my practice sessions through careful planning and preparation. Sometimes this isn’t enough to help me reach my fullest potential when I practice, so I either listen to the music of my favorite artists on my smartphone Pandora stations or listen to CDs of instructional music books I have while I am driving. This puts me in the mode of practice and provides great inspiration to develop new ideas. Conversely, if I am doing something completely unrelated to drumming and then just transition into practicing, I am much less prone to feeling inspired to generate new ideas. In John C. Maxwell’s book, Becoming a Person of Influence, he states: “When you consistently listen to others, you never suffer for ideas. If you give people opportunities to share their thoughts, and you listen with an open mind, there will always be a flow of new ideas.” Just like listening to others generates ideas you would never think of on your own, listening to your influences will provide new possibilities on your instrument!
In Brian Tracy’s book, Maximum Achievement, he states that: “Whatever thought or action you repeat often enough becomes a new habit.” He goes on to say: “The main reason for so much underachievement and frustration is simply that people do not know how to get the most out of themselves. They don’t know how to apply themselves for maximum performance and happiness.” In other words, hard work, repetition, commitment, planning, and discipline are the means of advancing on your instrument. While it can be difficult spending hours on your instrument every day, these practice principles, if rightly applied, will stir your creativity just like stirring cream begins to permeate in a cup of coffee. Further, putting these principles into practice a little bit every single day will enhance your playing and infuse motivation to keep practicing!
Create and Experiment! Bebop Jazz
The Evolution of Bebop Jazz
Bebop Jazz became incepted as a style around the year 1941. This style came from Harlem New York from African American musicians. In the early 40s, big band music was still the main style of music played. Musicians would work in the evenings in clubs and ballrooms since people would attend shows after work. After their performances in big bands, some musicians of the big band era met during after hours to perform jam sessions. They would meet at a place called Minton’s Play House on 118th street in Harlem, New York. Minton’s opened in 1940. This is where bebop started to develop. Some of the key musicians involved in these jam sessions were Bud Powell, Charlie Parker, Ben Webster, Kenny Clarke, Thelonius Monk, and Dizzy Gillespie. It got its name “Bebop” from nonsense syllables used in scat singing.
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Highly Competitive
These jam sessions were not for the average musician. They became highly competitive among musicians. Musicians were known to take standard arrangements from the American Songbook or other well-known arrangements from the big band era and make them complex. In fact, these sessions became so competitive that the great Charlie Parker was initially kicked out as he was not able to keep up with the complexities of the music. It’s been said that drummer Philly Joe Jones threw a cymbal at Charlie Parker out of frustration for getting off beat. This drove Parker to practicing 16 hours a day who became one of the paramount influencers of bebop!
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From big band to bebop
As we learned from our previous resource, Romancing and Dancing of Swing Music, big band music’s primary intention was to make people dance and feel happy in a tumultuous time of economic turmoil. However, many musicians already playing big band became weary of playing standard arrangements that were primarily emphasized on dancing music. These musicians wanted to become more experimental, revolutionary, and improvisational. By conducting these jam sessions, musicians were allowed to play at their fullest potential without anything holding them back. Below are some of the key differences of big band and bebop:
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*Big band was dominant in the mid-30s whereas bebop became dominant in the mid-40s.
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*Big band was all about the people, making them dance and feel happy. Bebop was all about the musicians, making listeners appreciate the complexities of what the musicians were doing.
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*Big band was large size bands often involving 17 members in a band. Bebop was much smaller in size that had quintets, quartets, and even trios.
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*Big band was standard pre-rehearsed arrangements, whereas bebop was highly improvisational.
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*Big band was known to be mainstream music that became commercialized, where as bebop was highly experimental.
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*Big band’s emphasis was the horn section using the rhythm section mainly to keep time. Bebop significantly minimized the horn section size and brought the rhythm section to the forefront of soloing.
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*Big band immediately gave birth to recordings and made airwaves around the United States with the popularity of the radio. However, while bebop started in the early 40s, the first recordings didn’t appear until 1944-45 due to a musicians strike for unionized musicians from 1942-44.
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*Big band emphasized a strong feel in the music with harmonies and chord progressions. The feel of the music in bebop wasn’t sufficient. Musicians had to understand music theory. Chord progressions became much more complex.
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*The appropriation of keeping time on the instrument differed between big band and bebop. Drummers would keep the time on the bass drum playing 4 on the floor in the big band era. In bebop, the ride cymbal was introduced and the time went on the ride. In big band, the pianist would often stride where the right hand played a repetitive melody and the left hand would play a single bass note or chord on the weak beat. In bebop, the pianist would comp. The right hand often played complex improvisational lines. The guitarist in the big band would strum. In other words, they would play a repeatable riff. In bebop, the guitarist would play single note lines where the music became more intricate.
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*Big band focused on the macro dimension of the groove within the band, whereas bebop focused on the micro dimension – the individual performer soloing.
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Bebop was a response to racial segregation
In a time of racial segregation, many black musicians were deprived from opportunities white musicians had. They responded to this segregation through their music. By playing music that highlighted experimentalism, improvisation, and originality, this was a way of reacting to the social injustices they faced during this time of segregation. They wanted to oppose the mainstream view of American music.
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The characteristics of bebop
As alluded, bebop became a listening style of music that was highly improvisational and experimental. Some of the characteristics of bebop include the following:
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*Very fast tempos. Melodies, rhythms, and phrasing were played very fast.
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*Bebop used quasi and unpredictable accents and short note durations.
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*Bebop melody used relatively non-repetitive, as melodies were dissonant, asymmetrical, complex, and improvisational.
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*Bebop was conversational and interactive. Musicians would musically interact with one another by having musical conversations.
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The impact of bebop jazz
*Bebop elevated the status of jazz to an artform. It defied the standard ways of playing jazz music and brought new innovations that were never done before. Since big band became mass marketed and commercialized, this deprived musicians expressing themselves to their fullest potential.
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*Bebop also gave birth to music all around the world, impacting Brazilian and Cuban music. Many of these musicians integrated bebop with their respective styles.
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*Lastly, bebop introduced school programs, jazz institutions, and yearly jazz festivals all around the world. Many of these implementations all stemmed from bebop jazz.
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The instrumentation of bebop jazz
As we learned, the band size of bebop was dramatically reduced from the band size of big bands. Much of this had to do with the transformation of music from arranged (big band) to improvisation (bebop). The sound of bebop did not require having such a large band size big band had. In addition, from an external standpoint, traveling costs during WWII made it increasingly difficult for bands to travel with such a large band size. Bandleaders were required to pay for lodging, food, and transportation of their band members. As the style of big band phased out in the early 40s and with the rising costs of WWII, it was a financial burden to have such a large band traveling around the United States during a time of recession.
In a trio, there would typically be a drummer, pianist, and upright bassist. In a quartet, there would be a drummer, pianist, upright bassist, trumpet or saxophonist. In a common bebop quintet, there would be a trumpet and saxophonist, which were considered the horn section, and upright bassist, pianist, and drummer, which were considered the rhythm section.
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On the drum set – the bass drum size was reduced from a 22 inch to 20 inch head. The ride cymbal became the primary time keeper, where as in big band, the time keeper was the hi-hat. Bebop drummers like Kenny Clark, Philly Joe Jones, Art Blakey, and Max Roach began to play asymmetrical accompanying patterns between the bass drum and snare drum. This was known as comping. The drummers of the big band era, including Gene Krupa and Papa Jo Jones played more straightforward symmetrical phrases with occasional punctuations on the snare and cymbal. In other words, the sound of big band was a driving beat enabling people to dance, whereas the sound of bebop evolved into more complexity and improvisation that complimented with the other musicians performed.
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The influences of bebop jazz
While there were a number of names (both male and female) who were instrumental in the bebop era, there are 3 essential names who were instrumental in the development of the style:
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Charlie Parker:
Known as the “bird”, Charlie Parker was a saxophonist and composer. Born in 1920, he began to play the saxophone at the age of 11 years old. Parker was the epitome of dedication to his craft. He dropped out of high school to join the musician’s union and would practice up to 16 hours a day! This was triggered by drummer, Philly Joe Jones throwing a cymbal at the head of Charlie Parker in a jam session where he lost track of a rhythm. Parker was instrumental in developing improvisational methods to the style of bebop. His songs, “Ko-Ko”, “Billie’s Bounce”, and “Now’s The Time” all epitomized the ability to improvise within a framework of a song. Sadly, Charlie’s life was shortened from drug addiction. As a result, he died at the age of 34 years old. His legacy lives on! He was inducted in the big band and jazz hall of fame in 1979, and went down as one of the prominent figures to develop bebop jazz.
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Dizzy Gillespie:
His real name John Birks, Dizzy was born in the year 1917. He was a trumpeter, bandleader, composer, and an occasional singer. Dizzy was exposed to music as a young child as his father was a bandleader. While starting off playing the piano at age 4, he subsequently changed to the trumpet at age 12. He got his first major breakthrough with The Cab Calloway Orchestra in 1939. He also wrote music for big band artists, Woody Herman and Jimmy Dorsey. However, Dizzy’s personal career skyrocketed in the mid-40s with the development of bebop jazz. Known as the “Sound of Surprise”, Dizzy had the ability to play with emotional sensitivity, improvise complimentary melodies, while staying in perfect time with his band members. Some of his classic bebop titles, include: “Groovin’ High” and “Salt Peanuts”. Lastly, he made significant contributions to jazz by integrating Afro-Cuban music with jazz, and having the first conga percussion player in his band.
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Thelonious Monk:
Also born in 1917, Thelonious Monk was the second most recorded jazz musician behind Duke Ellington. A pianist and composer, Monk was known for his unorthodox approach to playing the piano. He would use hesitations, key releases, and pauses that all conveyed to his strong improvisational ability, which is paramount to bebop jazz. Monk started to play piano and took lessons at age 6. Around 12 years old, he was learning classical pieces from Beethoven and Mozart, but was intrigued by jazz. This eventually led to him playing at The Minton’s Playhouse in Manhattan, New York in the early 40s. This was the place that gave birth to bebop and Monk played an integral role in the development of this style. Some of his classic titles, included: “Blue Monk” and “Round Midnight”. Being one of five jazz musicians to make the cover of Time Magazine in 1954, he rarely spoke to his audiences or gave interviews as he wanted the music to speak for itself. He once quoted, “Jazz is my adventure. I'm after new chords, new ways of syncopating, new figures, new runs. How to use notes differently. That's it. Just using notes differently.”
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