The main goal of the bebop musician is to play language rhythmically and with control. Typical bebop language is constructed using half steps (chromatically or naturally occurring) to help the musician land chord tones (notes 1-3-5-7) on the downbeats. For this lesson we will only focus on half steps and lines descending down to land on the tonic (1). Every exercise and example will be discussed and noted in 8th notes. It’s important to note that most of the problems that will be discussed can be fixed by lengthening the notes, however bebop is a language built on 8th notes, so you must take that solution out of the equation for the sake of this exercise.


Problem 1: If you start to descend the major scale starting on a chord tone, you will find that the tonic always lands on an upbeat. In the example marked P1, I have included an example starting with the tonic. The note at the end with a parenthesis is just a visual aid to show the tonic on an upbeat. If you try the same example starting from any other chord tone you will find that the same phenomenon occurs.

Problem 2: A possible solution to Problem 1 could be to delay the note by an 8th rest as shown in P2. While this absolutely fixes the main problem, you evade the main problem at hand, which is when you start from the downbeat. At the end of the day, these exercises are giving you the control you need to play the solos you hear in your head. If rhythmically you feel like starting from the upbeat, a solution like P2 could be a potential solution to play.

Grouping the notes in the scale:

I have included a reference to the numbers we give to scales under SN in case you are not used to hearing notes be referred to as a number.

In order to start learning the “rules” of descending a major scale, we have to group notes into 2 different categories: Chord tones  (1-3-5-7) and non chord tones (2-4-6). 

For the sake of simplicity, let’s refer to the group of chord tones as Group A (marked G. A on the pdf) and Group B for the latter (G. B on pdf).



Group A Rules:

Rule 1: Add a half step between 6 and 5 (G. A Rule 1 on PDF).

Rule 2: Add half steps in between 3-2, 2-1, and 6-5 (G. A Rule 2 on PDF).

Group B Rules:

Rule 1: No half steps added. Go down the scale as normal. (G. B Rule 1 on PDF).

Rule 2: Add half steps in between 2-1 and 6-5 (G. B Rule 2 on PDF).

Thoughts on practicing:

I would practice this going up the scale with different variations of the rule. For example, 1-descending Rule 1, 2-descending rule 1, 3-descending Rule 2, 4-descending rule 2, etc.. The sky is the limit as far as how you want to practice these so do what makes the most sense to you. Like everything else, practice in all 12 keys

Note: It is important to understand that you add the half step(s) only once and at the next available time. Notice how Rule 1 starting from the 5 neglects to add the half step between 3-2 again after it has already done so. After you have added the half steps needed, proceed down the scale as normal. Look at “X” to see a wrong application of the rules.

Hang tight for starting on the upbeat, we’ll cover that in the next lesson.