Developing your own lines
How to turn one four-note cell into a vocabulary of your own by permutation, rhythmic displacement, sequence and combination, how to practise that vocabulary through tunes, and how to record and review yourself honestly.
Why you need a method for making lines
Learning lines, as the vocabulary and transcription lessons taught, builds a stock of sentences. But a player who only has sentences sounds like a phrasebook: correct, and the same every chorus. The bebop masters did not memorise thousands of lines. They owned a small number of cells, short units of three to five notes, and a set of operations for turning any cell into endless variations on the spot. Charlie Parker's solos are full of the same handful of cells permuted, displaced, sequenced and joined in new combinations; what sounds like invention is often transformation.
This lesson gives you those operations and a way of practising them so that they become reflexes. It uses the most ordinary cell in the language, 1-2-3-5, so that the operations and not the material are what you hear changing. Everything here applies equally to the cells inside the lines of the ii–V–I lesson and to the phrases in your transcription book from the transcription lesson. The motif techniques introduced in motifs and phrasing are the same ideas at the level of a whole solo; here they operate inside a single bar.
The cell
A cell is defined by degrees, not by notes: 1-2-3-5 on Dm7 is root, 9th, b3 and 5th; on G7 it is root, 9th, 3rd and 5th; on Cmaj7 the same. One cell, defined by degrees, is instantly available on every chord, which is why it is worth owning a few of them deeply rather than many superficially. The operations below transform one cell. Apply them to any other.
Operation 1: permutation
Four notes can be played in twenty-four orders. Not all of them are useful, because the rule of chord tones on downbeats still applies: a permutation that places the 2 on beat 1 or beat 3 of a half-bar sounds weaker than one that keeps the 2 on an upbeat. Of the twenty-four, the ones with the 2 in second or fourth place keep every downbeat on a chord tone, and those are the ones to learn first. Here are four of them over Dm7.
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\tempo 132
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\ts 4 4
:8 3.2{ch "Dm7" txt "1235"} 5.2 6.2 5.1 6.2{txt "3215"} 5.2 3.2 5.1 | 5.1{txt "5213"} 5.2 3.2 6.2 7.3{txt "1352"} 6.2 5.1 5.2 |Play all four permutations in a row, then in a different order, then two of them alternating. Then take the ones with the 2 in first or third place (2-1-3-5, 1-3-2-5 and so on) and hear what changes. They are not forbidden: a 9th on a downbeat is a colour, and Parker used it, but you should choose it knowingly rather than stumble on it.
How to practise: write the twelve "safe" permutations as digit strings on a card, shuffle, and play the card's order over a looped Dm7, then over each chord of a ii–V–I, then through a tune. After a week you will not need the card.
Operation 2: rhythmic displacement
The same notes, started at a different point in the bar, are a different phrase. Displacement is the most powerful of the operations because it also changes which note lands on which chord, and the bebop players used it constantly to keep lines from squaring off. The three blocks below are one phrase, a 1-2-3-5 cell on Dm7 followed by the 3-b9-root-b7 cell on G7, in three rhythmic positions.
The phrase on the beat, as you learned it:
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\tempo 132
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\ts 4 4
:8 3.2{ch "Dm7"} 5.2 6.2 5.1 7.1{ch "G7"} 4.1 3.1 6.2 | :2 5.2{ch "Cmaj7"} r |The same phrase started a quarter note later. Now the last note of the Dm7 cell lands on the first beat of G7, where it is the 9th of the new chord, and the G7 cell spills into the Cmaj7 bar, where the 11th passes on the way to the 3rd:
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\tempo 132
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\ts 4 4
:4 r :8 3.2{ch "Dm7"} 5.2 6.2 5.1{ch "G7"} 7.1 4.1 | :8 3.1{ch "Cmaj7"} 6.2 :4 5.2 :2 r |And the phrase started an eighth note early, as a pickup. Now the b9 of G7 (Ab) lands on beat 3, the strongest beat of the G7 chord, the 3rd of G7 (B) is heard over the end of Dm7 as its 13th, and the resolution waits on a rest and arrives on the downbeat:
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\tempo 132
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\ts 4 4
\ac :8 3.2{ch "Dm7"} | 5.2 6.2 5.1 7.1 4.1{ch "G7"} 3.1 6.2 r | :2 5.2{ch "Cmaj7"} r |Compare the three. The notes are identical; the meaning of each note against the harmony is not. Displacement by a beat is comfortable and sounds conversational; displacement by an eighth is edgier because tensions arrive on downbeats, and that edge is a large part of what makes bebop sound like bebop rather than like well-behaved chord-tone playing. Learn to hear both and to choose.
How to practise: take any two-bar line you know and play it starting on beat 1, beat 2, the "and" of 4 before the bar, and beat 3 (which makes it cross the bar line). Note where the resolutions move to, and add or remove a note at the end so that the phrase still ends on a chord tone.
Operation 3: sequence
A sequence repeats a cell at a different pitch. There are two kinds, and both are everywhere in the language.
Sequence through the changes keeps the cell's degrees and moves it to each new chord. Here the arpeggio-from-the-3rd cell (3-5-7-9) is played on Dm7, G7 and Cmaj7 in turn: three chords, one shape, and the ear hears the harmony moving under a fixed idea.
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\tempo 132
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\ts 4 4
:8 8.5{ch "Dm7"} 7.4 5.3 5.2 9.4{ch "G7"} 7.3 6.2 5.1 | :8 5.2{ch "Cmaj7"} 8.2 7.1 10.1 :2 8.1 |Diatonic sequence inside one scale keeps the cell's shape and moves it step by step through the scale, so that the intervals adjust to the scale. A four-note descending cell (3-2-1-7 of C major) moved down one step at a time gives a line that falls through two octaves of the key; the cell is the same shape each time, the exact intervals change as the scale dictates, and the downbeats pick out a descending line of their own. The chord-tone rule relaxes here: the sequence is heard as one scalar gesture, and the ear follows the top note of each cell rather than the beat.
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\tempo 132
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\ts 4 4
:8 5.2{ch "Cmaj7"} 3.2 5.3 4.3 3.2 5.3 4.3 7.4 | 5.3 4.3 7.4 5.4 4.3 7.4 5.4 3.4 | :1 7.5 |Sequences are easy to overdo: more than three repetitions sounds mechanical. Two or three, then something else. The classic move is a sequence that breaks on the last repetition, where the cell is altered or cut short to land on a chord tone.
How to practise: take each of your permutations from operation 1 and sequence it (a) through a ii–V–I and (b) down a major scale, two or three repetitions, ending on a chord tone.
Operation 4: combination
The last operation is the one that produces lines: join cells end to end so that the last note of one leads into the first of the next by step or by a short leap, and so that the chord tones keep landing on the downbeats. The four-bar line below is built from nothing but cells and devices you have met: a 1-2-3-5 cell, a descent from the b7, a bebop-dominant descent, a 3-to-b9 arpeggio, an enclosure of the root, and a final 7th-to-root resolution.
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\tempo 144
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\ts 4 4
:8 3.2{ch "Dm7"} 5.2 6.2 5.1 8.1 7.1 5.1 3.1 | 6.2{ch "G7"} 5.2 3.2 5.3 4.3 3.2 6.2 4.1 | :4 3.1{ch "Cmaj7"} :8 3.2 4.3 :4 5.3 :8 5.2 3.1 | :4 7.1 :2 8.1 :4 r |Bar 1 (Dm7): 1-2-3-5, then b7, 13, 5, 11 descending. Bar 2 (G7): b7, 13, 5, 11, 3 descending, then 5, b7, b9 rising. Bar 3 (Cmaj7): 5th, then the enclosure 9-7-root with the root on beat 3, then 3rd and 5th. Bar 4: 7th on the beat, root held, rest.
The joins are the craft. Bar 1 ends on the 11th of Dm7 a half step above the b7 of G7, which starts bar 2; bar 2 ends on the b9 a half step above the 5th of C, which starts bar 3; bar 3 ends on the 5th of C a 3rd below the 7th that starts bar 4. Half-step and small-interval joins are what make a line of cells sound like a single thought.
How to practise: write four cells on a card (one per chord of a ii–V–I plus a resolution), then compose a line from them on paper, checking that every join is a step or a 3rd and that every downbeat is a chord tone. Then compose a second line from the same cells in a different order. Then improvise with the cells and no paper.
Practising vocabulary through tunes
Operations on their own are gymnastics. They become music when you apply them inside a form at tempo, and the way to do that is to constrain yourself deliberately:
- One cell, one chorus. Choose a tune you know (a blues, rhythm changes, or a standard built from ii–V–Is) and play an entire chorus using only one cell and its permutations, on every chord. It will be boring. It will also teach you where every chord's 1, 2, 3 and 5 are at speed.
- One operation, one chorus. A chorus of nothing but displaced versions of two lines. A chorus of sequences. A chorus in which every phrase starts on an upbeat.
- Call and answer. Play a two-bar line, then answer it with a transformation of itself: permuted, displaced or sequenced. Four bars per idea, eight ideas per chorus.
- Change the tune, keep the vocabulary. Take the material you built on a ii–V–I in C through a tune in F, then one in Eb, then a minor tune where the V chords are altered (the altered dominant lesson supplies the cells for those).
Keep the tempos honest. A cell you can transform at 120 but not at 200 is a cell you own at 120. The rhythm changes lesson is the natural test piece, because at its tempos there is no time to think and only the reflexes survive.
Recording and self-review
You cannot judge your playing while you are doing it. Record every practice session that involves improvising, and review it the next day with a specific checklist rather than a general impression. Listen for:
- Downbeats. Where do non-chord tones land on beats 1 and 3? Each one is either a deliberate displacement or an error; decide which.
- Joins. Does each phrase end on a note that leads somewhere, or does it stop on a tension and leave the next phrase to start from nothing?
- Repetition. How many times did the same cell appear in the same rhythmic position? Three or more is a habit; transform it next time.
- Space. How long is the longest rest? If every rest is shorter than a beat, you are not phrasing, you are running.
- Time. Play the recording against a click. Are the eighths swinging or rushing? Does the line arrive early at the chord change?
- The form. Did you know where you were? Mark every bar where the harmony and the line disagree.
Write down one thing to fix and one thing that worked, and make the fix the focus of the next session. After a month, listen to the first recording again; the distance is the measurement that matters. The progress tracker is a convenient place to log these sessions.
A final warning about transcription and vocabulary work: the goal is a language, not a library. If your solos start to sound like a sequence of correct lines, stop adding lines for a while and spend a month on the operations in this lesson with the material you already have. Fluency comes from transforming a little, not from accumulating a lot.
Exercises
- Permutation card. Twelve safe permutations of 1-2-3-5 on a card; play the shuffled order over Dm7, then over Dm7 G7 Cmaj7 (one permutation per chord), 100 bpm.
- Displacement set. Lines A and B from the ii–V–I vocabulary lesson, each in the three rhythmic positions shown above, with the endings adjusted to land on chord tones.
- Sequences. The 3-5-7-9 cell sequenced through a ii–V–I in C, F, Bb and Eb; a four-note descending cell sequenced down the major scale of each key.
- Cell line. Compose two four-bar lines from four cells, checking joins and downbeats; play them in C and F.
- One cell, one chorus on a blues in F, then on rhythm changes in Bb at 140.
- Review. Record exercise 5 and apply the six-point checklist the next day.
- Week 1: exercises 1 and 2, fifteen minutes a day at 100 → 132 bpm. Record the last five minutes.
- Week 2: exercise 3 in all four keys, then exercise 4. Record and review with the checklist.
- Week 3: exercise 5 daily, alternating the blues in F and rhythm changes in Bb, 140 → 176 bpm. Review every recording the next morning.
- Week 4: full choruses over a standard built from ii–V–Is (your choice, from the repertoire list), using only material from this module, at the tune's tempo; one recording per day, one fix per day.
- Ongoing: one new transcribed phrase per week from the transcription routine, taken through all four operations in the week after it is learned. Target: improvise two choruses over rhythm changes at 176 bpm using material you can trace to specific cells and operations, with every downbeat accounted for, and review the recording with the checklist without flinching.