By: Matt Warnock
There are few genres of jazz that are more imposing and intimidating to guitarists than Bebop. It is fast, full of intensity, requires a thorough knowledge of one’s instrument and a deep understanding of the vocabulary used by the great Bebopers, both past and present. While many Bebop learning methods tend to uphold the genre’s complicated reputation, there are others that do a great job of breaking down this amazing music. Making it easy to understand and learn for players of all experience levels, tastes and backgrounds.
Jazz-guitar master Sheryl Bailey does just this in her three-part series for Mike’s Masterclasses titled Bailey’s Boot Camp Basics. The series takes students through all of the necessary skills, techniques and harmonic knowledge that they will need to take off their water-wings and dive into the deep end of the Bebop pool. Each volume in the series tackles a different set of techniques and concepts. Taking the necessary time to properly explain each concept in detail, provide exercises for further practice and allow Bailey to demonstrate how she practices these ideas and applies them to her everyday performance situations.
The first installment in the series begins with Bailey jamming on the Benny Golson tune “Along Came Betty,” with Pat Martino’s arrangement. As any good teacher knows, it’s always a good thing to set the tone of a workshop by playing up front. This grabs the student’s attention as well as shows them that the teacher can play the material they are about to teach. Bailey’s solo on this tune is a workshop in itself, and for those more advanced students, transcribing this short, but inspirational, solo would be very beneficial to say the least.
After laying down “Along Came Betty,” Bailey digs right into the meat and potatoes of the workshop. The topics for the first volume focus on scales and modes, how they relate to chords and chord progressions, practicing in 12 keys and practicing within a four-fret block in order to fully internalize these fingerings on the guitar. Each scale fingering and exercises is explained and laid out in fine detail, with an accompanying chart of each scale for future reference, and the importance on moving beyond just playing scales when soloing is properly emphasized, something that is very important when learning to play any genre of jazz.
Bailey emphasizes practicing slowly and maintaining good technique at all times, keeping fingertips close to the board whether playing or note, as well as the importance of building muscle memory and how that can help players once they exit the practice room and take these concepts to the stage. The fingerings that she presents for the scales and modes are derived from the Berklee Method, the same as the Aaron Shearer fingerings, which are fairly standard and are must know shapes for any guitarist.
The 90-minute video finishes up with Bailey presenting different ways to use intervals and triads to spice up your scale practice routine, as well as how to take these melodic devices and apply to improvisations. She also does a great job of explaining that one needs to learn and internalize scales and modes, in all 12 keys, and in all positions of the neck, but that once you get on stage, you need to move beyond that and create music. This is a sticking point with a lot of younger, inexperienced players who have trouble moving beyond running scales on chords, and for this reason this section of the video is extremely beneficial to players of all levels.
There is no doubt that Bailey is an extremely talented player and composer, but she is also a world-class guitar educator, something that is demonstrated on this video. Bailey’s Boot Camp Basics is a great learning tool, as a whole or each of the videos separately, and the information in the first volume alone is enough to keep one locked up in their practice room for months on end. Check it out, definitely worth the price of admission.
Sheryl Bailey
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