Bebop Major

The chord it is built around

The bebop major scale is designed for a major sixth chord rather than a major seventh: C E G A, with the sixth as a chord tone. Play the scale in eighth notes from C and those four notes fall on the beats, while D, F, G♯ and B fall between them. Start from any of the four and the pattern holds.

This is the scale Barry Harris taught as the sixth diminished scale, describing the same eight notes as two chords laid on top of each other: a C6 and a B diminished seventh, alternating note by note. Harmonising the scale that way — every second note a chord tone, every other note a diminished chord — is the standard exercise built on it.

Where the sharp fifth comes from

The added note is a passing tone between G and A, written G♯ ascending and A♭ descending. It is not an altered fifth in the harmonic sense: nothing about the underlying chord changes, and calling the scale a C major with an augmented fifth would suggest a colour it does not have.

Written as a set of intervals the scale is whole, whole, half, whole, half, half, whole, half. The two consecutive half steps in the middle are the only unusual part, and they are the part players hear as the sound of the style.

How it is practised

The bebop major scale is drilled from every chord tone, descending as often as ascending, because the point is rhythmic placement and not the shape. Starting from the third — E F G G♯ A B C D — and from the fifth are the two that come up most in written lines.

The second exercise is the one that makes it musical: harmonise each note, alternating C6 and B°7, and move the pair in contrary motion. Piano players use this to voice a whole chorus; guitarists take the same idea as a drop-2 sequence across four strings.

Bebop major against the other bebop scales

Bebop major and bebop dominant are the two scales of the family that come from major-key material, and they are used at different points in a progression. The dominant scale, Mixolydian with an added natural seventh, belongs on the V chord; the major scale belongs on the I chord where the music has arrived.

Swapping them is a common mistake and an audible one: the natural seventh over a tonic sixth chord is fine, but the flat seventh is not, and the ear places the line on the wrong chord immediately.

Frequently asked questions