Cole Davis: 25 Easy Bebop Licks For Upright Bass

About the e-Book

As someone who spent a few years really learning how to play Bebop, it bothered me that there was no clear-cut method explaining Bebop on the upright bass. If you are a saxophonist learning how to play Bebop, you will find hundreds, if not thousands, of books explaining how to play Bebop on the saxophone. There are even books for Bebop clarinet, which is an instrument rarely heard on Bebop recordings.

On bass, we’re often asked to transcribe Bebop heads and solos by ear - which is no small feat - and play them with little to no harmonic context. This book aims to solve all of that. With this book, I have broken down Bebop to its bare essence - a perfect ratio of Right Notes to Wrong Notes. At its core, Bebop is a scalar, chromatic language that is the result of Wrong Notes resolving to Right Notes. Each line has an immediate tension and release, with constant resolutions. This might sound complex, but it’s really just half steps.

By the end of this book, you will have a library of licks to draw from in a variety of contexts: 2-5-1s, Blues, and a few progressions from commonly played jazz standards. You will also have some exercises to use from which you can start developing your own language within the Bebop sound. Let’s go!

63 Pages delivered as an e-book. 

About Cole Davis

Cole Davis is a rising star in the upright bass world. In 2017, he won the Ron Carter Bass Competition at only 20 years old. After earning a bachelor’s degree from the Manhattan School of Music in 2019, Cole was awarded the rare honor of being accepted to the Juilliard Artist Diploma and Graduate Degree Program concurrently.

A busy sideman in New York City and abroad, he has played at The Kennedy Center, Rose Hall, The Appel Room, The Jazz Standard, and many other venues. His first etude book, “Freedom of Movement,” was released in August of 2020 and was praised by upright bassists such as Eddie Gomez and Rufus Reid as being a game-changing method in upright bass technique. He currently endorses Yamaha basses and was named the 2019 Yamaha Young Artist in Jazz as the first upright bass player to be given the distinction.