What Bach and Charlie Parker Had In Common 

I have no idea what you are talking about but sitting in my quiet kitchen having my first coffee at 4.30am I am very much enjoying this tutorial

4-string bass players do this all the time when they hit the low E but need to play a Eb, D or C next. They go up an octave to hit those notes. So now I know that's called octave displacement. Thanks Rick.

It is an absolutely correct observation. Parker is the exact equivalent of Bach in classical music - both in the technical sense , and in terms of his role in music history. It just shows that music history goes through cycles. Parker rediscovered the techniques of Bach and reapplied them to jazz, just like Ellington and Bill Evans applied the techniques of Debussy. The entire history of jazz can in fact med mapped to the history of western classical music. Jazz went through the same evolution from simple diatonicity to increasing use of chromatism and harmonic extensions, facing the same harmonic dilemmas between form and chaos. Those are basically cultural life cycles.

Wow!!!!! Wow. This is so interesting and cool!

This is a Be Bach lesson

Thanks for showing the way for us wannabes. By spending time with videos by you, Aimee Nolte, Adam Neely, and many other skilled and generous-minded RU-vid teachers, I am getting first-class, professional level instruction...for free! All I can offer in return is to tell you I share whatever knowledge I can, whenever I can, in the same spirit that you guys share with me. May good Karma follow us all!

Absolutely! All these years of playing Bach (and Parker) I always loved the skips, but nobody ever explained it to me like that before. I always felt they were so similar and now I have a much better idea. Thanks!

Hah! Turns out, due to the very limited range of my voice, I'm an expert in octave displacment already.. ;)

Rick, YOU are a real treasure. THANK YOU. I think most music teachers and them wanting to teach music should have a close look at your videos. They'd spare us for many many hours of wasted shed time. Even the gifted ones would learn something. Could really copy and paste my comment to most of your videos. I play sax and your octave displacement video has virtually transformed the way I practice scales. Killing lines all over the place! Regards from an Spaniard living Denmark, who's a bit happier today than yesterday ;-)

Wow what a blessing in my life you have been Mr Rick Beato! Amazing videos, please keep doing the good work, you have so much to give, thanks, all the way from South Africa!

Eric Dolphy took it further with double octave displacement which works well on sax or bass clarinet.I have tested some of my pupils by playing "happy birthday" on the piano with big displacements of 2 or 3 octaves.They never figure out what the melody is.

after 4 years of hardcore piano training I can finally follow along! Thats just what I needed - thanks Rick!

Rick, I'm surprised and impressed to hear the Gradus ad Parnassum refererenced here - and cantus firmus. I thought you were more of a rock guy. This is solid musical theory that was very important in the Baroque era where the guide lines were important - Bach learned them at his father's knee before he passed away and later from his brother. A lot of this stuff was more or less forgotten as the Classical era came in and rules of counterpoint were regarded as old-fashioned dogma and the texture of the music changed, I'd say simplified. The sympathy between Bach and Jazz is well documented - I have been listening to a Jazz version of the beautiful G minor Sinfonia this very day. Great to choose the 3rd Sinfonia as an example here. The Sinfonias represent some of Bach's best short pieces and are pretty much ignored most of the time. The C minor and G major are also great works though not easy to play despite their brevity. And of course, the F minor is justly famous for it's extreme chromaticism.

Thank you!!! I’m (finally) making a serious effort to learn walking bass and octave displacement adds a whole new angle to scalar lines. 😊😊😊

Another mind-reading video! Have been thinking of re-learning the chromatic scale with displaced octaves. Introduced to me at NGSW. I'd eventually hear it on various records. Vai, Becker, Jarzombek, Kalle Rademaker... and possibly Jarrett on Radiance.

The octave-displaced chromatic scale on guitar sounds like something Fripp would do and/or did! Very cool!

The fundamentals for composition and improvisation, as well as the rules that all musicians should know before breaking them selectively.

Rick is greatest music educator in the world! Thanks.

I found this video incredibly thought-provoking. As a guitarist I really appreciated the part at the end with the demonstrations on the guitar. It gave me my next technique to practice!

Great lesson, Rick! There's also a great book written by the pianist Hal Galper called Forward Motion - From Bach to Bebop. It's worth a read and he talks a lot about these similarities. The best book I ever read about jazz phrasing.

Rick, I'd like to thank you so much for these videos. I came from not knowing much about guitar and playing blues to using your vids to better myself, how I'm approaching the industry, and the stuff I play. Seriously, thank you for these vids.

Haha I remember when Bela Fleck once said that He always connects Back with Charlie, though he wasnt sure why. It makes sense now

You're like the Musical , charismatic uncle i always wanted.

Thank you very much Rick, I find it enjoyable, the way you share.

Rick i like all your stuff, but i must say that this particular technique is very "effective" and useful

Great stuff Rick, thanks! I remember being told, decades ago, that if you sped up a lot of Bach lines they would sound like bebop, now I know a little more about what they might have meant.

Wow! Really mind opening, thank you for posting! This helps us to understand both classical and jazz and the connections shared by both. The first guitar example reminds me of some lines Duane Allman played. Sweet!

This is my favourite channel by far!!! Thanks you so much Rick! You are amazing

Great stuff Rick! Your lessons are outstanding.

This is an amazing lesson Rick! Thanks a lot! That exercise on guitar toward the end of the lesson is awesome. I have to try that and incorporate it into my practicing.

15:10 I saw the spirit of Bach coming out of the blue as this melody started.

Rick, I watch your vids whilst doing cardio on the machines at the gym. Trouble is I always get inspired to try out your ideas and have to rush home to play... Great insights...

That Fux book had so many rules it melted my brain a little when I picked it up 10 years ago. Maybe I'm ready for it now.

Any scaluer Rick, opens up so many things. Thank you for this. Broadens the mind man thank you.

Sooooo inspiring.Thank you for all these awesome vids.

Your deep knowledge on music never ceases to amaze me, Rick 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

You are just as passionate about teaching music as my teacher at school, brings back good memories of music classes.

Thomas Owens' "Bebop and Its Players" has an EXCELLENT discussion of Charlie Parker's style, especially his use of octave displacement.

So many great videos... wildly helpful! Thanks!

I can't even begin to list all the gaps in my musical knowledge that have been filled by studying your video clips. Thank you so very much!

Thank you so much Rick!!!

Your teaching style is much appreciated and hope you continue to gain momentum here. Will continue to watch and learn and pass on to my students as well. Thank You

Beato your classes are great!!! Thanks a million!!!

thank you, that guitar bit was incredible, I never thought I could practise this way, it's absolutely amazing!

It's the sort of thing I do when whistling if I can't reach that high note - go down an octave. Problem is that I don't know if others like it as much as me. You're a wicked musician btw Rick.

Fantastic! Such a simple idea, but so effective! Great lesson, thanks!

Kudos to my new found cyber friend! All of your videos have been really great! Thank you!!!

Nice easy lesson for a Sunday afternoon after lunch.! Thanks, Rick.

Thank you for making this video, so simple yet it makes it so interesting.

These videos are gold, thanks!!

Awesome video! Thanks for all the great info!

This video has helped me loads, cheers. I've tended to use octave jumps the easy way, same note to same note. This video is forcing me to think of the continuity of the line, and made me realise that I've been lazy with it thus far. Thanks again!

really, really interesting. Thank you, Mr. Beato!

..excellent, Rick (bless you!)

I feel like my head's about to explode. That's a good thing. I wish I'd had Rick teaching my music theory classes fortysomething years ago. Thank you, Rick!

I discovered the essence of Bach's music. The very pattern that threads throughout every single piece he wrote. Weather organ, guitar oboe violin or voice.. Rick is onto something interesting as a talented guy. I grew up studying counterpoint in europe from amazing teachers and know all about gregorian chorals and roots of fugue and other forms with counterpoint as a main source.

very interesting stuff, great video man. 👍🏼

i enjoy many of yer vids sir Rick and this one is super super duper i do declare!

I really love your vids Rick..you are a gem fella

i'm impressed when i read the comments section - you're helping so many people: well done i don't even know you and i feel proud of you thanks

Love your channel!

Maestro, once again I bow to thee.

Beast of a line indeed! Thank you sir.

Thank you for this, Rick!

Thanks, Mr. Beato. Very insightful, very well explained in layman's term and very inspiring and informative.

Very informative. Thanks for this!

You are brilliant as always, well done sir, well done.

Brilliant, as always.

Thanks Rick. I like that you tied it in with rules for creating cantus firmus at the beginning, relating specific application examples that followed to implied wider possibilities to explore. So much bop vocabulary is made more difficult by presentation of licks, often in the absence of sound, without the driving concepts. Nice inspiring illustration. \m/. Best, Daniel

Most of my songs bury a very sick or ailing cantus firmus, because I jump all major and minor intervals, and one of my best songs have some very tasty 9ths....I studied the Bach Chorale's backwards & forwards and drew my own conclusions when I started a full-time writing career...Bach was amazing, and I know I built a foundation from immersing in Bachian wisdom!

Outstanding video 👏👏👏

Hi Rick I love all the videos you make and I share it around with my friends and they say you're great. Keep up the good job Rick and hopefully I'd like to meet you soon. I'm from India.

That's really cool, my thesis in grad school was on Octave Displacement. Awesome Video!

Good lesson. Another similarity also in the first Bach example is the 2-5 lines. He starts on D maj then hits the b3 of Em, finishes the line with octave displacement, then hits the 3rd of A7, another octave displacement and resolves on the 3rd of D maj. It's a classic 2-5-1 line starting on the 3rd of each chord. G, C#, F#. Bach tends to do those displacement runs off of the 3rd of whatever chord he's using. Like Parker he also plays the b9 on the dominant chords.

Great lesson Rick 🤘🏻

Those guitar exercises at the end were awesome! We're gonna have fun in class tomorrow!

Great video again, thanks!

Two thumbs up. Great explanation.

😄😮 kool , you are a fine teacher bro....Tanks

Fantastic as usual! Octave displacement violates the 'no dissonant leaps' rule from Fux and strict species counterpoint that you established at the beginning. A followup maybe? A separate counterpoint video of its own would be awesome!

This little nugget...just rocketed my solos!

I'm going to spend the next year practicing this

Fantastic Rick!

Amazing! Great video! I love this in Aria from Goldberg Variations.

Great Stuff, Rick!

I absolutely love this video! Do more videos on cool exercises, like this!

This is a sweet lesson! Can't wait to practice it.

Always teaching me something new, you are...

With that descending scale it was easier to grasp what you were talking about/ playing, with displcements. I heard it in my head as a possible part of a walking bass line so it had an association in my thing with say John Paul Jones bass line (i.e.Ramble On, Dazed and Confused.)touching a bit on --'Everyone thinks and learns differently. in your Mindset for Success' Video from yesterday. Keep on your enthusiasm with your knowledge is a great combination.

I love that I found this channel.

Thank you very much rick its very educative

Yes, that line IS a beast! Wow.

Super informative content 👍🏻

Awesome as usual :)

Inspiring as always.

So exciting to hear someone talking about true counterpoint, its principles, rules, its applications. A, of course, the Masters/originators like Fux.

Awsoomeee!!! Thanks!!

I love your knowledge and what you teach me 🤩

I love that. Thanks!

excellent!!!!