Mike's Music Musings

When most people think of bebop, they think of linear eighth note lines.  While this is certainly a major part of the bebop language, playing that is too linear can sound boring and predictable.  Octave displacement is a great way to break up the linearity in your playing by introducing wider intervals.  Octave displacement is done by breaking up an arpeggio run (ascending or descending) and at any point changing the octave of the notes.  See below for four examples over ii-V chord progressions.