This instrument has been around for more than 150 years and has been a part of every style of music. In bebop, the scales used are made up of eight notes. However, even when starting on a typical 8th note, in bebop, one would run on a downbeat with a chord note falling on the root beat of the 3rd and 5th notes as the strong beats instead of the 2nd or 4th. A few notable bebop saxophonists included Sonny Stitt, Dexter Gordon, Charlie Parker and Jackie McLean.
Many bebop trumpet "licks" or scales are in 3rds, with a half step between each ascending 3rd. Within bebop, the trumpet can play going up or down the scale. Usually, this is done in a broken arpeggio (playing a consecutive string of notes). Together with saxophones, playing 9ths, 11ths, 13ths, trumpets were part of creating a new kind of jazz harmony and rhythm that came to be bebop. Some famous bebop trumpet players included Dizzy Gillespie, Fats Navarro, Miles Davis and Kenny Dorham.
The piano is another of the important instruments in bebop. The bebop piano scale is C D E F G A Bb B-natural C. As with the other instruments in bebop, the pianist is looking to make sure he is playing proper jazz articulation. Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell are two famous bebop pianists to master this style.
The introduction of the trombone brought along "swing" style phrasing, adding to the effects on bebop. The often double-time passages in bebop allowed the trombone player to improvise in measure of 5-6 and 9. Hitting the beats in a flatted 9th, along with the dominant-seventh chord, was a harmonic device used frequently during bebop improvisation. Famous trombonists who trademarked this style included Bennie Green and J.J. Johnson.
Drummers in bebop were not used to keeping the rhythms commonly done by drummers in earlier music styles. Drummers played all four beats and focused more on the 18- to 22-inch cymbal "riding" or "tipping" or "washing" over the entire background sound. This style created an independent drum "language" yet accentuated what was "bebop style." Some famous drummers in bebop were Art Blakey, Max Roach and Kenny Clarke.
Two famous bassists were Ray Brown and Charles Mingus. In bebop, the normal "swing chords" that were played one note per beat were traded with what became known as a "walking" bass line or improvisations where scales used included alterations to that familiar "swing chord." Chordal arpeggios with an emphasis on roots and fifths of chords were no longer touching root chords but instead were played more in legato fashion or a "walking" of the bass line, altering the chord with flatted 5ths.