Jazz Trumpet Licks

Here is a pretty easy way to combine the usage of tritones on dominant chords and the playing of a diminished scale or pattern to compliment it. As long as you land on a chord tone in the next measure, you should be good to go. Take a look at the Jazz lick below:

Here is a sound sample played on trumpet:

How to memorize this pattern in 12 keys:

The easiest way to memorize this Jazz pattern in 12 keys is by simply knowing that whatever dominant chord you’re on, in the above example it is C7, just go up a tritone (#4 or b5). Once you have that established, you can do a diminished scale or diminished pattern for about one measure as long as you land on a chord tone in the following measure.

I wouldn’t try to learn this lick in 12 keys, instead I would make sure to know what my tritones are and have all my diminished scales and patterns down. Just so you know, there are only 3 diminished scales you’ll ever have to learn.

Here is an easy to learn bebop Jazz lick that I prefer to use over rhythm changes. Of course you can use this lick over any dominant chord starting on the tonic, but this is just my personal preference.

I apologize for the really bad photo of the lick, my scanner went out on me, actually it was my laptop, but both are crap anyway.

Here is a sound sample played on trumpet:

How to memorize this bebop lick in 12 keys:

First off, know that you’ll be starting on the tonic. Simply do a bebop standard lick starting on the tonic then going down a minor 3rd and doing the exact same thing over again. After this, do an advanced enclosure to the 3rd of the key, then simply do a diminished (stacked minor 3rds) landing on a chord tone of the next given chord.

That’s really all there is to this Jazz lick. Hope you enjoy!