Jazz Trumpet Licks

Here is a ii V7 I lick you can play where you will think in harmonic minor for the beginning of the lick and use a minor arpeggio at the end of the lick.  I got this lick listening to Tom Harrell. I believe I got this lick from one of Tom Harrell’s April Mist trumpet solos.

Here is a sound sample played on trumpet:

How to memorize this lick in 12 keys:

You pretty much need to think in minor for this ii V7 I lick. You can see that we start on the tonic of whatever ii chord we start on and go up the minor scale to the 5th go to the minor 3rd back down to the raised 7th (harmonic minor) up to the 2nd. Then you just go down the Bb Major scale (no longer thinking in minor) until you hit the 3rd of the I chord. Once you hit the I of the one chord, it is just a simple D minor arpeggio up to the 7th from there. You can end or continue this lick however you would like to.