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.