You’ll be able to play the augmented triad starting on any note within your Jazz solo. As we all know, augmented triads sound great and make good use of leading your solo into the next chord change.

Here is a sound sample/demonstration on trumpet:

How to work on this exercise to learn it in 12 keys:

As you can see in the above example, you simply start on the raised 5th of whatever triad you are starting on. It doesn’t matter which note you start on, because you’ll want to get used to starting off the exercise on different notes to develop your overall technique. If you look closely, there are only 4 augmented arpeggios you are working on. They just start on different notes as you go through the exercise.

From there, you’ll see that the exercise simply alternates up and down in half steps. You can change it up a little bit and do whole steps if you get tired of half steps, it’s entirely up to you.

If you decide to learn the exercise in half steps like I prefer, then all you have to do is go up a half step from G# to A and do the same exercise up a half step all over again. Now you’ll hit all 12 keys and have alternated both up and down for every key.

Now when you take your next Jazz solo, or play your next Aebersold, you’ll want to attempt to bust an augmented arpeggio out somewhere. Preferably over a V7 chord go to a I chord. It works in as many places as your imagination can conjure up.

Here is a sound sample played on trumpet:

How to memorize this whole tone pattern in 12 keys:

Since this Jazz pattern is a whole tone pattern, you will only need to memorize the lick in 2 keys because it repeats itself no matter what note you start on. What this whole tone pattern does is starts on the 5th scale degree of the augmented triad, goes down the triad (3 notes), then repeats the process down a whole step each time. That’s all there is to it.

Mess around with it a little bit and you’ll have this whole tone pattern in your arsenal of Jazz licks in no time at all.

Here is a sound sample on played on trumpet:

How to memorize this Jazz lick in 12 keys:

This Jazz lick is a whole tone lick so you’ll “technically” only need to learn it twice. When I think of executing this Jazz pattern, I think in a combination of going down the augmented triad from the note I start on. In the above example you’ll start on the 3rd of the C augmented triad. So you’re in second inversion because the 5th is the bottom note.

If you look at the example above, the first note of each measure is part of the augmented triad you are thinking in. If you’re not familiar or comfortable playing augmented triads, a good exercise is to just go up and down each augmented triad going up in whole steps, half steps, and alternating in between them until you really have a good feel for them.

So, as you can see the whole tone pattern simply repeats itself over and over again going down the augmented triad. The pattern you’re repeating is ( 3 1 2 3 Aug triad down). Thats it, or at least that is how I memorized the lick. You may find a more comfortable way. Whatever works for you!

Here is a sound sample played on trumpet:

How to memorize this whole tone pattern in 12 keys:

Since this is a whole tone pattern, you’ll only need to memorize it in 2 keys depending on which note you start on. You can see that this whole tone lick’s scale pattern is 1 2 3 1 4 1 6 and it just repeats that pattern going down in whole steps as far down as you would like to go. That is pretty much how you memorize this whole tone pattern. All the notes of this lick are not part of the whole tone scale. Just the first four notes are. Since the lick repeats itself going down in whole steps, I added it to the whole tone category.

Here is a sample played on trumpet:

How to learn the lick in 12 keys:

Know that this lick is a whole tone pattern and you are just going down the whole tone scale. Notice that the first note of every pair of four eighth notes is a whole step apart. Also notice that each eighth note is a minor 3rd apart. That is the easiest way to learn this lick in 12 keys. So this lick uses minor 3rds going down in whole steps.

Here is a sound sample played on trumpet:

How to memorize this lick in 12 keys:

Since this is a whole tone pattern, you’ll only need to memorize this lick in two keys depending on which note you start on. Whatever note you start on, just know that you’ll be going down a Major 3rd down from it. Then two chromatic notes. The next note will be a whole step lower from the first note you started on. After that, everything just repeats itself over and over again.

Hear a sound sample played on trumpet:

How to memorize this lick in 12 keys:

Once again since this is a whole tone pattern, you will only need to learn this lick in two keys depending on which note you start on. From whatever note you decide to start on, just remember this simple formula:

Fourth, whole step, fourth, whole step, etc…

It’s that easy. You can play as much as the pattern as you’d like. It’s completely up to you. The whole tone pattern above sounds good over Dominant chords and modal tunes.

Here is a sound sample on trumpet:

How to memorize the lick in 12 keys:

Because it is a whole tone pattern based off using an augmented triad you’ll only need to memorize the pattern in 3 keys depending on what note you start on. This is your triad for the above example: C E G#. As you can see everything is a whole step apart going down the C augmented triad. So memorizing the lick with the augmented triad in mind makes it a whole lot easier to learn in 12 keys.

Here is a sound sample:

How to memorize in 12 keys:

Since this pattern is a whole tone pattern, you’ll only need to learn it in two different keys. This is due to the fact that there are only two whole tone scales out there. No matter what note you start on, there are really only two keys you need to learn this lick in (a half step apart). I memorized it by knowing I’m going down in whole steps. First you do a chromatic down a whole step, then you jump up a whole step from where you started and repeat the process until it’s out of your range.