Jazz Trumpet Licks

Here is a very easy to learn major triad pair that is a tritone apart. This Jazz pattern is useful over modal tunes and Jazz breaks. There really isn’t any set pattern for this major triad tritone pattern. You simply can just mess around with the Jazz pattern until you find something that works for you.

Here is a sound sample played on trumpet:

How to memorize this Jazz pattern in 12 keys:

Since there are 2 triad pairs, you will only have to memorize the Jazz pattern in 6 keys. Technically, since one of the triads repeats itself, you will really only have to learn this Jazz lick in 3 keys (but backwards). As you can see, this Jazz pattern is simply major triads, which I’m going to assume you have your major triads down by now. Then you just go up a tritone and do another major triad.

If you are not familiar with what a tritone substitution is, I’ll go over it real quick. In the above example I start on a C major triad, then I go up a tritone (#4th or a b5th above C) to F# major. After that I go back to C major triad. That’s all there is to it.

This ii V7 I Jazz lick I heard Clifford Brown play is pretty easy to learn and implement into your Jazz solos. If you look towards the end of the Clifford Brown Jazz lick you’ll see an enclosure. If you don’t know what a Jazz enclosure is, it’s where you go up a half step then below a half step towards a chord tone. You’ll see that Clifford Brown did an enclosure on the 5th of the I chord.

Here is a sound sample on trumpet:

How to memorize this Jazz lick in 12 keys:

Notice that the lick starts on the I of the ii chord, does a pentatonic down to the 4th, then I continue to think in C minor going to the 2nd down to the harmonic raised 7th. Then the cool part of the lick hops from C to G to C to A, then down the scale with an enclosure at the end landing on the 5th of the I chord.

This is how I memorized the lick, it doesn’t mean this method is going to work for you. This lick sounds nice over a break before you begin your solo, an example would be the break in the tune Four.

Here is another cool outside dominant pattern that a good Jazz trombonist was kind enough to show me. This Jazz lick is easy to learn and implement into your improvised solos.

Here is a sound sample played on trumpet:

How to memorize this dominant pattern in 12 keys:

You can see that this dominant pattern just repeats itself over and over again going up chromatically in half steps. Just start on the tonic of whatever dominant chord you are on. The pattern is (1 b7 1  b7 5 4) memorize that pattern in one key and you will basically have the pattern memorized in all the other keys.

You can use this pattern like it is written above, or you can keep going up chromatically as far as you would like. Experiment with this lick and find how it best fits into your improvising. You really could play this Jazz lick over any chord and it would sound good.