Jazz Trumpet Licks

I got this ii V7 I Jazz lick from David Baker’s How to Play Bebop – Volume 1 book. Lots of great bebop licks in that book, highly recommended, you won’t be disappointed in all the nice Jazz licks you’ll learn from it. Anyway, this ii V7 I lick starts off with the bebop scale and finishes with a diminished pattern landing on the tonic of the I chord.

Here is a sound sample played on trumpet:

How to memorize this ii V7 I lick in 12 keys:

Just know that it starts on the tonic of the bebop scale you will be playing, or you can just think tonic of the key you are in on the ii V7 I Jazz lick. The lick goes up to the 3rd of the bebop scale you are currently on, then goes down the bebop scale until you land on the 5th. Next, you’ll switch to a diminished stacked 3rd approach. In the above example it starts on C#.

What is a minor 3rd above C#? That’s right, E. What is a minor 3rd below C#? That’s right, Bb or A#, however you want to memorize it. Do you see the pattern here? The lick simply finishes off going down stacked minor thirds until you land on the tonic (1st position) of the I chord.

In my experience, some keys are easier than others. But this is a nice Jazz lick to have in your back pocket whenever you see the need for it.

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You’ve probably heard a Jazz musician play this diminished pattern before, am I right? Anyway, this diminished pattern has a simple pattern to it, but I found this particular diminished Jazz pattern to be a little difficult in terms of finger flexibility. You’ll have to try the Jazz lick out for yourself to see if you are experiencing the same thing or not.

Here is a sound sample played on trumpet:

How to memorize this diminished lick in 12 keys:

Since this pattern is diminished, you’ll technically only have to memorize the lick in 3 keys depending on which note you start on. As you can see in the above example, this diminished lick repeats the same pattern over and over again going up one scale degree at a time on the diminished scale.

The best way I’ve found to memorize this diminished pattern in 12 keys is to think I’m doing a variation of the diminished scale which is: (1 2 b3 4 2 b3 1 2 b3 4). Basically every other minor 3rd of the diminished triad is played in this diminished pattern. Of course, I don’t think in scale degrees to memorize this pattern. Instead I think of the diminished scale in general knowing that I’m repeating the same thing over and over again.

Find the best way for yourself to get this lick down in all the keys, feel free to comment what works best for you.

I heard Tom Harrell play this ii V7 I Jazz lick. I can’t remember what album it was off of though. This ii V7 I Jazz lick starts off using a minor arpeggio starting on the 7th then finishes off with a b9 ending on the 3rd of the I chord.

Here is a sound sample played on trumpet:

How to memorize this ii V7 I Jazz lick in 12 keys:

First you need to note that this ii V7 I Jazz lick starts on the b7th of the ii chord and goes up and down the minor arpeggio. Once it hits the b7th again the lick goes up a Major 3rd, then you start thinking in Major for the rest of the Jazz lick except for the nice sounding b9th towards the end of the lick. Finally you’ll end on the 3rd of the I chord. That’s the easiest way I’ve found to memorizing this Jazz lick in 12 keys.

You can end this Jazz lick in different variations. I give some examples in the above video. Be creative and come up with some of your own interpretations of this Jazz lick.

I got this rhythmic diminished lick listening to a good trombone player friend of mine. It’s a real easy diminished lick to incorporate into your improvised Jazz solos. You don’t have to play this diminished pattern how it is written, be creative and come up with your own variation of the lick.

Here is a sound sample played on trumpet:

How to memorize this diminished lick in 12 keys:

Since this is a diminished lick you’ll only need to learn the lick in 3 keys depending on which note you start on. As you can see, this diminished lick is just going down in half steps a minor 3rd apart, but it skips around a little bit. The stacked minor 3rds in the above example are C, Eb, F#, and A. The easiest way to memorize this diminished lick then is to think in stacked minor 3rds throughout the whole lick knowing that you are just going down a couple half steps between each minor third.

Here is a diminished pattern that you probably have heard a lot of Jazz musicians play in different variations. This diminished lick is very easy to learn and implement into your improvisation skills.

Here is a sound sample played on trumpet:

How to memorize this diminished pattern in 12 keys:

Since this is another diminished pattern, you’ll only need to worry about memorizing the lick in 3 keys depending on which note you start on. You can see that this is simply a diminished scale going down with a half step up between each note of the diminished scale.

If you look closely, every first and fourth note of each group of 4 notes is just part of the diminished scale. This diminished lick is easy to learn on trumpet because the fingerings lay really well in all the keys.