Jazz Trumpet Licks

I got this diminished pattern from a Bobby Shew Jazz book. I can’t remember the name of it though. I do remember that the Jazz book was about different Jazz technical studies, etc…  Anyway, here’s the Jazz lick.

Here is a sound sample of the Jazz lick on trumpet:

How to memorize the diminished lick in 12 keys:

Since this is a diminished pattern, you’ll only need to memorize it in 3 keys depending on which note you start on.  The first part of this Jazz lick is really easy to remember because it simply goes up the diminished scale. Then the Jazz lick ends with a half step below each minor 3rd going down the diminished triad. The lick ends on a minor 3rd above C in the provided example.

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 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.