Jazz Trumpet Licks

Here is an easy ii V7 I Jazz lick to learn in 12 keys. I was messing around with some Aebersolds a few days ago and started playing it. I knew I heard the lick before somewhere, it sounded really old school to me, yet still hip enough to play. It really sounds cool if you land on the raised fourth instead of the third on the I chord. The reason I call the lick old school is because it sounds like something an old school cat would play.

Here is a sound sample and example over a blues progression played on trumpet:

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

Well, you’ll notice that the Jazz lick simply starts off on the tonic of the ii chord. I like to think in minor for pretty much the entire lick. In the above example, you just go down the D minor scale doing a little turn on the sixth and doing a chromatic to the b5. Then you’ll hit the third scale degree of the V7 chord. I think to the b7th, then down the minor arpeggio doing pretty much whatever you like finally ending on the 3rd of the I chord.

I since this lick isn’t very fast and if you think about the minor scale, this Jazz lick is probably easy enough to learn by ear and feel in 12 keys.

Here is a ii V7 I lick you can play where you will think in harmonic minor for the beginning of the lick and use a minor arpeggio at the end of the lick.  I got this lick listening to Tom Harrell. I believe I got this lick from one of Tom Harrell’s April Mist trumpet solos.

Here is a sound sample played on trumpet:

How to memorize this lick in 12 keys:

You pretty much need to think in minor for this ii V7 I lick. You can see that we start on the tonic of whatever ii chord we start on and go up the minor scale to the 5th go to the minor 3rd back down to the raised 7th (harmonic minor) up to the 2nd. Then you just go down the Bb Major scale (no longer thinking in minor) until you hit the 3rd of the I chord. Once you hit the I of the one chord, it is just a simple D minor arpeggio up to the 7th from there. You can end or continue this lick however you would like to.