Jazz Trumpet Licks

I wanted to share this smokin Jazz trumpet solo of Tom Harrell with the Phil Woods Quintet. When I was watching this Jazz video I noticed how Tom Harrell rests his fingers over his trumpet valves. I’m wondering if this helps his technique overall on the trumpet. According to how he sounds in the Jazz clip I’m going to have to say that it helps him quite a bit.

This great recording of Tom Harrell took place in Hamburg of 1988. I have one problem though, I’m not sure what the name of the tune is. If anyone could help me out on this it would be greatly appreciated.

I know this arpeggio exercise doesn’t look like much. But if you practice it enough and get it down in 12 keys both up and down the augmented triad, it will help you develop your use of the augmented triad within in your own improvised Jazz solos. This post falls within the whole tone category because augmented triads are part of the whole tone scale.

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.

This bebop exercise or calisthenic, will help you in developing your use of arpeggios into your improvisation skills. The bebop exercise goes up the dominant scale with a half step before each arpeggio. Once you get the pattern down, you’ll be able to incorporate the pattern into a Jazz lick you can use to start bebop licks off with.

I also think it’s important to let you know where I got this bebop exercise from. I got this bebop exercise from The Be Boppers Method Book Volume I with CD. This Method book has a lot of great practice material and bebop licks to work on.

Here is a sound sample played on trumpet:

How to memorize the bebop exercise in 12 keys:

The half step between each arpeggio is what makes this harder to learn than most exercises, every thing else is within the bebop or dominant scale. The exercise just repeats itself over and over going up the dominant scale one note at a time. Once you start incorporating the pattern into your solos you can start on any note when starting off your Jazz licks. This is a lot easier because you will generally only play one arpeggio of the bebop pattern above.

You’ll notice in my video demonstration that a doodled a little bit. I like to doodle in every key to help build my technique in every key. This helps me break away from being only comfortable in certain keys. The only way you can get better in keys you don’t normally play in, is by practicing in those keys.

**Disclaimer – An Amazon affiliate link is used in this post.

A tenor sax player friend of mine back in Japan showed me this bebop scale exercise. This is not a lick, it is simply an exercise or calisthenic that will help develop your overall bebop playing. It’s very important to learn this exercise in 12 keys to really develop your technique.

Here is a sample of the bebop exercise played on trumpet:

How to memorize the bebop exercise in 12 keys:

Notice that the exercise just starts on the tonic of whatever bebop scale you are working on. It then just goes up the the chord tones to the 11th and then down the bebop scale landing on the 3rd, 5th, b7th and tonic chord tones. After you reach the octave, the exercise just repeats itself and goes backwards landing on the , b7th, 5th, 3rd and ending on the tonic.

This is the easiest way to memorize the exercise in 12 keys. Just know that you will never go outside the bebop scale you are currently working on.