Jazz Trumpet Licks

You’re really going to love this sound bite of Jon Faddis on Mood Indigo if you haven’t heard it yet. If you have heard it, you’ll still love to hear it again because it’s just that good.

Jon Faddis plays a bunch of lip trills on a high C, then a high E, and finally hits the highest note of a high Bb. You know, the one that’s a whole step below a double high C.

After that, Jon Faddis holds out a really nice high G with great vibrato for an impressive period of time. Even though all the high notes are cool, my favorite part is at the end of the trumpet solo where Jon Faddis plays a really fast bebop lick to ponder over.

This trumpet solo is from the album To Diz with Love: Diamond Jubilee Recordings and was recorded live.

**Note: Audio has been removed from this post.

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

A guitar player I used to work with showed me this easy ii V7 I lick.  The lick is based off the major 7th of the I chord, this is how I remember the lick.

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

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

The easiest way to memorize the ii V7 I lick in 12 keys is to first know that the lick starts on the major 7th of the I chord (it’s also best to think in C major throughout the entire lick). Then you go up the chromatic scale to D or the 9th. Next you go down the major 7th arpeggio until you land on the major 7th.

After you hit the 3rd of the V7 chord it goes up diminished for 3 notes then one whole step until you get the b6 (b9 if thinking in the V7 chord). Finally, the lick finishes by ending the major and landing on the 3rd of the I chord.

I know this seems like a lot of steps, that is why it’s pretty much easier to think of the whole lick in C major. Like any lick or pattern, you’ll eventually develop a feel for it and not have to think about it anymore.

This is a pretty easy diminished lick to learn. I didn’t get this diminished pattern from Dizzy Gillespie, but I sure hear Dizzy play it a lot in his recordings. It is kind of a good lick to use during a pause or hold for a cadenza at the end of a tune.

Here is a sound sample played on trumpet:

How to memorize this diminished pattern in 12 keys:

Since this lick is a diminished pattern, you only need to learn it in three keys depending on which note you start on. The way I remember the pattern above is you’ll start a half step below the first note that will start the minor stacked thirds (this will be C, thinking in C diminished). After that you go up a 4th. Then you repeat the process going up in minor thirds as far as you would like to.

The second part of the pattern changes to a different diminished key. You don’t have to change keys if you don’t want to, but the example above goes up a whole step to D diminished. The pattern just goes down in minor thirds with a half step up between each of them. You can continue the pattern as far down as you would like to.

Here is a whole tone lick I heard Dexter Gordon play. I can’t remember what album it was off of though.

Here is a sample played on trumpet:

How to learn the lick in 12 keys:

Know that this lick is a whole tone pattern and you are just going down the whole tone scale. Notice that the first note of every pair of four eighth notes is a whole step apart. Also notice that each eighth note is a minor 3rd apart. That is the easiest way to learn this lick in 12 keys. So this lick uses minor 3rds going down in whole steps.

This is a nice sounding whole tone lick I heard Claudio Roditi play. It simply goes down the whole tone scale with the same pattern repeating over and over again.

Here is a sound sample played on trumpet:

How to memorize this lick in 12 keys:

Since this is a whole tone pattern, you’ll only need to memorize this lick in two keys depending on which note you start on. Whatever note you start on, just know that you’ll be going down a Major 3rd down from it. Then two chromatic notes. The next note will be a whole step lower from the first note you started on. After that, everything just repeats itself over and over again.