A ii V7 I lick that repeats a minor pattern down a half step
Here is a pretty easy ii V7 I Jazz lick to learn. A trombone player I used to work with showed this lick to me. This lick is basically a minor pattern that repeats itself going down a half step to land on a chord tone of the I chord.
Here is a sound sample played on trumpet:
How to memorize this ii V7 I lick in 12 keys:
Start off by learning the minor pattern by itself first by going down in half steps all the way through the 12 keys, then apply it to a ii V7 I chord progression. This is the minor pattern: 5 b7 5 3 2 1. In the above example, you start on the 5th of the ii chord, play the minor pattern, then play it again down a half step, then finally land on the tonic of the I chord.
This minor pattern is useful by itself as well. Mess around with the pattern to find out how it’ll fit into your Jazz improvisation.
