Jazz Trumpet Licks

Here is a very easy to learn major triad pair that is a tritone apart. This Jazz pattern is useful over modal tunes and Jazz breaks. There really isn’t any set pattern for this major triad tritone pattern. You simply can just mess around with the Jazz pattern until you find something that works for you.

Here is a sound sample played on trumpet:

How to memorize this Jazz pattern in 12 keys:

Since there are 2 triad pairs, you will only have to memorize the Jazz pattern in 6 keys. Technically, since one of the triads repeats itself, you will really only have to learn this Jazz lick in 3 keys (but backwards). As you can see, this Jazz pattern is simply major triads, which I’m going to assume you have your major triads down by now. Then you just go up a tritone and do another major triad.

If you are not familiar with what a tritone substitution is, I’ll go over it real quick. In the above example I start on a C major triad, then I go up a tritone (#4th or a b5th above C) to F# major. After that I go back to C major triad. That’s all there is to it.

I ran across this interesting rendition of A Night in Tunisia trumpet solo cadenza by Allen Vizzutti on You Tube and I thought I would share it with you. Allen Vizzutti performed this excellent trumpet cadenza with the Temple Jazz Orchestra. Allen Vizzutti also demonstrates some really nice circular breathing techniques and cheesy stage humor by making it look like his fingers are on fire because he’s moving them so fast.

Here is a pretty easy whole tone pattern you can use during solo breaks, at the end of Jazz tunes, or pretty much anywhere your mind can hear a good place to put it. It is simply augmented triads going down in whole steps. As simple as that sounds, the actual Jazz lick itself sounds great.

Here is a sound sample played on trumpet:

How to memorize this whole tone pattern in 12 keys:

Since this Jazz pattern is a whole tone pattern, you will only need to memorize the lick in 2 keys because it repeats itself no matter what note you start on. What this whole tone pattern does is starts on the 5th scale degree of the augmented triad, goes down the triad (3 notes), then repeats the process down a whole step each time. That’s all there is to it.

Mess around with it a little bit and you’ll have this whole tone pattern in your arsenal of Jazz licks in no time at all.