Jazz Trumpet Licks

This Jazz trumpet solo of Nicholas Payton starts off nicely on the head with just guitar and trumpet. I really like how it sounded. Nicholas Payton uses a lot of skips with fourth patterns that sound like he is taking his trumpet solo outside. That is probably why I like this Nicholas Payton trumpet solo.

When I first heard this recording, I never heard a trumpet player sound like that before. If you are interested in getting this Nicholas Payton CD, it’s called From This Moment. It Could Happen To You is my favorite listen on the entire CD, but there are other great tracks as well.

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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.

Roy Eldridge and Dizzy Gillespie both sound great on the tune Limehouse Blues. There are really a lot of good Jazz trumpet licks to take advantage of on this recording. I highly recommend getting the album Roy and Diz if you don’t own it already. It is packed full of great trumpet solos by Roy Eldridge and Dizzy Gillespie.

I wish I could share one of the tracks with you. Roy Eldridge and Dizzy Gillespie trade trumpet solos back and fourth throughout the entire tune. Both Roy and Diz start playing a bunch of high notes towards the end. They both get all the way up to a double high Bb (trumpet pitch). It’s a pretty fast tempo tune as well.

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