I have to ask, was that Wynton Marsalis taking a ride before Ryan Kisor?

Here is a sound sample over the Bb Blues on trumpet:

How to memorize this lick in 12 keys:

The reason I call this a dominant scale ii V7 I Jazz lick is because it is simply a dominant scale pattern in whatever whatever key you’re currently in going up the scale. In the above example were are in C Major. What’s the 5th of C? It’s G7, so we play the G7 scale starting on the 5th. You repeat the pattern until you hit the 3rd of the I chord. In the above example that would be E. So if you know your dominant scales really well, you’ll have this lick in 12 keys really fast.

It ends with the cry me a river Jazz lick, which is something you can work on separately. For me, that lick is best learned in 12 keys simply by feel.

I hope you enjoy this lick, I also updated the look of the Jazz Trumpet Forum template making the blog and forum look a lot more similar. I should have done this a long time ago though. Let me know what you think of the new forum look.

I would love to get your opinions on this awesome flugelhorn solo by Arturo Sandoval.

A couple other things to note about this great trumpet clip. Freddie Hubbard does a nice cadenza at the end and shows off his trumpet style in so many other ways. There is also another trumpet player in the video that sound pretty good. I don’t know his name though. If anyone could help me out with this it would be greatly appreciated.

Here a sound sample played over The Theme by Miles Davis:

How to memorize this lick in 12 Keys:

To be honest with you, I’ve never learned this lick in 12 keys. I usually only use it in a couple keys like C7 and G7, that’s it. You can also play this lick in C Major and G Major as well and it sounds about the same. If you feel motivated enough to learn the lick in 12 keys it can only help your trumpet technique in the long run so have at it.

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

The thing I like best about this video is being able to watch Jon Faddis adjust his embouchure to go into the upper range. I notice a lot of trumpet players do this.

What do you think?

Here is a sound sample of the diminished exercise on trumpet:

How to work this diminished exercise in 12 keys:

I find it best to think in stacked minor 3rds. It really doesn’t matter what note you start on. It’s best to get in the full comfortable range of your horn. All you are doing is going down 4, half step down, up 4, half step down, down 4, etc…

To get every key both up and down you’ll just want to go up or down a half step from where you started in the first exercise and do the same thing over. Now you are alternating the diminished arpeggio both up and down.

Make sure to use a metronome on this exercise, I apologize for not doing so myself. Once you got the pattern down, try to start incorporating it into your Jazz playing. A good start is on the V7 to I chord. Start on the 3rd of the V7 chord and land on the 5th of the I chord. You’ll get the b9 involved and it sounds really hip.

Here is a sound sample on F blues progression with trumpet:

How to memorize the cry me a river lick in 12 keys:

For this ii V7 I Jazz lick, the only important chords are the V7 going to the I chord. All you have to know is you are starting on the flat third of whatever chord the V7 chord is. In the above example, F natural is the b3 of the D7 chord. You can play whatever your heart desires on the ii chord. After you play the cry me a river Jazz lick, your goal is to land on either the 3rd or 5th chord tone of the tonic chord. You’ll notice in the above example, I used an enclosure going to the 5th of the I chord, this is optional, but enclosures always sound great.

As far as memorizing the cry me a river lick, for me this Jazz lick was memorized easiest by feel. This is because it usually goes by pretty fast and it’s a little bit easier to memorize in some keys better than others.