I'm gonna show you five jazz licks they'll have you sounding like a pro
and unveil some of the secrets that jazz musicians are using in their solos
coming right up okay so these five looks were composed by our in-house composer keelan dimick
on my team for our inner circle members and these licks really really demonstrate what the pro jazz
musicians are doing that make their solos and their sound so amazing and so professional so
some of these techniques we're going to talk about are really important and i want you to
pay attention because even if you just introduce some of these things that you're playing today
you're gonna reap the benefits later okay so lick number one is an example of what professional jazz
musicians often do over top of five to one chord progressions and it sounds like this
okay so this comes straight out of the blues so we have a c7 alt which is acting as a v
chord going to an f7 so it's sort of like a five to one relationship this is actually
pulled out of the blues so actually that f7 is the four chord but five two one so jazz musicians
will often use what we called altered harmony over five chords that resolve to one chords so
right and the first note that we're playing here is a d sharp note over top of this c7 so
a d sharp is a sharp nine and then we do a chromatic
right a chromatic run down basically we're doing this system where we're going down to the g sharp
and down to the e natural which is the third of the c7 so that's another important thing
is even though we're doing these altered notes these notes that are really outside of the scale
we're always resolving to important chord tones such as the third okay so
right in those following notes the d sharp again is the sharp nine the c sharp is the
flat nine and then we resolve to a c natural on the f7 so the c natural would be the fifth so
gives it this really outside sound that makes you
feel uncomfortable for a second but resolves nicely
okay so look number two is over a one four three six chord progression and it sounds like this
okay so uh one four three six in concert c would be c7 if we're playing a blues harmony
f7 e minor seven a7 right so something that jazz musicians are always doing is they're targeting
altered extensions on chords and taking liberties with doing that so for example our first note we
do a little grace note into this f sharp note over top of the c now f sharp over a c is
actually the sharp 11 right so that's an altered extension that sounds really out so it goes
right so even though we're doing all this chromatic movement and we're starting on a
not strong chord tone at all what we're doing is we're targeting this g natural
here on the f7 so and the g natural is the nine of the f
seven right so that's an extension but it's still within the scale so it has a solid feeling to it
right but we're also hitting a b natural in here which is also the sharp 11 of f7
so we're really playing off of this sharp 11 idea over top of the dominant seventh chord so
right and all that is pretty outside but the way we resolve the line is
what makes it sound a great so we go to this e minor seven a little
right and the c sharp when we get to the a7 is the third of a7 so
so it gives us that feeling of stability and so jazz musicians are constantly using
notes outside of the scale not within the chord but the reason it sounds good in the end
is because they're resolving it to strong chord tones and giving us this sense of stability and
then we leave feeling amazed by what they just played lick number three is over one
of the most common chord progressions in jazz and that would be a two five chord progression
usually a two five one in this particular case it's a two five and this is what it sounds like
so a two five in concert c major for example would be d minor seven to g seven right and
we actually start this line off on the ninth that's e natural so starting off on an extension
is a nice idea because remember if we resolve it to a strong chord tone that's what's going
to make it sound great so and then we go to the triplet pattern here
right so that's a great idea lots of times in bebop we're adding these triplet rhythms within
the mix of the eighth notes so that's another thing that pro jazz musicians are doing
okay so really just moving down the arpeggio of the d minor seven right but we're actually
landing on the octave lower the ninth right so jazz musicians are
also always trying to tie their lines together to make musical sense right so
now this is the note right here that we're really targeting when we get to the g7 and it's the sharp
11. so we've seen this before targeting the sharp 11 on a dominant seventh chord or any
extension and it is hanging out there for a second sounds really hip and really cool so
now again we've talked about this before we end up resolving to this b natural at
the end of the line now again b natural as it's concerned with g is the third so once again we're
resolving the entire line on the third giving it this very stable sound that's
pleasing to our ears we're always creating tension and then resolution look number four
is another two five chord progression with a different approach here's what it sounds like
okay so again it's a d minor 7 to a g7 in concert c so it's
right sounds really nice now something that i really like about this line is we
start again once again on a non-diatonic note non-diatonic meaning it's outside of the key so
we start with this c sharp that leads into a d natural which is of course the root right
so jazz musicians are always doing this right they're taking a note that is chromatic outside of
the key and resolving it even if just for a second now this one is actually kind of simple because
it actually kind of walks up the scale the d minor scale to start with
does a little hop up to this c natural breaking the pattern of the scale which
is again something that jazz musicians are also doing a lot is they may be
running up or down a scale but they'll use a skip or a step to create that melodic interest
now we jump up to this e natural when we get to the g7
right now that note is actually the 13th right but the most important thing i want
to point out to you here is the next phrase right which sounds like this so e c sharp
d b natural now we already know we're resolving a b natural we already know that's the third
of g7 so once again we're ending on a strong chord tone that really defines the chord but
what we have here is what's called an enclosure pattern so an enclosure pattern is when you're
approaching a target note from above and below so in this particular case we have a couple target
notes here so in one we're targeting this d from this e and this c sharp but also within this we're
targeting this b natural which is the ultimate destination with this c sharp and this d natural
again either above and below or below and above so when we do this it sounds super be boppy right
this is a pattern that jazz musicians are always using in their lines so getting familiar with the
enclosure pattern would be really helpful for you okay lick number five is also over a very common
chord progression in jazz which is the one six two five chord progression and it sounds like this
so one six two five one chord progression in concert c major is c major seven to
a seven to d minor seven to g seven very very common chord progression you definitely wanna
master this one so one thing i really like about this particular line is it starts on the major
seven okay that's b natural so and once again we have this little triplet pattern walking down
now the target note that we're really targeting is this b flat over top of the a7 the a7 is the sixth
chord right so what is the b flat over top of the a7 well that's the flat nine so jazz musicians are
often resolving to flat nines over top of dominant seventh chords when they know that it's going to
resolve somewhere and they're even bold enough as in this case to land on it for a long time
so in other words tension for a long time no resolution no major chord tones
because they know that they're going to resolve it later on right
and let's go through the next part of it so then we have this pickup note g sharp
non-diatonic note going into the a natural over top of the d minor seven so it sounds like this
right and then we hit that g sharp again
but oh this time over top of the g7 which is a five chord right so
now what is the g sharp over top of g7 again that is the
flat nine so it has this beautiful sound when we're really targeting those flat nines
right so that's one way to really make your line sound super hip is focus on sometimes targeting
those flat nines over top of dominant seventh chords so learning licks by the way is a great
practice to do especially if you're learning them by ear and it's also a great idea to learn entire
solos by ear because there's a lot to be learned from that so i have on the screen right now
a video called how to learn a jazz solo by ear i give you the exact step-by-step process that
i would go to so that it's easy even if you've never done it before so click the video on the
screen right now to go check out that one if you like this video make sure you press
that like button make sure you subscribe to the channel and we'll see you in the next video cheers