Guitar Licks Jazz

Guitar Licks: Wes Montgomery Montgomery The next great guitarist to stand up afterCharlie Christian was Wes Montgomery. It took him a long time to become famous, but during the last years of his life he had great commercial success. It's the release of the albumThe Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomeryin 1960 that made him famous in the jazz world. Unfortunately he died of a heart attack at the height of his success, only 43 years old. Wes Montgomery's trademarks are picking with histhumb rather then with a pick (he actually did up and down strokes with his thumbs) and his use ofoctaves. His influence can still be heard today in many players. Jazz guitarists likeGeorge Benson, Pat Methenyand Emily Remler say to be influenced by Wes Montgomery. Recommended listening: Smokin' at the Half Note (live) Related Wes Montgomery article: Wes Montgomery's Guitar Gear

II V I Licks 1) The first lick starts with a series of arpeggio's. The first 4 notes make a Dm7 arpeggio, followed by a Cmaj7 arpeggio, then again a Dm7. The Cmaj7 arpeggio in the first bar contains all the tensions of Dm7 plus the b7 : C(b7), E(9), G(11), B(6). The Last bar is build around a C triad arpeggio.

2) The second half of the first bar consists of a chromatic line. This chromatic technique is also used a lot by Pat Metheny.

3) This one has a nice voice leading.

4) This one's a blues cliche.

V I Licks 1) There's a nice chromatic line in the second bar, delayed by the Dm arpeggio.

2) This one speaks for itself.

Minor Lick This lick is in the D Dorian scale with some added chromatics.

Dominant Lick This is a blues lick with some double stops.

Tal Farlow Bebop guitarist Tal Farlow didn't pick up a guitar until he was 21 and it took him

only a year to play professionally. From 1949 to 1953 he played with theRed Norvo Trio, and he got famous in the jazz world of that time. In 1953 Tal Farlow started his own band, but by 1958 hedropped of the scene. He moved to New Jersey, only played locally and made one recording as a leader in the period between 1960-1975. He stopped regularly touring in the early 1970's. He made a living (in semi-retirement as a jazz performer) as a sign-painter. In the last ten years or so of his life he was still going here and there in the US and to Europe every summer for the occasional performance. From 1976 to 1984 he recorded 8 records for Concorde, before disappearing from the scene again. Tal Farlow died in 1998

Recommended listening: The Swinging Guitar of Tal Farlow

II V I Licks This first lick in the style of Tal Farlow uses a number ofchromatic notes to outline the ii-V-I underlying chord changes. Tal loved to use chromatic notes in his

lines, so working out phrases such as this will go a long way when working Tal‟s sound into your lines and solos. 

In bar 1, you see the G-Gb-F-E grouping which comes from the G Bebop scale, anticipating that chord by two beats before it arrives in the second bar.

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There is a Bdim7 arpeggio in bar 2, B-D-F-Ab, outlining a G7b9 sound, leading to another set of chromatic notes from Ab to E, the 3rd of Cmaj7.

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Some things to notice in this ii V I lick: 

This phrase uses the Melodic Minor sound over Dm7, by playing an Fmaj7#5 arpeggio (F-A-C#-E) over Dm7.

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There is a nice chromatic approach to the 3rd of G7 at the start of the second bar (AA#-B) which uses chromaticism to lead the listener to the chord that is coming next.

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Lastly, there is a G Altered Scale (7th mode of Melodic Minor)being used to create tension over G7 that is later resolved to the Cmaj7 chord in bar 3 of the lick.

This phrase uses a repeated rhythmic pattern, as well as plenty of chromaticism to construct a cool-sounding, Tal Farlowstyle line over a major key ii-V-I. Sometimes if you run chromatic notes through non-stop 8th notes, the tension from those notes can lose it‟s effect. So, using rhythmic motives such as in this line can help break up your lines, putting more focus on the chromatic notes that create interest in the phrase.

Minor II V I Licks In this short minor ii-V-i phrase, you can hear anenclosure being used around the 3rd of A7alt (Bb-C-C#), as well as theD Melodic Minor scale being hinted at with

the C#-D motion in the last part of the phrase. Both of these ideas, Enclosures and Melodic Minor over tonic minor chords, were commonly used by Tal and arefun items to explore.

In this minor ii-V-i phrase, you can see: 

An Am7 arpeggio being used to outline the A7alt chord, as the note C produces a 7#9 sound over that chord.

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As well, there is a 3 to 9 arpeggio over the Dm7 chord, F A C E, which superimposed an Fmaj7 arpeggio over Dm7 to highlight the 9th of that chord. Arpeggios were a big part of Tal‟s soloing ideas, especially shapes such as these where you use two different shapes, Am-Fmaj7, to outline the underlying chords, A7alt-Dm7.

Stochelo Rosenberg Gypsy jazz guitarist Stochelo Rosenberg is the lead guitarist of theRosenberg Trio. He started playing guitar when he was 10 and was taught by his father and

uncle. Stochelo formed a band with his cousins and won several contests when he was young.

Stochelo's musical hero is of courseDjango Reinhardt and his favorite composition to play is Nuages. Stochelo plays on a Selmer guitar, a typical guitar for gypsy jazz. The serial number of his guitar is 504. Django Reinhardt played the same model of guitar with serial number 503.He received a golden guitar from the magazine Guitarist in 1992.

Recommended listening: Live at the North Sea Jazz Festival

Major Lick Stochelo plays this lick on 'How Insensitive', the beautifulAntonio Carlos Jobim composition. The lick consists of a series of arpeggio's: he starts of with a Dm7 arpeggio (a common substitute for Bbmaj7) and continues with a Bbmaj7 arpeggio. He anticipates the Ebmaj7 with a Cm7 arpeggio (the VI substitute) and goes on with Ebmaj7 and Eb6 arpeggio's.

Scott Henderson Guitar Licks Scott Henderson is a well known blues and fusion guitar player. He was voted best jazz guitarist in Guitar Player Magazine (1992). He was the srcinal guitarist of

the Chick Corea Electric Band, and recorded with Jean-Luc Ponty and Joe Zawinul. His own band is calledTribal Tech. Scott Henderson teaches guitar at the GuitarInstitute of Technology. Here's a little trick I saw Scott Henderson do on a video somewhere. This first one works on minor chords. He starts from the root and then plays two perfect 5ths, a minor 2 and then again two perfect 5ths:

Here's the same idea converted tomajor chords. Start by playing the root, then 2 perfect fifths, then a major second and again two perfect fifths.

Robben Ford Robben Ford is in the first place known for hisblues guitar playing and singing, but he has known a diversion form the genre in his early 20's. At that time he got discovered by Tom Scott who invited him to join his fusion band 'L.A. Express', thebacking band for Joni Mitchell's Court and Spark tour . Robben Ford eventually played on two of Joni's albums :Miles of Isles and The Hissing of Summer Lawns. From 1977 to 1983 he played withThe Yellowjackets from which he was a founding member. In 1986 Robben Ford toured withMiles Davis (The Complete Miles Davis at Montreux).

Recommended listening: Sunrise

Minor Lick 1) This lick is king of bluesy and uses the A minorblues scale. Play it over A minor or A7 blues.

Dominant Lick 2) This is a dominant lick that uses the G minor blues scale. Notice the alternation between the flat and the natural third. The flat third gives us a bluesy sound on a dominant chord.

Pat Metheny Pat Metheny's versatility is almost beyond compare to other musicians. It seems like he masters every style and he succeeds in blending those styles in a natural and elegant way. His musical diversity shows if you have a look at some of the people he played with : from Steve Reich to Ornette Coleman to Jim Hall to David Bowie to Noa toHerbie Hancock to ... Pat Metheny manages to combinevirtuosity with accessibility, resulting in music that is pleasing for 2 kinds of audiences, hence his popularity.

Recommended listening: Question and Answer

Minor Licks

1) This is a typical Pat Metheny lick. Use it over Emin or Dmaj and make sure you get the picking right : down stroke for the beats and upstroke for the off beats.

2) Hammer on galore.

Major Licks 3) This lick starts with some chromatic approaches and ends with a C major scale in thirds.

4) I like this one a lot. It's also in the C major scale.

Riffs 5) This is a montuno-likeguitar lick that Pat Metheny plays on 'Phase Dance' from the album called Pat Metheny Group. There's also a live version of 'Phase Dance' on the CD Travels. A montuno is a repeated syncopated vamp usually played by the piano in salsa music. The Bm7 and Bbmaj7 can also be seen as D/B and Dmin/Bb. This is also what I think when I improvise over 'Phase Dance' : D major over the Bm7 and D miner over the Bbmaj7. In the coda of 'Phase Dance' the montuno goes through a series of very interesting and beautiful modulations. Check it out!

Various Licks 6) Metheny plays this famous guitar lick on the solo break of 'Third Wind' (roundabout 1.35), a Metheny composition from the albumStill Life (Talking). There are a lot of transcriptions of this lick circulating on the internet, but I've never found a correct one.The lick uses a lot of chromatic notes and pentatonic scales. It's a good Pat Metheny technique exercise.

7) The following lick comes from the start of Bright Size Life and is a great pick up line to start a solo. The lick is in the D major scale, starts on the third and follows the following pattern: up a fifth, down a second. You can listen to the lick on thismp3 (not at the start, but after about 8 seconds):

Pat Martino Pat Martino learned how to play superb jazz guitar twice. He emerged in the sixties, releasing his first album'El Hombre' in 1967. Pat Martino made a remarkable comeback at the beginning of the eighties. After undergoing brain surgery he had complete amnesia and forgot how to play guitar. It took him years to recover and get back to his old form, partly by listening to his old records. The first record he released after the post amnesia period was The Return.

Recommended listening: Live at Yoshi's

Dominant Licks 1) The first lick is a V - I minor lick. If the second chord would be a major chord, change the last note to an 'e natural'.

2) This is a sixteenth note lick with a lot of chromatism.

3) This lick uses a simple rhythmic idea.

Minor Licks 1) This minor lick is build around a C major arpeggio, a common substitute for A minor.

2) This one is also build around a C major arpeggio.

3) This lick is a real classic.

short Phrases That Shape Your Solo

What you will learn in this lesson : By learning how to take small, easy to play

and great sounding melodic licks and connecting them to make longer lines, you won‟t have to worry about memorizing long,complicated licks to build greatsounding jazz guitar solos. When learning how to play jazz guitar, it is essential to spend time studying, analyzing and learning licksfrom great players such as Wes Montgomery, Joe Pass and Charlie Christian.

While learning classic licks, getting them under your fingers and working them in 12 keys is important, many players hit a roadblock when it comes to actually making them sound good during improvised solos. In this lesson, featuring videos from Chris Standring (author of the immensely successful guitar coursePlay What You Hear), you will learn how to takesmall, manageable licks and connect them in a musical way to build longer lines in your

jazz guitar solos. By breaking down longer lines into short, easy to play licks, you will not only add some great sounding Bebop lines to your vocabulary, but you will give yourself the building blocks needed tocreate hip-sounding lines on your own .

Mini Licks To begin, here is a “master list” of all of the mini-licks used in the longer lines below.

It would be good to start this lesson byplaying through each of these smaller ideas, learning how they sit on the fingerboard and how they sound as individual ideas. This will help you learn to recognize these small yet important licks later on when you begin to explore the longer Bebop lines below. Feel free to refer back to thismaster list as you work through the longer Bebop lines in order to refresh your memory with these short licks, as well as use these short ideas to create your own Bebop lines later on in the practice room.

Em7 Bebop Lick 1

In this first example, which is played at both slow and fast speedsin the video, you can see how Chris takes 5 short licks and connects them to form a longer, three-bar Bebop line over an Em7 chord. Work this line slowly at first, paying attention to the lick as a whole, but also the short licks that are connected in order to build the longer phrase. It‟sust j as important to see the small licks as they come together as it is to get the longer line under your fingers.

Em7 Bebop Lick 2 This second example, which you can see at both slow and fast tempos in the video below, uses some of the same licks as the previous line, but now adds somenew ideas to the mix over the course of these 3 bars. If you can get the long line under your fingers, as well as understand and hear how it was built by connecting the smaller ideas, then you not only get a cool sounding lick to use in your solos, but you are well on your way to building lines such as this on your own.

Em7 Bebop Lick 3 In this third and final example, you can see how four licks from the first and second lick are connected innew ways to derive a unique sounding phrase. Check out the video for a demonstration of this lick in both slow and fast speeds, then take this lick todifferent keys and tempos around the neck.

Miles Davis Miles Davis

Writing a short introduction to Miles Davis is not aneasy task, it's like trying to summarize the history of jazz from the 40's to the 90's. Miles Davis' professional career spans 50 years during which he wason top of almost every important innovation in jazz. He played his trumpet in

a melodic andintrospective way, often employing a mute. Miles Davis impressed by his performance, recordings but also by his choice of sidemen. Getting picked to play in a Miles Davis band was like putting a dose of steroids in

your musical career. The list of guitarists who played with him speaks for itself: John Scofield, Mike Stern, John McLaughlin andRobben Ford. Miles began playing the trumpet when he was 13 and had his first professional gig when he was 17. He was 19 when he played in Charlie Parker's band and at 23 he made his first influential album as a bandleader: Birth of the Cool. The list of following influential albums is simply too big to produce here.

Recommended listening: Kind of Blue

So What This lick is the theme of So What from the Miles Davis albumKind of Blue. This first-take, unrehearsed Miles Davis session from 1959 is a true masterpiece. It was the key recording of what becamemodal jazz, a music free of fixed harmonies and forms. The band itself is extraordinary (proof of Miles Davis's masterful casting skills), listing John Coltrane and Julian "Cannonball" Adderley on saxophones, Bill Evans (or, on "Freddie Freeloader," Wynton Kelly) on piano, and the crack rhythm unit of Paul Chambers on bass and Jimmy Cobb on drums. If Kind of Blue is not part of your CD collection yet, don't hesitate andBUY IT, it's classic jazz's best sellingalbum ever. Also a very interesting read: Kind of Blue: The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpiece The Play-A-Long book and CD setJamey Aebersold (Vol. 50) The Magic of Miles has four tunes coming out of 'Kind of Blue', including 'So What'. The Aebersold CD's are are excellent backing tracks to practice your improvisations on.

So What is based on a D dorian scale. The composition itself alternates between

D and Eb minor. A chorus looks like this : 2x 8 bars D minor, 1x 8 bars of Eb minor and 1x 8 bars of D minor.

ii V I Licks This ii V I Lick in Bb uses typical Miles techniques as it snakes it‟s way through the underlying chord changes. Check out thesevoice leading techniques that Miles used in his solos: 

Notice the b9 drop in bar one, from the Eb down to the D, which is a characteristic of Miles playing.

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The use of the B (#11) to start the second bar, allowing for a half-step resolution of the C in the last beat of the first bar.

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The Eb-D movement (b7 to 3rd) that connects the last two bars.

There is a typical shape to this line that you hear in many of Miles‟ improvised solos. 

The lick moves down and octave from D to Eb in the first bar,

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then back up to that same D half way through bar two,

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before repeating this same up and down movement one more time to finish the line.

Direction is a big part of Miles‟ lines, and so it is worth looking at in your practice routine, as well as what scales, arpeggios and chromatic notes Miles used to build his licks and phrases.

Minor Licks Here is a Dm7 lick that uses a few chromatic notes, the A# lower neighbor and C#, hinting at D Melodic Minor, to build tension during the phrase. Also notice these two approaches that Miles liked to use in his minor 7th chord soloing ideas: 

The use of the C triad to outline the b7-9-11 intervals over Dm7.

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The line finishing on the 6th (B).

In this Dm7 lick, you are only using the notes from theD Dorian Mode to create this snaking line over the underlying chord. Notice the three, 4-note groups in the second half of bar 2 and throughout bar 3 of the line. These three groups are all classic Miles mini-licks that are worth exploring further as you expand on this lick: 

4 consecutive scale tones

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R-6-7-R

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2-4-3-2

Mike Stern Mike Stern started playing guitar at 12, studied at Berklee under Pat Metheny and began playing in the bandBlood, Sweat and Tears at the age of 22. Leaving this band he played with Billy Cobham a short time, before moving to NY where he got recruited by Miles Davis to join his come back band in 1981. He appears on 3 of his albums:The Man With the Horn, Star People and We Want Miles. In 1983 Mike Stern went touring for a year withJaco Pastorius' Word of Mouth band and then returned to Miles Davis for another year of touring. In 1985 He released his first album as a leader: ' Neesh' and many albums followed since, including 3 Grammy Award nominations.

Recommended listening: Standards

Rhythm Changes Lick The first lick in this lesson outlines bars 5 to 7 in aBb Rhythm Changes chord progression. One of the most interesting parts of the lick is the second half of the first bar, where there is aclassic bebop phrasebeing used to outline the Bb7 chord, before it resolves to the 3rd of the Ebmaj7 chord on the downbeat of the

next bar. This five-note pattern is worth extracting from this lick and expanding up in your practice routine, as it is a common part of thejazz guitar language and soloing vocabulary.

Dominant Lick Here is a line that uses two characteristic Mike Stern soloing ideas: 

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The first is the use of theLydian Dominant (7#11) sound to outline a 7th chord (in this case G7#11). The second idea is the use ofrepetitive melodic phrases, in particular with triplet rhythms. Mike is a master at building tension in his lines by repeating phrases as the band builds energy behind him, and this lick demonstrates a bit of that energy as you use it to create interest in your soloing lines.

Minor Lick Here is a fun Em7 lick that runs up the lower triad (1-b3-5) of the chord, while each time reaching to a different note at the top of that triad. The first note is the 6th, followed by the b7th, 7th and root. Not only does this lick outline the underlying harmony, but it brings a sense of variation to the line that is reflective of Mike‟s soloing ideas, and a great way to expand your own arpeggio-based lines in the practice room.

ii V I Licks This lick uses a common chord sub that Mike uses in his lines, where there is aii-V a half step higherthan the written chords in bar one,followed by the srcinal iiV in bar two of the phrase. Using chord subs like this is a great way to build tension

in your lines, which is then properly resolved in bar two of the line. As well, notice the movement from the b7 of each iim7 chord to the 3rd of each V7 chord, both in the subbed and written chords. This half-step movement is a great way to outline ii-V‟s in your playing, and is something that is found in many of

Mike‟s classic solos.

half-step This lick is a short, Major ii-V-I outline in the style of Mike Stern that uses movement to shift between each chord in the progression. 

We see the b7 of the iim7 chord (G) moving byhalf step to the 3rd of the V7 chord (F#).

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The b9 of the D7 chord (Eb) moves by half step to resolve to the 5th (D) of the Gmaj7 chord to end the line.

Moving by half step from one chord to the next is a staple of Mike‟s soloing, andis something that is worth expanding on as you practice these ideas further in your own playing.

Lenny Breau

Lenny Breau was born in Maine on the 5th of August 1941. HisFrench

speakingparents were professional country musicians. Lenny beganplaying guitar when he was 7. When he was 12 he performed the role of lead guitarist in the band of his parents, playing Chet Atkins-style instrumental songs. Lenny Breau was an outstandingfingerpicking guitarist who merged country, flamenco, classical and jazz guitar techniques into his own personal sound. Lenny was very good at simultaneously playing single note lines and chord accompaniment. He was one of the first guitarists to play in the style of Bill Evans, using harmonics and seconds in his chord voicings. Near the end of his career he began using a 7-string guitar. Unfortunately Lenny Breau haddrug problems. He died on the 12th of August, 1984, aged 43. He was found dead in a swimming pool and it was soon discovered Lenny Breau had been murdered. The case remains unsolved until today. Recommended listening: Swingin' on a Seven String Recommended Reading: One Long Tune (Lenny Breau's biography)

1) This first Lenny Breau lick is based off of his chord-melody arrangement of the classic Jazz Standard Emily. The phrase is played without time, rubato, but feel free to work it out both freely and with a metronome in order to get a broader vision of how these chords can be translated into your solo and chord melody performances.

2) One of the things that Lenny was great at, waswalking a bass while maintaining a melody line on top of those bass notes . Here is an example of

this concept over the first four bars of an A Blues, using the A Blues Scale over top of a chromatic, ascending bassline that moves from root, to the IV chord and back to the I7 chord with the 5th in the bass.

3) One of the most characteristic sounds of Lenny Breau‟s playing is his use of artificial harmonics. In this sample lick, you are mixing harmonics (the diamond notes in the staff) with plucked notes as you ascend an Am11 chord on the 5th fret. When playing this lick, make sure to let all the notes ring over each other so that it imitates a harp, getting that true Lenny sound when applying this idea to your own arrangements and improvisations.

4) This next lick is influenced by Lenny‟s playing on one -chord modal tunes such as his classic versions of McCoy Tyner‟s “Visions.” Here, you areapplying 4th intervals to create 3-note shapes that you then run through anE Dorian Mode, being played over an open-E string pedal. Both ideas that Lenny loved to explore when playing over modal tunes such as “Visions.”

5) Last but not least, here is a chordal riff based on Lenny‟s love ofusing 3rds and 7ths as the basis for any chord or comping idea in his playing. In this lick, try

to visualize the 3rds and 7ths below the melody line as being separate from the melody itself. Almost as if there are two guitarists playing this phrase rather than one.

Lee Ritenour

Minor Jazz Lick 1) This fast minor lick comes from Lee Ritenour'sguitar solo on 'Stolen Moments' , as played on the CDStolen Moments. The lick is played on the IVth degree of Cm7 (Fm7). Lee starts with an arpeggio pattern (9 11 5 b7: a Cm7 arpeggio started on the 5), transposes the pattern in thirds like one would do with diminished patterns and resolves with some chromatic notes to the b3 of Fm7.

Larry Coryell Larry Coryell was born 2 april 1943 in Texas. He beganplaying guitar at the age

of 7. When he was 22 he gave up his studies and moved to New York to be a professional musician. Later that year he played in drummerChico Hamilton's band, together with Gabor Szabo, whom he replaced by 1966. In Chico's band Larry Coryell made his recording debut: The Dealer. In 1967 Larry Coryell started playing in Gary Burton's band and in 1969 he recorded an album with Herbie Mann.In 1973 he started his own band, calledEleventh House. During the 80s Larry Coryell only playedacoustic guitar. He toured with John McLaughlin and Paco De Lucia, before being replaced byAl Di Meola. Some other musicians he played with during that period:Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Pat Metheny, John Scofield, John Abercrombie, Larry Carlton, Tony Williams, David Sandborn, Michael Brecker, Sonny Rollins, Stephane Grappelli, Chick Corea, Lyle

Mays, Charles Mingus, Charlie Haden, Steve Swallow, Philip Catherine,Emily Remler, Steve Khan and many more. Larry Coryell's guitar style is veryeclectic, drawing influences from rock, blues, country, bebop and more. He has anincredible guitar technique and his sound goes from gentle acoustic to heavy distorted. Larry Coryell wrote a very interesting instructionalguitar book: Larry Coryell's Power Jazz Guitar: Extending Your Creative Reach

Recommended listening: Introducing Eleventh House Featuring Larry Coryell

Dominant Lick Larry Coryell plays this chordal improvisation on 'All Blues', composed by Miles Davis.

Larry Carlton Before starting a solo career under his own name, Larry Carlton was widely known as a very successful Los Angeles studio musician.

Some of the people he played with:Steely Dan, Joni Mitchell (on her Court and Spark album), Quincy Jones, Donald Fagen (on his excellent album),Michael Jackson, Steve Lukather, Lee Ritenour and many more.

He also played in the bands Fourplay and The Crusaders. His most important influences areWes Montgomery and Barney Kessel, but also B.B. King and Joe Pass. Recommended listening: Last Nite (live).

Minor Lick The following tablature comes out of Larry Carlton's solo onSteely Dan's 'Kid Charlemagne' on the albumThe Royal Scam. Rolling Stone magazine called Carlton's solo one of the 3 greatest guitar solos in rock history.

Kurt Rosenwinkel Kurt Rosenwinkel studied inBerklee, but dropped out after 2 and a half years to go on tour with Gary Burton. With the help of Burton he soon became one of the most successful jazz guitarists of theEast Coast. He toured with people likePaul Motion, Joe Henderson and Joe Lovano and earned the praise of jazz guitarists likeJohn Scofield and Pat Metheny. He

featured on many albums with people like Gary Burton, Seamus Blake and Paul Motion. In 1995 he won the Composer's Award from the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2000 he released the album Intuit, a collection of jazz standards.

Recommended listening: The Next Step

Minor Lick This is a slippery lick in the style of Kurt‟s playing, which uses theAeolian mode over an Fm7 chord. Though many of us associate m7 chords with the

Dorian sound in jazz, especially in a Modal context, sometimes using the Aeolian mode can be a secure choice when soloing over m7 chord vamps, as is the case with this lick.

ii V I Licks In this lick, there is a strong sense oflegato, which is a characteristic of Kurt‟s playing, as well as a number ofaltered tones over the G7 in this line.

In bar 2, you will see #9, b9 and b13 intervals (Bb-Ab-Eb) used to create tension over a G7 chord. All of these tensions resolve during the same bar, Bb-Ab resolve to the tonic note G, and Eb resolves to the 5th (D) allowing each tension to resolve properly and musically during this phrase.

Another major key ii V I lick, this phrase stays diatonic throughout the entire phrase, though there is asense of space and 4th intervals over Cmaj7, both of which are idiomatic of Kurt‟s playing. Notice the D -G-D and D-A intervals over Cmaj7, which are diatonic 4ths from the C major scale, as these are commonly used intervals found in Kurt‟s playing, as well as the playing of many popular modern jazz guitarists.

Dominant Licks This lick features both theD Altered Scale (Eb melodic minor over D7) as well as the D Whole Tone Scale over that same chord to build a Kurt-like improvised line. The Whole Tone scale is not as commonly used as the Altered Scale or 5th Mode of the Harmonic Minor Scale when creating tensions over 7th chords, but it is a great way to bring tension to your lines by working the #4 and #5 intervals from this scale into your playing.

The lick uses a lot of different alterations, including #4, #5 and b9 intervals, as this line snakes it‟s way up the fretboardover a D7 chord. Kurt is a master of long, snake-like lines that cover a lot of real estate on the fretboard, and this lick is an example of that side of Kurt‟s improvisational style.

Kenny Burrell Kenny Burrell has been ahigh in demand guitarist during all his career (he was Duke Ellington's favorite guitar player). Some of the jazz giants he played with : Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Rollins, Quincy Jones, John Coltrane, Jimmy Smith, Stan Getz, Billie Holiday, ... His most famous record isMidnight Blue with the Latin flavored hit 'Chitlins Con Carne', later covered by blues giantStevie Ray Vaughan. He has a cool guitar tone and is able to perform some very smooth jazz guitar. His main influences arebop, blues and latin and you can hear a lot of pentatonics and blues scales in his improvisations. Recommended listening: Midnight Blue

II V I Licks 1) This first lick in the style of Kenny Burrell is a nice way to change position on the fret board.

2) This second lick starts with a G pentatonic scale, advances to a Dm9 arpeggio and resolves in the 3 of Cmaj7.

Blues Licks This is a bluesy lick in the Eb blues pentatonic scale.

A fun and classic sounding Kenny Burrell lick that is based on the Eb Major Pentatonic Scale, used over an Eb7 chord.

Here you are using the Eb MinorBlues scale to solo over an Eb7 chord in a style very reminiscent of Kenny‟s „60s recordings.

John Scofield John Scofield arguably is one of the big three of modern jazz guitarists (the other two being Pat Metheny and Bill Frisell). He started playing guitar at high school and studied at Berklee from 1970 to 1973. Soon after he began playing and recording with leading jazz figures such as Chet Baker, Gerry Mulligan and Charles Mingus. From 1982 to 1985 John Scofield toured and recorded with Miles Davis. He appears on Star People ,Decoy, You're Under Arrest and other albums. In 1977 he started making records as a leader. The first album being 'East Meets West' was more funk orientated than his later albums. Scofield has a very personal and recognizable guitar sound. It is a rock-blues orientated sound and is often a bit distorted.

Recommended listening: Hand Jive

1) This is a very melodic lick over a V going to I minor and uses theC minor harmonic scale. John Scofield uses a technique called double stops. Adouble stop is when you play 2 notes at the same time and can be used to outline the

harmony in your solo's.

2) In this Scofield inspired lick, there are a fewtriads being superimposed over the underlying chords to create interest at various points in the phrase. Using triads from the 5th of any chord is agreat way to highlight the 9th of that chord while not relying on the root in your phrases. 

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The first is the Em triad over Am7 in bar one, which outlines the 5-7-9 intervals of that chord. The second is the Adim triad over D7 in bar 2, this time highlighting the 5-7b9 intervals of that chord.

3) Here is a slippery little G7#11 lick that uses both theLydian Dominant Scale, a Sco favorite, as well as a number ofhammer-ons and pull-offs during it‟s

construction. A lot of Sco‟s lines are full of slides and other slurs, especially from a weak beat to a strong beat. So, having a strong control of these concepts will go a long way into bringing a Scofield sound into your solos.

4) This line over a minor ii V I chord progression features: 

Broken arpeggios over the Am7b5 and D7alt chords, where only some of the

underlying arps are played during the line. 

The half-step motion between the b7 of the Am7b5 and the 3rd of the D7alt chord, G-F#, provides for a smooth transition between the iim7 and V7 chords in this progression.

5) This minor chord lick features: 

A few bluesy bends and an overall focus on the b5/#4 interval (G# in this key) throughout the lick.

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A major 3rd passing tone used over the Dm7 chord during the second half of bar 2. This note helps to connect the b3 and 4th intervals of the chord, before resolving up to the “Dorian” note, the 6th of the chord.

John McLaughlin John McLaughlin started playing guitar when he was 11 and was initially influenced by blues and swing players. In 1969 McLaughlin started playing with Tony Williams' bandLifetime. John McLaughlin became famous as the guitarist ofMahavishnu Orchestra, a group that combined the power of rock with the sophisticated improvisations of jazz. He also played on 2 classic Miles Davis albums:In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew. In 1975 McLaughlin switched directions and began playingacoustic guitar and Indian music with his bandShakti.

Recommended listening: Shakti with John McLaughlin [LIVE]

Minor II V I Licks This lick uses the D minor harmonic scale. In the second bar John McLaughlin applies a sweep picking technique before resolving down to the 9th, E, and finishing the line from there.

This McLaughlin inspired minor ii V i lick is built off of theHarmonic Minor Scale from the tonic key of A minor. Though not every note of this scale will fit over each chord individually, when navigated in the right way, as is the case with this line, you can and hear how this scale can produce just the right sounds needed for each chord in the progression.

The last minor ii V i McLaughlin lick we‟ll look at again uses theA Harmonic Minor Scale to outline the changes in this progression.

You can see how: 1. The G# in bar two helps bring out the sound of the underlying E7alt chord. 2. The G# in bar 3 brings out the raised 7th sound (mMaj7) overthe underlying Am7 chord.

Minor Licks Here is a highly chromatic Am7 lick in the contemporary style of McLaughlin‟s playing. Using the Dorian mode as it‟s underlying sound, this lick brings in the b9 (Bb) interval as well as the C# (major 3rd) interval throughout the phrase. While it can be difficult to use thesetensions in your lines and phrases when first starting out with jazz guitar, by studying phrases such as this, you‟ll be able to hear how masters like McLaughlin uses these notes in their lines, allowing you to navigate these chromatic phrases in your own jazzguitar solos over time.

This McLaughlin style lick uses theA Harmonic Minor Scale, along with two lower neighbor notes (C# and F#) to produce a cool sounding, longer-form phrase over Am7. Though not as chromatic as the previous lick, this fairly straight-forward line is a great introduction to the minor chord approaches that McLaughlin takes in his solos.

John Coltrane

John Coltrane's career only spans 12 year between 1955, the moment he first got noticed as a sideman, and 1967, the year of his death. Coltrane played in Miles Davis' band from 1955 to 1957. The second half of 1957 he played with Thelonious Monk, before joining Miles Davis' band again in 1958. This time he stayed till 1960 and played on 2 important Miles Davis albums : Milestonesand Kind of Blue. In that period he also recorded twoinfluential albums of his own: Blue Train and Giant Steps. After his time with Miles Davis John Coltrane picked up the soprano saxophone and formed a quartet with pianistMcCoy Tyner, bassist Jimmy Garrison and drummer Elvin Jones, with whom he recordedspiritually driven albums like A Love Supreme. In this period he was influenced by

the modal music of Miles Davis and the music of Ravi Shankar. In his last years Coltrane got interested in thefree jazz of Ornette Coleman.

Recommended listening: A Love Supreme

II V I Licks There are a few key items to take away from thisfirst John Coltrane lick: 

The first thing to notice is thehalf-step approaches to the G7 chord tones in the first bar of the lick. Each chord tone, F-D, is approached by a half-step above, creating the

line B-Gb-F-Eb-D, and is something that you should apply to other arpeggios on the guitar. 

The second item is theEm7 arpeggio outlined in the second half of the G7 chord, which hits the Root, 3rd, 5th and 13th of the underlying chord along the way.

In this John Coltrane inspired lick, you can see anAm7 arpeggio being used over Dm7, which produces the intervals 5-b7-9-11, or a Dm11 sound.

Playing a m7 arpeggio from the 5th of a minor chord is a great way to spice up these chords. As well, there is a bebop scale being played in the second bar as there is an added passing tone between G and F over the G7 chord. The Bebop Scale is an important Coltrane technique to check out in order to bring a Trane vibe to your solos and lines.

3 things to notice: 

There is an ascending scale running from the E all the way to A above the staff over the first two bars of the lick.

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The F triad used in bar 3 is something Trane liked to do, playing a second inversion

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of the triad, 5-R-3, instead of just running these chords tones in note order. As well, playing 4-5-6-9-R, the last 5 notes of the line, are a very characteristic sounding Trane idea that you can add to yourjazz guitar playing.

This lick uses chromatic notes and intervals to bring a tension-release vibe. 

The 4ths that start bar 2, D-G and G#-C#,are idiomatic to Trane‟s lines as these outside notes then resolve to the A-C, 3rd interval in the second half of that bar. T

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he Bb-Db-C enclosure in the 3rd bar of the lick is something that Trane loved to play, and is a technique you can explore further in order to expand your knowledge of enclosures in the woodshed.

This lick uses several superimposed chords to bring out different colors and tensions throughout the line. 

The first is the Bbmaj7 chord over C7, which outlines a C13sus sound in that part of the lick.

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The second superimposed chord is the B6 chord in the second half of the 3rd bar, which is a tritone away from the underlying root chord, Fmaj7.

Joe Pass Joe Pass started playing guitar when he was 9 and he was already playing at weddings when he was 14. In his 20's he moved to New York, where he could listen to some of the best jazz musicians of that time. Joe Pass got captured by the sound ofbebop, but unfortunately he also picked up a habit well known to jazz musicians of that time : heroin.

The next decade was wasted for Joe Pass, spending time in jails, until he entered Synanon, a drug rehabilitation center. In the center he formed a band with other patients and recorded the albumSounds of Synanon, which was very well received by the jazz critics. After 3 years in the center he was cured of his addiction and he could move on with his musical career. He started playing in Los Angeles and got involved in the studio scene. In 1973 he recorded Virtuoso, an album that made him famous forsolo jazz guitar playing.

He recorded a duo album withElla Fitzgerald and played with a lot of famous jazz musicians like Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington and Oscar Peterson.

Joe Pass died from cancer in 1994.

Recommended listening: Guitar Virtuoso

V I Lick In this lick, a Db diminished scale is played over the C7 chord. This results in the following sounds over C7: b9, #9, 3, b5, 5, 13, b7 and 1. Notes of the Db diminished scale: Db D# E F# G A Bb C (to create a diminished scale, alternate between whole steps and half steps). The diminished scale is a symmetrical scale, what means that it comes back every minor third: Db diminished is the same as E diminished is the same as G diminished is the same as Bb diminished.

A great way to create tension on the dominant chord: play a diminished scale that is a half step higher compared to the root of the dominant chord.

II V I Minor Lick Here, a D minor triad arpeggio with an added 9 is played over the Bm7b5 chord, resulting in the following sounds : b3, 4, b5, b7. On the E7 an A harmonic minor scale is played..

II V I Lick

A nice ii V I lick starting with a pattern and then going to a Bbm7 arpeggio over the Db7 (sounds like Db13).

Chord Licks In this Joe Pass inspiredchord lick, you can hear many of the idiomatic sounds that make up many of Joe‟s solo guitar licks and phrases. For this lick, try breaking it down into the mini phrases that make up each bar, that way you will be able to extract these ideas and use them in different combinations when coming up with your own solo jazz guitar lines.

The last lick that we‟ll look at uses afavorite rhythm from Joe‟s solo guitar work, you can hear a similar idea during his version ofHave You Met Miss Jones . The idea is that you break up the chord into the bass note and the top 3 notes of the shape, alternating back and forth until you get to the chromatic approach notes in

the last two 8th notes of each bar. Try accenting the chords only, not the bass notes, to bring an added Joe sound to the mix with this line.

Jimmy Raney Jimmy Raney was born in 1927 in Kentucky. His first big job was in 1948 with Woody Herman. He had a relaxed, confident guitar style and a quiet tone. Hisphrases are bop influenced, but his sound is in the tradition of thecool jazz. His best work is together withStan Getz with whom he worked in 1951-1952, 1962-1963 and in the Red Norvo Trio (1953-1954). After his last work with Stan Getz he disappeared from themusic scene, but had a revival in the 70s. Jimmy Raney has a guitar playing son, Doug Raney, whom he made several recordings with. Jimmy died in 1995.

Recommended listening: Jimmy Raney: A

II V I Lick This is a fast lick in the style of Jimmy Raney. The lick begins with an Em7 arpeggio, followed by an F#m7 arpeggio. The phrase starting on the second half of the second beat is a chromatic approach to the next phrase.

Jim Hall Pat Metheny and Bill Frisell regularly drop the name 'Jim Hall' as theirgreatest influence, and not without a reason.

If your looking for speed then Jim Hall's not your man. In his own words:

"I don't really play fast, speed has never come easily for me. Little by little I pared down my playing to suit my personality." Jim Hall's playing is veryadvanced harmonically, what compensates his lack of speed. His guitar tone is very intimate and subtle, a good match for cool jazz players like Lee Konitz and Paul Desmond with whom he both played. On

the other hand he also played withSonny Rollins and Ella Fitzgerald. Jim Hall's playing also works very good induo situations like 'Jim Hall & Basses' and 'Jim Hall & Pat Metheny'.

Recommended listening: 'Undercurrent'

1) This lick works over an F pedal bass note and is basically a simple 6th interval pattern transposed down the scale, a typical Jim Hall technique that also inspired Pat Metheny, who uses similar kind of ideas.

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2) This major ii V I lick uses a common rhythmic device that is found in many of Jim Hall‟s classic jazzguitar solos. Here you will find a number of “off-beat” notes in the first two bars of the riff, that then resolve rhythmically into more straight 8thnotes in the last half of the lick. Using displacement to start a line, and then ending

the line with more static rhythms, is something that stands out in Jim‟s playing, and gives him that rhythmic edginess that is characteristic of his soloing lines.

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3) One thing that Jim loves to do in his single-line solos isdouble up on notes, especially in 3rds. In this example, you can see a line built with these ideas in mind, repeating notes that move around in diatonic 3rds over a ii V I chord

progression in the key of D Major. Also note that the pattern starts on the & of 1, something that Jim does a lot, which helps displace the pattern and make it sound more musical and less like a static pattern down a scale.

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4) In this minor ii-V-I lick, you can see some of Jim‟s most commonly used techniques and concepts. In the first two bars you find notes being slide down on one string, where they could have been played on two strings but Jim likes to use one string for multiple notes during his solos. From there, you find a G Melodic Minor scale being used in bar 3, and a very Jim Hall like riff in bar four where there is a double stop, C and D, leading into a chromatic, legato triplet.

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5) Here we have a chord lick in the style of Jim Hall, featuring characteristic voicings and a chord sub that Jim loves to use over minor ii-V-I progressions. In

the first bar, Jim often uses an A7alt chord instead of Am7b5, creating a V/V to V to Im7 progression in place of the normal ii-V-I chords you are used to seeing. This is a fun and relatively easy way to spice up any minor ii V I phrase that you are playing, using chord and/or single-notes to outline that sub.

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Grant Green

Grant Green was a master jazz guitarist of the highest level, and it is definitely a good idea to spend some time learningGrant Green Licks in your jazz guitar practice routine. Known as a bluesy player, and later on a father of modern funk, Grant was also a talented bebop soloist who had a strong handle on bebop vocabulary and substitutions. In this lesson, you‟ll learn five different Grant Green licks for jazz guitar, but beyond the licks, you‟ll learn thebuilding blocks for each phrase so that you can learn how to create your own Grant Green sounding licks in your jazzguitar solos and phrases.

Recommended listening: Idle Moments

Find out which guitar, amp and strings were used by Grant Green:Grant Green's Guitar Gear

Minor ii V I Lick This first lick uses two classic Grant Green approaches to minor key V‟s. ii

The Edim7 arpeggio in bar one, implying a C7b9 chord as Edim7 outlines the 3rd, 5th, b7 and b9 of C7, creating a rootless arpeggio in this instance.

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The descending notes (C and Bb) over the pedal note Gin the second half of bar one is another idiomatic Grant Green approach to building lines in this context.

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ii V I Licks The next lick uses a melodic minor scale over the Gm7 in bar one, implying a GmMaj7 sound in this context. Applying a Melodic Minor Scale to the iim7 chord in a ii-V-I is a characteristic of Grant‟s playing, and ti can be heard further during his solo over So What , where he uses Melodic Minor over large portions of that tune.

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The next ii V I lick uses a few subs to create a focus on the iim7 chord, in this case by playing Gm7-D7b9-Gm7 , rather than outlining the written changes in the first three bars of the progression. This type of substitution, playing a V7b9/iim7 in the middle of a ii V I, in order to put more focus on the iim7 chord , is something Grant loved to do and t‟s i a great way to expand your ii V I vocabulary and bring a bit of Grant Green‟s sound to your lines at the same time.

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This lick uses a quick turnaround sub over the last two bars of the phrase. Rather than just playing over the Fmaj7 chord that‟s in the progression, Grant would like to use turnarounds to create more interest over a static chord. In this case, you can see the Imaj7-bIII-bVI-bII-Imaj7 turnaround being used, otherwise known as the “Ladybird” turnaround since it is the last two bars of the Tadd Dameron tune “Ladybird.”

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Dominant Lick This is a pretty straight-forward Dom 7 lick in the style of Grant Green, but there are two items worth looking at further in your practicing. 

The first is the use of the note C (the b3) to create a bluesy sound over the A7 chord in this lick.

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The second is the last four notes, which is acommon bebop phrase where you play one note, F#, then want to play the note below it, E, but you get there by playing the diatonic ascending triad to that note, in this case and A major triad.

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George Benson George Benson is arguably one of the greatest jazz guitarists that ever lived and he is certainly one of my favorite jazzguitar players. Most people know him as a singer of soul & pop songs and don't realize what afantastic guitarist he is. He plays just about any style, has a beautiful tone, great improvisational ideas, terrific speed, swings like hell and has very much his own style, although you hear where he got his initial inspirations from :Wes Montgomery and Charlie Christian.

Recommended listening: 'Beyond the Blue Horizon'

Have a look at these great licks and be inspired by the master of smooth jazz guitar:

V-I Licks

1) The first lick starts witha Cmaj7#5 arpeggio (E7b13) and continues inan A melodic minor scale.

2) The first bar of the next lick uses a Dm7b5 arpeggio, which gives analtered type of sound over E7 : b7, b9, 3 and b13. In the second bar George plays a Abmaj7 arpeggio : 3, b13, 7 and #9. The use of a major 7 on a dominant chord is a bit unusual, but sounds ok here because it is part of a series of arpeggios that are used to build tension. After the Abmaj7 arpeggio follows an Ab#5 triad arpeggio : 3, b13 and 1 going to the 9 of Amin. You can hear this lick on the standard 'Stella by Starlight' on the CD'Tenderly''.

II-V-I Licks 1) The Fm7 chord here is substituted by Abmaj7 witha bit of chromatism.

2) This very nice lick also comes out of 'Stella byStarlight' from the CD'Tenderly''.

Minor II-V-I Lick 1) This lick uses the C minor pentatonic scale.

Minor Lick

1) This one uses the Ab minor blues scale.

Frank Gambale

Frank Gambale was born on December 22, 1958 in Canberra, Australia. He startedplaying guitar at the age of 7 and he became a student at theGuitar Institute of Technology (GIT) in Hollywood.

Frank started playing inChick Corea's Electric Band in 1986. The group just did a reunion tour and released a new album, called To The Stars. He's also the leader of his own rock orientated bands. Frank Gambale is known for his technical mastery and extremefast guitar solos. His signature technique issweep picking, but a different method ofsweep picking. His sweep picking involves not only arpeggios, as is traditionally the case, but also scales. To learn more about his speed picking technique, check out one of his instructional DVDs: Monster Licks-Speed Picking

Recommended listening: Present for the Future

1) The following lick comes from a song called 'Isola d'Elba' from the album Coming to Your Senses, featuring Frank on acoustic guitar.

Emily Remler There are not a lot of female jazz guitarists. Emily Remler was one of them, but unfortunately she died much too soon after a heart attack at the age of 32. Emily Remler's main influence was, like many other jazz guitarists,Wes Montgomery. Between 1974 and 1976 Emily studied atBerklee where she graduated at the age of 18. In 1980 she recorded herfirst album : Firefly. She was only 24 when she recorded this album, but listening to her playing you would think she had a lot more experience behind her.Following this album she played with a lot of well known players like Monty Alexander andLarry Coryell, with whom she recorded a duo album.

Recommended listening: Catwalk

1) The first bar of this lick uses aD major 7 arpeggio which is a common substitute for Bm7. Playing a Dmaj7 arpeggio instead of a Bm7 arpeggio gives us a richer sound because of the 9 (c#, the 7 of Dmaj7). The rest of the lick Emily uses a rhythmic idea which she transposes harmonically.

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2) This is a bluesy lick that you can take from Emily‟s style of playing and add to your Jazz Blues repertoire. The trill lick that starts bar 2 is something that Emily used a lot in her playing. Notice that the 3rd of G7 (B) is played on beat 4 of the second bar, anticipating that chord by a full beat before the harmony catches up with the lick.

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3) A short but fun lick, this phrase uses two of Emily‟s characteristic linear concepts to build a two-bar lineover C7: 

The first half of bar 1 features a string-skipping phrase, that starts on the 7th and the uses the 9th and a lower-neighbor tone to complete that idea, both concepts that Emily liked to use in her lines.

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There is a descending 3rd line that finishes the lick, moving chromatically down the neck from the 6th to the 5th of C7, with 3rd intervals below each descending chromatic note.

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4) This next lick uses triads to outline the ii-V-I7 chords that would be found in the last phrase of a jazz blues chord progression in C. 

The Am triad is used to outline the 5-7-9 of Dm7 and the 9-11-13 of G7.

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Then, there is a G triad over G7 which finishes on an Ab triad over C7, outlining the R-#9-#5 of that chord.

Using triads, both inside and outside the changes, was something that Remler loved to used in her playing, and something that should be explored outside the context of this lick.

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5) This lick sums up a lot of the previous ideas we‟ve seen in this lesson. 

There are triads in bar 2.

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The trill lick in bar 3.

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The descending chromatic 3rds in bar 4. And just for good measure there are ascending stacked 4th intervals in bar 1, another classic Remler sound.

This is a tricky lick to get under your fingers, so take it slow in the woodshed and work it out with a metronome at various tempos before you take it to a jam or gigging situation.

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Django Reinhardt Gypsy jazz guitaristDjango Reinhardt was the first famousEuropean jazz

musician. Born in Belgium (that's where the .be in www.jazzguitar.be comes from) and raised in a gypsy camp near Paris he first learned toplay violin, but later switched to banjo-guitar.At the age of 12 Django Reinhardt played good enough to play professionally. In 1928 disaster struck and the3rd and 4rd fingers of his left hand got mutilated in a caravan fire, but Django developed anew fingering system and by 1930 he was playing again in Paris' cafes. In Montemartre he heard records of American jazz players like Duke Ellington andLouis Armstrong and he absorbed their music. In 1934 he met Stephane Grappelli, a violin player with whom he founded 'Quintette du Hot Club de France'. 'Nuages' and 'Minor Swing' are some famous Django Reinhardt compositions. Django Reinhardt became the icon of gypsy jazz guitar.

V to I Lick This lick is brilliant in it's simplicity. Sometimes I wonder why I don't come up with licks like these myself all the time. It starts with a chromatic leap tothe 9 of E7, followed by an E7 arpeggio. On the Am Django plays a A minor triad with an added 9. This is a nice idea to avoid playing too much 7th arpeggio's in your improvisations. Make your own personal arpeggio's : take a triad and add a 9 or an 11 or leave out the 5th and replace it with a tension.

Minor Lick The following tabs are a sample transcription from Django's'Nuages' (click and scroll down to listen to a sample mp3). The lick is played in the Hungarian gypsy scale (1 2 b3 #4 5 b6 7). In the second bar Django Reinhardt plays a major 3. Mixing between minor and major thirds is a sound you can hear a lot in oriental styles of music.

Charlie Parker Charlie Parker was one of the greatest and arguably the greatestsaxophone playerof all times. His playing is so fluent and fast, still every single note in his

lines makes sense. Charlie Parker (or "Bird") is considered as one of the founders ofBebop. He was the master of chordal improvisation and that's the reason why he is so interesting for guitarists to study. Even if you would e l ave the band out and listen to Parker playing solo, you can still hear every chord of the tune's chord progression. Outlining the chords in your improvisations is a way to make your solo's more interesting and give them more structure. Having a look at some Parker licks can help you agreat deal in accomplishing that. Make sure you have a look at the'Charlie Parker Omni book', a book with transcriptions of Parker's compositions and a great resource for every jazz improvising musician. Recommended listening : 'Boss Bird' (CD box with 101 of his most representative

recordings)

II-V-I Licks 1) A lick from Charlie Parker'sDonna Lee. Notice the 'Honeysuckle Rose' motif in the first bar.

2) The first bar starts with a Dm chord shape.

Major Licks 1) The second bar of this major lick is played around a Cmaj7 chord shape.

2) This is the opening lick from 'Anthropology', a standard written by Charlie 'Bird' Parker and John 'Dizzy' Gillespie.

Charlie Christian Charlie Christian was the first successful electric guitarist and although he played in swing bands mostly, he was very much influenced bybebop players. He was a student of Eddie Durham - a jazz guitarist who invented the amplified guitar - and was one of the first guitarist who played amplified.Electric guitar opened up a range of possibilities because guitarists could concentrate on other things besides volume. Unfortunately Charlie Christian died at the early age of 25 after contracting tuberculosis.

Charlie Christian Licks Home

Jazz Guitar Licks

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Charlie Christian was the first successful electric guitarist and although he played in swing bands mostly, he was very much influenced by bebop players. He was a student of Eddie Durham - a jazz guitarist who invented the amplified guitar - and was one of the first guitarist who played amplified.Electric guitar opened up a range of possibilities because guitarists could concentrate on other things besides volume. Unfortunately Charlie Christian died at the early age of 25 after contracting tuberculosis.

Recommended listening: Charlie Christian: the Genius of the Electric Guitar

Full bio and more about Charlie Christian's guitar technique:The Charlie

Christian Biography Find out which guitar, amp and strings were used by Charlie Christian: Charlie's Guitar Gear

Dominant Licks This typical Charlie Christian lick is played over A7. The first 4 notes form a C#m7b5 chord shape, a common substitute for the A7 chord. It gives us the 3, 5, b7 and 9 of A7. Licks like these are nice to play on a B section of arhythm changes.

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In this classic Christian sounding lick, themajor blues scale is being used to outline an A7 chord, producing a bluesy, swing-sounding lick. Using the major blues scale (the major pentatonic scale with an added b3) is agreat way to bring a Christian and swing sound to your lines, so feel free to explore this idea further as you take it past the context of this single lick in your practice routine.

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Here you see an enclosure over the 3rd of the underlying A7 chord, where D and C and being used to enclose the note C. This type of tension and release line (aka enclosure) is something thatcan be found in many of Charlie‟s and other solos from the Swing era. Enclosures have been used by just about every great jazz soloist over the

past 80 or so years, and so it is an important concept to have under your fingers and in your ears as you advance your jazz guitar skills in the woodshed.

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V to I Licks This Charlie Christian inspired lick looks at the use of alower neighbor tone in the first bar to highlight the large leap between the 9th (A) and the 13th (E) of the G7 chord. By landing on a chromatic note after a leap, before resolving it to a chord tone on the next note, you can bring a strong focus to both the leap and the resolution point in your lines, something that Charlie and other Swing musicians liked to do in their solos.

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This Charlie Christian lick uses an idiomatic riff that runs from the b3 to the 3 to the 5th of the underlying chord, in this case G7 and Cmaj7. Mixing theblue note (b3) with the diatonic 3rd and 5th of any chord is something that Charlie and many other Swing artists like to do in their soloing lines and phrases.

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Bireli Lagrene Bireli Lagrene was born in 1966 in a family ofgypsy musicians. He started learning guitar at the age of four by copyingDjango Reinhardt's solos

note by note. In the early 80s he emerged as the child prodigy who sounded exactly like Django Reinhardt. He recorded his first album, 'Routes to Django', in 1980 at the age of 14. A few gypsy jazz records later he wanted to take some distance from his Django sound and started playingjazz-rock fusion. In 1986 he recorded an album with bass player Jaco Pastorius, called' Stuttgart Aria' (see lick below). More recently Bireli Lagrene decided to pick up his roots and released a gypsy guitar concert DVD, with other big gypsy guitarists like Stochelo Rosenberg, Angelo DeBarre, John Jorgenson and Gary Potter:Bireli Lagrene & Friends Gypsy Project.

Recommended listening: Gypsy Project

1) I picked this guitar lick from the albumStuttgart Aria, which Bireli Lagrene recorded with Jaco Pastorius. The tune is called 'Chicken', composed by Pee Wee Ellis (it's a fun song to play, you should check it out if you never heard it). The song is in Bb. The lick transcribed here starts on IV (the 5th bar of a chorus). The lick opens with a phrase in the Bb minor pentatonic blues scale. Bireli plays an A dim arpeggio over the D7: 5, b7, b9 and 3 for D7. The lick concludes with a bluesy chromatic phrase.

Bill Frisell Bill Frisell is a unique jazz guitar player due to his srcinal technique and sound. His guitar sound is unlike any other guitarist: he makes his guitar sound like something between apedal steel guitar and a horn player thanks to the use of avolume pedal and guitar effects like delay and reverb. Bill Frisell takes elements from a lot ofdifferent genres (rock, country, bebop, ...) and manages to blend these elements in a way of playing that's never been heard before. He's not afraid to play a folk chord in a jazz situation and doesn't rely on playing fast to make things interesting. Be sure to check him out if you didn't already!

Recommended listening : 'Have a Little Faith'

1) The first lick looks at Bill sneaking in ab9 interval over the V7 chord (G7), before resolving this chord to the Imaj7 chord (Cmaj7) at the end of this phrase. Mixing both the natural 9 (A) and the b9 (Ab) into one bar over a V7 chord is something that Bill often brings to his lines.

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2) This V7-Imaj7 lick, uses three items that show up time and again in Bill Frisell‟s playing:

1. The first is the triplet rhythm used in bar one of the phrase. 2. The b13 (Eb) over the G7 chord is a color that Bill likes to bring to his dominant-7th chord ideas. 3. The last element of Bill‟s playing in this lick is the use ofdouble stops (two-note chords) as well as the b3 over the Maj7 chord (theblue note) in the last two-bars of the phrase.

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3) Here is a V7-Imaj7 lick in the key of G major that uses: 

Triplet rhythms

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Double stops

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Quarter-note rhythms in the last two bars of the phrase, something that you can find often in Bill‟s lines, especially at faster tempos. Mixing rhythms when soloing is an undervalued concept, but one that great players such as Bill Frisell use all the time in their lines and phrases.

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4) This phrase uses mixed rhythms to build interest, as well as4th intervals to begin the line, and a large dose ofchromatic notes. Though the lick is highly chromatic, it does target very specific chord tones, such as the 3rd of Cm7 (Eb) to start the second bar, which helps to resolve the tension put in place by the various chromatic notes in the lick.

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5) This lick looks at astring-skipping idea over a turnaround progression in the key of C Major. Skipping strings, and using large intervals, is something that Bill loves using in his solos, and it‟s a great way to break up the step-wise motion of any scale-based line you are using in your improvisations.

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Barney Kessel Barney Kessel is particularly known as abebop guitar player and for his jazz trios. Born in 1923 he started his career by playing in big bands, like the one of Artie Shaw. In 1952 he toured with the Oscar Peterson Trio for one year. During the 1960s he became one of the busiest studio musicians in LA. As a session guitarist he played on many famous pop albums and singles from bands like The Monkees and The Beach Boys. Kessel's most famous album isThe Poll Winners, a trio album with bass player Ray Brown and drummer Shelly Manne. Another famous trio of him isGreat Guitars, an all guitar band with Herb Ellis and Charlie Byrd. In 1992 Barney Kessel suffered a major stroke, which put him out of action. He died of brain cancer in 2004. Recommended listening : Kessel Plays Standards

This Kessel lick uses an interesting harmonic choice that Barney liked to bring to his lines, and that is theB triad over Gm7 in the second bar of the line. Here, Barney is outlining the notes B-D#(Eb)-F# over Gm7, but then resolving it to the more “inside” note F at the start of the next bar. By playing Bb-A-G-F#, then a short diversion, before resolving to the downbeat of the next bar, Barney is delaying the resolutions of that F# by two beats, allowing him to extend his line in the process.

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Barney was a fan of big, 5-note chords, and here is an example of Barney-style chord shapes being applied to a ii-V-I-VI chord progression in the key of C major. Notice how the G stays on top of each chord, as this was also something Barney liked to do, and something that can help bring a cohesiveness and thread to your chord changes as you bring this idea to your own comping and chord soloing.

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Here is a bluesy lick that borrows from the C minor blues scale over the G7 chord in the second bar of this ii-V-I lick. Mixing the b3 and #4 (the blue notes) into the

underlying scale is a quick way to bring a blues sound to any of your lines, and something that you can find n i Barney‟s classic recordings and live shows.

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Barney was a fan of the Honeysuck le Rose lick that you can hear in the first 6 beats of the lick below. This lick, based on theopening line to the jazz standard “Honeysuckle Rose,” runs down from the root of the V7 chord, C -B-Bb in this key, before playing the iim triad from that chord up to the resolving note A. So, rather than playing R-7-b7-6, Barney plays R-7-b7-2-4-6, causing a diversion of sorts from a straight chromatic run during this line.

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This Kessel-inspired lick uses adescending scale pattern, which features and ascending interval as it moves down the underlying scale fingering. This type of pattern is characteristic of not only Barney‟s soloing, but of other players from the late Swing and Bebop era. Check it out, great sound and easy to finger on the guitar. Listen & Play

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Dissonance, Resolution & Note Enclosure Dissonance is the use of notes that fall outside of the key signature of the tune. In

turn, resolution is the return to consonance, to bring the melody back home. Consonant phrases can sound very good, in small doses, but quickly become tedious over the length of an entire solo.

The contrast between dissonance and consonance, used at opportune moments in a solo, is what keeps both yourself and the listener interested. Lets take a look at some phrases, over the same chord progression, but this time take advantage of dissonance.

Dissonance & Resolution All examples in this guitar lesson are played over a II V I in G major:

| Am7

| D7

| Gmaj7

|%

Here's the backing track: 00:00 / 00:00

You can also download the backing track here.

Phrase 1

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Bar 1 has no dissonance, as indicated by the absence of accidentals. However, when we hit beat one ofbar two we are playing a B flat, which is not in the key of G. This tone is dissonant and creates tension in the melody. The last eighth note in bar two is F natural, this tone is also dissonant. The F natural appears to want to resolve to F sharp, which it does on the first beat of bar three. Even though we are using notes outside the key signature, it still sounds good, but why? The reason it works, is due tochord substitution. We won't go into any depth on chord substitution here, as it is a huge topic in itself, but we can have a look at what substitute chords are being implied by this phrase.

Bar one starts on a non-chordal tone, relative to Am7. The note B is not part of the Am7 chord, but it sounds good because it implies an Am9 chord. In beat three we hit the minor third of Am9 (C), and move up to B again in the final note of bar one. This re-enforces the sound of the implied Am9. 

The first note in bar two is a B flat, implying the D9 chord has been substituted for a D9#5 chord. The B flat is quickly resolved to the ninth (E) to release that tension. Holding a dissonant note for too long can often soundincorrect or unpleasant! The best place to use dissonance in a chord progression is thedominant chord. This is because the dominant is the least stable chord and naturally wants to resolve.

" If you hit a wron

- Joe Pass

g no te, then make it right by w

hat you p lay a fterwards. .."

Phrase 2

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There is an A flat onbar 1 (beat 2), implying the substitute chord of AmMaj7. The note A flat is the major seventh.

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On bar 2 (beat 1) we play an F natural to imply a D7#9. On the 'and' of beat 3, we repeat the F natural before resolving it to F sharp, in the form of a Note Enclosure.

Note Enclosure As mentioned above, phrase 1 and 2 both utilize the note enclosure concept. A no te e nclosu re is a grou ping o f three tones, usually including a disson tone, tha t resolves to a tone between its two preceding to

nes.

Sounds confusing, so lets look at somebasic examples in G Ionian:

ant

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In bar 1, we enclose the note B between C and B flat. The chromatic tone B flat, is played on the up-beat, the 'and' of the pulse.

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In bar 2, we enclose F natural between G and F sharp. Both examples fit perfectly over the Gmaj7 chord, because they resolve to the chord tones. Note that because the dissonant (chromatic) tones are on the up-beat, there is no chord substitution implied, but it does add flavor to a phrase.

This is the simplest form of note enclosure, using only a three fret range, making it easy to play without much thought.

Here is a handy trick for guitar that makes this type of note enclosure easy to use:

Anywhere a scale has two notes that are one fret apart, the lower tone can be enclosed by one fret above, and one fret below. So looking at bar one in the example, the notes B and C, of the G Ionian mode, are one fret apart. The lower tone B can then be enclosed between C (one fret above) and B flat (one fret below). The sequence of notes is then C, B flat, B.

Note Enclosure Exercise 1 The following exercise is good practice for this type of note enclosure, and unlocks its full potential. Practice groupings based on the two examples above, adding a 4th note, within the key signature, to the end of the note enclosure. Here are some examples to get you started:

Practice ending on different notes of the scale, especially thechord tones of the progression. Also try playing the same groupings at other parts of the fretboard. As with the consonance exercise you will eventually be able to link these small groupings together to create some basic bebop phrases.

Here is a phrase exclusively using this type of note enclosure concept, over the G Ionian II V I progression: 00:00 / 00:00

Note Enclosure 2: Implying Substitute Chords The following examples show another form of note enclosure that is used to imply substitute chords. The dissonant tone is played on the down-beat. Take a look at the following groupings:

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Bars 3 and 4 are the same as bars 1 and 2, but played an octave higher in the A

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Dorian position. Playing bar 1 over an Am7 chord implies the substitute chord of AmMaj7.

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Bar 2, when played over an Am7 chord implies the substitute chord of Am7b5.

These implied substitutions create a very effective dissonance over the Am7. The groupings can be played starting on anydown-beat, or for more variety, anyupbeat. Playing them on an up-beat creates far less tension much like the previous

forms of note enclosure. The following phrase uses this form of note enclosure exclusively: 00:00 / 00:00

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Bar 1 implies AmMaj7

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Bar 2 implies D7#11 for two beats, followed by D7b9 for two beats.

Note Enclosure Combinations Once you are comfortable with both types of note enclosure you'll have a huge improvisational vocabulary to play with. Let's take a look at the note enclosure forms combined into a single phrase: 00:00 / 00:00

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The two note lead-in tobar 1 is our first form of note enclosure.

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Bars 2 and 3 use the second form and you'll notice they are identical to the previous example above.

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In bar 4 we play two more note enclosures based on the first form.

Turning Scales Into Jazz In this article we are going to take a look at how we can take all of thescales and arpeggios we have learned over the years and turn them into"jazzy" sounding phrases. This is a big obstacle and one that not everyone will get over. Hopefully by working through this material we will be able to use simple and comfortable material to hip up our lines.

For the purposes of keeping things simple all of the examples in this article will be written over top of aiim7 - V7 - I - VI7b9 chord progression in the key of C major:

| Dm7

| G7

| Cmaj7

| A7b9

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Example 1 We will now take a look at four different ways toadd chromatic notes to the major scale. All of these riffs will be two beats (four eighth notes) long in order to get them under our fingers quickly and transpose them easily.

The first bar of this example uses what is normally referred to as the dominant bebop scale, played over a major chord. It is normally used over a dominant chord, G7 in this key, but it can also be used over any chord in the parent key, C major. The second bar outlines a very common chromatic passage. This is where we start on the third, in this case E, of the major scale and then play #1, 2 and back to 3. Think of it as starting on the third and playing back to the third using a chromatic approach to the 2 nd note, D, of the scale.

The third and fourth bar are the same chromatic idea applied to two different scale tones. The best wayto approach these licks is to think of it as connecting the two half steps within the major scale. The first connects the 4th note, F, of the scale to the 3rd note, E, by way of two chromatic approaches from below E. The last example is the same concept, only this time applied to the root, C and the 7th , B.

Once you have these under your fingers in the key of C we are ready to move on to example 3. You can practice punching them into scale fingerings you already know, or treating them as separate entities and thinking of them as individual units that you can move around to different chords.

Example 2 Here we have a bebop sounding line written in the key of C major using the patterns outlined above. In the first bar there are the 1st and 2nd line (from example 1), the second bar has the 3rd and 4th line, the third bar has the 1st and 2nd lines and the last bar has the 3rd line. We might notice that the line sounds like an exercise, and it should. At this point we are trying to get these shapes under our fingers and these sounds into our ears. Once you have them down it will be easier to develop more creative and musical lines.

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Example 3 Now that we can apply these two beat ideas we can add some basicharmonic substitutions to the chord progression. The chords that we will be adding will be one half step, one fret, above the following chord. So in this example we have added a Db7 that resolves to the Cmaj7 in the next bar(tritone substitution). Again for the purposes of this exercise the line is written in eighth notes, once you have this line down try changing the rhythm to gain more interest in the line.

Example 4 In this line we are now adding an Ab7 chord that resolves to the G7 chordtritone ( substitution as well). Even though we are stepping further "out" with this and the

following lines, the fact that our two beat motives outline the harmony so well helps to keep the idea from falling apart.

Example 5 We are now at the limit of adding chromatic approach chords with the Bb7 resolving to the A7b9. Once we have these substitutions under your fingers and in our ears we can choose which ones we want to use and when we want to use them. Remember just because we know all of these cool harmonies does not mean that we have to saturate our lines with them. The biggest lesson to learn is that "out" lines only work when they are played after or in between"in" lines that give them their contrast.

Example 6 Since the first four two note ideas have been highly chromatic and mostly descending in nature we can now look at three ways to play ascending and more "inside" the scale/chords. As was mentioned above, playing out only works if we define what is in, so these three ideas are great ways to outline the harmony and help "setup" our outside ideas. The first idea is what is commonly referred to as"1235", where each chord is outlined using the 1st , 2nd , 3rd and 5th note of the scale or mode that corresponds to it. The second idea is the arpeggio, 1357, on each chord in the progression, and the last idea is thearpeggio with a chromatic approach tone below the root. Though these ideas have been written out over the chords in the progression, they can be used over any chord in the key we are playing in. So for example in this progression, in the key of C, we can outline Cmaj7, Dm7, Em7, Fmaj7, G7, Am7 and Bm7b5, all of the chords found in the key of C major.

Example 7 We will now apply these three ideas to our chord progression. In this example we start out with a mixture of the new and old ideas. Notice how each bar starts off sounding inside on the first two beats and then is led into a more chromatic sound in the last half of the bar before resolving on the downbeat of the following bar. This helps create a tension and release element to the line and makes the major scale that we are basing our lines off of sound much more in thejazz idiom.

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Example 8 In the next line we will add the chromatic approach chord leading into the Cmaj7 chord in bar 3. This idea is similar to what we have already done but notice how the arpeggio in the first half of the 2nd bar really sets up the substitution nicely.

Example 9 Here we are adding a chromatic approach, Ab7, to the G7 chord in bar 2.

Example 10 In this last example we are adding the Bb7 resolving to the A7b9 in bar four. As before, now that we have all of the chord substitutions added we can choose which ones we would like to play at any given time. Sometimes a really simple, well placed "outside" lick is much more effective than a longer more complex line that weaves in and out against the harmony.

Tune Down Here is a solo written out over the chord changes to a famousMiles Davis tune, here it is called Tune Down, see if you can guess the srcinal name. Try and read through the solo with a play along CD or Band in a Box to get a sense of how each line sounds against the underlying harmony.

Once you have these exercises under our fingers try playing them indifferent keys, and if you haven't already, play them ondifferent parts of the neck . Learning to play a line from memory is only the beginning of the process, once we can manipulate a line, by changing the rhythm, playing it in different octaves and different areas of the neck, we have truly ingrained the concept.

Advanced Guitar Scales: Horizontal Playing

In this lesson on guitar scales we'll talk about horizontal playing. When we first start learning guitar scales, we usually play the scale vertical on the neck, from the lowest to the highest note in a particular position. This is a necessary step, but don't limit yourself to that because it's hard to see the connection between the different positions that way. Playing horizontally is a more advanced method ofplaying guitar scales and means we start left on the guitar neck and advance to the right or the other way round. This can be done on two adjacent strings or three or four or with a skipped string, the possibilities go as far as your imagination goes. I'll help you on your way with some examples. In this guide we work with the C major scale, but remember that C major has the same notes as D Dorian, E phrygian, and so on (if you have a problem remembering this, check out this tutorial onmodes).

Playing Guitar Scales on One String This is a very good ear training exercise. Think like a sitar player and play all guitar scales on any of the 6 strings. Don't think about where to place your fingers too much, but pick a scale and work with your ears. This simple example is the major scale played on the high e string. Also try other strings, other modes, the altered scale, diminished scale, ...

Playing Guitar Scales on Two Adjacent Strings This first example shows you how to play the scale of C major on the top two strings:

The next scales tab shows the major scale on strings 2 and 3:

I'm not going to give you the tabs for the other strings, you can figure that out yourself. The examples I showed you are very straightforward, use your imagination to make these exercises a little more exciting. Here's an example of the same technique, but with some variations:

Instead of using adjacent strings, you can also skip a string:

Instead of playing the scales melodically (note by note) you can also play them harmonically (the notes together, like a chord):

Playing Guitar Scales on Three Adjacent Strings Same principle as above, but now we use three strings instead of two:

Try to use this technique on all guitar scales you know and you and your fingers will have a much better understanding of the fretboard.