Jazz Piano Lesson: Jazz Piano Lick 019

Nineteenth in Frank’s HUGE collection of bread and butter jazz piano licks to add to your bag… by ear, intellect, eye, and muscle…

Table of Contents

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Lesson Goals

To deeply internalize the sound, feeling, and function of a “scalewise” descending line that strongly outlines the harmony for a minor 2 5 1 chord progression.

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Special Note about the Design of these Studies

An extremely effective way to internalize any new lick and to simultaneously develop your comping and soloing chops is to play it “in context”: within an established form over a set of standard chord changes. In this lesson the context is a Minor 2-5-1 (iiø7-V7-i) chord progression in the key of C Minor.

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Jazz Piano Lick 019 (Etude #1)

This lick is so much more that just rattling a random pieces of the C minor scale. The pattern here is quite deliberate and can be understood, heard, and felt in four important interrelated ways which give the line both melodic coherence and harmonic clarity:

1. Every note is derived from the C Harmonic Minor Scale.
2. Each quadruplet follows the “1-7-6-5” sequence for each chord type.
3. The “1” for each chord falls on the strongest beat (D is the 1 of Dø7, G is the 1 of G7, and C is the 1 of Cm).
4. Playing the “1” of each chord on the strongest beat is a strong way to outline the harmony.
5. Playing in a continuous line establishes a strong sense of direction and expectation in the listener.

Listen to Frank demonstrate one way to play this at 106 beats per minute…

Special Note about the CmM7 Chord: It may be more appropriate and musical to play a less dissonant Cm6 chord or even a simple C minor triad. Let the context, your ears, and artistic sensibilities be your guide.

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Jazz Piano Lick 019 (Etude #2)

Now let’s introduce a large skip which displaces the line by an octave. Such octave displacements create melodic interest and may be used to place the notes in a more pleasing register…

Listen to Frank demonstrate one way to play this at 106 beats per minute…

Technique & Interpretation

Mentally and physically connect the last note of each quadruplet to the first note of the following quadruplet. Your facility in keeping the time and melodic line flowing in this way is a fundamental jazz performance skill. (Hint: One way to cultivate such continuity is to think of the last one, two, or three notes in each quadruplet as a pickup into what follows.)

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Jazz Piano Lick 019 (Your Homework)

Use what you know about form, meter, scales, chords, chord progressions, chord voicings, and left hand patterns to play these etudes in other keys you expect to play in and see what you discover.

Special Note from Frank: If there’s interest, I’d be happy to write this out in a few other keys.

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Study & Practice Reminders

1. You’re singing the Solfege or scatting aloud in order to internalize the sound-feelings, right?
2. You practice with a metronome or rhythm track in order to instill good time, right?
3. You record yourself, listen to the playback immediately, self evaluate, and respond accordingly, right?

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