II V I Jazz Lick #2

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D‹7 G7 C C

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D‹7 G7

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C Major II-V-I progression

Scott Devine

II-V-I Jazz Lick #2 (L#30)

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D minor 7

arpeggios (chord tones)

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G dominant 7

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c major 7

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Fingering

4 2 1 4

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2 1 4 2

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2 1 4 2

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00:42

Ii-v-i jazz lick "learn this lick in different octaves..."learn this lick in different octaves...

learn it in all keys and get used to how it feels under your ingers"learn it in all keys and get used to how it feels under your ingers"

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This II V I lick demonstrates how you can anticipate the dominant chord before

you actually get to it. If you analyze the lick you can see that we are anticipating

the G7 chord by playing the note B on beat 3 of the first bar which is the third of G7.

Another thing to note is the use of the sharp 5th of G7 (D#) in the first bar. This is

used to create tension within the line.

With any tension there must be release, this happens when the sharp 5th (D#)

resolves down a semitone to D, which is the 5th of G7.

3 2 1 4 1 2 3 3 2 1 4 1 2 3 1 4 1 1 2 4

V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V

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II V I Jazz Lick #2 (L#30)

Your Action Plan

1. This type of musical language is based heavily withinbebop and jazz music. It was made popular byplayers such as Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk andDizzy Gillespie in the 40's and 50's. It's important thatyou research this era of music and become familiarwith the different players and styles that wereemerging around that time.

As bass players this can be tough. Most of the old recordings are pretty bad quality, and add to that, the bass players were all double bass players so it can be hard to hear what they're actually playing due to the poor recording quality. I found this very frustrating when I was trying to get into the old bebop records.

I found that listening through headphones helped a lot as I could actually hear the bass. And, also remember that we're not supposed to be focused only on the bass players. In fact, I want your attention to be on the entire band.

When you're listening to the bebop giants perform jazz standards you will be able to connect with each of the songs on a much deeper level if you've heard singers perform them. At first I found that many jazz tunes all sounded very similar and I really couldn't

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appreciate what was going on (please forgive me, I was a foolish young lad!). I'd simply get lost listening to them and couldn't figure out what was going on and where they were within the tune. That was simply because I didn't really know the songs well enough.

Here's a fantastic listening exercise for you:

a. Let's use the jazz standard 'All The Things You Are' forthis exercise. If you already know this song well, youcan use a different song and just follow the sameprocess.

b. Listen to Charlie Parker playing 'All The way You Are'.You can always find it on YouTube.

c. Listen to Frank Sinatra performing 'All The Things YouAre', at least three times, one after the other.

d. Now go back to the Charlie Parker recording andnotice how you will be able to relate to the song in amuch deeper way. Don't get me wrong, I'm nottalking about feeling more emotionally connectedwith the song. I simply mean, now you've heard itbeing sung you will be able to feel the form of thesong in a much deeper and clearer way. Why is this? Iguess it's because we've been listening to songsbeen sung all our lives, and without hearing thatmelody being sung it's easy for the song to fall intothe ambiguous abyss.

2. As always when learning licks it's important to beable to play them in all keys. Pick 6 and learn the lickthoroughly in each. When you have that nailed down,move onto the next six.

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3. I want you to use this lick in the context of a jazzstandard. As we've been looking at 'All The ThingsYou Are' it's probably a good idea to use that song forthis exercise.

Solo over the form of 'All The Things' and every time you come across a II V I, simply 'plugin' this lick. I would never recommend doing this for an actual real performance, but it's a fantastic exercise and also makes sure you've learned the lick in multiple keys.

You also have to know where all the II V I's are within 'All The Things' to be able to do this. That in itself is a great exercise. Sit down with the lead sheet and mark out where each II V I occurs.

Scott Devine