II V I Jazz Lick #2
Scott Devine C Major II-V-I progression? II-V-I Jazz Lick #2 (L#0) D 7 G7 C C V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V? D minor 7 œ œ œ œ arpeggios (chord tones) c major 7? G dominant 7? œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ Fingering 4 2 1 4 2 1 4 2 2 1 4 2 5 4 qa z=[qp ]e 00:42 Ex.1 Ii-v-i jazz lick "learn this lick in different octaves... learn it in all keys and get used to how it feels under your ingers" D 7 G7? œ # œ bœ œ 2 1 4 1 2 2 1 4 1 2 1 4 1 1 2 4 7 6 5 4 8 5 1 2 6 5 4 2 24 6 4 bœ œ n 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 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. Copyright Scott's Bass Lessons
II V I Jazz Lick #2 (L#0) Your Action Plan 1. This type of musical language is based heavily within bebop and jazz music. It was made popular by players such as Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk and Dizzy Gillespie in the 40's and 50's. It's important that you research this era of music and become familiar with the different players and styles that were emerging 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 Copyright 201 Scott s Bass Lessons
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' for this exercise. If you already know this song well, you can use a different song and just follow the same process. 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 You Are', at least three times, one after the other. d. Now go back to the Charlie Parker recording and notice how you will be able to relate to the song in a much deeper way. Don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about feeling more emotionally connected with the song. I simply mean, now you've heard it being sung you will be able to feel the form of the song in a much deeper and clearer way. Why is this? I guess it's because we've been listening to songs been sung all our lives, and without hearing that melody being sung it's easy for the song to fall into the ambiguous abyss. 2. As always when learning licks it's important to be able to play them in all keys. Pick 6 and learn the lick thoroughly in each. When you have that nailed down, move onto the next six. Copyright 201 Scott s Bass Lessons
. I want you to use this lick in the context of a jazz standard. As we've been looking at 'All The Things You Are' it's probably a good idea to use that song for this 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 Copyright 201 Scott s Bass Lessons