Easy

Jazz Guitar Licks

Your stress free guide to learning jazz guitar licks.
































Written By: Matthew Warnock
Matthew Warnock Plays Koentopp Guitar

Published By: Guitar for Life LLC
 Table of Contents


Glossary of Terms

How to Use This Book

Introduction to Jazz Licks

Jazz Lick Practice Guide

Jazz Blues Licks

1 Bar Jazz Licks

2 Bar ii V I Licks

3 Bar ii V I Licks

Tritone Sub Licks

16th Note Jazz Licks

Jazz Guitar Solos

Further Studies

About the Author

 Glossary of Terms

Jazz has a language all its own. To help you understand the material in
this book, here are common jazz terms and definitions.


Changes – Jazz term for chords.

Guide Tones – The two most essential notes in a chord, most often the 3rd
and 7th.

Licks – Short musical ideas used to outline chords and chord
progressions. Can use scales, arpeggios, and chromatic notes.

Lines – Synonym for Licks.

Phrase – Synonym for Licks.

Riff – Synonym for Licks.

Syncopation – A rhythm that uses up beats, the &’s of each beat, as
opposed to downbeats, the 1-2-3-4 of each bar.

Target Note – A diatonic note that you target in your lines, often leading
into or enclosing with chromatic notes.

Tonic – The main chord of a key, for example in C the tonic chord is
Cmaj7.

Tunes – Jazz term for songs.

Woodshed – Jazz term for a practice room.
 How to Use This Book

Most lick books provide you with a ton of licks over various chords and
progressions and let you work it out from there.

Not this eBook.

Here, you learn licks and the concepts behind those licks.

This allows you to build your own jazz lines with the concepts and
fragments of licks you learn in this eBook.

Though it takes more time, this is the best way to absorb vocabulary and
have it come out organically in your playing.

Throughout this eBook you notice common jazz devices coming back
time and again in different lines.

These concepts are essential learning, and should be studied outside the
context of these licks to get the most out of them in your playing.

To help you identify these concepts, and give a brief definition of each,
here are those concepts.

As you study the licks in this eBook, look for moments where these
concepts are mentioned or you see them in a sample lick.

Recognizing these concepts allows you to explore them with other licks
and transcriptions in your studies.








These concepts are:


Approach Notes – Playing a note one fret below or above your target
note, which is often a chord or scale tone, resolving to the target note.

Color Tones – Notes that are usually above the octave on any chord, 9th,
11th, and 13th, for example.

Enclosures – Playing one note above, then one note below, any target
note. The first two notes can be diatonic or chromatic.

Lower Neighbor Tones – A note that is played one fret below the note
you’re on. Pay the target note, then one fret below, then the target note.

Passing Tones – Notes that pass between two diatonic notes. If you have
two notes, two frets apart, you fill that space with a passing tone.

Upper Neighbor Tones – The reverse of a lower neighbor, where you
now play target note, one fret above, then back to the target note.

Voice Leading – Using mostly 3rds and 7ths to create a smooth
transition from one chord to another in your solos.


If you didn’t understand some or all of this, not to worry, you explore
these ideas in great detail throughout the licks in this eBook.

For now, know that there are concepts that appear in many situations,
and therefore these concepts are important to study.
 Introduction to Jazz Licks

Before you dig into the licks in this eBook, learn what licks are and how
to break them down in your solos.

To do so, you look at three sample licks over short and long ii V I’s, in
major and minor, and a single-chord lick over G7.

Licks are short musical ideas that outline a chord or chord change.

This means that a lick can be one bar, two bars, or up to as many bars
needed to outline those chords.

Because this book focuses on easy to play jazz licks, you study one, two,
and three-bar phrases over chords and progressions.

The most important lesson to learn when studying licks is to break them
down into smaller sections to use in your own lines.

This concept is explored further with this first sample lick.

The first example of a lick is a short ii V I in G minor.

In this lick, there’s an Am7b5 idea, followed by a D7alt idea, landing on a
single resolution note over Gm7.

When building ideas in your solos, combining small lines to form longer
licks is a great place to begin.

You can think of any ii V I lick as one long idea.

But, when doing so, you ignore the smaller, easier to apply ideas that
make up that longer line.

If you break the lick down into two or three smaller ideas, you can then
take those smaller ideas and mix them with others in your solos.

Think about breaking down licks in terms of learning a language.

If you learn the sentence, “The car is red and goes fast,” you can describe
one very particular situation in that language.

But, if you then learn, “Apples are a popular food that taste good,” you
can combine those two sentences in countless ways.

These could include:

“Red cars are popular.”

“Apples taste good and are popular.”

“The red apple tastes good.”

And many more options with just those two sentences.

This is how licks work in your solos, you break them down and combine
them with other broken down lines to create new ideas in your solos.


Audio Example 1

Licks are also found over longer progressions, such as this ii V I in C.

When building longer licks, you often combine smaller lines to construct
the longer idea in your solos.
You can see that approach in this lick, where the first bar is one idea, the
second bar is another, and the third bar is another.

As you work the single-chord licks in this eBook, make sure you mix
them together over longer changes to explore this concept further.

This is even more important when building double-time, 16th-note, licks,
as those are often created with two licks combined into one.


Audio Example 2

This final example of a jazz lick is over a single chord, G7.

Licks over one chord have multiple applications when adding them to
your solos.

With this lick, you can use it over a jazz blues progression, the V7 chord
in a major ii V I, and other musical situations.

As the goal of learning any lick is to use it in as many situations as
possible, single-note licks are always practiced over multiple changes.

After you learn this lick, put on different backing tracks and see how
many progressions and tunes you can apply this lick to in your solos.

This gets that concept into your ears and hands, allowing you to apply it
to every one-chord lick you learn from this eBook.

Audio Example 3

 Jazz Lick Practice Guide

Now that you know what licks are, you can learn how to practice them
in your studies.

After learning any lick as written, take it through three steps to expand
those licks in your practice routine.

These three steps leave out adding the licks to your solos, which is
understood to be an essential part of learning lines.

The first step is to take the lick to other keys, all 12 if possible.

When doing so, begin by keeping the same fingering and moving it
around the fretboard to each key.

From there, move the lick to other string sets or fingerings and play it in
multiple keys from there.

In this example, the original lick is played in four keys.

When doing so, you need to find the root, or other easy to identify
interval, to move it quickly to other keys.

Once you find the root, which is on beat 3 of this lick, picture that note in
any new key you’re working in to transpose that line.











Audio Example 4

The next step is to take licks to other string sets on the guitar, adjusting
the octave when necessary.

This allows you to always have the line under your fingers no matter
where you are on the fretboard when soloing.

To do this, play the first note of the lick on as many strings as possible,
and keep the rest of the lick close by that first note.

Here’s an example of taking the G7 idea and playing it around the entire
fretboard.

After learning any lick in this eBook, take it to other string sets and
positions as you expand that idea in your solos.













Audio Example 5

The last way to work a jazz line is to change the rhythm in your solos.

You can do this by shortening the length of some notes, extending the
length of others, and adapting the lick to fit these new rhythms.

Here are examples of the first line and three rhythmic variations to get
you started with this concept.

Every time you learn a lick in this eBook, or anywhere, alter the rhythms
over backing tracks to get the most from these lines in your playing.










Audio Example 6

 About the Author

I grew up listening to classic rock and blues, and I still love those styles
of music. But, it’s soloing I really love, and that’s what drew me to jazz.

My love of jazz has taken me from small town Canada around the globe.

I studied at three of the top jazz programs in the world, starting with
McGill University, then Western Michigan, and finishing with a
Doctorate from the University of Illinois (UIUC).

I’ve taught over 6000 private jazz guitar lessons, and my students range
from beginners, to Professors at NYU, and everything in between.

I’ve also taught jazz guitar, popular music, and music business at
universities in Canada, the US, the UK, Brazil, and Nepal.

I’ve played over 2500 gigs in 8 countries and shared the stage with
Randy Brecker, Stefon Harris, and Slide Hampton.

Some of my favorite gigs were at:


• Lincoln Center
• International Association for Jazz Education Conference
• NuJazz Festival (Brazil)
• Savassi Jazz Festival (Brazil)
• International Jazz Day Festival (Nepal)


Jazz has been in my life for 20 years, and every day I’m glad I found this
great music. Because of this, I want to share this love of jazz and guitar
with you. You never know where it’ll lead you.

For the best free jazz guitar lessons on the web, visit
mattwarnockguitar.com