Part of the process of learning how to improvise on the guitar in any style of music is building a vocabulary of ideas…guitar licks that you can call on. Improvising in a Jazz style is no exception. So in this video guitar lesson you will learn a cool Jazz guitar lick, and I will show you how you can play the exact same lick in 8 different places on the neck of the guitar.
Jazz Guitar Lick in Bb
(Video Guitar Lesson 1 of 2)
(See Jazz II V I Guitar Lick in Bb – Page 2 for part 2 of this video guitar lesson as well PDF printout and MP3 jam tracks to practice with)
The II V I Chord Progression in Jazz
One of the most common chord progressions used in traditional Jazz music is what is called a II V I. In a nutshell, that is the chords build from the 2nd 5th and 1st degrees of a major scale.
These also happens in minor keys, but for the moment we will concentrate on major keys.
So in the key of Bb major, the II chord would be a Cm7, the V chord would be a F7, and the I chord would be a Bbmaj7 chord. And the jazz guitar lick you will learn in this guitar lesson is for that chord progression.
The overall chord progression that this jazz lick is going to fit over is 1 measure of Cm7, 1 measure of F7…and then 2 measures of Bbmaj7.
The lick is mostly over the Cm7 and F7 part of this chord progression. There is only 1 note that is played over the Bbmaj7 chord. So a great way to practice is to play the lick, and then try to improvise yourself over the Bbmaj7 part. So 2 measures of a set lick, and 2 measure of free form. I will give you the scale form you can use for improvising for each position of the jazz guitar lick.
Jazz II V I Guitar Lick in Bb – 3rd Position
Like I mentioned, you are going to learn this jazz guitar lick in 8 different places on the neck of the guitar. So to start, here is the lick in 2 different octaves in the 3rd position of the neck. I will give you the scale form the lick comes out of, and then the notation and tablature for the lick.
Be sure and check out the Intro to Scales on the Guitar lesson for more info on how to play and read the guitar scale charts below.
Bb Major Guitar Scale – 3rd Position
So here are the notes of a Bb major scale in the 3rd position.
And here are the 2 octaves you can play this jazz guitar lick in this position on the neck.
3rd Position Jazz Guitar II V I Lick – Tablature
Upper Octave
Lower Octave
For the other 4 positions of this jazz guitar lick as well as jam track to practice with, see page 2 of this lesson.
Guitar Lesson Navigation
Page 2, Jazz Guitar Lick in Bb >>>
