2 Famous Jazz Licks Starting On The 3rd

Posted on by freejazzlessons

In today’s free jazz lick lesson we’re going to explore a couple of very famous licks from legends Joe Pass and Harold Land.

If you want awesome bebop licks these guys are some of the best to learn from!

This is the 3rd article in our series “How To Play Great Jazz Licks Starting On Any Note“.  Today we will be focusing on licks starting on the 3rd. If you missed the first 2 you can read jazz licks from the root here and jazz licks from the 9th here. Update: Here is the fourth lesson as well licks from the 11th.

So, for our 3rd lesson I’ve notated 2 entirely new licks for you. (audio examples, notation, and lesson below.)

Ok, let’s learn some new jazz licks!

Joe Pass Jazz Lick

(click to expand this lick)

(click to listen)

Harold Land Jazz Lick

(click to expand this lick)

(click to listen)

Tips For Learning These Specific Licks

1. Print out a copy of the licks for reference.

2. Play along with my performance of the licks until you get it to sit right in the rhythmic pocket.  Try to match my rhythmic feel and articulation perfectly.  Jazz is about rhythm and groove! Play it till it feels great.

3. Listen to lots of Joe Pass and Harold Land 

4. Make sure you apply these licks to real jazz songs. Don’t skip this step! Licks are meant to be played in context of jazz tunes. If you need some good standards to start learning then watch this Misty lesson or this Satin Doll lesson.

5. Misty and Satin Doll have lots of II-V-I’s (2-5-1) in there. So, do most jazz standards. That’s why we spend so much time learning jazz licks over this famous chord progression.   So, apply the licks above to your favorite jazz tunes.

4. If you need some chords to play in your left hand under these licks then you can check out this jazz chords lesson.

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