Easy Jazz Licks - How To Use The Pentatonic Scale

A big part of what makes Jazz difficult in the beginning is that you have to play solos that really follow the chords and when you listen to people playing you hear different sounds flying by.
In this video, I am going to show you how you can pentatonic scale jazz licks. I will go over some jazz licks, and in that way help you get started playing solos where you really follow the harmony.

I am also talking about some of the things you have to watch out with if you try to make your own licks so that you can easily make your own licks that really work and sound good over the chords.

If you are already familiar with playing over changes then using pentatonic scales is something that can add another sound to your solos and in that way increase your vocabulary so you may find that useful as well.

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Content:
0:00 Intro
0:14 Following The Chords - A difficult skill
0:35 Using Pentatonic scales in Jazz
1:19 Lick #1
1:23 The Chords and the progression
1:44 The Scales for each of the chords
2:53 Analysis of Lick #1
3:41 Exercise for going smoothly from one chord to the next
5:22 Lick #1 slow
5:28 Lick #2
5:33 Analysis of Lick #2
6:31 Exercise for more intersting melodies
7:22 Lick #2 Slow
7:51 Lick #3
7:56 Pentatonic scales and legato!
8:51 Analysis of Lick #3
9:49 Exercise for rhythm patterns
10:17 Lick #3 slowly
10:24 Like the video? Check out my Patreon Page.

Download the PDF on my website:

Edited by Luciano Poli

Snapchat: jenslarsenjazz

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[JensLarsen]

Pentatonic scales are super useful on all levels. Do you have a great tip with pentatonics

Content:
0:00 Intro
0:14 Following The Chords - A difficult skill
0:35 Using Pentatonic scales in Jazz
1:19 Lick #1
1:23 The Chords and the progression
1:44 The Scales for each of the chords
2:53 Analysis of Lick #1
3:41 Exercise for going smoothly from one chord to the next
5:22 Lick #1 slow
5:28 Lick #2
5:33 Analysis of Lick #2
6:31 Exercise for more intersting melodies
7:22 Lick #2 Slow
7:51 Lick #3
7:56 Pentatonic scales and legato!
8:51 Analysis of Lick #3
9:49 Exercise for rhythm patterns
10:17 Lick #3 slowly
10:24 Like the video? Check out my Patreon Page.

[ragingchimera]

To me the trick with pentatonic is it has been played so much that it can be hard to find those really unique and tasty note combinations. You can easily fall into the same-old same-old. So yes, finding those licks and connecting the scales tastefully is the real key. Having learned the scale many moons ago and working on my speed and fluidity enough, I now approach my pentatonic scales musically, finding those "hair on the neck raising" tasty melodies.


As always, great stuff Jens and I agree on the legato statement, it just comes naturally to me when playing pentatonics!

[kendevries]

Great video, Jens. This is exactly how I am learning Jazz. I use the Pentatonic Scales to transition from one chord to another - you can hit the chord tones very easily. Then I will transition or take notes from the major scale as needed to jump off the Pentatonic Scale. The Pentatonics also make it easy to use all the in-between notes, slideslipping and half-step enclosures. They are easy to visualize, having already learned them. Again, great video.

[jumemowery]

I already had my guitar in hand when I got the notification!

[musacman]

It’s starting to make more sense to me, thanks jens

[dkwvt]

Another great pentatonic piece, I'm still surprised at how versatile these scales are. Cool looks here, my tip would be to watch ALL of your pentatonic lessons...! Thank You! 😎

[MrMrJameskeegan]

Love Ur playing. I want to do my lines just like you your making jazz accessible to people like me who just rattle out major scale and pentatonic.

[ruh]

Hi Jens! great video and lovely examples...I went on clicking the time stamps of the licks multiple times because listening to them once just wasn't enough..

[simonfivez]

Again, a very nice lesson! :) Will try to incorporate in my vocabulary

[thetiredcat.]

Really great stuff, thank you! Would you consider doing a video on how to treat minor 2-5-1 with pentatonics?

[maksymilian]

Jens great lessons ! Thx for that ! One advice you might consider is to put tab notation up in the video instead at the bottom

[mcniac]

Hey Jens! thank you for this awesome video, but I'm wondering, why are you choosing Bb- to play over G7 and E- to play over Cmaj7?

[anthonydemitre]

great lesson Jens, Tyner uses pentatonic scales in his solos, his ideas can go way outside, did you make a video on Macoy Tyner ??

[Djangoat]

Great video! Small typo in the tab description at 4.39 (I think), the third scale played should be Em pent (not Bm pent)

[Rhetrochips]

Love your channel man, hey would you mind covering some ideas on Nardis? I'm working on the double harmonic but still sounds a bit foreign to me and could use some ideas for familiarizing the sound to my western diatonic ears

[jonasmortensen]

Really enjoyed this lesson! How can i use the pentatonic in a minor II-V-I ?

[louis]

Good video! I was wondering why you chose to play Bbm Pentatonic over G7alt and also why you chose Em pentatonic over the Cmaj7. Wouldn't it make sense to play Am Pentatonic over Cmaj7? Also is a G7alt the same thing as a G7#9? Thanks in advance.

[jankafka]

Are you ever going to get the pickup selector switch on that guitar fixed? Or don't you need it?

[Djangoat]

an easy hack for this example (no nobel prize for this) - instead of playing Bbm pent on G7 Alt, one could just move the Dm pent fingering up 1/2 a step and play D#m pent (that will give you the same altered notes as Bbm pent plus the #5 ..BUT also a theoretically incorrect note (F#) which if you skip over quickly should be fine ;) then same fingering another 1/2 step to Em pent as in the video. So all of this flows nicely in 1/2 step increments...and if you're feeling very hip go the opposite way ...start with the Em pent and go half a step down to D#m pent and end on Dm pent

[carlfortin]

Hi ! Your tabs are hard to read because of the time liner of youtube.Do something for the future please Jens .