Jazz Guitar Patterns and Licks

What's a musical Lick?

A guitar lick is a short musical phrase, a part of a melody, a musical idea or a fragment of a solo. A lick is transposable, it means that you can (and you have to !!) play it in all twelve musical keys. It is also transferable, which means that a lick can be played in other songs.

What's a Melodic Pattern?

Patterns and licks have subtle differences in meaning. A melodic pattern (it can be rhythmic too) is designed to be repeated again and again and can be used to describe melodic lines that jazz musicians play when improvising over chord progressions. Musical patterns are useful devices to build improvised jazz guitar lines and solos.

This page provides links to free lesson about common jazz guitar licks and patterns (major, dominant, minor, half-diminished, diminished) with tabs, standard notation and analysis.

How to Learn Those Lines?

Practicing those jazz guitar lines will expend your music vocabulary and increase your sense of improvisation. Be sure to play them in twelve keys and make them evolve in order to create your own musical ideas. Here are some practice tips :

Practice each lick slowly with a metronome. Be sure to practice slow at first, then try to increase progressively the speed of each lick
Play them in all 12 keys.
Try to change the fingerings by adding various techniques as slide, hammer-on, pull-off.
Build your own licks from what you have learned with these licks.
Try to Apply each lick into your improvisations.
Try to incorporate the related chords into these lines in order to hear the harmony.
Use backing tracks to practice.
Play the chords while singing the licks.

Mixolydian Licks With Passing Tones - Free PDF And YouTube Short

Enhance your jazz guitar skills with 4 Mixolydian licks including passing tones. Free printable PDF transcription with YouTube short video.
Neo Soul Guitar Chords (Just The Two Of Us) - Exercise With Tabs, Diagrams And YouTube Short

This lesson provides a transcription with video, tab and shapes of an easy Neo Soul guitar chord study.
5 Minor II V I Jazz Guitar Licks For Beginner and Intermediate Players

This short lesson provides 5 easy minor II V I jazz guitar lines.
5 Easy II V I Licks For Beginners - Tabs and Video

This guitar lesson with tabs provides five easy jazz guitar licks for II V I practice.
5 Major Jazz Guitar Licks - Tabs and Analysis

You will find in this free guitar lesson five exercises about major jazz guitar lines with TABS, standard notation and analysis to play over major seventh chords.
5 Mixolydian Patterns with Diagrams and Tabs for Guitar

This jazz guitar lesson provides 5 easy Mixolydian patterns with tabs, neck diagrams and YouTube video.
5 Minor (Dorian) Jazz Guitar Licks

The Dorian mode is one of the most important minor scale and the first obvious choice when soloing over minor chords. This lesson provides two guitar neck diagrams and five easy minor jazz guitar lines.
10 Minor Octave Licks For Beginners

Using octaves will give a new dimension to your playing. This guitar lesson provides 10 easy patterns with a YouTube video.
Eb Major 7 Jazz Guitar Lick - Arpeggios and Ionian Mode

This brief lesson with tab, Instagram and TikTok video is about an easy Eb major 7 jazz guitar lick.
C Minor 2 5 1 Jazz Guitar Lines - Arpeggios, Phrygian Dominant, Locrian, Quartal Chords.

Minor 2 5 1 jazz guitar lines in C minor. Lesson with transcription and video.
1 6 2 5 Turnaround - Jazz Guitar Chords And Lick

This short lesson provides an easy 1 6 2 5 jazz guitar pattern with chord shapes, transcription and Instagram reel.
Jazz Blues Guitar Lick Over A Dominant 7th Chord (F7) - Minor pentatonic - Chromaticism - Fourth and Third Intervals

This is a short lesson with video and transcription to play a four bar jazz blues guitar lick over dominant 7 chord (F7).
Major ii V and ii V I Lines For Jazz Guitar - Transcription, Analysis And Video

This lesson with tab and video contains eight bars for praticing 2 5 1 jazz guitar licks on guitar.
Jazz Blues Licks And Chords - Minor Pentatonic Scale - 3 Note Shell Voicings

Licks and 3 note chords on a 6 bar jazz blues progression for guitar including two short 2 5 chord sequences.
F Major 2 5 1 Jazz Guitar Lick And Chords - Dorian Mode With Diminished 7 And Minor 7 Arpeggios

This free guitar lesson provides an easy 2 5 1 jazz guitar lick in F major with tabs, video and chords shapes.
Half-whole Diminished Guitar Lick - Transcription With Video

This short lesson provides an easy pattern for practicing the half-whole diminished scale on guitar.