{"id":1572,"date":"2020-07-10T06:35:20","date_gmt":"2020-07-10T13:35:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/?p=1572"},"modified":"2023-01-13T15:19:10","modified_gmt":"2023-01-13T23:19:10","slug":"play-the-lick-on-piano","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/play-the-lick-on-piano\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Play \u201cThe Lick\u201d On Piano"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>It\u2019s simply called, \u201cThe Lick\u201d. And it\u2019s the most famous riff in jazz music. This lesson will teach you how to play \u201cThe Lick\u201d on Piano, and why it\u2019s so popular.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s been used so many times, it&#8217;s now become an inside joke in the world of jazz. And once you know it, you\u2019ll start hearing it everywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And I mean, everywhere:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/krDxhnaKD7Q\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So become part of the inside joke, and learn it for yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" style=\"font-size:28px\"><strong>How to Play \u201cThe Lick\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>As popular as it is, \u201cThe Lick\u201d is very simple to play. There are only 5 notes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.musora.com\/musora-cdn\/image\/quality=85\/https:\/\/pianote.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/blog\/2020\/The%20Lick\/The-Lick-Dm.png\" alt=\"How To Play The Lick On Piano\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Really the only tricky part is that grace note in the middle of the first measure. That teensy D note means that you play it softer and faster than the E which comes immediately after.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Make sure you watch the video to see it in action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is \u201cThe Lick\u201d in the key of D minor, but it can be played in any key signature. Once you have this version down, try playing in some other keys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Don\u2019t play it too much though, because then you\u2019ll never get it out of your head!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" style=\"font-size:28px\"><strong>Why is \u201cThe Lick\u201d so popular?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s catchy! That\u2019s the shortest and easiest answer. It\u2019s simple and it resolves, so our ears are naturally drawn to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To get a bit more technical, \u201cThe Lick\u201d is played over a <a href=\"\/blog\/understanding-7ths\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">minor 7th<\/a> chord. It starts on the root note of that chord, walking up the minor scale, before jumping down to the 7th note (in this case C) and finally resolving on the D.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And that resolution is really pleasing to the human ear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" style=\"font-size:28px\"><strong>How to Add \u201cThe Lick\u201d to Your Playing<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe Lick\u201d sounds great over a minor 7th chord. So to figure out how to use \u201cThe Lick\u201d in your playing, you need to look for common places to find a minor 7th chord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And one of the most common is the <a href=\"\/blog\/jazz-piano-chord-progression\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">2-5-1 jazz chord progression<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let\u2019s quickly look at this progression in the key of C.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The 2 chord is a D minor 7th. The 5 chord is a G dominant 7th. And the 1 chord is a C major 7th.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So immediately we can see that \u201cThe Lick\u201d we\u2019ve just learned will fit perfectly over that first D minor 7th chord!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Try it for yourself. Play the chords with your left hand and practice playing \u201cThe Lick\u201d over the top.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And then smile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now you know how to play &#8220;The Lick&#8221; on piano.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And you&#8217;re part of jazz music\u2019s biggest inside joke!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:10px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<span class=\"blue-text-block\"><center><h2 style=\"font-size:22px\"><b>\ud83c\udfb9 Your Go-To Place for All Things Piano<\/b><\/h2><p>Subscribe to <i>The Note<\/i> for exclusive interviews, fascinating articles, and inspiring lessons delivered straight to your inbox. Unsubscribe at any time.<\/p><iframe class=\"email-form-include\" src=\"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/weeklyemail\" frameborder=\"none\"><\/iframe><\/center><\/span>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:10px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Learn how to play &#8220;The Lick&#8221; on piano. It&#8217;s jazz music&#8217;s biggest cliche and inside joke. Learn to play it for yourself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":1590,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[524,509],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-styles","category-technique"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1572"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1572\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10969,"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1572\/revisions\/10969"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}