Turnaround Lick Lesson

Need a cool lick to play over a jazz turnaround? Great! Here’s a new jazz piano lesson video on playing a turnaround lick.

I recommend you watch the video tutorial first and then scroll down for a bunch of extra tips and resources for you to learn jazz. 

The lesson features a lick in the key of Eb. Although there are many common jazz turnarounds and blues turnarounds, this particular lesson specifically features a I VI II V I chord progression).

You’ll find this chord progression in many jazz standards. They’ll  use this chord progression at the end of a tune to get back to the top of the form or use it in the middle  to get back to the I chord.

So, having a lick to play over this chord progression will be very useful for you. The chords in this lesson are Ebmaj7 – C7 -Fm7-Bb7.

More Jazz Licks To Study

A couple other licks that feature the same type of bebop and cool chromaticism are this Barry Harris lick lesson, this Charlie Parker lick lesson, and this Bill Evans lick.

You can also spend some time checking out this Miles Davis lick or this Clifford Brown lick.

Need Some Chords To Play Behind This Lick?

Awesome! I’ve got you covered. You can start by learning the chords in this II-V-I-VI jazz piano chord lesson or this whole lesson on comping chords over Autumn Leaves.

Now what if you love the sound of this lick but the patterns in there seem a little confusing? I’ve got you covered here too. I highly recommend you check out this lesson on the basics of jazz theory.

That will help you get more comfortable with many of the harmonic patterns you’ll find in jazz music.

If you’re brand new to jazz be sure to also check out this how to play jazz piano article.

If you found this lesson helpful have questions please feel free to leave a comment below.

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Steve Nixon