When playing over minor or m7 chords, such as Ebm in this tune, you can use the related V or V7 chord to create color in your lines. In this lick, you’ll notice the use of the Ab triad over Ebm in the second measure. This allows you to use the same line in two measures and not sound repetitive, it’s about developing the idea rather than repeating it exactly. Here, you play the same phrase in the first half of both bars but then resolve that phrase differently in each bar. This is a common jazz phrasing technique found in the solos of many great players, most notably Wes Montgomery on the guitar. In this Paul Desmond lick, you’ll see a line played in both bars, with a different ending for that lick in each measure.

This use of space is a part of the “Cool Jazz” sound that Desmond was famous for, and it helped define his voice on the instrument.

The first lick features a few nice leaps, such as the Bb to Eb in the first bar, as well as Paul Desmond’s characteristic use of space in the line. Here are two fingerings for Eb Dorian that you can learn on the guitar, one from the 6th string root and one from the 5th string root: This means that when you play Eb Dorian, you are playing all the notes of the Db major scale, but starting from Eb rather than Db. The Eb Dorian scale comes from the parent key of Db major, as Dorian is the second mode of Db. All licks in this lesson use the same guitar scale, Eb Dorian.

Paul desmond take five