A pentatonic lick that goes outside the key

(My Original Blog Post: http://ping.fm/Cjk4A)
Here is a cool sounding pentatonic pattern I got from a really good trombone player I used to work with. This pentatonic lick starts off with a minor pentatonic scale, then you go down a Major third, outside the key and do another minor pentatonic scale. You can play whatever pattern or notes that you want to, the example is only to give you an idea of what you can do. This lick fits really well over modal tunes like So What.



Here is a sound sample played on trumpet:

How to learn this pentatonic lick in 12 keys:

You aren't really learning a set pattern with this lick. You want to think in minor pentatonic, then go down a Major third and play in that minor pentatonic. In the above example you start off in E minor pentatonic, then you go down a Major 3rd to C minor pentatonic, finally, you go back to E minor pentatonic.

The best way I found to learn this lick is to just mess around with it in all the keys. Some keys will be stronger than others, but that's OK. Once you feel comfortable enough, start using the Jazz lick in your solos either live or with Aebersolds and Band in a Box.