Arpeggios or Licks?

**smantei** · Today, 04:56 PM

Curious how people think about this tradeoff.

Suppose you're an intermediate player getting into jazz and have only enough practice time for one of these approaches for the next month or two:

Learning arpeggios thoroughly and getting them under your fingers in multiple positions and keys.
Building a vocabulary of 30-50 strong jazz licks and understanding where they fit harmonically (ii-V-I's, turnarounds, etc.).

The argument for arpeggios is that you're learning the underlying structure and can theoretically generate your own lines.

The argument for licks is that you learn actual jazz lines that can you could apply to songs and become gig-capable sooner.

Thoughts? - I know many of you might want to say "both", but try to pick one over the other just for argument sake

**joe2758** · Today, 04:58 PM

Licks

**Christian Miller** · Today, 05:14 PM

The answer is yes

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

**pamosmusic** · Today, 05:14 PM

Licks, but I'll be the first one to be obnoxious on the thread and dispute the premise of the question.

**joe2758** · Today, 05:18 PM

well that got annoying quickly

**AllanAllen** · Today, 05:19 PM

You have time, spend 5-10 minutes on each, every day, even Christmas day. The answer isn't either/or, it's all of the above.

The arpeggios will help you play the licks, but they won't really help you generate your own authentic sounding jazz lines. But if you can't play a basic major 7 arpeggio you're going to struggle with Charlie Parker lines. You need technical facility and language (ie, arpeggios and licks)