Memorising and practising II-V-I licks on the piano

II-V-I progressions, otherwise known as Perfect Cadences, form an integral part of jazz harmony. By establishing and reasserting the key-centres you move through, they anchor the tonality of a chord sequence. Because of this, being able to construct improvised lines that encompass Perfect Cadences is a huge boost to any aspiring jazz musician. A good way of becoming adept at this is to build a library of licks in your memory. Having even a small collection of licks memorised in every key will give you a set of safe options for traversing these cadences. With this in mind, here is how [...]