Practice Tip: New V-IV-I Lick

The V-IV-I area of the 12 Bar Blues (bars 9 and 10, resolving to the downbeat of bar 11) is commonly the weakest area of the progression for players (great players always have their ears open for new, cool V-IV-I licks). Grab a new V-IV-I lick from one of your study songs or the list provided in Improvising Study 4 and practice placing it into your improvising practice (which should be 1/3 of your practice time at this point). Make this your default V-IV-I lick for a minimum of one month. If you do this each month, then by the end of the year you’ll have twelve killer V-IV-I licks in your vocabulary.

Reference: Improvising Study 4