All of Me Jazz Trumpet Pentatonic Solo – PDF + Practice Guide
- Darren Lloyd
- Jan 27
- 3 min read
Updated: Jan 30
If you’re like a lot of adult jazz trumpet players, All of Me is one of those standards you’ve “played” for years… but you’re not always happy with how your solos sound.
You might find that:
You fall back on the same arpeggios and scales every chorus
Your lines feel a bit “straight” and not really like the records
When you try to sound more modern, everything falls apart under your fingers
In this lesson, I want to give you something very specific and practical: a complete All of Me solo built almost entirely from pentatonic shapes – and a clear way to practice it so you can actually use the ideas in your own playing.
You can download the full solo as a free PDF here for FREE:
Enjoyed this one? Hit the ❤️ at the bottom
Print it out, put it on the stand, and use this post as your walkthrough. By the way it is in Bb, C, Eb and bass clef!
What Makes This Solo Different (The Pentatonic Idea)
Instead of running full scales over every chord, this solo focuses on a small set of pentatonic shapes that:
Fit the harmony cleanly
Are easy to remember under the fingers
Naturally create “jazzy” intervals, not just stepwise scale runs
If you want a deeper dive into how I use pentatonics in jazz trumpet improvisation in general, take a look at my full guide here:
For now, let’s walk through the solo in 4‑bar phrases so you can hear and feel how these shapes sit on All of Me.
4-Bar Phrase 1 – Bars 1–4 Simply chord notes (yes the traids always fit the pentatonic)
4-Bar Phrase 2 – Bars 5–8 - Syncopation on B7 andf then the tirads again
4-Bar Phrase 3 – Bars 9–12 Sweet Georgia brown lick to Louis style phrase
4-Bar Phrase 4 – Bars 13–16 Louis Armstrong hot 5 style phrase
4-Bar Phrase 5 – Bars 17–20 Very simple motif (chord triad notes of course)
4-Bar Phrase 6 – Bars 21–24 Chord notes with a big half valve smear ala Louis Armstrong
4-Bar Phrase 7 – Bars 25–28 More syncopation
4-Bar Phrase 8 – Bars 29–32 As with all other phrases, simpl chord or pentatonic notes and syncopated rhythm. No need to over complicate things here!
How to Turn This Solo into Real Vocabulary
Learning the written solo is only step one. Here’s how I recommend you turn it into something you can actually use on the bandstand:
Learn the solo slowly with a metronome
Play it with a backing track until it feels comfortable and relaxed
Choose 2–3 short licks (1–2 bars) you really like
Move each of those licks to at least two other keys
Try using those licks on a different tune (for example, Autumn Leaves or Blue Bossa)
If you enjoy this kind of structured, trumpet‑specific practice, I’ve put together a free pentatonic lesson inside my email newsletter that takes this approach further and gives you more lines to add to your vocabulary.
You can join here and get the free pentatonic lesson plus my full set of starter resources:
Inside my $8/month Jazz Language Lab membership, we go even deeper: month by month, we take ideas like this All of Me pentatonic solo and build them into a full bebop vocabulary system, with clear, realistic practice plans for adult players.
Check out these blog posts too!
Ultimate practice routine - https://www.jazzetudes.net/post/jazz-practice-routine
How to practice ii-v-i progressions - https://www.jazzetudes.net/post/how-to-practice-ii-v-i-s-in-jazz
How to improvise like Chet Baker - https://www.jazzetudes.net/post/how-to-improvise-like-chet-baker
Very useful post. Nice presentation. Thank you.