"The Lick" is a

lick Lick may refer to: * Licking, the action of passing the tongue over a surface Places * Lick (crater), a crater on the Moon named after James Lick * 1951 Lick, an asteroid named after James Lick * Lick Township, Jackson County, Ohio, United Stat ...

(a stock musical phrase) that has been used in numerous

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

and

pop Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop! (British group), a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Album ...

songs and several classical compositions, to the point that it has been described as "the most famous jazz cliché ever". In recent years, it has become an

internet meme An Internet meme, or meme (, Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''MEEM''), is a cultural item (such as an idea, behavior, or style) that spreads across the Internet, primarily through Social media, social media platforms. Internet memes manif ...

and is often used for comedic effect.

Musical structure

"The Lick" consists of seven notes, using five steps on a

diatonic scale In music theory a diatonic scale is a heptatonic scale, heptatonic (seven-note) scale that includes five whole steps (whole tones) and two half steps (semitones) in each octave, in which the two half steps are separated from each other by eith ...

. The interval pattern is 1 (unison) – 2 (major second) – 3 (minor third) – 4 (perfect fourth) – 2 (major second) – 7 (lower seventh) – 1 (unison). In jazz, it is played swung, sometimes including a

glissando In music, a glissando (; plural: ''glissandi'', abbreviated ''gliss.'') is a wikt:glide, glide from one pitch (music), pitch to another (). It is an Italianized Musical terminology, musical term derived from the French ''glisser'', "to glide". In ...

grace note A grace note is a kind of music notation denoting several kinds of musical ornament (music), ornaments. It is usually printed smaller to indicate that it is melodically and harmonically nonessential. When occurring by itself, a single grace no ...

before the fifth note.

History

The term "The Lick" was coined by a Facebook group in the 2010s and popularized by a YouTube video assembled from clips from the group by professor Alex Heitlinger in 2011. "The Lick" was not first seen in jazz, as examples of classical music, such as ''

The Firebird ''The Firebird'' (; ) is a ballet and orchestral concert work by the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky. It was written for the 1910 Paris season of Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes company; the original choreography was by Michel Fokine, who c ...

'' by

Igor Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ( – 6 April 1971) was a Russian composer and conductor with French citizenship (from 1934) and American citizenship (from 1945). He is widely considered one of the most important and influential 20th-century c ...

, include tonal sequences similar to "The Lick". However, it is primarily known as a jazz lick for the attention it has received from being commonly used in

jazz improvisation Jazz improvisation is the spontaneous invention of melodic solo lines or accompaniment parts in a performance of jazz music. It is one of the defining elements of jazz. Improvisation is composing on the spot, when a singer or instrumentalist inv ...

. In 2019, composer David Bruce used "The Lick" as a basis for a

string quartet The term string quartet refers to either a type of musical composition or a group of four people who play them. Many composers from the mid-18th century onwards wrote string quartets. The associated musical ensemble consists of two Violin, violini ...

, the Lick Quartet.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lick Jazz techniques Musical improvisation Internet memes