Here are 10 Mike Stern signature licks, selected to better understand his unique phrasing, the scales

and techniques involved like chromaticisms/passing tones, triads, arpeggio embellishments and so
on.
As always it's also a great opportunity to enrich your own knowledge : just borrow the ideas you
like and use/adapt them in your own playing.

Hope you enjoy!

Steph

The Backing Track

II: Cm7 I % I % I % I Ab7#11 I % I % I G7alt :II

The Scales

Over the Cm7 Chord

Cm Pentatonic/Blues Scale
C Dorian Scale/Mode

C Melodic Minor

Over the Ab7#11 Chord

Eb melodic minor scale / Ab Lydian Dominant / Ab Mixolydian #4

Over the G7 altered Chord

G altered /Ab melodic minor scale

Lick #1

Over the Cm7 chord we start with a Dorian based line - of course you have noticed the ending with
the pentatonic scale ! There's just a passing tone added in the second bar - actually the blue note/#4

Lick #2

In the first part (red zone) we could see how Mike uses the arpeggio embellishment technique with
the Cm7 arpeggio. The idea is to enclose each notes from Cm7 arpeggio with two other notes : first
one is one step above and second one, one step below. Check out the following example for more
about the technique.
The second part starts with EbMaj7 arpeggio followed by a chromatic schema targeting the D note :
F/E/Eb/F/D
The third bar ends the lick with the C melodic minor scale. This one works great in combination
with the Dorian mode, just one note differs between the two scale (Bb/B).
Arpeggio Embellishments

First we've got the Cm7 arpeggio, so far so good. Secondly we add a chromatic from below and
then a diatonic note from above. We could also play the opposite as seen in lick#2 :
diatonic/chromatic. As you can see, this technique adds lot of outside notes and tensions in the
phrasing!

Of course you could use the idea other 7th, maj7 … chords : try with the Ebmaj7 arpeggio over the
Cm7 chord !

Lick #3

Another chromatic schema (in red) starting on the beat and targeting the 13b/Ab note. Over m7
chords Mike often blends various modes and so different colors : so he could put the emphasis on
the Maj7, like in the last part of this lick, or on the flat 6/13 … this means being able to use the C
Aeolian/Dorian mode and also the C Melodic/Harmonic minor scale over the Cm7 chord.
Lick #4

Example 4 attemps to demonstrate the 'tremolo' chord technique. We keep a pedal tone on the
higher note and then we add and move different chord voicings .

Lick #5

Another very musical technique is the use of Triads and especially this kind of sequences.
More info about this in the following example.
Triads / Arpeggios

Here are all the diatonic triads from the C Dorian scale.
Each triad follows the same schema : 5 / 3 / 1 / 5.

Lick #6

Over the Ab7#11 chord we gonna use the Eb melodic minor scale, it's also callled the Lydian
Dominant mode or the Mixolydian #4 mode. Basicaly we could see it as a mixolydian mode with a
sharp four.
It's a tricky lick and the main difficulty is to visualize the scale and all the passing tones and anlyse
how these extra notes are added over the scale. In red, all the passing tones.
Over the G7 the lick ends with the C harmonic minor scale ( V7alt to Im7 in Cminor)
Lick #7

Still the Eb melodic minor scale over the Ab7#11 chord and this time we gonna use the Altered
scale over the G7 chord, this means the Ab melodic minor scale.

Lick #8

Another tricky lick where Mike blends and adds on the fly the 7/Maj7, b13/13.
Underlined in red, a common technique to push up the tension in your line. Here Mike uses a simple
3 notes motif & he moves it chromatically along the neck.
Lick #9

Lot of chromaticisms & passing tones here. Again, visualize the scale and visualize and analyse all
these added notes. How these extra notes are placed against the beat : on the down or upbeat ?

Lick #10

Same chromatic idea as seen in lick#3, played elsewhere on the neck.

The lick ends with a sequence around the D major triad.
Over a minor 7 chord we could play a major triad up a whole tone : this means playing some
interresting enrichments, 9th, #4 and 13th.