12. Three Note Pickups

What Will You Learn in This Lesson?

This lesson is about making three-note pickups part of your improvisation.

In Exercise 1, you’ll start simple.

The left hand plays our most basic groove.
The first two bars are written for you, setting up a clear “call.”
The next two bars show only the rhythm, and your job is to respond to that call through improvisation.

This setup trains two skills at once:

1. Using a three-note pickup in every four-bar round.

2. Thinking in call and response, making your lines sound like storytelling.

In Exercise 2, you’ll take the same idea further.

Same concept, but now the rhythm stretches longer,
and your left-hand groove becomes a bit more complex.

Then comes Exercise 3, the most challenging of the three.

This time, there’s no prewritten call to guide you.
You’re given only a rhythm to improvise over, and unlike before, the rhythm of bars 1–2 doesn’t match bars 3–4.

Here’s a tip: think of bar 3 as the start of your idea.
Let it carry across the next round’s bars 1 and 2 so your improvisation feels open, rather than boxed in.
That’s what gives your playing continuity and flow.

Once you feel comfortable, you can take it a step further:

Extra challenges (for the brave):

– Add grace notes to your lines.

– Drop hints of the Oscar Peterson lick wherever it fits.

When Are You Done With This Lesson?

The second part of the video includes three play-along tracks at different tempos.
You’re done when you can play along with those tracks without losing the groove, using all three exercises.
When that starts to feel easy, you’re ready to move on.

What if Exercise 3 feels impossible?

No problem.
Use the left-hand pattern from Exercise 3, but keep the right-hand part from Exercise 1 or 2.