Determine the extensions of each chord in the song. Most chords contain the first, third, fifth, and seventh notes from a scale. Jazz musicians continue this pattern beyond the seventh note of the scale and use the ninth, eleventh, and thirteenth notes of a scale when creating jazz licks.
On the staff paper, write the tritone substitution chord. A tritone is three musical whole steps above the root of the chord. The root of the chord is the note upon which the rest of the chord is built. Once you deduce the tritone, construct a chord using the tritone as the root.
Develop an implied chord progression. Notes that are the fifth or seventh note of a chord will sometimes be the first or third note of a different chord. Playing jazz licks using these different chords will require utilizing a note that is outside the original chord.
Write some jazz licks down on a piece of paper. Write one jazz lick that utilizes chord extensions, one lick that uses tritone chord substitutions, and one lick using implied chords.
Play these jazz licks repeatedly until they feel comfortable for you. Transpose the jazz licks so that you can play them with other chord progressions. Transposing a jazz lick means changing the key center of the lick while maintaining the same relationship between individual notes.
Practice playing the jazz licks with a metronome set to various speeds. This will allow you to play a lick regardless of any song’s tempo.