1. Melodic embellishment lets you base your solo on the original melody while adding ornamentation that builds on that melody
2. Simplest type: pitch bends, trills and turns.
3. Anticipate a main tone in the melody by playing grace notes before the note, or by leading to thenote with appraoch notes
4. 2 notes ina melody can be connected with passing notes.
5. can create entirely new melodies by extracting and repeating short motifs or riffs from the original melody.
You add to the melody using existing pieces of the melody — you ahve to take the meldoy apart and put it back together again in a slightly different form.
What to do: identfiy short riffs or motifs within the melodic line.
You can then extract these motifs and repeat them in other sections of the melody — typically in place of longer notes.
Most motifs are notable for their unique rhythm or for their short melodic hook.
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You can also take a motif and alter it, either by adding syncopation or by displacing it on the beat or in the measure.
For eg. we’ll take the previous motif and repeat it every 3 beats, instead of 4 — you still recognize teh riff, but it has a different feel cuz of where it’s placed relative to the first beat of each measure.
You can have lots of fun with this technique. In fact, it is possible to build a completely new solo by playing around with selected riffs from the original melody.
You can repeat them exactly, move them to a different part of the melody, or play them backwards.
You can even use existing motifs to create now motifs, through the process of theme and variations. It’s a terrific way to build your improvisational skills while still maintaining ties to the oiriginal melody.
Similar to approach notes are passing notes.
Where approach notes lead into a main note, passing notes conntect 2 main notes.
It’s kind of a connect-the-dots type of embellishment
Instead of jumping between intervals, you use passing notes to get from one note to the other more smoothly.
Most grace notes can be defined as very short approach notes.
An approach note is a note that leads to the main note.
It helps you approach that note musically.
Approach notes can eitehr approach a note from above or below, ty pically the nearest scale step.
Unlike grace notes, true approach notes are played in time, and notated appropriately using quarter, 8th or 16th notes.
In addition to the traditional single approach note, you can also play multiple approach note runs.
The approach note run must be strictly linear, using step-wise motion.
For eg. a lead up to a note with four 16th note approach notes, you start 4 steps below the main note and run up one scale step at a time.
Approach note runs are part useful in building up to a big note in the melody.
Notes of the run anticipate and ina way announce the main note.
Tip: approach notes don’t have to be part of the underlying scale.
If you are playing a jazz tune or a pop tine with particularly sophisticated chord progression), you can use chromatic approach notes that move in pure half steps toward the main note.
A grace note is subsiddary note you play just before a main note.
Typically a grace note is one scale tone above or below the main note.
If the main note is a C, for example, you could lpay either a B or a D as the grace notes. There is no hard and fast rule; grace notes can be any note within the underlying scale.
You add a grace note to lead into and emphasize a key tone in the melody.
The grace note is typically played right up against the main note, not precisely in rhythm, which is why it isn’t notated as a normal sixteenth note.
It’s almost like a little flip just before the main note.
A grace note can be a singlenote, or you can play multiple grace notes, typically in a run up to or down to the main note.
For eg. when you lay a turn that starts before the beat, the notes of the turn are grace notes.
Just make sure that the grace notes are played before the expected beat, and that they don’t delay the main melody note.
A turn is like a trill that goes both up and down.
Typically, its a 5 note deal
You start on theoriginal n ote, go up one scale step, back down to theoriginal note, donw one scale step, and then end up on the original note again.
if melody is A:
A B A G A
The turn can eitehr stat on the same beat as the original note or precede that note as a type of grace note phrase.
A trill is kind of ike a lot of little pitch bends played all in a row.
Instead of playing a long note straight, you rapidly alternate beetween theoriginal note and the next scale note up — either a half step or a whole step, depending on what sounds best.
You can play trills as straight 16th or 32nd notes or play them ‘out of time’ as fast as is appropriate.
Just make sure that when you are done trilling, you end up on the original note of the melody.