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In this video, I use George Gershwin's classic 'Summertime' as a way to demonstrate 15 different ways to embellish the melody in a jazz style. I recorded 4 choruses of the song, and then went back and explained every embellishment technique that I used during the performance.

Rule number 1 is ALWAYS to learn the melody as the composer wrote it, including the lyrics. This is because the lyrics inform how you should phrase the rhythm of the melody. After that, you can begin to phrase the melody in a personal way. Here are the 15 techniques that I explain in this video:
1) grace note from half-step below
2) grace note from half-step above
3) upper neighbor note 'jazzy triplet'
4) grace note roll
5) 'vibraphone slide' or glissando
6) blues scale fills
7) scoop from whole step below
8) using alternate verse lyrics as rhythm inspiration
9) octaves with grace note half-step below
10) rhythmic variation
11) adding chord tones between melody notes
12) intermittent blues improvisation, quickly returning to melody
13) playing melody in a higher octave
14) use of hemiola
15) harmonizing the melody in 6ths or 3rds, or with other chord tones.

I'm using the old Albright mallets in this video, which unfortunately aren't available any more. A similar version (although a bit softer) are these Mike Balter mallets: [ Ссылка ]

I hope you enjoy and please subscribe!

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