Melody embellishment

[Fretfet2]

I am a fairly new player (3yrs). I am interested in getting advice about improvement of basic melodies. During a jam I am usually able to find the melody line fairly ok . But I proceed to play those few notes endlessly. I need the help of some seasoned players to determine what would be a good way to improve on this. What is a good first step to sounding more interesting. How do you determine what you will use in your solo. Granted this is in a jam session so there is not a lot of time to work it up. I do play more structured music such as fiddle tunes and some written music but have not been able to figure out how to blend some of the mechanics of those melodies (slides,tremolo) into an on the spot solo. I'm not expecting miracles as I am a beginner but how do I work toward getting there? Thanks for any ideas you can give me.

[Tobin]

Personally, I think nothing goes further in spicing up a melody than double-stops/drones and tremolo. Tastefully applied, of course. And it really doesn't take any deviation from the melody to apply it. You just have to know where your double-stops are and know when to latch onto them as you play your melody. And if your melody is moving too quickly to allow for enough of a pause to use tremolo, think about where you can leave a few notes out and replace them with double-stop tremolo for effect.

Another trick that goes a long way is converting some of the melody notes to the blues scale. Flatted thirds and sevenths. It really changes the feel of the melody when played against the major chords that everyone else in the jam is playing. Or even just sliding from the flatted notes to the actual notes appropriate to that major key. I remember when I first started going to jams, I would play all my breaks in major scales or pentatonic scales because I was still learning. Once I was comfortable enough playing in common keys (G, of course), I started throwing in the minor third and flat seventh. That's when people in the jam started making comments about my progress. It was such a little thing, but I got a lot of mileage out of it.

[Stevo75]

Learn scales and arpeggios. One of my old teachers said the most important notes in a solo are the notes in whatever chord you are on. So you need to know your arpeggios and you need to be able to hear the chord changes. Second most important are the notes in the scale of whatever key you are in. Third most important are all the rest of the notes. If you know the melody and know which are the important notes in the melody you can really do whatever you want as long as you land on the right note at the right time.

[Stevo75]

Also what Tobin says above. You can slide into any note from above or below.

[farmerjones]

Listen & steel.
Listen to the many versions of a tune, clinically. Even if you ripped off Bill Monroe note for note, it won't sound like Bill Monroe, because you're not Bill Monroe. Collect solo breaks and licks like a comedian collects lines and jokes. What you're doing is learning the language. Eventually you'll be able to think within the melody, and embellish at will. Timing comes with it. Like talking and breathing. Start with one tune. Know the melody. Know the chord changes. Know the lyric if it has them. Some learn a tune in a few keys to familiarize themselves with the melody, to know the notes in relation to each other. I said, one almost has to be sick/bored of a tune, to know it that well, to then depart from it. Yes, what was said prior counts too. As long as you get the note at the end of the phrase right, you can play just about anything. But at least pay homage to the melody once, to show you really know the tune.

[pointpergame]

I thought everybody would be talking here about ornaments. To my ear it's often the little decorations that make or break a song. Sitting at home going over a piece, I seek out the trills, mordents, slurs, hammer-ons, and other ( somewhat ) mechanical devices that add some spice and I usually figure out then what's going to sound bad, good, or ridiculous as I commit that song to my repertoire. Or don't because I can figure out a way to spice it up. For example, on the piano, a snappy, almost offhand mordent in the bass line at the beginning of each measure always seems to add that hard to define busy-ness that we expect from music these days. Playing new music with others it's pretty easy to try out these devices as you go along, keeping an ear out for what's working and what isn't....while making a concerted effort not to over do it.

Sooner or later, these familiar ornaments lead to more protracted ones. Triplet runs. Trills that last a whole measure.

Just one way to think about it from a strictly amateur musician.

[John Flynn]

One that is great about the mandolin tuned in fifths is that ornamentation can become very "opportunistic." Once you learn where all the notes are, especially in the basic "box pattern," you can start to become alert for ornamentation opportunities that kind of "jump under your fingers." This may sound kind of strange, but it's like once you can stop worrying about hitting wrong notes, hitting right notes just starts to happen. Then you can sort of make stuff up you want to hear in a tune and it works, at least most of the time!

[jshane]

There is actually a book ( I forget the exact name but maybe" enhancing fiddle tunes"?) where the author takes several standard tunes and embellishes them in maybe 5 different ways varying in style and complexity. He then explains what he is doing in each variation, and why. Might be worth a look.

[farmerjones]

Thanks for reminding me. A good place to listen to melodic embellishments is/are Missouri style fiddle tunes, in comparison to the same tune done in a typical Old Timey way. Mo. style fiddlers (Dwight Lamb, Cyril Stinnett, Bob Walters) seem to make tunes difficult for difficult sake. "Make a tune outa that." This is not to say one adopts the whole thing. This is only an example of what can be done. How a tune can be treated. Pick and choose what you want, and what will fit. Like vocabulary, or tools in a toolbox.

[Mark Miller]

That book is John McGann's Developing Melodic Variations on Fiddle Tunes. I've heard it's very good. Haven't dipped into it myself because I'm just starting to learn to "play what's in your head" and I don't want to distract from that right now. That's another way to embellish a melody, of course. If you "hear" a moment in your head where the melody could sound a little different but still be recognizable, pick it out and learn it. From what I hear, the more you do that the easier it becomes. I'm still very early in the process, so I'm still waiting on the easy part!

[Ivan Kelsall]

From Tobin - ".....converting some of the melody notes to the blues scale.". After 10 years,i can play pretty well & i can improvise a solo easily enough,once i've learned a tune. However,what Tobin mentions - the 'Blues scale',i hear all the time in Bluegrass mandolin recordings. Just the odd note here & there,lifts the overall sound from 'out of the ordinary'.
My questions 1) Is there more than one 'Blues scale' ?. 2) If there is, 'which' Blues scale is the most often used ?. It's something i'd like to work on & i'd really appreciate a bit of 'informed guidance',
Ivan

[Beanzy]

I'm always a bit cautious about putting too much blues scale in to a BG solo; it can flip the feel too much into blues if I do. Ballad based songs seem to be particularly prone to my being too heavy handed.

So for a blues tune I'll use 1 b3 4 b5 5 b7 but go for the major scale plus blues notes in a bluegrass number to keep it sounding BG
1 2 b3 3 b5 5 6 b7. (ie. In G I'll use G A Bb B C Db D E F)
I'm not sure if it's the right term but I've heard people refer to it as mixo-blues.

[jshane]

You can temper the tendency for blue notes to become overwhelming by resolving them pretty quickly. Ie, b3 to 3, b5 to 5, b7 to root. That way they become "grace" blue notes.

[JeffD]

Another trick that goes a long way is converting some of the melody notes to the blues scale. .

Ahhhhh!

Well ok, its a taste thing. To me, what I love about old time music, traditional fiddle tunes and the like is the relative lack of the blues. The blues and blues riffs saturate so much of the music we hear all the time, that in fact, I believe, when a youngster hears a piece of music and thinks it is dorky or corny its because it doesn't have the blues in it.

So, to me, (and just talking about me), going all blues on a fiddle tune is kind of invading my refuge from the world.

Flatted thirds and sevenths are like garlic. They can make music delicious, but if used unsparingly the nature of the music itself shifts, and IMO becomes less interesting.


The message to the OP, listen. A lot. Soon enough you will be able to determine what kinds of ornaments are tasteful within the tradition you are listening to, and what kinds are more transgressive. (I am not saying don't experiment with the transgressive, it is a hoot, just know what you are doing. )

[David L]

I haven't heard anybody mention RHYTHM! You can play just the melody notes, but syncopate them by playing early. Or repeat notes in an interesting rhythmic pattern. Change the accents and phrasing. Making the melody rhythmically more interesting is arguably the easiest and most effective way of starting to improvise.

[Fretfet2]

Thanks to all that replied.! I am going to work toward applying all your excellent ideas, discuss them with my instructors and take them to a jam...