Jazz Improvisation Using Simple Melodic Embellishment

Jazz Improvisation Using Simple Melodic
Embellishment
Jazz Improvisation Using Simple Melodic Embellishment teaches fundamental concepts of

jazz improvisation, highlighting the development of performance skills through embellishment
techniques. Written with the college-level course in mind, this introductory textbook is both prac-
tical and comprehensive, ideal for the aspiring improviser, focused not on scales and chords but
melodic embellishment. It assumes some basic theoretical knowledge and level of musicianship
while introducing multiple techniques, mindful that improvisation is a learned skill as dependent
on hard work and organized practice as it is on innate talent.
This jargon-free textbook can be used in both self-guided study and as a course book, fortified
by an array of interactive exercises and activities:
• musical examples
• performance exercises
• written assignments
• practice grids
• resources for advanced study
• and more!
Nearly all musical exercises – presented throughout the text in concert pitch and transposed in
the appendices for E-flat, B-flat, and bass clef instruments – are accompanied by backing audio
tracks, available for download via the Routledge catalog page along with supplemental instructor
resources such as a sample syllabus, PDFs of common transpositions, and tutorials for gear set-
ups. With music-making at its core, Jazz Improvisation Using Simple Melodic Embellishment
implores readers to grab their instruments and play, providing musicians with the simple melodic
tools they need to “jazz it up.”
Mike Titlebaum is Associate Professor of Music Performance and Director of Jazz Studies at
Ithaca College.
Jazz Improvisation Using Simple
Melodic Embellishment
Mike Titlebaum
Ithaca College
First published 2021
by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2021 Taylor & Francis
The right of Mike Titlebaum to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised
in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or
hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks,
and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Titlebaum, Michael, 1968– author.
Title: Jazz improvisation using simple melodic embellishment / Mike Titlebaum.
Description: New York : Routledge, 2021. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020050965 (print) | LCCN 2020050966 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780367427436 (hardback) | ISBN 9780367427429 (paperback) |
ISBN 9780367854751 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Jazz–Instruction and study. | Improvisation (Music)
Classification: LCC MT68 .T57 2021 (print) | LCC MT68 (ebook) |
DDC 781.65/136–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020050965
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020050966
ISBN: 978-0-367-42743-6  (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-42742-9  (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-85475-1  (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by Newgen Publishing UK
All support materials can be accessed and downloaded via the
Routledge catalog page: www.routledge.com/9780367427429.
Contents
Detailed Contents vii

List of Figures and Tables ix
Preface xvii
Acknowledgments xxii
1 Melodic Embellishment: The Concept 1

2 The Starting Point: The Melody 6
3 Rhythmic and Phrasing Variation 11
4 Neighbor Tones 19
5 Appoggiaturas 35
6 Passing Tones 44
7 Blue Notes 54
8 Enclosures 62
9 Putting It All Together 77
10 Embellishing the Blues 84
11 Embellishing a Standard Chord Progression 96
12 Using Improvisation to Learn Improvisation 104
Appendix 1: Exercises Transposed for E♭ Instruments 110

Appendix 2: Exercises Transposed for B♭ Instruments 170
Appendix 3: Exercises Transposed for Bass Clef Instruments 234
About the Author 294
Glossary 295
Index 297
Detailed Contents
List of Figures and Tables ix

Preface xvii
Acknowledgements xxii
1 Melodic Embellishment: The Concept 1

Thinking 3
Relationship between Composing and Improvising 4
Advanced Exercises 4
Considering the Audience 4
2 The Starting Point: The Melody 6
The Distilled Melody 6
Mike’s Original Saints Melody 7
Circled Pitches 9
For Advanced Study 10
3 Rhythmic and Phrasing Variation 11
Variations on the Distilled Saints Melody 11
Variations on Mike’s Original Saints Melody 14
Create Your Own Variation 16
4 Neighbor Tones 19
Single Neighbors 19
Double Neighbors 21
Diatonic Upper and Chromatic Lower Neighbors 21
Practicing Neighbor Tones 22
Applying Neighbor Tones to Melodies 24
Compose Your Own Melody 24
Neighbor Tones Performance Etude 30
5 Appoggiaturas 35
Embellishing Your Own Melody 40
Performance Etude Featuring Appoggiaturas 41
6 Passing Tones 44
Practicing Passing Tones 45
Applying Passing Tones 47
Performance Etude Featuring Passing Tones 50
viii Detailed Contents
7 Blue Notes 54
Practicing Blue Notes 57
Performance Etude Featuring Blue Notes 59
8 Enclosures 62
Practicing Enclosures 64
Applying Enclosures to the Distilled Saints Melody 68
Applying Enclosures to Mike’s Original Saints Melody 69
Applying Enclosures to Your Own Melody 72
Performance Etude Featuring Enclosures 74
9 Putting It All Together 77
Your Own Composed Improvisations 80
Improvised Versions 81
10 Embellishing the Blues 84
Mike’s Simple Blues Melodies 84
Rhythmic and Phrasing Embellishments on the Blues 86
Melodic Embellishments on the Blues 87
More Complex Melodic Embellishments 89
Compose Your Own Blues 91
11 Embellishing a Standard Chord Progression 96
Melodic Arpeggios 96
Embellishing “Who Is This One I Like?” 100
Compose Your Own Simple Melody on “Who Is This One I Like?” 102
12 Using Improvisation to Learn Improvisation 104
Reversing Your Own Process 106
Appendix 1: Exercises Transposed for E♭ Instruments 110

Appendix 2: Exercises Transposed for B♭ Instruments 170
Appendix 3: Exercises Transposed for Bass Clef Instruments 234
About the Author 294
Glossary 295
Index 297
Figures and Tables
(R) = Rhythm Section Only

ME = Musical Example
Acc = Accompaniment
1.1 Musical example: Famous piece with embellishments removed 2 ME 1.1
2.1 Performance Exercise: “When the Saints Go Marching In” 7 Acc 1
2.2 Performance Exercise: “Distilled Saints Melody” 8 Acc 13
2.3 Performance Exercise: “Mike’s Original Saints Melody” 9 Acc 25
2.4 Musical Example: Demonstrating how circled pitches are derived 9 ME 2.4
3.1 Performance Exercise: “Distilled Saints Melody” with syncopations

on the first half of the bar 12 Acc 194
3.2 Performance Exercise: “Distilled Saints Melody” with syncopations on the

second half of the bar 12 Acc 195
3.3 Abbreviated Performance Exercise: “Distilled Saints Melody” with

syncopations on the first half of the bar and an anticipation 13 Acc 196
3.4 Abbreviated Performance Exercise: “Distilled Saints Melody” with

syncopations on the second half of the bar and an anticipation 13 Acc 197
3.5 Abbreviated Performance Exercise: Several rhythmic and stylistic

variations on the “Distilled Saints Melody” 14 Acc 198 & 13 (R)
3.6 Abbreviated Performance Exercise: Several rhythmic and stylistic

variations on “Mike’s Original Saints Melody” 15 Acc 199 & 25 (R)
3.7 Performance Exercise: Mixed syncopations and articulations on

“Mike’s Original Saints Melody” 16 Acc 200 & 25 (R)
3.8 Written Exercise: Compose your own rhythmic variation of “Mike’s

Original Saints Melody” 17 Acc 37
x Figures and Tables
4.1 Mike’s neighbors as a kid in Rochester  19
ME 4.2 4.2 Musical Example: Diatonic neighbors 20
ME 4.3 4.3 Musical Example: Chromatic neighbors 20
ME 4.4 4.4 Musical Example: Indistinguishable neighbors 20
ME 4.5 4.5 Musical Example: Diatonic or Chromatic 20
ME 4.6 4.6 Musical Example: Which diatonic neighbor do you prefer? 21
ME 4.7 4.7 Musical Example: Double neighbors 21
4.8 Performance Exercise with Written Component: Neighbor tones on a

Acc 77 major triad 22

Acc 78 minor triad 23

Acc 79 diminished triad 24
4.11 Abbreviated Performance Exercise: Neighbor tone variations on the

Acc 113 & 13 (R) “Distilled Saints Melody” 27
4.12 Abbreviated Performance Exercise: Neighbor tone variations on

Acc 114 & 25 (R) “Mike’s Original Saints Melody” 28
4.13 Performance Exercise with Written Component: Freely mixed neighbors on

Acc 115 “Mike’s Original Saints Melody” 28
Acc 37 4.14 Written Exercise: Compose your own simple “Saints” melody 29
Acc 49 4.15 Performance Exercise: Half note foundation melody for “Just Neighbors” 31
4.16 Performance Exercise with Written Component: Etude “Just Neighbors”

Acc 50 page 1 32
4.17 Performance Exercise: Etude “Just Neighbors” page 2  33
ME 5.1 5.1 Musical Example: Appoggiaturas 35
5.2 Performance Exercise with Written Component: Major, minor and

Acc 116 diminished triads with appoggiaturas 36
Figures and Tables xi
5.3 Performance Exercise: Appoggiaturas on the “Distilled Saints Melody” 38 Acc 128
5.4 Performance Exercise: Appoggiaturas on the “Distilled Saints Melody”

with anticipations 38 Acc 129
5.5 Performance Exercise with Written Component: Appoggiaturas on

“Mike’s Original Saints Melody” 39 Acc 130 & 25 (R)
5.6 Performance Exercise with Written Component: Freely mixed

Appoggiaturas on “Mike’s Original Saints Melody” 40 Acc 131
5.7 Performance Exercise with Written Component: Write a version of your own

“Saints” melody with freely mixed appoggiaturas 41 Acc 37
5.8 Performance Etude: “Appoggiaturas with Cathy” 42 Acc 51
6.1 Mike had to pass the Kent’s house to get to the Greenfields  44
6.2 Musical Example: Passing tones 45 ME 6.2
6.3 Musical Example: Chromatic passing tones 45 ME 6.3
6.4 Musical Example: Groups of passing tones 45 ME 6.4
6.5 Musical Example: Passing tones heard in more than one way 45 ME 6.5
6.6 Performance Exercise with Written Component: Major, minor, and

diminished triads with passing tones 46 Acc 132
6.7 Performance Exercise: Diatonic passing tones on the “Distilled

Saints Melody” 49 Acc 144
6.8 Performance Exercise: Chromatic passing tones on the “Distilled

Saints Melody” 49 Acc 145
6.9 Performance Exercise with Written Component: Mostly diatonic passing

tones on “Mike’s Original Saints Melody” 50 Acc 146
6.10 Performance Exercise with Written Component: Mostly chromatic passing

tones on “Mike’s Original Saints Melody” 50 Acc 147
6.11 Written Exercise: Freely mixed passing tones on your own melody 51 Acc 37
6.12 Performance Etude: “Another You There Will Never Pass” page 1 52 Acc 52
6.13 Performance Etude: “Another You There Will Never Pass” page 2 53
7.1 Musical Example: Bessie Smith’s “Mama’s Got the Blues” 54 ME 7.1
7.2 Chord of the moment vs. key of the piece continuum  55

xii Figures and Tables
7.3 Musical Example: Using only chord arpeggios, too extreme on the

ME 7.3 “chord of the moment” side of the continuum 56
7.4 Musical Example: Using only the blues scale, too extreme on the
ME 7.4 “key of the tune” side of the continuum 56
7.5 Bluesy meter  57
7.6 Performance Exercise with Written Component: Bluesy version of the

Acc 148 “Distilled Saints Melody” 57
7.7 Performance Exercise with Written Component: Bluesy version of

Acc 149 “Mike’s Original Saints Melody” 58
7.8 Performance Exercise: Freely varied bluesy version of “Mike’s Original

Acc 150 Saints Melody” 58
7.9 Written Exercise: Freely varied bluesy version of your own “Saints”

Acc 37 melody 59
Acc 53 7.10 Performance Etude: “Blue Dolphin Street” 60
ME 8.1 8.1 Musical Example: Several possible versions of enclosures 62
8.2 Musical Example: Solo transcription “Chad Lefkowitz-Brown Standard

Sessions #8: Yardbird Suite” video  63
ME 8.3 8.3 Musical Example: Lefkowitz-Brown’s enclosures 64
8.4 Musical Example: Diatonic upper neighbors can either be a whole step

ME 8.4 or a half step 65
8.5 Musical Example: Examining an enclosure when the upper diatonic

ME 8.5 neighbor is a whole step above the target 65
8.6 Musical Example: Examining an enclosure when the upper diatonic

ME 8.6 neighbor is a half step above the target 65
8.7 Performance Exercise: Enclosing each pitch of the major scale 65

Acc 151
8.8 Abbreviated Performance Exercise: Enclosing the ascending

Acc 152 major scale 66
8.9 Abbreviated Performance Exercise: Enclosing the descending

Acc 153 major scale 66
8.10 Performance Exercise: A continuous sequence of enclosures of major

Acc 154 and melodic minor scales 67
Acc 155 8.11 Performance Exercise: Major and minor triads with enclosures 67
Figures and Tables xiii
8.12 Performance Exercise: “Distilled Saints Melody” with enclosures

preceding melody notes from the first half of the bar 69 Acc 168

preceding melody notes from the second half of the bar 70 Acc 169

preceding melody notes from both halves of the bar 70 Acc 170
8.15 Performance Exercise: “Mike’s Original Saints Melody” with

enclosures preceding melody notes from the first half of the bar 71 Acc 171

enclosures preceding melody notes from the second half of the bar 71 Acc 172

enclosures preceding melody notes from both halves of the bar 72 Acc 173
8.18 Written Exercise: Your own “Saints” melody with enclosures preceding

melody notes from the first half of the bar 73 Acc 37

melody notes from the second half of the bar 73 Acc 37

melody notes from both halves of the bar 74 Acc 37
8.21 Abbreviated Performance Exercise: “Mike’s Original Saints Melody”

melody with enclosures preceding melody notes from the first half of the bar,
displaced an eighth note earlier 74 Acc 174
8.22 Abbreviated Performance Exercise: “Mike’s Original Saints Melody” melody

with enclosures preceding melody notes from the first half of the bar, displaced
an eighth note later 74 Acc 175
8.23 Abbreviated Performance Exercise: “Mike’s Original Saints Melody” melody

with enclosures preceding melody notes from the first half of the bar, displaced
a full beat later 75 Acc 176
8.24 Performance Etude: “Enclosable You” 75 Acc 56
9.1 Performance Exercise with Written Component: The “Distilled Saints

Melody” with a fairly small quantity of embellishments 77 Acc 177
9.2 Performance Exercise with Written Component: The “Distilled Saints

Melody” with a greater quantity of embellishments 78 Acc 178
9.3 Performance Exercise with Written Component: “Mike’s Original Saints Melody”

with a fairly small quantity of embellishments 78 Acc 179
xiv Figures and Tables
9.4 Performance Exercise with Written Component: “Mike’s Original Saints Melody”

Acc 180 with a great quantity of embellishments 79
9.5 Written Exercise: Create your own version of the “Distilled Saints Melody”
Acc 13 with a fairly small quantity of embellishments 80
9.6 Written Exercise: Create your own version of the “Distilled Saints Melody”
Acc 13 with a greater quantity of embellishments 81
9.7 Written Exercise: Your own “Saints” melody with a fairly small quantity
Acc 37 of embellishments 81
9.8 Written Exercise: Your own “Saints” melody with a great quantity

Acc 37 of embellishments 82
10.1 Musical Example: The minor 3rd of a major key as the 7th of the
ME 10.1 IVdom7 chord 84
10.2 Musical Example: Excerpt of Gershwin’s “Somebody Loves Me” showing how

ME 10.2 the minor 3rd of the key is used over IVdom7th chords 85
Acc 57 10.3 Performance Exercise: “Upper Guide Tone Blues” 85
Acc 58 10.4 Performance Exercise: “Lower Guide Tone Blues” 85
10.5 Performance Exercise: “Upper” and “Lower” blues choruses with a syncopated

Acc 181 rhythmic variation on the first half 86
10.6 Performance Exercise: “Upper” and “Lower” blues choruses with a syncopated

Acc 182 rhythmic variation on the second half 87
10.7 Performance Exercise: “Upper” and “Lower” blues choruses with upper

Acc 183 neighbors on the first half 88
10.8 Performance Exercise: “Upper” and “Lower” blues choruses with upper

Acc 184 neighbors on the second half 89
10.9 Abbreviated Performance Exercise: “Upper” and “Lower” blues choruses with

Acc 185 & 59 various neighbor tones 90

Acc 186 & 59 appoggiaturas, passing tones and enclosures 91

Acc 187 & 59 densest amount of embellishments 92
10.12 Performance Exercise: “Upper” and “Lower” blues choruses with freely mixed
Acc 188 & 59 embellishments 93
10.13 Written Exercise: Compose your own simple blues melody with only
Acc 59 half notes and whole notes 93
Figures and Tables xv
11.1 Performance Exercise: “Melodic Arpeggios” 97 Acc 71
11.2 Abbreviated Performance Exercise: Rhythmic variations on “Melodic Arpeggios” 97 Acc 190 & 71 (R)
11.3 Abbreviated Performance Exercise: Neighbors on “Melodic Arpeggios” 99 Acc 191 & 71 (R)
11.4 Abbreviated Performance Exercise: Appoggiaturas, passing tones and

enclosures on “Melodic Arpeggios” 100 Acc 192 & 71 (R)
11.5 Performance Exercise: “Who Is This One I Like?” 101 Acc 72
11.6 Performance Exercise with Written Component: Freely mixed

embellishments on “Who Is This One I Like?” 101 Acc 73
11.7 Written Exercise: Compose your own line on the “Who Is This One
I Like?” chords 102 Acc 73 (R)
12.1 Performance Etude: “Now, Out of Here” 105 Acc 74
12.2 Performance Exercise: Reduced version of “Now, Out of Here” with all

non-harmonic tones removed 106 Acc 75
12.3 Performance Exercise: All non-harmonic pitches of “Now, Out of Here”

analyzed for embellishment techniques used 107 Acc 74
12.4 Written Exercise: Transcribe your own improvisation on the chords to

“Now, Out of Here” 108 Acc 76 & 193
12.5 Written Exercise: Analyze your own improvisation to identify chord tones and
non-chord tone techniques used 109 Acc 76 & 193
Tables
(R) = Rhythm Section Only
2.1 Practice Grid: Accompaniment audio files in all 12 keys 10

Acc 1–36
4.1 P
ractice Grid: Table to organize practicing chords with neighbor tones
in all 12 keys 25 Acc 77–112
5.1 P
ractice Grid: Table to organize practicing triads with appoggiaturas
6.1 P
ractice Grid: Table to organize practicing chords with passing tones
8.1 Practice Grid: Enclosures on scales and triads in all 12 keys 68

Acc 156–167
xvi Figures and Tables
Acc 59 10.1 Practice Grid: Your blues melody with all embellishment exercises 94
Acc 59–70 10.2 Practice Grid: Table to organize your blues practice in all 12 keys 94
11.1 Practice Grid: Table to organize practicing embellishments on your own

Acc 73 (R) “Who Is This One I Like?” line 103
Preface
When I was beginning to learn to improvise, I remember attending masterclasses with great jazz
artists and teachers who discussed how they got started. I recall that one of the recurring themes
was they would start with a simple, straightforward song, and then … jazz it up. Change it a
little. Embellish it. Make it their own. The more I did that, they said, the more “improvised” my
playing would become.
That’s how you improvise? Well, gosh. That sounds easy enough.
The problem with this instruction is figuring out how to do it. How could I take a well-known
song –that somebody else already wrote –and turn it into something new? How can I “jazz up”
a song into something original which I could claim to have created myself? Were these masters
condensing the entire art of jazz improvisation with a narrative so simplistic as to render their
advice meaningless?
As a young musician, I didn’t even try to answer these lofty questions. I spent my early school
years just makin’ music with my friends. We learned to play the tunes we enjoyed, which were
mostly pop songs. I practiced what my teachers assigned (well, not entirely –they never assigned
me to learn the themes to sitcoms “Sanford and Son” or “Night Court”). In high school, I started
playing some gigs and transcribing solos of great improvisers. Over time, with guidance from my
teachers, my skills improved. But over the years, I kept thinking back to the simple instruction
I’d heard in those masterclasses. Years later, once I started teaching at Ithaca College, I decided to
delve more deeply into melodic embellishment.
In 2012, I presented on this topic to the New York State School Music Association (NYSSMA)
winter conference in Rochester. I recorded the presentation and posted the video “Improvisation
Using Simple Melodic Embellishment” on YouTube. I have been pleasantly surprised that the
video has become popular (over 500,000 views as of this writing), and I’ve received very kind
and thoughtful feedback about it.
My goal in putting together this book is to show how you can learn the skill of improvisation
through simple embellishment techniques. I’ve heard folks say that improvisation is one of those
things where “you get it” or “you don’t.” I simply do not agree. Yes, innate talent matters, but
hard work and organized practice matter, too. If I didn’t think improvisation was a tangible skill
that could be learned, I would not have accepted a position teaching it. Therefore, this book is
for the hundreds of students who come through my classes (and the thousands who watched the
video), all excellent musicians with little or no experience improvising. They just haven’t learned
how to jazz somethin’ up yet.
It is important for me to tell you what this book is not. It is not about scales and chords; it is
about melody. Yes, we have to talk about things like chords and color tones. I love geeking out
with my buddies about complex harmony. Chords are critical to tonal music, but I believe this is
mainly because harmony stirs the audience to feel the emotions of the melody you’re singing or
playing. The thing the audience wants to hear is melody.
To that end, the book starts with a simple tune, “When the Saints Go Marching In.” The
following chapters present multiple techniques for embellishing that melody, starting with
xviii Preface
rhythmic embellishments. Each of the subsequent chapters presents a single technique for
embellishing it. These techniques are separated into chapters so you can learn to comprehend,
hear, and practice them separately. Re-assembling the various embellishments into new creations
comes in the final three chapters. That is where you will put the techniques together, using the
blues form and a couple standard chord progressions as backdrop. The end goal is to for you to
build a process for learning new songs so you can improvise new melodies over the chords your-
self. My primary job as a teacher is to facilitate your lifelong learning which will ultimately make
myself irrelevant.
I have tried not to get overly bogged down in nomenclature. We must name these techniques
to fully understand them, but there may be alternate labels used in the realms of music theory
and jazz education. I consider almost any label of a melodic technique to be valid if it meets two
criteria: (1) the label focuses on how the music sounds rather than how it looks on the page, and
(2) the larger purpose of naming the technique is to help in the process of applying it to our own
music, and is not only the product of academic study.
Features
The figures in the book fall into several categories, named for their pedagogical function:
• Musical Examples highlight a point from the text and are for your study purposes. Each
example has an associated audio recording, downloadable from the supplements, with the
same name and number. You may choose to sing or play these examples if doing so helps
your study, but they are not specifically intended to be practiced or performed.
• Performance Exercises are intended to be practiced by both singing and playing on your
instrument along with the supplemental accompaniment recordings (or with friends and
colleagues, if they’re around).
• Abbreviated Performance Exercises are also intended to be sung and played with the sup-
plemental accompaniment recordings, but the figures contain only the first few bars of the
exercise, or in several cases the first few bars of multiple related exercises. In all instances,
you should practice and perform the abbreviated exercises in complete form, continuing each
chorus to its conclusion. Only a small part of the reasoning for abbreviating these exercises is
to save paper. The more important point is for you to conceive the structure of the exercises
and audiate these embellishments at the same moment as you perform them. In other words,
you should do these exercises in your mind’s ear and not just read them from the printed
page. This is how you will learn to teach yourself.
• Written Exercises are blank staves provided for you to complete written compositions and
embellishment assignments. Several of these exercises have related performance exercises
that come in later chapters, so be sure spend a lot of time thinking about them. Written
exercises are intended to be notated but singing and playing them on your instrument is also
a critical part of the process. If you don’t practice these exercises, you will entirely miss the
point. If you are using this textbook in a course, your professor may distribute paper copies
or PDFs of these assignments so you can turn them in for evaluation and credit, instead of
writing them into the book itself.
• Performance Exercises with Written Component are intended to be sung and played, and
also contain at least one element of written work, such as circling melody notes or identifying
the embellishment techniques used. While these are not composition exercises, they are still
included in provided PDF files for printing and submitting to your teacher.
• Practice Grids are tables of checklists to help organize your practice routine, ensuring that
you cover all the possible permutations of keys and variations of embellishments. You or
your teacher can decide whether to use checkmarks, metronome numbers, or some other
Preface xix
system, such as 1 –10 scores, letter grades, gold stars or smiley faces to help you evaluate
your progress.
• Performance Etudes are melodies that utilize the embellishment techniques studied in the
chapter, written over chord progressions of jazz standards. These etudes are found at the end
of the chapters. Each etude has an associated supplemental accompaniment recording to help
you practice.
Although the categories of exercises differ, one common aspect to the exercises is that they all
have supplemental accompaniment audio tracks for practice, which are available for download
on the Support Material site which is linked to the Routledge catalog page for this book (www.
routledge.com/9780367427429). The speaker icon in the margin indicates which accompani-
ment file (Acc) to use with each exercise. Notice that I’ve provided many accompaniments in two
versions: one version with me playing the exercise on saxophone along with the rhythm section,
and second version labeled “Rhythm Section Alone” (R). Both versions can be useful. I find it
very helpful to play along with recordings of Charlie Parker to try to “get inside” his sound, but
sometimes it is equally as helpful for me practice his solos alone, without the recording, an exer-
cise which requires that I audiate the recording as I play unaccompanied.
To the Student
This book is about making music. Keep your instrument with you and ready to play as you read.
If you are primarily a singer, be at the piano or keyboard. Don’t let any exercises pass you by
without practicing them thoroughly. There are several written exercises included amongst the
performing ones. If you’re working through this book as self-study, don’t skip these. Keep a pencil
at hand.
To you folks who play a transposing instrument, I have provided versions of all the exercises
in appendices in three common transpositions: E♭, B♭ and bass clef instruments. I recommend put-
ting a paper clip in that section so you can flip back to the transposed versions quickly as needed.
Alternatively, you can learn to read and transpose from concert pitch at sight. That was one of
the most helpful real-world skills I ever learned.
If you are primarily an instrumentalist, it is imperative that you also sing the performance
exercises. If you are primarily a singer, it is equally critical that you play the exercises on piano
or on another instrument you know. Singing and playing instruments are two sides of the same
coin. Singing helps the instrumentalist inhabit their instrument, ensuring that what they play is
an extension of their inner voice. Playing instruments helps the singer with their pitch and know-
ledge of melody and harmony. Singing and playing instruments are both essential parts in the
process of learning to improvise holistically.
Most chapters end with advanced exercises. Often, these exercises are to learn the chapter’s
exercises in all 12 major keys. For reasons of saving space and paper, I have not transposed all
the exercises into all 12 keys separately into the printed book. However, it is critical for you as
an aspiring improviser to go “into the woodshed” and learn all 12. Whenever possible, transpose
the exercises in your head into each key and practice with the accompaniment tracks. For sev-
eral of the more complex exercises, I have provided supplemental PDFs that contain the exercise
transposed into all 12 major keys. If an exercise becomes too challenging to transpose in your
head, download the PDF.
I encourage my students to tackle all 12 keys in ascending chromatic order, instead of going
around the circle of 5ths, so that is why the supplemental PDFs are organized that way. Going
around the circle of 5ths has some advantages (sensitizing our ears to the relative darkness and
brightness of keys, for example). However, I’ve found that learning songs in 12 keys via the cycle
of 5ths risks instilling the insidious notion, subconscious as it may be, that you are gradually
xx Preface
progressing from “easy” to “hard” keys, rather than reinforce the desired mindset that all keys
are equal in terms of technical difficulty. One key is not any more difficult than another; each key
simply requires you to learn different technical coordination.
In addition to working on the advanced exercises I included, I encourage you to create your own
challenges. Doing this is how you will ultimately extricate yourself from your teachers –you will
learn how to teach yourself. Maybe in the future I’ll even complete my own “Jazz Improvisation
Using Advanced Melodic Embellishment.” But for the time being, this book will suffice.
To the Professor
I realize improvisation is not usually taught like this. Many improvisation classes start with
chord/scale relationships and other jazz theory topics. As an improviser myself, I can say that I’m
really not thinking about scales when I play. I’m thinking about creating a melody. If your class
spends too much time working on scales and not enough time making music, you’re going to lose
your students.
This book can be used in both self-guided study and as a textbook for your course on impro-
visation. If you are not yet familiar with the ideas in the book, take some time to skim it first.
Listen to the accompaniment recordings to get a gist of what’s going on. You are a wonderful
musician. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have become a teacher. Use your ears to help students figure
out what sounds good. Jump right in and allow yourself to learn alongside your students. Don’t
sweat what you don’t yet know. We’re all just orbiting the sun, learning together.
In the downloadable resources, I have provided a sample syllabus to help you organize a
course, which includes a suggested daily schedule of assignments and class activities. Feel
free to modify this to meet the needs of your students. There are several pedagogical notes
contained in floating boxes throughout the book which can help teach the material. I have
also provided printable PDFs (in common transpositions) for all of the exercises that contain
written components. If you want your students to submit handwritten assignments for evalu-
ation (instead of them writing them into the book, as one might do for self-study) these can
be quite helpful.
The written assignments are critical to the success of the process. They have important
associated exercises that come later in the book. For example, in Chapter 4, students are tasked
with composing their own simple melody over the form of “When the Saints Go Marching In.”
This is not an isolated task; students will use their melody in subsequent chapters to practice
various embellishment techniques. Have your students turn these written assignments in so you
can evaluate them, make suggestions, and hand them back for them to revise and perform. In my
classes, I have students submit these electronically (scanned) so I can easily project them to the
rest of the class and practice them all together.
The final touches of this book are being completed during the horrible COVID-19 pandemic of
2020. This pandemic has caused Ithaca College to make the unenviable but totally understand-
able call to move all our fall semester classes online. As hard as that decision landed with us music
makers, who know that we need to be in the same room to make music together, I have found
one distinct advantage. Instead of directing a large jazz ensemble, I’m going to use this time to
focus my students on learning improvisation (using simple melodic embellishment) online. You
can do this too. I have provided several additional supplemental materials, including videos of me
teaching this material to my students, and some mockups of how you can set up a home studio to
teach improvisation remotely, utilizing the accompaniment recordings provided and online tools
such as Zoom.
Preface xxi
A final thought before we start

In the book’s title I’ve called these embellishments “simple” but that doesn’t mean they are easy.
Don’t expect your progress to be unreasonably rapid. Give yourself plenty of time. It takes months
to internalize new concepts to the point where you can unconsciously incorporate them into your
own music. Don’t worry; you’ll get it.
I trust the knowledge of this process will continue to serve you well as you grow as a creative
musician.
newgenprepdf
Acknowledgments
First and foremost, a lifelong thanks to my wonderful wife, the fantastic vocalist Catherine Gale
for putting up with me for the years it took to complete this book. Thanks to Max for helping
with some of the busywork. Thanks to Jack and Julie Gale for inspiring lifelong learning. And of
course, thanks to my mother, Hope Quallo. Thanks, Mom!
Thanks to Lee Konitz for the years of inspiration and for being one of the few true improvisers
in the world. Rest in peace, Lee (as if we didn’t need any more reasons to hate this stupid virus).
I very much appreciate Frank Alkyer from Downbeat giving permission to reference Konitz’s
methodology laid out in David Kastin’s wonderful 1985 interview.
Thanks to Chad Lefkowitz-Brown for his fantastic playing, upbeat personality and permission
to include a transcription and analysis of his “Yardbird Suite” solo.
Thanks to Lee Mergner at JazzTimes, and to Dan Coleman and Brad Mehldau for permission
to use Brad’s inspiring article. I continue to assign it to my students every year.
Thanks to Eastman School of Music jazz professor Bill Dobbins for teaching me to always
dig deeply into the musical details of the greats. Many other folks inspired me during my days
at Eastman, including Rayburn Wright, Manny Albam, Ray Ricker, Al Regni, Elizabeth Marvin,
John Hollenbeck, Cory Combs, and numerous others.
Thanks to Nick Weiser for being amazing, and for helping to put together the recording
session. Thanks also to Nick’s excellent Fredonia colleagues Kieran Hanlon and John Bacon
for recording the accompaniments. I know it was a long day. Bernd Gottinger and his team of
students at SUNY Fredonia did a great job recording, and my esteemed Ithaca College colleague
Mike Caporizzo did a wonderful mix.
Thanks to Chad West for his friendship, inspiration and invaluable assistance on the
academic stuff.
Thanks to Ithaca College for their support. Without the sabbatical leave, I never could have
finished this book.
Finally, a huge thanks to Constance Ditzel at Routledge/Taylor and Francis for her expertise and
guidance through the whole unfamiliar process. Your guidance has made this a much better book.
Chapter 1
Melodic Embellishment
The Concept
I remember the time, back in college, that two things began to coalesce which had initially seemed
unrelated: (1) classical music theory, and (2) my jazz professor Bill Dobbins’s improvisation
classes.
In music theory, we studied counterpoint and voice leading. We learned to follow the rules
of composing a good cantus firmus and species counterpoint. And we learned how the great
composers embellished and decorated harmonic tones.
In Professor Dobbins’s courses we studied Charlie Parker, Lee Konitz, and Bill Evans. We
learned the blues and Duke Ellington’s distinctive take. We learned jazz standards and improvised
on the chord progressions. We also analyzed solos to learn how jazz improvisers embellished and
decorated pitches of the chords.
I remember the time it hit me, one of those magical “aha” moments, while we were studying
Bach’s two-part inventions in music theory: Something sounded just a bit Parker-esque. Bach
wrote the same kinds of melodic embellishments that the jazz musicians I loved did! Hmmm,
I suppose the process was actually reversed historically –Bach came several hundred years
earlier –but I’m relating my process of discovery, which occurred the other way around. I sus-
pect the same reverse discovery is true for other musicians too, because we are drawn to become
music makers ourselves by interacting with the musicians around us and by what we hear in con-
temporary culture, not by learning the historical progression of who “did it first” in a classroom.
To oversimplify my theory professor’s analysis of Bach’s music to an extreme degree, some
melodic pitches are more significant than others in terms of illuminating the harmony. These
are the chord tones. Chord tones serve the big picture of the melody like signposts. Remove any
one of them and the sense of melody could be lost and the harmonic motion not as clear. These
signpost melody notes either (1) define the chord of the moment (perhaps in Bach’s unaccom-
panied cello suites), or (2) are clearly inside that chord which is being sounded in other voices or
instruments.
But the other pitches, those that do not serve the big picture of the melody, are more decora-
tive. They are the embellishments around the primary chord tones. These are often nonharmonic
tones, or non-chord tones, audibly outside the chord of the moment. The listener can still get the
gist of the melody without these embellishments, but the melodic effect would not be, dare I say,
as artistic. As original. As creative. As beautiful.
I believe the primary pitches of a melody –the harmonic signposts –to be like consonants in
the English language, and the non-chord embellishments are like vowels. Consider the point that
you can still recognize words with only the signpost consonants and without the embellishment
vowels. Cnsdr th fct tht y cn stll rcgnz wrds wth nly th sgnpst cnsnts nd wtht th mbllshmnt vwls.
Y cn stll ndrstnd th mnng f ths sntnc bcs f yr fmlrty wth nglsh nd th cntxt f th vwl-lss wrds. In
2008, Time magazine applauded this process, known as disemvoweling.1 The written Hebrew
language even utilizes this shorthand technique. In the Torah, vowels are not written into the
scroll, yet rabbis and Bar Mitzvah students can still read and understand the text.2
2 Melodic Embellishment
Let’s take a moment to test this analogy between the languages of music and English. Could a
listener still recognize a melody if all the nonharmonic embellishments were omitted? Watch and
listen to a short excerpt of the well-known piece in Figure 1.1 which has been modified to remove
all nonharmonic embellishment. In this form, only the chord tones remain. Can you still recog-
nize this piece even without the embellishments? (Don’t read ahead to the answer until you’ve
listened to the recording.)
ME 1.1
Figure 1.1
Music Example: Famous piece with embellishments removed 
If you’ve studied piano, you’ll likely recognize the piece in Figure 1.1 as Bach’s two-part
Invention no. 8 in F major. Do you agree that it is still recognizable, even with all non-chord
tones removed?
Back in my music theory class, we identified melodic techniques Bach used to achieve his art-
istry, including neighbor tones, passing tones, and appoggiaturas. At that previously mentioned
“aha” moment, I realized that these melodic devices were no different than the embellishments
we heard in the improvised solos of Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker, and Sarah Vaughan, which
we had studied in Professor Dobbins’s class.
An in-depth study shows that these jazz musicians (and others) utilize several additional embel-
lishment techniques that we do not hear in Bach’s music. The bluesy foundation of jazz provides an
entirely new category of non-chord tones. To connect with the roots of the blues and to convey com-
plex beauty and deep feeling, jazz musicians utilize blue notes, which can be defined as the lowered
3rd, 5th and 7th pitches in the key of the song (as opposed to the more common practice of relating
pitches to the chord of the moment). Jazz musicians also utilize enclosures, heard frequently in the
playing of beboppers Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, where a target harmonic pitch is preceded
by several chromatic pitches both above and below the target. We’ll delve deeply into blue notes and
enclosures, as well as neighbors, passing tones, and appoggiaturas in the chapters that follow.
There are other aspects of jazz melodic content worth noting. Early jazz musicians and Tin
Pan Alley tunesmiths, partly inspired by French composers Debussy and Ravel, began to employ
chord tones that Bach and other earlier composers had not used harmonically, such as major
6ths (sometimes called 13ths), 7ths, and 2nds (also called 9ths). Jazz musicians also use a swing
rhythmic feel and were inspired by ragtime pianists to employ a greater density of syncopation
Melodic Embellishment 3
than classical composers use. In tonal music, there is a delicate balance between the melody and
the rhythm that helps the listener hear the chord of the moment because the pitches that define
the chord often occur on beats that are rhythmically strong. Due to the pervasive syncopation of
jazz, improvisers often place important chord tones on weaker beats or offbeats, perhaps blurring
harmonic clarity for an inexperienced listener, but adding to the excitement and joy of discovery
once they get it.
Thinking
When teaching a complex topic such as this, while grappling with the challenge of analyzing the
detailed melodic content of a brilliant improvised solo by Louis Armstrong or Charlie Parker, a
student will inevitably pose a variation of the following question:
Was [great improviser in question] really thinking about all this stuff?
I completely understand the impetus for asking the question. We admire these great musicians
who make improvising seem so effortless, and we feel that we could achieve the same results
by turning off the studious, intellectual parts of our brain. As aspiring improvisers, we want to
flip the switch of our conscious mind off, to get to a mental place where creating music simply
happens.
My answer to their question, long-winded as I often am, is something along these lines:
Not anymore. These artists no longer actively ‘think’ about this because they put in so much
work mastering the concepts previously. They’ve successfully achieved the advancement from
the developmental stage of conscious diligent practice into the subconscious creation of high
art. When we suggest that they are not “thinking” about these topics while in the throes of
creating it, we’re ignoring the years of listening and daily grind (the “thinking”) they put into
mastering their craft in the first place. It is a fallacy to think that we can skip past all the dif-
ficult parts of the process that feel like grunt work to get to the desired place of subconscious
immersive spontaneous creation.
In his wonderful article “Ideology, Burgers and Beer,” Brad Mehldau describes how Charlie Parker
(nicknamed “Bird”) made “just blowing” appear so easy:
“Just blowing” was what made jazz more punk than any punk rock band could ever be. To be
able to blow a solo like Bird—profound, gripping, full of urgency and beautiful mortality—
but to do so, like him, with the casual ease of someone standing at a bus stop—well, now that
was something that might be called “great.”3
However, it wasn’t always so easy for Parker. He famously practiced very hard to build his
skills. Bird’s practice routine became legendary. Musicians inspire each other with stories about
how a teenaged Bird practiced for months in a woodshed while on an extended gig in the Ozarks,4
emerging only for food, sleep, and gigs, until he had learned to play in all 12 keys with equal
facility. Musicians even use the word “woodshed,” or shortened to just “shed,” as a verb. To shed
something means to immerse oneself into practicing that thing for however long as it takes to
learn it, whether the time frame is hours, days, months, or years.
But after all this discussion of the toil and sweat, I don’t want to minimize the fun that’s
involved. I do not believe aspiring musicians should wait until their skills are honed before they
start creating. We should still go out at night and “just blow.” You cannot achieve the end goal of
highly artistic achievement in improvisation without having fun, being spontaneous, and subcon-
sciously creating in the moment. Hard work and having fun are both integral parts of the process
4 Melodic Embellishment
and must happen simultaneously. Organize jam sessions, perform songs with friends, write your
own tunes, do gigs, record yourself, listen critically back to your creations, and improve. Seek a
balance: Work hard by day, play at night.
I like to put it playfully: Making music is critical to making music. But so is diligent, thoughtful,
organized practice.
Relationship between Composing and Improvising

In the preface I argued that singing and playing instruments are opposite sides of the same coin.
Singing helps the instrumentalist inhabit their instrument, ensuring that what they play is an
extension of their inner voice. Playing instruments helps the singer with their pitch and their
awareness of melody and harmony. Singing and playing instruments are both essential parts
in the process of learning to improvise holistically. Louis Armstrong was neither the greatest
trumpet player who sang nor the greatest singer who played trumpet. He was the greatest jazz
musician who played trumpet and sang.
Musical creativity is also like two sides of a coin; composing is simply the opposite side of the
same creativity coin from improvisation. My friend guitarist/composer Chris Jentsch once told
me “Composing is improvising slowly; improvising is composing quickly.” I agree. Some of my
favorite recorded improvisations have a composed logic to them, yet at the same time some of my
favorite compositions have a free-flowing improvisational spontaneity. Mehldau observes that
“[Thelonious] Monk’s improvisations were informed by his compositions; Bird’s compositions
were informed by his improvisations.”5
The same connection between improvising and composing exists in the art of comedy. Consider
great comedians Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. They both started in Chicago’s improvisational
comedy scene and have since had fantastic writing careers in movies and television in addition to
their improvisational performing.6 The takeaway is that one side of your creative mind can feed
the other. Therefore, the composition exercises included in this book are just as important as the
performing ones.
Advanced Exercises
Most chapters conclude with suggestions for advanced work. Often, these are to learn the chapter’s
exercises in all 12 major keys. To save space and paper, I have not transposed all the exercises into
all 12 keys separately into the printed book. However, it is critical for you as an aspiring impro-
viser to go into the woodshed and learn all 12. Whenever possible, transpose the exercises in your
head into each key and practice with the accompaniment tracks. For several of the more complex
exercises, I have provided supplemental PDFs that contain the exercise transposed into all 12
major keys. If an exercise becomes too challenging to transpose in your head, download the PDF.
I encourage my students to tackle all 12 keys in ascending chromatic order, instead of going
around the circle of 5ths, so that is why the supplemental PDFs are organized that way. Going
around the circle of 5ths has some advantages (sensitizing our ears to the relative darkness and
brightness of keys, for example). However, I’ve found that learning songs in 12 keys via the cycle
of 5ths risks instilling the insidious notion, subconscious as it may be, that you are gradually
progressing from “easy” to “hard” keys, rather than reinforcing the desired mindset that all keys
are equal in terms of technical difficulty. One key is not any harder than another; each key simply
requires you to learn different technical coordination.
Considering the Audience

In the preface, I mentioned that audiences want to hear melody. To expand on that, I believe the
way an audience member experiences music can be divided into three parts of their body: (1) their
head, (2) their heart and (3) their hips (well, perhaps the entire lower half of their body).
Melodic Embellishment 5
The head is where people understand music. Play the first few bars of the melody “Somewhere,
Over the Rainbow” and their eyes will light up and they’ll say “Yeah, that’s that song from
that movie in Kansas with Dorothy and the lion.” They understand the melody consciously. The
melody allows them to recall things and make other cognitive connections.
The heart is where they feel the emotions of the music. Add the harmonies below the melody
“Somewhere, Over the Rainbow” and they’ll start to feel wistful, perhaps nostalgic or even sad,
but they may not know why. But if you only played the chords on their own, they’d likely not feel
the same way. Contextualized under the melody, heard with the melody, the chords stir the soul
with emotions (in their heart). Some creative jazz musicians add color tones to the chords and can
push the listener’s emotional experience into unexpected, beautiful places.
The hips are where people feel the rhythm of music. Making music is a physical task for us, but
it is also a physical experience for an audience. If your music doesn’t entice the listeners to get up
out of their chairs and dance, we really didn’t do our job. We are compelled as musicians to use
rhythm to make audiences feel things in their body. This is life. And let’s not shy away from the
fact that these things they feel in their bodies might entice them to create more life.
Chapter 2 is where we begin our study of melody, in the head. The middle chapters focus on the
techniques that make a melody even more beautiful through embellishment. Chapter 3 is where
we work on rhythm, to feed the listener’s body. The final chapters of the book introduce new har-
monies and song forms to ensure we’re not neglecting to feed their hearts, too. We must address
all three of these areas to connect with our audience and be successful as musicians.
OK, got your axe? Let’s get going!
Notes
1 “Best Inventions of 2008,” TIME Magazine, accessed August 12, 2020, http://content.time.com/time/
specials/packages/article/0,28804,1852747_1854195_1854185,00.html.
2 Yehuda Shurpin, “Why No Vowels in the Torah?,” Chadbad.org, accessed July 22, 2020, www.chabad.
org/library/article_cdo/aid/3087993/jewish/Why-No-Vowels-in-the-Torah.htm.
3 Brad Mehldau, “Ideology, Burgers and Beer: Brad Mehldau Mediates on Artistic Principles—Dogmatic
and Otherwise.” JazzTimes 33, no. 10 (2003): 74–78. Used by permission of the publisher and author.
4 Robert Reisner, “Jay McShann,” in Bird: The Legend of Charlie Parker (New York: Da Capo Press,
1982), 147.
5 Brad Mehldau, “Ideology, Burgers and Beer.”
6 Hoai-Tran Bui, “ ‘Sisters’ forever: A timeline of Tina Fey and Amy Poehler’s friendship,” USA TODAY,
December 16, 2015, www.usatoday.com/story/life/entertainthis/2015/12/16/sisters-forever-timeline-tina-
fey-and-amy-poehlers-friendship/77393182/.
Chapter 2
The Starting Point
The Melody
To start our study of melodic embellishment, we begin with a melody. In order to embellish the
melody, we need to first internalize the song as thoroughly as possible. For me, the term intern-
alize is even stronger and more important than memorize. Yes, we want to have the melody
memorized, but memorization implies the physical act of rote reproduction. We need the melody
to be so thoroughly learned that we don’t ever have to think about whether or not it is memorized.
For me, to internalize a melody means it has become part of our everyday musical vocabulary.
We will use a song that is perhaps the most iconic and well-known tune in the history of jazz,
“When the Saints Go Marching In.” This tune is useful for our purposes for several reasons:
1. The melody is familiar, diatonic, and employs a limited range, spanning only a 5th.
2. The chord progression and form are simple and familiar.
3. There is no clear composer of the tune, and no single official or correct version, so varying it
is acceptable musically and historically.
4. It is in the public domain, free for us to study and perform.
In melodies and exercises throughout this book, beginnings of choruses are indicated by the
rehearsal mark “TOP,” shorthand for the “top of the form.” In live performance, you may notice
jazz musicians point to their head –their top –when they want in inform the rest of the band
that they are planning to return to the melody. They might also say aloud to each other “From
the top” or even just “Head.” If the exercise contains no pickup notes, the accompaniment track
will give you two bars of count-off. If there is one bar of pickup, you’ll only wait for one bar of
count-off before you begin. Make sure you’re feeling the top of the form in the right place every
time you start.
A holistic approach to learning music requires that we sing everything we play –and vice
versa –so begin by singing the song with lyrics, as you can see in Figure 2.1.
If you are fluent in sight singing, be sure to also practice the tune on solfege syllables or scale
degree numbers, whichever system you know.
The Distilled Melody
To provide a foundation for practicing embellishments, the melody needs to be distilled down
to its essence. This distilled version must be simple enough that we can practice applying all the
embellishment techniques in the following chapters.
For the process of distilling or simplifying an existing melody – or for creating your own foun-
dational melody – it is critical to remove all syncopations or interesting rhythms, leaving nothing
but bare bones of the melody remaining. This is not because syncopations are undesirable in the
end. The contrary, of course, is true. In fact, the next chapter is devoted entirely to syncopation
and rhythm. The reason we are simplifying the rhythm here is because we do not want to rely on
interesting rhythms in order to create a good melody. You build melodic skills by focusing only on
The Starting Point 7
Acc 1
Figure 2.1 Performance Exercise: “When the Saints Go Marching In”
melody and harmony, ensuring that your ultimate improvisations and compositions will be melod-
ically compelling. Restricting one aspect of music in order to focus on other aspects is common
practice in studying composition. In his fantastic book “Bob Brookmeyer in Conversation with
Dave Rivello,” Rivello discusses assignments composer Bob Brookmeyer gave his students over
the years which included very detailed restrictions on aspects of music they could or could not
utilize in the assignments.1 It was these very restrictions that made the exercises so effective in
building specific skills.
To distill the melody, we first ascertain which pitches are more important harmonically and
melodically, then remove the rest. I have removed the passing tone B♭s in the first phrase, but all
the other key melody notes remain. The pickup notes have been changed to half notes, too. This
simple melody, as seen in Figure 2.2, will be called the “Distilled Saints Melody” throughout
the book.
Sing and play the “Distilled Saints Melody” multiple times to get it in your ear and internalize it
thoroughly. While learning it, be sure to maintain awareness of the original complete melody and
lyrics to “When the Saints Go Marching In” because improvisers never want to lose the thread
of the original tune during the course of their study. In fact, as you progress through the book,
return to “When The Saints Go Marching In” original song regularly so it remains the melodic
backdrop for all subsequent embellishments.
Mike’s Original Saints Melody

When you embellish the “Distilled Saints Melody” the results will sound as though they are
derived from the original “Saints” melody you are varying. However, because we are improvisers
seeking to find our own creative voice, we ultimately want our improvisations to sound more
individual, less clearly derived from the original tune we are varying. Therefore, we need a new
simple melody over the same chord structure that is not obviously derived from the melody of
the song. The concept of composing a new melody over an established chord progression is not a
new idea. Jazz theorists refer to a new melody over an existing chord progression as a contrafact.
8 The Starting Point
Acc 13
Figure 2.2 Performance Exercise: “Distilled Saints Melody” 
Over the years, jazz musicians have written a massive trove of wonderful contrafacts, including
notable examples such as:
• Duke Ellington’s “In a Mellow Tone,”” over the chords to Art Hickman’s “Rose Room.”
• Tadd Dameron’s “Hot House,” over the chords to Cole Porter’s “What Is This Thing
Called Love?”
• Charlie Parker and Benny Harris’s “Ornithology” over the chords to Morgan Lewis’s “How
High the Moon.”
• Thelonious Monk’s “Evidence,” over the chords to Jesse Greer’s “Just You, Just Me.”
It is important to note that my goal here was not to write a complex jazz contrafact like the
ones listed above. I needed to create my own simple tune, not audibly derived from the original
song, but it had to be composed entirely of half notes and whole notes, just like the “Distilled
Saints Melody,” in order to use it for subsequent embellishment. Because the foundation of the
embellishments is my own tune, the end results will sound more “like me” than an embellished
version of the “Distilled Saints Melody.” To that end, I composed a new melody in Figure 2.3
which will be called “Mike’s Original Saints Melody” throughout the rest of the book. Note that
this melody does not contain a pickup measure; it starts on the downbeat of the first measure, at
the top of the form.
Like the “Distilled Saints Melody,” my melody is simple. It is similarly made up entirely of
half and whole notes so we can apply melodic embellishments later. It follows a four-measure,
four-phrase structure similar to the original song, where each phrase ends with a longer note.
It is contoured such that each of the first three phrases introduces a new highest pitch. The first
phrase’s highest pitch is D, then the second phrase’s high note is an E. The melody peaks with
the G in the third phrase, which is approximately two-thirds through the form. This gradual
ascent is intentional; it gives the melody an increasing sense of drama over the course of the
chorus.
Harmonically, while my melody does utilize several color tones over the chords –7ths, 6ths
and 9ths –it is nonetheless made up entirely of pitches the listener could hear as being inside the
The Starting Point 9
Acc 25
Figure 2.3 Performance Exercise: “Mike’s Original Saints Melody” 
ME 2.4
Figure 2.4 Musical Example: Demonstrating how circled pitches are derived 
chords and not as dissonances outside of them. This is a critical point: for the compositional step
of the process, we do not use any non-chord tones. We will utilize dissonances and nonharmonic
tones soon enough, but those will arise as the result of embellishing consonant pitches that are
inside the chords. This new melody will be the foundation of many exercises in the upcoming
chapters, so shed it by singing and playing it repeatedly until it is internalized just as thoroughly
as the source song.
It is important that you pay close attention to the process I used to compose my melody. In
Chapter 4, you will compose your own foundation melody, which you will use for subsequent
embellishment exercises. Only then will the results of embellishment exercises start to really
sound “like you.”
Circled Pitches
In all subsequent chapters and exercises, circled noteheads represent pitches taken directly from a
foundation melody, scale, or arpeggiated chord from a previous exercise. Figure 2.4 is an example.
It demonstrates how circled pitches in the first line come directly from the source melody, which
for clarity is shown below in the second line. Note that whenever these circled notes are tied,
I’ve only circled the first notehead. Also, notice that when melody notes are sounded more than
once, I’ve only circled the first instance of the note. As you practice the exercises throughout the
book, pay attention to the circled notes and be sure to audiate the original melody that is being
embellished.
10 The Starting Point
Table 2.1 Practice Grid: Accompaniment audio files in all 12 keys
Concert Key
Figure 2.1 In All 12 Keys - Treble Clef Instruments.pdf
Figure 2.3 In All 12 Keys - Treble Clef Instrument.pdf
Accompaniment audio file Accompaniment audio Accompaniment audio

for “When the Saints Go file for the “Distilled file for “Mike’s Original
Acc 1–36 Marching In” Saints Melody” Saints Melody”
F Accompaniment 1.MP3 Accompaniment 13.MP3 Accompaniment 25.MP3
F♯ /G♭ Accompaniment 2.MP3 Accompaniment 14.MP3 Accompaniment 26.MP3
G Accompaniment 3.MP3 Accompaniment 15.MP3 Accompaniment 27.MP3

A♭ Accompaniment 4.MP3 Accompaniment 16.MP3 Accompaniment 28.MP3
A Accompaniment 5.MP3 Accompaniment 17.MP3 Accompaniment 29.MP3
B♭ Accompaniment 6.MP3 Accompaniment 18.MP3 Accompaniment 30.MP3
B Accompaniment 7.MP3 Accompaniment 19.MP3 Accompaniment 31.MP3
C Accompaniment 8.MP3 Accompaniment 20.MP3 Accompaniment 32.MP3
D♭ Accompaniment 9.MP3 Accompaniment 21.MP3 Accompaniment 33.MP3
D Accompaniment 10.MP3 Accompaniment 22.MP3 Accompaniment 34.MP3
E♭ Accompaniment 11.MP3 Accompaniment 23.MP3 Accompaniment 35.MP3
E Accompaniment 12.MP3 Accompaniment 24.MP3 Accompaniment 36.MP3
For Advanced  Study

To delve further into the study of the song “When the Saints Go Marching In,” try the following
advanced exercises:
• Transcribe and learn to perform several versions of the melody exactly as performed by great
jazz musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, Al Hirt, Pete Fountain or others.
Ask yourself: How do their performances of the melody differ from the way I notated it in
this book?
• Learn the three versions of the song in all 12 major keys on your instrument and on piano.
There are supplemental accompaniment tracks provided for the songs in all 12 keys to assist
in your practice. Table 2.1 lists which audio files are associated with the three versions in all
12 major keys. The table indicates which PDF file you can download if you find that reading
it from the page helps you practice. However, it is important to attempt to transpose the song
in your head, first, before reading it off the page.
Note
1 Dave Rivello, Bob Brookmeyer in Conversation with Dave Rivello (New York: ArtistShare, 2019).
Chapter 3
Rhythmic and Phrasing Variation
Jazz is, first and foremost, about the feel of the rhythm. Think of Duke Ellington’s song title “It
Don’t Mean a Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing.” Any study of improvisation would be incomplete
without an in-depth study of rhythm, style, articulation, and phrasing. So, while the remainder of
this book will focus on melody and melodic embellishment, this chapter will focus on rhythm and
style. The following exercises embellish the original melody’s rhythms and phrasing by varying
the articulation and by adding rhythmic syncopations.
For our purposes, a syncopation can be defined as a rhythm with either the presence of an
accent when you least expect one (like on an offbeat or a weak beat), or the absence of an accent
when you most expect one (like on a strong beat).1 Some of the richest syncopations combine
both of these aspects simultaneously.2 A syncopation can be felt physically by the listener,
deep within their body. This feeling can be so strong it makes them want to get up and dance.
This is why the pervasive syncopation of the song “The Charleston” became a culture-defining
dance craze in the 1920s jazz age.3 The fact that syncopation made kids feel things is also why
the older generation considered the song (and perhaps jazz in general) to be so dangerous.
Parents didn’t want their children having feelings in their bodies, and that’s exactly what all
that syncopation did.4 It made them want to dance, in addition to other things parents wouldn’t
approve of.
To practice incorporating syncopations into our improvisations, we will start with two versions
of “When the Saints Go Marching In” that we learned in the last chapter, the “Distilled Saints
Melody” from Figure 2.2 and “Mike’s Original Saints Melody” from Figure 2.3.
Variations on the Distilled Saints Melody

Figure 3.1 uses the “Distilled Saints Melody” as the melodic foundation, creating a pattern that
syncopates all the half notes heard on the first beat of each bar of the tune. It adds syncopation
by adding two additional eighth notes to the and-of-one and the and-of-two. Notice that the
circled notes represent pitches from the “Distilled Saints Melody,” and the pitches not circled are
the added syncopations.
The articulations that help with the style of this exercise are also important. First, notice that
all the pitches are articulated. For wind players, that means there is no slurring of any pitches.
Also, notice the specific articulations indicated on the first two notes, a pairing of one long then
one short note, intended to mimic the sound of the two syllables in the word “bebop.” (or per-
haps this type of phrasing is why they called it bebop in the first place). The first note is full
length indicated with a tenuto mark, and the second note is stopped short by a staccato. Unlike
in classical music, when woodwind or brass instruments play in jazz and popular music styles,
the ends of staccato notes are often audibly stopped with the tongue. This tongue-stopping
technique gives jazz rhythm it’s sense of “snap.” Other instruments may achieve this effect in
other ways.
This next version of the exercise in Figure 3.2 is conceptually similar to Figure 3.1 but
the pattern instead syncopates the half notes found on beat three of each “Distilled Saints
12 Rhythmic and Phrasing Variation
Acc 194
Figure 3.1 Performance Exercise: “Distilled Saints Melody” with syncopations on the first half of the bar 
Acc 195
Figure 3.2 Performance Exercise: “Distilled Saints Melody” with syncopations on the second half of the bar 
Melody” measure. As with the previous exercise, notice that the circled notes represent
pitches that occur in the “Distilled Saints Melody” and the pitches not circled are the added
syncopations.
The variation in Figure 3.3 is like Figure 3.1 but syncopates it further by moving the subsequent
melody pitch ahead by an eighth note. When a melodic pitch occurs earlier than expected, this is
known as anticipation, which can be abbreviated ANT. Notice the articulations and style indicated.
In addition to the tenuto and staccato articulations, I also wrote an accent and the dynamic
marking 𝆑𝆏 (fortepiano) with a short crescendo on the anticipated notes to shape the phrase.
I also indicated vibrato on the whole notes. The importance of vibrato cannot be overestimated in
jazz styles. Vibrato does not have to be particularly noticeable to the listener. Sometimes a small
amount of vibrato, even if not particularly wide or fast, can enhance the richness and beauty of
Rhythmic and Phrasing Variation 13
Acc 196
Figure 3.3 Abbreviated Performance Exercise: “Distilled Saints Melody” with syncopations on the first half of the bar and
an anticipation 
Acc 197
Figure 3.4 Abbreviated Performance Exercise: “Distilled Saints Melody” with syncopations on the second half of the bar
and an anticipation 
a phrase significantly. For this rhythmic variation and the next several versions, I’ve only notated
the first few bars of each chorus. This is why they are called “abbreviated” exercises. Your task
is to identify the pattern being used in the shortened versions, then continue that pattern. Even
though these exercises are not fully notated, be sure to practice the pattern of rhythm and style
indicated throughout each complete chorus.
The variation found in Figure 3.4 is similar to Figure 3.3 but places the syncopation on the
second half notes of the measures from the “Distilled” melody, then anticipates by an eighth note
the subsequent melody note, which would have occurred on the next downbeat.
Figure 3.5 contains 10 abbreviated exercises. Each staff represents a completely new chorus,
which is why you see the word “TOP” on each line, indicating the downbeat of the first bar of
the form. In this exercise, you will prepare all 10 choruses of rhythmic and stylistic variations of
the “Distilled Saints Melody.” For all of the variations, be sure to continue the pattern indicated
throughout the chorus, even though the exercises are not completely notated. This will ensure that
you are fully internalizing the syncopation pattern. The series of variations found in Figure 3.5
are in paired in similar way as the exercises in Figure 3.3 and 3.4 in that the first line of each pair
(with odd numbers) syncopates the notes from the first halves of measures in the “Distilled Saints
Melody” then the next line (even numbers) varies the second halves. Notice that several of these
exercises use suspension, the opposite of anticipation, when a melody note occurs later than you
expect.
There are a few additional aspects to observe in Figure 3.5. Marcato accents, as you can see in
the first two lines of Figure 3.5, are presumed to be short in jazz notation, like a staccato note, but
also accented heavily. In the last two lines you will see parenthesized noteheads, indicating notes
to be deemphasized. Sometimes these are referred to as “ghosted” notes. In some publications,
this ghosting effect is notated with an X notehead instead of parenthesis.5 In these examples,
it is used to create interesting rhythms on a repeated pitch, but the technique will be used in
later chapters to deemphasize lower neighbors and other embellishments that precede target
notes. On wind instruments, this effect can be achieved with an articulation called half-tonguing,
doodle tonguing or “dud’n” tonguing, where the player’s tongue dampens the note without fully
stopping it. All musical instruments have some method of dampening or deemphasizing a pitch
through articulation or another technique, so be sure to explore the various possibilities. For
example, on saxophone the technique works by keeping the tip of your tongue on the tip of
reed, so that the tone is dampened, sounding like an “n” consonant while not stopped entirely.
If you want to explore this technique in greater depth, I elaborate on it in Chapter 13 of the
book Teaching School Jazz: Perspectives, Principles and Strategies.6 Rising saxophonist Nathan
Greybeal also posted an entertaining and educational video about the technique called “How To
Do Jazz Articulation (Saxophone).”
Acc 198 & 13 (R)
Figure 3.5 Abbreviated Performance Exercise: Several rhythmic and stylistic variations on the “Distilled Saints Melody” 
Variations on Mike’s Original Saints Melody

The choruses in Figure 3.6 contain similar rhythmic syncopations found in earlier figures in this
chapter, but applied to “Mike’s Original Saints Melody” instead of the “Distilled Saints Melody.”
Once again, the choruses are ordered in pairs where the first chorus (odd number) varies the first
half note of the bar, the next chorus (even number) varies the second half. Be sure to complete all
the choruses using the patterns indicated.
Acc 199 & 25 (R)
Figure 3.6 Abbreviated Performance Exercise: Several rhythmic and stylistic variations on “Mike’s Original Saints
Melody” 
I find the choruses in Figure 3.6 to be fun. I can get into a bit of “a zone” while playing them
over and over again. However, after a while the repetitive nature can feel a bit uninspired. So,
to exercise a little of my own creativity, I’ve written a chorus in Figure 3.7 that freely mixes
syncopations, anticipations and suspensions on “Mike’s Original Saints Melody” which feels
more balanced. I’ve also notated articulations to express musicality and style.
PEDAGOGICAL NOTE
In rehearsals with the Ithaca College Jazz Ensemble, I often use rhythmic variation
exercises to warm up the band. Sometimes I’ll do variations entirely by ear, demonstrating
rhythms on my instrument, having the students echo the rhythms and then apply them
throughout the tune we’re working on. Other times I will do variations in written form,
notating several rhythms on the whiteboard at the front of the room, then pointing to the
rhythms a few beats ahead of when I want them to play them. You can see examples in
the video “Developing Your Band’s Groove: The Inner Game of Rhythm, a jazz clinic by
Mike Titlebaum.”
Create Your Own Variation

For the final exercise of the chapter, you will compose your own version, varying the rhythms
and giving some style to “Mike’s Original Saints Melody.” For inspiration, review the exercises
earlier in the chapter, and listen to the rhythms and accents of ragtime composer Scott Joplin and
great jazz musician Louis Armstrong, both of whom achieve a seemingly perfect balance between
syncopations to non-syncopated rhythms. If you syncopate too little, it won’t raise the listener out
of their chair and make them want to dance. If you syncopate too much (too few downbeats, for
example), the listener may feel that the beat has “turned around” at which point the music will
no longer feel syncopated, they will just be confused. Ultimately, you will develop your own sense
of rhythmic balance to achieve the desired amount of syncopation.
I fully acknowledge that the phrase “desired amount of syncopation” in the previous para-
graph sounds terribly scientific and analytical when applied to music or improvisation that is
supposed to be spontaneous and fun. But even for people who play more melodic instruments,
spending time working on rhythm is critical. I encourage you to dance around the room while
singing or playing. Let the rhythm of your body feed the rhythm of the music and vice versa. If
your own music doesn’t bring you to dance, it won’t inspire your listeners either. And, if your
dancing doesn’t inspire you to make music, perhaps you’re not investing your own human
rhythm into it.
Acc 200 & 25 (R)
Figure 3.7 Performance Exercise: Mixed syncopations and articulations on “Mike’s Original Saints Melody” 

Acc 37
Figure 3.8 Written Exercise: Compose your own rhythmic variation of “Mike’s Original Saints Melody” 
For this final chapter exercise, begin by improvising rhythmic versions of “Mike’s Original
Saints” melody, freely varying the rhythms using the patterns you’ve already practiced in this
chapter and include of your own. I encourage you to record yourself as you improvise variations,
then listen back to your recording and transcribe the parts you like. Lastly, complete the process
by composing a chorus of “Mike’s Original Saints Melody” with your rhythmic variations in the
blank staves of Figure 3.8. The goal is for this process to help you connect the related activities
of improvising and composing.

• Practice all the rhythmic variations from this chapter on the “Distilled Saints Melody” and
“Mike’s Original Saints Melody” in all 12 keys. Use the grid in Figure 2.5 for the list of
accompaniment recordings that correspond to each key.
• Re-work the chapter exercises using alternate time signatures, including asymmetrical meters
like 5/4 and 7/8. If you have not yet spent much time practicing asymmetrical meters, I rec-
ommend the new book “A Practical Approach to Odd Meters” by Colin Gordon and Steve
Kortyka.
Additional Video Resources

• How to Do Jazz Articulation (Saxophone) www.youtube.com/watch?v=rl4aiCujbM8
• Developing Your Band’s Groove: The Inner Game of Rhythm, a jazz clinic by Mike Titlebaum
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABavRhITsPY
Notes
1 Leonard Bernstein, “What Is Jazz,” Columbia Records CL 919, recorded July 12, 19 & 26, 1956, track
1 on Bernstein on Jazz, Sony Classical SMK 60566, 1998, compact disc.
2 Ibid.
3 “Runnin’ Wild: A Biography of James P. Johnson,” The Jim Cullum Riverwalk Jazz Collection, Stanford
Libraries, https://riverwalkjazz.stanford.edu/program/runnin-wild-biography-james-p-johnson.
4 Leonard Bernstein, “What Is Jazz,” Columbia Records CL 919, recorded July 12, 19 & 26, 1956, track
5 “False Note,” OnMusic Dictionary, Connect for Education, Inc., http://dictionary.onmusic.org/terms/
1377-false_note.
6 Mike Titlebaum, “Jazz Saxophone,” in Teaching School Jazz: Perspectives, Principles and Strategies, ed.
Chad West and Mike Titlebaum (New York: Oxford University Press, 2019), 155–159.
Chapter 4
Neighbor Tones
Single Neighbors
Growing up in Rochester, my family had neighbors on both sides of our home. Figure 4.1 is a
reasonable facsimile. The Kents lived one house down the street; the Blums were one house up. To
visit either one of our neighbors, I would step either up or down the street to their home. A visit
to our neighbors always ended by stepping home afterwards.
In music, a neighbor tone is a shape of melodic embellishment. It is a nonharmonic pitch
preceded by stepwise motion from a chord tone, which returns to the same chord tone immedi-
ately afterwards.1 We hear varieties of neighbor tones that are either lower or higher than the har-
monic pitches they are decorating. The higher version is usually referred to as an upper neighbor,
while the lower version is called lower neighbor.2
Figure 4.2 contains two examples of neighbor tones, one upper and one lower. To be even
more precise, we could call these examples of diatonic neighbors, since each proceeds onto a
pitch higher or lower within either the key of the song or the chord of the moment. Notice that
the chord tones are labeled with which scale degree they occupy in the F major chord. In this
example, the 5ths of the chord are marked with the number 5, and the 3rds marked with 3. Also
notice that each non-chord tone is labeled “NT” for neighbor tone, regardless of whether it
functions as a lower or upper neighbor, although they could be labeled “LN” or “UN” for more
precision.3
Figure 4.3 is very similar in contour to Figure 4.2, except that in these two versions of neighbor
tones, the stepwise motion to the neighbor is chromatic rather than diatonic. In both cases, the
neighbor is only a half step away from the chord tone and even more importantly not found
within the diatonic scale of F major. Chromatic neighbors can be quite beautiful and increase the
intensity of the gesture.4
In cases when the diatonic neighbors themselves are only a half step away from the chord tones
they are decorating, as you can see in Figure 4.4, there is no distinction between what might be
called diatonic and chromatic neighbors because those would both be the same pitch. If someone
Figure 4.1 Mike’s neighbors as a kid in Rochester

20 Neighbor Tones
ME 4.2
Figure 4.2 Musical Example: Diatonic neighbors 
ME 4.3
Figure 4.3 Musical Example: Chromatic neighbors 
ME 4.4
Figure 4.4 Musical Example: Indistinguishable neighbors 
ME 4.5
Figure 4.5 Musical Example: Diatonic or Chromatic 
were to ask whether these were chromatic or diatonic neighbors, the answer would be that there
is no difference because even though there is only a half step between the chord tone and its
neighbor, both are in the diatonic scale of F major. Also note that I use the letter “R” to indicate
chord roots rather than the number 1.
In some circumstances, there could be debate in determining which neighbor would be
considered diatonic. One case this question may arise is where the performer must decide whether
the key of the song or the chord of the moment takes precedence in making the determination.
For example, look at the case in Figure 4.5 which shows the first few bars of a blues in F. In the
first bar, the upper neighbor B♭ is clearly diatonic. But what about the E♭ in the second bar? The
analysis of this neighbor depends on whether you are using the key of the song or the chord of
the moment to determine whether it is diatonic or not. If you are giving more weight to the key
of the song as a determining factor, then you would call E♭ a chromatic neighbor because it is not
diatonic to the key of F. But if the chord of the moment gets more weight, then you would call it
a diatonic neighbor, because in E♭ is the 4th note of the B♭ scale.
We will discuss the importance of the dichotomy of key of the song vs. chord of the moment
further in Chapter 7 because it is a rich and complex question. But here this is really just a
question of nomenclature –whether one would call it diatonic or chromatic. The question that is
more pertinent to improvisers is how to decide which note you would choose when performing
diatonic neighbors.
Beautiful yet ambiguous situations can occur in the blues. For example, Figure 4.6 contains
versions of the final V–IV–I cadence of a blues chorus in the key of F. In the first line, A♮ is used as
Neighbor Tones 21
ME 4.6
Figure 4.6 Musical Example: Which diatonic neighbor do you prefer? 
ME 4.7
Figure 4.7 Musical Example: Double neighbors 
the upper neighbor of the pitch G♮, the 5th of a C7 chord. In the second line, A♭ is used as the upper
neighbor. Out of context of the blues form, one might presume A♮ to be the appropriate choice of
neighbor because it is diatonic to the C7 chord. But in the context of the final cadence of a blues, A♭
might feel more fitting because it is the blue 3rd, the lowered 3rd of the key (Chapter 7 will cover
blue notes more extensively). The melody goes to A♭ in the next measure, so A♮ in the first measure
might either feel forced, or that you’re “giving away” the ultimate resolution to the major 3rd at the
end of the phrase.
Ultimately, determining which neighbor tone sounds more diatonic (some might say sounds
“better”) would be determined by your own sense of taste. I give this same example to my jazz
improvisation students and ask them to vote on which diatonic upper neighbor they prefer. In
this entirely unscientific study, 80 percent of students vote for the second line as their preference.
However, I remember one astute student observing that the tempo made a difference. At slower
tempos, when lingering on the harmonies for longer amounts of time, our ears may perceive
nonharmonic pitches as “more wrong” and therefore the first line may sound better. These situ-
ations can pose a significant challenge.
Double Neighbors
Upper and lower neighbors can be combined into a double neighbor gesture, where both
neighbor tones are heard before returning to the original melody pitch.5 You will find examples
in Figure 4.7. As you can hear, this example uses diatonic upper neighbors and chromatic
lower neighbors as part of double neighbor groupings, which are be labeled “DN” for double
neighbor.
Diatonic Upper and Chromatic Lower Neighbors

In the remainder of this book, all instances of upper neighbors will be diatonic, and all lower
neighbors will be chromatic. Other than Figure 4.3 which demonstrates chromatic upper
neighbors, I have not included chromatic upper neighbors in any exercise. The reason I chose this
is that in some contexts, upper chromatic neighbors might imply alternate chords, chord qual-
ities or tonal areas, so I stick with diatonic upper neighbors. There are several reasons to explain
22 Neighbor Tones
why I consistently use chromatic lower neighbors. Chromatic lower neighbors are likely to sound
bluesy and are not as prone to imply alternate harmonies. I also believe the consistency of keeping
this pattern the same throughout the book makes the exercises easier to grasp. I certainly do not
discourage the study of upper chromatic or lower diatonic neighbors, but I feel those would come
later in the study, once these variations are mastered. Perhaps you’ll find them in my future book
Jazz Improvisation Using Advanced Melodic Embellishment.
Practicing Neighbor Tones
Later in the chapter we will add neighbor tone embellishments to both the “Distilled Saints
Melody” and “Mike’s Original Saints Melody.” To prepare for those exercises, we will first prac-
tice the technique of adding neighbors to basic chord arpeggios, outside the context of any song
form, so that we fully understand the possible permutations and get the sounds of neighbors “in
our ears” and “under our fingers.”
The first line in Figure 4.8 begins with a F major arpeggio, then each subsequent line embellishes
the triad with several neighbor tone patterns. The sequence of the exercises in Figure 4.8 is:
1. Basic  triad
2. Upper diatonic neighbors
3. Lower chromatic neighbors
4. Double neighbors on the first half of the bar
5. Double neighbors on the second half of the bar
6. Double neighbors on both halves of the bar
Acc 77
Figure 4.8 Performance Exercise with Written Component: Neighbor tones on a major triad 

Neighbor Tones 23
Acc 78
Figure 4.9 Performance Exercise with Written Component: Neighbor tones on a minor triad 
To help you to keep the basic triad in your ears while you work through these embellishments, prac-
tice along with the accompaniment recording. The written component of the exercise is for you to
circle the chord tones from the original arpeggio, identifying each chord tone by writing R, 3 or 5
above the note, and identifying which type of neighbor tones are being used in the line above the staff.
The next two sets of exercises apply the same set of neighbor variations to minor and diminished
triads. Figure 4.9 takes you through the sequence of neighbor tones of a minor triad. As before,
circle and identify the chord tones in each line, and write which type of neighbor tones are being
used to embellish them.
The set of exercises in Figure 4.10 follows the series of neighbor tones over a diminished triad.
As before, circle and identify the chord tones in each system, and write which type of neighbor
tones are being used.
Once you have mastered the neighbor tone exercises on triads, learn them thoroughly in all 12
major keys. Instrumentalists should remember to sing the exercises, and singers should play them.
If it helps, use the play-along tracks to keep the harmonic context in your ears. In each key, prac-
tice major, minor, and diminished triads. Practice diligently every combination of triad, key, and
neighbor tone variation. If you are primarily a vocalist, it is still critical to practice these exercises
in 12 keys on piano or another instrument you can play. To assist organizing your practice, use
the grid in Table 4.1 as a checklist to ensure you’re practicing all permutations. If you play a
transposing instrument, also see the appendix for your transposition for a correlated checklist.
You are welcome to download the PDFs indicated if it helps to read the exercises in all 12 keys,
although it is important to try practicing the exercises in your head, first. In my own practice,
I don’t only use check marks in the boxes; I grade myself on a scale from 1–10, and I don’t con-
sider any box complete until I can put an honest and reliable 10 inside.
24 Neighbor Tones
Acc 79
Figure 4.10 Performance Exercise with Written Component: Neighbor tones on a diminished triad 
Don’t expect learning all these exercises to be quick or easy. I fully anticipate it would take
many weeks to fill every box. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t continue working through the rest
of the book; just make sure you still work on the neighbor variations in this grid simultaneously
as you progress through the remaining chapters.
Applying Neighbor Tones to Melodies

Now that you’ve started practicing neighbor tone permutations on triads, the next exercise is to
apply them to the “Distilled Saints Melody” introduced in Figure 2.2. Practice the six exercises in
Figure 4.11 which proceed through a similarly structured sequence of neighbor tones presented
in Table 4.1. But instead of just being exercises on triads, this series in Figure 4.11 will be more
musical because they are embellishing a melody. And because you have already internalized the
“Distilled Saints Melody,” you will be able to complete the abbreviated exercises in Figure 4.11
even though each line only provides you with the first few measures of each variation. Each line
is abbreviated to ensure you can complete the exercises in your mind, not only reading exercises
from the printed page. Be sure to complete all six choruses using the indicated neighbor pattern
throughout:
1. The “Distilled Saints Melody” without any embellishment

2. Upper neighbors added to all halves
3. Lower neighbors added to all halves
4. Double neighbors on the first half
5. Double neighbors on the second half
6. Double neighbors on all halves
Neighbor Tones 25
Table 4.1 Practice Grid: Table to organize practicing chords with neighbor tones in all 12 keys
All major chords PDF Figure 4.8 In All 12 Keys - Treble Clef Instruments.pdf
All minor chords PDF Figure 4.9 In All 12 Keys - Treble Clef Instruments.pdf
All diminished chords PDF Figure 4.10 In All 12 Keys - Treble Clef Instruments.pdf
Concert Accompaniment 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
key and audio file Triad Upper Lower Double Double Double
chord neighbors chromatic neighbors neighbors neighbors
neighbors on the on the on both
first half second halves
half Acc 77–112
F maj Accompaniment 77.MP3
F min Accompaniment 78.MP3
F dim Accompaniment 79.MP3
F♯ maj Accompaniment 80.MP3
F♯ min Accompaniment 81.MP3
F♯ dim Accompaniment 82.MP3
G maj Accompaniment 83.MP3
G min Accompaniment 84.MP3
G dim Accompaniment 85.MP3
A♭ maj Accompaniment 86.MP3
A♭ min Accompaniment 87.MP3
A♭ dim Accompaniment 88.MP3
A maj Accompaniment 89.MP3
A min Accompaniment 90.MP3
A dim Accompaniment 91.MP3
B♭ maj Accompaniment 92.MP3
B♭ min Accompaniment 93.MP3
B♭ dim Accompaniment 94.MP3
B maj Accompaniment 95.MP3
B min Accompaniment 96.MP3
B dim Accompaniment 97.MP3

(continued)
26 Neighbor Tones
Table 4.1 Cont.
half
C maj Accompaniment 98.MP3
C min Accompaniment 99.MP3
C dim Accompaniment 100.MP3
D♭ maj Accompaniment 101.MP3
D♭ min Accompaniment 102.MP3
D♭ dim Accompaniment 103.MP3
D maj Accompaniment 104.MP3
D min Accompaniment 105.MP3
D dim Accompaniment 106.MP3
E♭ maj Accompaniment 107.MP3
E♭ min Accompaniment 108.MP3
E♭ dim Accompaniment 109.MP3
E maj Accompaniment 110.MP3
E min Accompaniment 111.MP3
E dim Accompaniment 112.MP3

Neighbor Tones 27
Acc 113 & 13 (R)
Figure 4.11 Abbreviated Performance Exercise: Neighbor tone variations on the “Distilled Saints Melody”
Figure 4.11 demonstrates the variety of embellishment that is possible through adding only
neighbor tones. However, as aspiring improvisers we are ultimately seeking to find our own cre-
ative voices. Lee Konitz said we are seeking our own “act[s]‌of pure inspiration.”6 Therefore, we
need to develop the skill to make our improvisations unique, not easily recognized as being based
on the original melody of a song. To that end, the next series of exercises, in Figure 4.12, apply
the same six neighbor tone patterns to “Mike’s Original Saints Melody.” Once again, notice that
these abbreviated exercises only present the first few measures of each. Be sure to complete each
chorus using the neighbor tone pattern shown.
I believe these embellished versions of “Mike’s Original Saints Melody” sound somewhat
musical, but because there is a pattern there, they do feel a bit forced, not sounding as if they’d
been improvised spontaneously. In a real-world improvisational situation, you would not be
likely to choose the same exact embellishment technique at every opportunity. You would want to
use your sense of taste to mix and recombine them. To alleviate this lack of spontaneity, the next
exercise, found in Figure 4.13, is the result of varying the neighbors, sometimes choosing chro-
matic instead of diatonic neighbors, sometimes upper vs. lower, adding syncopations, and some-
times not using any embellishments at all. Between the circled notes –the pitches from “Mike’s
Original Saints Melody” –identify which types of neighbor tone figures are used, write them in
the lines above the staff, then play and sing this version multiple times until it is fluent and stylish.
Would you agree that this version in Figure 4.13 is closer to sounding like a “composed impro-
visation” (or perhaps I should call it an “improvised composition”)? If so, I believe that is for
two reasons: (1) Because the underlying tune is my own, instead of the song “When the Saints Go
Marching In” and (2) because the embellishments are freely mixed.
Compose Your Own Melody

The crux of this book is that clear, melodic improvisation starts with a simple underlying melody
that you then ornament with embellishments to make it more beautiful. Therefore, in order for
28 Neighbor Tones
Acc 114 & 25 (R)
Figure 4.12 Abbreviated Performance Exercise: Neighbor tone variations on “Mike’s Original Saints Melody” 
Acc 115
Figure 4.13 Performance Exercise with Written Component: Freely mixed neighbors on “Mike’s Original Saints Melody” 
the end results of these exercises to sound like your own, it is critical for you to compose your
own foundational melody. For this first composition exercise, your new melody should use the
same 16-bar “When the Saints Go Marching In” chord progression, and should adhere to the
rules from Chapter 2 that I used when writing “Mike’s Original Saints Melody”:
Neighbor Tones 29
• Use only half notes and whole notes.

• Stay inside the chords. In addition to the root, 3rd and 5th notes of the chord, you can use
some color tones, but use nothing more distant than 6ths, 7ths or 9ths. All melody notes need
to be clear chord tones because later you will be applying embellishments including non-chord
tones to this tune.
• End your phrases with longer notes somewhere near the end of each line, creating four clear
phrases.
• Seek to balance stepwise motion with leaps in terms of intervals between pitches.
• Be mindful of shape/contour. Identify a clear pinnacle, the highest note of your melody. Ask
yourself: Does the highest point occur at the right moment? Does the drama build over the
course of the chorus?
To help with the composition process, I encourage you to use the accompaniment track
Accompaniment #37.MP3 in Figure 4.14. Record yourself improvising melodies along with
the track that are made up entirely of half notes and whole notes. After you’ve recorded many
choruses, listen back to the recordings and transcribe the parts you like into a manuscript note-
book. You can use those transcriptions to help compose (perhaps “reassemble”) your founda-
tional melody. Once you have completed the melody, use the blank staves in Figure 4.14 to write
the finished version.
Once you’ve notated your melody, practice it repeatedly. Do you like it? Have a friend perform
your melody for you; do you enjoy hearing it coming back to you when performed by somebody
else? Composing is an iterative process. If you are unhappy with any portions, revise the melody
then sing and play it with the revisions. The process of creating music spontaneously includes an
evolving relationship with your own work. This melody will provide the foundation for many
upcoming exercises in this book, so it is important that you love it.
Once you’re happy with your tune, apply each of the neighbor tone techniques you’ve learned
so far to your own melody, playing and singing them with the accompaniment track or a live
group. To review, the exercises you’ll practice are:
• Your original tune
• Upper neighbors
Acc 37
Figure 4.14 Written Exercise: Compose your own simple “Saints” melody 

30 Neighbor Tones
• Lower chromatic neighbors

• Double neighbors to the first half of the bar
• Double neighbors to the last half of the bar
• Double neighbors to every half
First, try to perform this sequence of neighbors entirely in your mind, without writing them
down. Internalizing your foundation melody will help greatly. However, if you find you are not
yet able to complete all the neighbor tone embellishments in your head, feel free to write them
out. It is completely understandable –some people are more visual learners. It is also important
to remember that composition and improvisation are inextricably linked. These two aspects of
creative musicianship are closely related skills, both of which can be deployed to help improve
the other. But even if you do write the embellishments first, do not consider this exercise complete
until you have fully internalized your own work and can perform all the embellishment patterns
from your own mind.
Before this compositional part of the exercise is complete, you should also do plenty of impro-
vising without any rules or restrictions. Allow yourself to improvise a with range of complexity
from simple half notes, with and without simple embellishments, to entirely freely improvised
lines. Have fun. Let the improvising influence your composing and vice versa. Finding your own
creative voice is the goal.
PEDAGOGICAL NOTE
When teaching improvisation/composition to a class or ensemble, I find it helpful to collect
the class members’ melodies ahead of time and then project them one at a time on a screen
at the front of the class. I instruct the entire class to play and sing each other’s melodies, then
embellish them with some of this chapter’s simple neighbor gestures. If the class is large,
there may not be sufficient time to do all possible variations on everyone’s tunes. To shorten
the exercise, I might just select one embellishment for each person’s tune. For example, for
person #1, we’ll sing and play through their tune as a class, then do lower neighbors. For
person #2, we’ll sing and play their tune, then do upper neighbors with an anticipation.
After we read each person’s melody, I always make sure we give a round of applause (or
finger snaps, as some students prefer) for their composition efforts. This can build a strong
sense of camaraderie and collective music-making. If someone accidentally includes non-
chord tones in their melody, I may point those out with a suggestion for which note they
might use instead, but I would only do this after the applause. If I am concerned about a
student being sensitive about receiving this type of critique in front of their peers, I may
offer it in writing when I return their work, or perhaps just informally after class. I always
let students revise these melodies and re-submit.
Neighbor Tones Performance Etude

For the final exercise of this chapter, as well as several of the subsequent chapters, I end with an
etude that utilizes the technique learned in the chapter. For this chapter, I wrote this culminating
etude, called “Just Neighbors” for its use of neighbor tones. Using the same sequence of exercises
established in this chapter, I began the task of composing the etude by first writing a simple melody
of exclusively half notes and whole notes. The exercise in Figure 4.15 shows this unadorned foun-
dational melody. As you practice it, notice that all the pitches in the melody are either chord
tones –roots, 3rds, 5ths, and 7ths –or common color tones like 2nds (9ths) and 6ths (13ths).
Neighbor Tones 31
Acc 49
Figure 4.15 Performance Exercise: Half note foundation melody for “Just Neighbors” 
After I composed the foundational melody, I chose various neighbor tones to embellish it. You
can see the results in the completed etude “Just Neighbors” in Figures 4.16 and 4.17. Be sure
to look closely at the articulations and style indicators. Practice it with both accompaniment
recordings, the version with me playing the melody and the version without me playing. When
practicing along with me playing, try to emulate my articulations and style as closely as possible.
Practice the version with just the rhythm section to ensure you’ve thoroughly learned the rhythms
and style of the tune. Both versions of the accompaniment recording have three choruses with a
short coda at the end. You play the melody in the first chorus, improvising a solo in the second
chorus, then go returning to play the head (following the “D.C. al Coda” instruction), ending
with the coda.
After you’ve learned “Just Neighbors” thoroughly by singing and playing it, complete a melodic
analysis, identifying the scale degree of each of the primary melodic notes above the line, and also
indicating the types of neighbor gestures that adorn them. I’ve completed the analysis for the first
line; analyze the rest of the etude yourself.
32 Neighbor Tones
Acc 50
Figure 4.16 Performance Exercise with Written Component: Etude “Just Neighbors” page 1 

Neighbor Tones 33
Figure 4.17 Performance Exercise: Etude “Just Neighbors” page 2

34 Neighbor Tones

Limitations of time and space prevent me from printing all the various permutations I’ve assigned
to my students over the years. But for purposes of furthering your knowledge, practice neighbor
tones on arpeggios of several varieties of 7th and 9th chords, including:
• Major 7th
• Minor 7th
• Dominant 7th
• Minor-Major  7th
• Diminished 7th
• Half-diminished  7th
• Major 9th
• Minor 9th
• Dominant 9th
• Minor-Major 7th with a 9th
Another challenging advanced exercise is to learn the “Distilled Saints Melody,” “Mike’s Original
Saints Melody” and your own “Saints” melody in all 12 keys, adding all the neighbor tone
variations listed in Table 4.1. Use the series of accompaniment tracks in 12 keys listed in Figure 2.5
to help practice transposing the “Distilled” and “Mike’s” versions, and use Accompaniments
37–48 to practice transposing your own “Saints” melody.
Notes
1 Edward Aldwell and Carl Schachter, Harmony and Voice Leading, 3rd ed. (Belmont: Thomson/Schirmer,
2003),  9–10.
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid.
4 Ibid. 11.
5 Ibid.
6 David Kastin, “Lee Konitz: Back to Basics,” Downbeat, December 1985, 54–55.
Chapter 5
Appoggiaturas
An appoggiatura can be defined as an accented non-chord tone approached by a leap (an interval
greater than a step), resolved by stepwise motion in the opposite direction.1 Perhaps it is more
precise to think of this gesture is an accented incomplete neighbor,2 but the term appoggiatura is
concise and far more enjoyable to say aloud. Figure 5.1 illustrates how appoggiaturas work. The
first staff contains two appoggiaturas. The first measure leaps up from F to B♭, a non-chord tone,
followed by a stepwise resolution down to A♮. The second measure leaps down from F to the non-
chord B♮, then resolves up stepwise to C♮.
The second staff contains melodic gestures similar to the ones above, but where the non-chord
tones are complete neighbors instead of appoggiaturas. Therefore, the second line is the same as
the first except that the ultimate resolution pitches in each bar have been added in, just before the
non-chord tones. Rather than leaping to a non-harmonic tone, the melody leaps to a chord tone,
then does a neighbor gesture afterwards.
A few years ago, the wonderful cellist Elizabeth Simkin, my faculty colleague at the Ithaca
College School of Music, spent a semester auditing my Jazz Theory and Aural Training class.
While we were discussing the use of appoggiaturas in jazz, Professor Simkin observed that clas-
sical musicians love to perform appoggiaturas because they can lean into the dissonance of the
non-chord tones with a great deal of passion and energy (the Italian “appoggiare” means “to
lean”3). Before Simkin’s observation, I hadn’t noticed how fun appoggiaturas were to play; after-
wards I couldn’t not notice. In the final 8 measures of Jerome Kern’s “All the Things You Are,”
a song I perform often, there are three gorgeous appoggiaturas4 which I had previously heard
entirely as color tones over the chords, but that mean a lot more to me now that I hear them in
more than one way.
You may remember from Chapter 4 that when ornamenting melodies with neighbor tones, we
practiced both upper and lower neighbors in all the exercises. Either direction of neighbor tones
could potentially be quite effective, even in the same melodic situations. Therefore, an impro-
viser could potentially choose one direction of neighbor over the other. However, when impro-
vising appoggiaturas, the direction of the leap determines whether the incomplete neighbor will
ME 5.1
Figure 5.1 Musical Example: Appoggiaturas 
36 Appoggiaturas
Acc 116
Figure 5.2 Performance Exercise with Written Component: Major, minor, and diminished triads with appoggiaturas 
be above or below the subsequent resolution, because for this book we will always move in the
opposite direction from the leap.
To practice appoggiaturas, the performance exercise in Figure 5.2 begins with a simple F major
triad, the same way the neighbor tone exercises in chapter 4 did. The second line applies appog-
giaturas by leaping a step past each following chord tone, preceding each note in the triad with
a step in the opposite direction of the leap. You may remember from Chapter 4 that all the
neighbors in this book are diatonic when upper and chromatic when lower, a practice that holds
true in this chapter. When appoggiaturas leap down to non-chord tones, the incomplete neighbors
will be a chromatic lower neighbor. When the leaps are upward, the incomplete neighbors will
be upper diatonic neighbors. Note that you cannot apply an appoggiatura to the first pitch of an
exercise because the gesture inherently involves an interval, which you only get upon proceeding
into the second note. Also, notice that the non-chord tones are accented to allow you to “lean
into” the dissonance of the non-chord tones. The written component of the exercise is to circle
each chord tone in both lines and mark them all with the scale degree number above. The first
measure is done for you. There are 6 exercises in total in Figure 5.2:
1. Major  triad
2. Major triad with appoggiaturas
3. Minor  triad
4. Minor triad with appoggiaturas
5. Diminished  triad
6. Diminished triad with appoggiaturas
Appoggiaturas 37
Table 5.1 Practice Grid: Table to organize practicing triads with appoggiaturas in all 12 keys
Concert Accompaniment audio Appoggiaturas on Appoggiaturas on Appoggiaturas on

key file major triads minor triads diminished triads Acc 116–127
F Accompaniment 116.MP3
F♯ / G♭ Accompaniment 117.MP3
G Accompaniment 118.MP3
A♭ Accompaniment 119.MP3
A Accompaniment 120.MP3
B♭ Accompaniment 121.MP3
B Accompaniment 122.MP3
C Accompaniment 123.MP3
D♭ Accompaniment 124.MP3
D Accompaniment 125.MP3
E♭ Accompaniment 126.MP3
E Accompaniment 127.MP3
Be sure to practice the appoggiaturas on triads in all 12 keys. Use the practice grid in Table 5.1
to ensure you’ve covered all the permutations. You may download the PDFs of this exercise in all
12 keys to read from if it helps you get started, but like in Chapter 4, try to complete the whole
series in your head. Also, just as in the previous chapter, you can use your own grading or evalu-
ation scheme to help organize your practice routine.
You may notice that transposing appoggiaturas can be trickier than transposing neighbor
tones, and there is a good reason why this is so. Applying appoggiaturas can be more of a mental
challenge than neighbor tones. When adding neighbors in Chapter 4, you landed on each of the
triad’s three chord tones, embellished it, then returned to the same chord tone before moving onto
the next chord tone. But the same is not true of appoggiaturas; this exercise requires that you
think ahead to the next melody note, determine whether it is higher or lower than the note you’re
currently on, then apply the appoggiatura by leaping a step beyond that note before stepping
back in the opposite direction. This is an important observation; the ability to think ahead and
plan is one of the most important skills an improviser can develop.
Following the same sequence as the previous chapter, the next step will be to apply this newly
learned embellishment technique –in this case appoggiaturas –to the “Distilled Saints Melody.”
You can see the results of this in the exercise in Figure 5.3. Notice that the circled notes represent
melody pitches from the “Distilled Saints Melody” with accented appoggiaturas added just before
each of them. Note that the breath marks (look like an apostrophe) indicate the ends of phrases,
so the beginnings of the phrases immediately after do not start with an appoggiatura.
Notice that in Figure 5.3, appoggiaturas are placed on strong beats one and three. Placing them
on such strong beats allows us to easily “lean into” the dissonances. However, this rhythmic per-
mutation might make it slightly more challenging to audiate the original “Saints” melody, because
the melodic pitches after the appoggiaturas are a half-beat later then they originally are heard in
the “Distilled Saints Melody.” This creates a form of suspension5 (heard later) or back-phrasing,
which can potentially make it more challenging to hear those pitches as melody notes. Therefore,
38 Appoggiaturas
Acc 128
Figure 5.3 Performance Exercise: Appoggiaturas on the “Distilled Saints Melody” 
Acc 129
Figure 5.4 Performance Exercise: Appoggiaturas on the “Distilled Saints Melody” with anticipations 
we should also practice another variation of the exercise with the accented appoggiaturas are on
weaker beats. The Performance Exercise in Figure 5.4 moves the appoggiaturas ahead by one
beat, placing the non-chord tone onto the relatively weaker beats two and four. With this rhythm,
the pitches from the “Distilled Saints Melody” are anticipated instead of suspended, which may
make the original melody notes more audible to you.
Now that you have begun mastering appoggiaturas, learn the exercise in Figure 5.5 which
applies appoggiaturas to “Mike’s Original Saints Melody” in two different ways: the appoggia-
turas in the first chorus accent non-chord tones on beats one and three, and the second chorus
Appoggiaturas 39
Acc 130 & 25 (R)
Figure 5.5 Performance Exercise with Written Component: Appoggiaturas on “Mike’s Original Saints Melody” 
accents beats two and four. In both choruses, the added written component is for you to circle all
the pitches that come from “Mike’s Original Saints Melody.” I’ve circled the pitches in the first
bar already. As you practice, be sure to audiate my tune (keep it in your head) while you do the
embellishments.
Like with the neighbor exercises in Chapter 4, the repetitive nature of the appoggiaturas can
feel less than entirely spontaneous. Therefore, I composed an exercise found in Figure 5.6 which
uses “Mike’s Original Saints Melody” as its foundation but incorporates fewer appoggiaturas
than the maximum possible density. In other words, some appoggiaturas used in the exercise
from Figure 5.5 are omitted. This version also varies the rhythms and articulations of more freely.
Sing and play the exercise in Figure 5.6 several times. Do you agree this version is more musical
and feels more improvisatory and spontaneous than the previous exercises, even though it is fully
composed?
40 Appoggiaturas
Acc 131
Figure 5.6 Performance Exercise with Written Component: Freely mixed Appoggiaturas on “Mike’s Original Saints
Melody” 
Embellishing Your Own Melody

The next exercise will be for you to add appoggiaturas to your own simple “Saints” melody from
Figure 4.14. Review your melody by singing and playing it multiple times before you begin this
exercise. Start by applying appoggiaturas in the same way we did in the previous exercises, but
in your head, without writing them down. Start slowly, out of tempo if that helps. It might take
multiple passes through the form before you can do the appoggiaturas in tempo without writing
them down, but the effort will be well worth it.
At this point, you have lived with your own “Saints” melody for a significant chunk of time.
You may discover that you wish your melody were different somehow: that a pitch was different,
or the melody had a more satisfying resolution or perhaps peaked at a different moment. If so,
don’t hesitate to change your melody now. Remember that improvisation is a process, not a
product, and the process is an iterative one. You’re not stuck with the melody you created in
Figure 4.14 just because it’s written down. I often change my work. If you compare the video of
“Improvisation Using Simple Melodic Embellishment”6 to “Mike’s Original Saints Melody,” you
will notice that for this book I changed a few notes from when I did the original presentation.
I like it better now.
After you’ve practiced your melody with all possible appoggiaturas, “compose” a newly
embellished version with appoggiaturas into the staves of Figure 5.7. Similar to the process
I used in Figure 5.6, use your discretion to decide whether or not all appoggiaturas work well
with your melody. If an appoggiatura doesn’t enhance the melody, omit it. I also encourage
you to vary the rhythm and style. Add syncopations and other rhythmic variations to seek
balance. Add dynamics and shape the phrases in a musical way. Use your instrument and
voice. Sing and play as you compose. Allow your performing skills to influence your writing
and vice-versa.
When you’ve completed the exercise, be sure to sing and play your notated version, checking
carefully to ensure that what you wrote matches exactly the way you perform it. I often find
that my students will sing or play their compositions with more musicality and rhythmic
creativity then they notate. This is understandable –they are excellent performers, and an
improviser’s ultimate goal is to seek spontaneity. However, composition and improvisation
Appoggiaturas 41
Acc 37
Figure 5.7 Performance Exercise with Written Component: Write a version of your own “Saints” melody with freely
mixed appoggiaturas 
are opposite sides of the same coin. We should strive to notate our compositions precisely to
match we hear in our heads and perform, including all the rhythms, articulations, dynamics,
and phrasing.
Performance Etude Featuring Appoggiaturas

To wrap up this chapter, the final performance exercise is in Figure 5.8, my tune “Appoggiaturas
with Cathy.” Use the play-along track to assist your preparation. Take a moment to analyze it,
labeling the chord tones and circling all the appoggiaturas. Note that some appoggiaturas leap
to chordal color tones.

Like Chapter 4, the first advanced exercise is to apply appoggiaturas to chords beyond simple
triads, including arpeggios of a variety of 7th and 9th chords, including:
• Major 7th
• Minor 7th
• Dominant 7th
• Minor-Major  7th
• Diminished 7th
• Half-diminished  7th
• Major 9th
• Minor 9th
• Dominant 9th
• Minor-Major 7th with a 9th
And also like in Chapter 4, it is important to practice the “Distilled Saints Melody,” “Mike’s
Original Saints Melody” and your own “Saints” melody in all 12 keys while adding appog-
giatura variations. Use the accompaniment tracks listed in Figure 2.5 to help practice, and
Accompaniments 37–48 for your own melody.
42 Appoggiaturas
Acc 51
Figure 5.8 Performance Etude: “Appoggiaturas with Cathy”

Appoggiaturas 43
Notes
1 Edward Aldwell and Carl Schachter, Harmony & Voice Leading, 3rd ed. (Belmont: Thomson/Schirmer,
2003), 340.
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid.
4 Jerome Kern, Jerome Kern Collection (Santa Monica: T.B. Harms Company, 1988), 136.
5 Aldwell and Schachter, Harmony and Voice Leading, 44.
6 Mike Titlebaum, “Improvisation Using Simple Melodic Embellishment,” clinic, New York State School
Music Association, November 30, 2012, Rochester, NY, www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQOa1q8QL6o.
Chapter 6
Passing Tones
As a young boy growing up in Rochester, NY my best friend was (and still is) Derek Greenfield.
Derek lived two doors down the street. You may remember that next door to my house was a
home that belonged to the Kents. Dr. Kent was our family dentist. Walking to Derek’s house,
I had to pass by Dr. Kent’s house along the way. I also had to pass by the Kent’s house on the way
back home. Figure 6.1 illustrates our housing arrangement.
As a musical analogy, my house and Derek’s house are chord tones. The passing tone –
Dr. Kent – is a nonharmonic pitch wedged between the two harmonic tones, approached by step-
wise motion and subsequently departed by a step in the same direction.1 Regardless of whether
the gesture is ascending or descending, the non-chord tones in between can be simply called
passing tones, labeled with the abbreviation PT. In Figure 6.2 you can hear two passing tone
gestures, one ascending and one descending.
One of the most colorful aspects of jazz’s melodic language is that performers use some color
tones harmonically even if those notes are not explicitly notated into the chord symbol or played
by the rhythm section. In major chords, for example, improvisers regularly utilize major 7ths,
major 2nds (which can also be called 9ths in extended chords) and major 6ths (also called 13ths).
Because jazz improvisers accept these color tones as harmonic – inside the chord – we often hear
variations of passing tones that are chromatic half steps, passing between primary chord tones
and color tones, like in Figure 6.3.
Passing tones can be grouped together when more than one non-chord tone is needed to connect
two chord tones. In the first measure of Figure 6.4 you hear an example with two passing tones in
a row, necessitated by the fact that the interval between the two chord tones is a 4th, and there-
fore two stepwise tones are required to connect them with passing tones. The second measure
uses two passing tones in a row for chromatic effect.
One byproduct of jazz and contemporary music using color tones such as 6ths and 9ths har-
monically is that it may not be immediately clear if a musician is intending a note to be heard
as harmonic or as a passing/non-chord tone. For example, ask yourself if the descending chro-
matic figure seen twice in Figure 6.5 sounds as if it contains two separate passing gestures, one
connecting A♮ to G♮ and another that connects G♮ to F♮ (as analyzed in the first measure), or do you
hear three consecutive passing tones from the A♮ down to F♮ (as analyzed in the second measure)?
Figure 6.1 Mike had to pass the Kent’s house to get to the Greenfield’s

Passing Tones 45
ME 6.2
Figure 6.2 Musical Example: Passing tones 
ME 6.3
Figure 6.3 Musical Example: Chromatic passing tones 
ME 6.4
Figure 6.4 Musical Example: Groups of passing tones 
ME 6.5
Figure 6.5 Musical Example: Passing tones heard in more than one way 
Part of the answer relates to rhythm. The chromatic passing tones A♭ and G♭ occur on weak
places in the measure, the upbeats of 1 and 2 (the “ands” in 1 and 2 and…). However, the pitch
G♮, the 2nd of the chord, is on beat two, and is rhythmically stronger than the other passing
tones because it is on a beat; but this beat is still weaker than the chord tones heard on relatively
stronger beats one and three. Does the rhythm affect whether you hear the G on beat two as a
colorful chord tone or a passing tone? Because the harmonic content of jazz is so rich, there is
often more than one way to hear and understand a melodic line. Great musicians know this and
use this harmonic richness to great effect.
Practicing Passing Tones
To begin learning passing tones, start by practicing the exercises in Figure 6.6, which add passing
tones to connect the pitches of major, minor, and diminished triads. The sequence of exercises in
this example includes:
1. Major  triad
2. Major triad with diatonic passing tones
3. Major triad with chromatic passing tones
4. Minor  triad
5. Minor triad with diatonic passing tones
46 Passing Tones
Acc 132
Figure 6.6 Performance Exercise with Written Component: Major, minor, and diminished triads with passing tones 
6. Minor triad with chromatic passing tones

7. Diminished  triads
8. Diminished triads with passing tones from the diminished scale
In the case of the major and minor triads, I have included more than one possible variation of
passing tones: one that is primarily diatonic, and one that is more chromatic. Notice how the
chord tones are heard on the same beats as the triad in half notes, but the amount of time spent
on each chord tone varies depending on the interval between the chord tones and whether we
are passing chromatically or diatonically. There are no “right” or “wrong” ways to do this. My
decisions about how to structure the passing gestures and the rhythms in these exercises are
entirely arguable. The ultimate arbiter of what sounds “better” will be you, so if you want to
practice passing tones differently than the way I wrote them, feel free to explore the possibilities.
For each line of Figure 6.6, the written component is for you to circle the chord tones from the
triad and indicate all passing tones with the abbreviation “PT.”
Passing Tones 47
In the exercises in Figure 6.6, it is important to make note of several decisions I made when
choosing passing tones:
• In line 3, the passing tones between the 5th of the chord and the root in the second measure
are a mix of chromatic and diatonic. If I had attempted to include all of the chromatic passing
tones between these two pitches, there wouldn’t have been sufficient time while keeping the
overall rhythm no faster than eighth notes. So, there is a 6th on beat two of that measure, then
a diatonic passing tone up to the root.
• In lines 5 and 6, the exercise uses the melodic minor scale in ascending form with the major
6th and 7th, and in descending form with the minor 6th and 7th. Students of jazz theory will
note that the ascending version of the melodic minor scale is useful in multiple contexts, which
include several modes of the ascending melodic minor scale. However, this exercise embellishes
a simple minor triad, so it uses the original version of melodic minor, with changing versions
depending on the melodic direction.
• In line 8, the passing tones on the diminished triad are exclusively from the diminished scale.
The diminished scale is very popular among jazz musicians. The scale is symmetrical, in that it
contains a sequence of alternating whole steps with half steps. It is an 8-note scale, containing
the four pitches of a fully diminished 7th chord and the four pitches a whole step higher than
each chord tone. Because it is an 8-note scale, sometimes it is referred to as “the octatonic
scale,” a name which may be misleading because the “the” implies that no other 8-note scales
exist. Because both the diminished chord and associated scale are symmetrical in construction,
that symmetry can cause it to sound ambiguous. I decided that all passing tones should be part
of that scale to avoid any additional unintended ambiguity. We want just the right amount of
ambiguity.
Like the embellishment techniques studied in previous chapters, I encourage you to learn to add
passing tones to triads in all 12 keys. Table 6.1 shows how you can organize your practice routine
to ensure you’ve covered all possible permutations and keys.
Applying Passing Tones
Like the previous chapters, the next steps are to apply our newly learned embellishment tech-
nique to both the “Distilled Saints Melody” and “Mike’s Original Saints Melody.” The exercise in
Figure 6.7 adds diatonic passing tones between pitches of the “Distilled Saints Melody.” Notice
that when the interval between two circled melody pitches is only a 2nd, there are no possible
diatonic passing tones in between.
The exercise in Figure 6.8 includes more chromatic passing tones between the melody notes,
including when the melody pitches are a 2nd apart. As I observed earlier, there are certainly other
ways passing tones could have been added. This exercise is simply one idea. I encourage you to
come up with your own creative solutions.
Look at Figure 6.9 to see how I’ve added diatonic passing tones to “Mike’s Original Saints
Melody.” As you’re practicing this chorus, identify the notes of “Mike’s Original Saints Melody”
by circling them, and label all the passing tones PT. Make note of pitches that could be heard by
a listener as either passing tones or harmonic melody notes. Also note that I’ve syncopated the
rhythm a little and added some articulations to make it more musical.
The next chorus with passing tones in Figure 6.10 is denser and more chromatic than the
mostly diatonic exercise in Figure 6.9. Notice that I have mixed diatonic and chromatic passing
tones, and in some cases not used passing tones at all when the intervals between melody notes
are too wide to pass between. Also note that I’ve syncopated the rhythm more than in Figure 6.9
and added more articulations. As you’re practicing this chorus, identify the notes of “Mike’s
Original Saints Melody” by circling them, and label all the passing tones PT.
48 Passing Tones
Table 6.1 Practice Grid: Table to organize practicing chords with passing tones in all 12 keys
Concert Accompaniment 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
key recording Major Diat. Chrom. Minor Diat. Chrom. Dim. Passing
triad passing passing triad passing passing triad tones
tones tones on tones tones on dim.
on major on on triad
Acc 132–143 major triad minor minor
triad triad triad
Accompaniment
F
132.MP3
F♯ /G♭
Accompaniment
133.MP3
Accompaniment
G
134.MP3
A♭
Accompaniment
135.MP3
Accompaniment
A
136.MP3
B♭
Accompaniment
137.MP3
Accompaniment
B
138.MP3
Accompaniment
C
139.MP3
D♭
Accompaniment
140.MP3
Accompaniment
D
141.MP3
E♭
Accompaniment
142.MP3
Accompaniment
E
143.MP3
As in the previous chapters, the most important step to learning the technique is to embellish
the pitches of your own simple melody with passing tones. Refer to the melody you composed
back in Figure 4.14 as the starting point. Before notating the results, spend some time impro-
vising both diatonic and chromatic passing tones between your melody notes. Do not be
concerned if you cannot join all the notes from your melody with passing tones in between; use
embellishments only when they make sense, such as between two pitches with relatively small
intervals between them, such as major 2nds, 3rds, or perhaps as wide as a 4th. For any interval
spanning more than a 4th in your original melody, there will probably not be adequate time
within two beats to link the two pitches with passing tones. I also encourage you to be creative
by changing the rhythm and adding syncopations so the end result will be more musical and
enjoyable.
Passing Tones 49
Acc 144
Figure 6.7 Performance Exercise: Diatonic passing tones on the “Distilled Saints Melody” 
Acc 145
Figure 6.8 Performance Exercise: Chromatic passing tones on the “Distilled Saints Melody” 
Once you’ve improvised passing tones on your melody from Figure 4.14, write a new version
into Figure 6.11 with passing tones included.
Once you’ve completed notating your new version, be sure to perform it several times.
I encourage you to record yourself performing it along with the accompaniment recording. Listen
back to your recording to make sure it matches what you wrote. If there are any discrepancies
between the written exercise and the recording, decide which you think is “better.” If the written
version is better, practice it more until you’ve learned it. If your recorded version is better than
what’s notated, then update the written exercise to match how you perform it.
50 Passing Tones
Acc 146
Figure 6.9 Performance Exercise with Written Component: Mostly diatonic passing tones on “Mike’s Original Saints
Melody” 
Acc 147
Figure 6.10 Performance Exercise with Written Component: Mostly chromatic passing tones on “Mike’s Original Saints
Melody” 
Performance Etude Featuring Passing Tones

For the final performance etude of the chapter, found in Figure 6.12, I have composed “Another
You There Will Never Pass.” Notice that you do the composed etude in the first chorus, then
improvise for 1¾ choruses before returning to the melody for the final 8 bars.
Passing Tones 51
Acc 37
Figure 6.11 Written Exercise: Freely mixed passing tones on your own melody 
Note
1 Edward Aldwell and Carl Schachter, Harmony and Voice Leading, 3rd ed. (Belmont, CA: Thomson/
Schirmer, 2003), 9–10.
52 Passing Tones
Acc 52
Figure 6.12 Performance Etude: “Another You There Will Never Pass” page 1 

Passing Tones 53
Figure 6.13 Performance Etude: “Another You There Will Never Pass” page 2

Chapter 7
Blue Notes
The blues can mean different things. If you told a friend that you “had the blues” they would
understand it meant you were feeling sad. The blues is also a genre of music, and it is a 12-bar
form often associated with the blues genre.
In addition to describing moods and musical forms, the blues is also much larger and more
significant. Blues is the musical embodiment of African Americans and the African American
experience.1 Blues and jazz are inextricably linked. Blues feeds jazz its historic, spiritual, and
emotional underpinnings. I implore readers to do a deep dive into great early blues singers such
as Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Leadbelly, Robert Johnson and others. Learn
about the topic by reading “Blues People” by Amiri Baraka (published under the name LeRoi
Jones) and other works. As an aspiring jazz musician myself, my humble opinion is that this type
of reckoning must occur in order to learn to perform Black American music with respect.
One gorgeous example of early blues is Bessie Smith’s “Mama’s Got the Blues”2 excerpted in
Musical Example 7.1. As you can see in the transcription in Figure 7.1, “Mama’s Got the Blues”
is in the key of B♭. It is in a 12-bar form, in a three-phrase AAB structure where each line she sings
occupies the first few measures of a four-bar phrase.
It is important to examine Smith’s melodic content. Notice that when she sings the 3rd, 5th, or
7th degrees of the diatonic scale, Smith frequently “blues” the notes by lowering or bending the
pitch down to some extent. Sometimes she lowers these notes by a half step, but towards the end
of the chorus the 7th scale degree is lowered by an interval closer to a quarter tone. Sometimes
she sings diatonic pitches but approaches them from below with a smooth scoop up into the
pitch. From an emotional standpoint, lowering the 3rd scale degree is particularly powerful,
because in tonal music the 3rd determines whether a piece is major or minor, or to use terms a
ME 7.1
Figure 7.1 Musical Example: Bessie Smith’s “Mama’s Got the Blues” 

Blue Notes 55
non-musician would understand, happy or sad. Because she playfully bends the pitch of the 3rd,
the feeling of Smith’s blues is neither entirely sad nor happy. Smith occupies a rich yet ambiguous
emotional space where there is clearly a measure of despair (the lyrics are quite clear on this), but
the melody and phrasing carry a fight against the powers that be, and also a sense of humor and
even optimism. For a thoroughly enjoyable exploration of the emotional landscape of the blues,
listen to Leonard Bernstein’s album “What Is Jazz,”3 where maestro Bernstein presents won-
derful examples –and very humorous counterexamples –of blues phrasing. Bernstein includes a
magnificent excerpt of Bessie Smith singing “Empty Bed Blues” after which he breaks down the
elements of blues with clarity and wit. I, too, often find the blues funny. Sometimes the only way
to cope with tragic circumstances is to laugh.
Ever since jazz was first created and recorded, jazz musicians have incorporated much of the
rich landscape of blues. As the music of Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Charlie Parker
grew more harmonically rich and sophisticated, these musicians and others embodied the blues,
exploring a great variety of ways to embrace and personalize its emotional territory. In Chapter 10,
we will explore some of the harmonic techniques these great musicians used in the blues form.
But in terms of non-chord embellishment techniques, jazz musicians consider blue notes to be the
lowered 3rd, 5th, and 7th scale degrees in the key of the song. The fact that blue notes typically
relate to the key of the song instead of the chord of the moment is an important distinction. Jazz
improvisers usually focus much of their attention on choosing chord tones relative to the chord of
the moment, but blue notes are intended to be heard differently. They are usually intended to be
dissonant to the key of the song –lowered 3rds, 5ths, and 7ths within a major key, where those
diatonic pitches would be raised.4
To understand the use of blue notes, think of the melodic content of jazz as existing somewhere
along a continuum like the one seen in Figure 7.2. While jazz musicians most colorful vocabulary
often comes from using chord tones over complex, chromatic chord progressions, blue notes are
often used to bring the listener’s focus to the key of the song, their emotional home base. This is
why one end of the continuum represents emphasizing the “chord of the moment” while empha-
sizing the “key of the piece” is on the other end. Jazz musicians certainly focus much energy on
the chord of the moment, but in practice their melodic choices are much more nuanced. One way
of viewing the art of creating a melody is that it is the process of seeking the balance between
these two extremes.
The previous sentence may make you may wonder: Why couldn’t jazz musicians focus entirely
on one side of this continuum or the other? To address that question, I present two extreme
examples. If an improviser were to over-emphasize the chord of the moment, like in Figure 7.3,
taking each chord within the progression of a song entirely literally, attempting to improvise a
melody using nothing but arpeggios and chordal patterns, the result would sound uninteresting
at best. This example sounds boring, or perhaps some might say “academic” (a pejorative use of
the word, wrongly implying that academics cannot also be musicians) because it sounds as if it
were entirely based on an exercise. This is because there is no sense of voice leading; all the chords
formed from this improvisation are in root position. The listener hears no melody emerging from
the chords, so it is perceived to be a technical exercise.
On the other side of the continuum is an example that focuses entirely of the key of the piece.
The key of the piece is the mode of thinking in play with blue notes. Due to the fact that blues and
Figure 7.2 Chord of the moment vs. key of the piece continuum 

56 Blue Notes
ME 7.3
Figure 7.3 Musical Example: Using only chord arpeggios, too extreme on the “chord of the moment” side of the continuum 
ME 7.4
Figure 7.4 Musical Example: Using only the blues scale, too extreme on the “key of the tune” side of the continuum 
jazz musicians use the three blue notes often, jazz educators codified a blues scale, which includes
all three blue notes, in an attempt to encapsulate the blues into a simple pedagogical tool. There
is nothing inherently wrong with the blues scale, but by itself it does not capture the subtlety and
nuance and of great blues artists like Bessie Smith (and certainly not of great jazz artists Louis
Armstrong, Duke Ellington, or Charlie Parker). As we heard in “Mama’s Got the Blues,” there is
much more happening in her melody than only the blues scale.
Unfortunately, some teachers instruct their students to improvise exclusively with the blues
scale in the key of the tune, telling them that it just works with all chords and therefore they
can ignore all the pesky little chord symbols going by. This teaching technique can be effective
to get beginning students to come out of their shell and improvise their first solo, but the
blues scale unto itself provides insufficient vocabulary to teach jazz improvisation. What you
hear in Figure 7.4 is an extreme version, but it’s not substantively different than what I’ve
heard young soloists play at school jazz festivals. The trouble with this type of approach is
that when using only the blues scale, improvisers are focusing entirely on the key of the tune,
demonstrating no awareness of any changing harmonies. This makes their solos sound crass
and bombastic.
If improvising exclusively on either the extreme of the chord of the moment or key of the
tune continuum is ill-advised, how might a balance be achieved? One answer to this question
can be found in the music of Charlie Parker. As I listen to Parker improvise, I often imagine the
continuum from Figure 7.2 appearing as an old voltage meter like in Figure 7.5 where a needle
bounces back and forth measuring the bluesiness of the moment. Parker employs an incredible
amount of chromaticism over complex chords, and while he emphasizes chord tones the needle
moves over to the left. I imagine that the moment Parker feels he is risking being too far inside the
harmony, he plays a more bluesy phrase for counterbalance, pulling the listener back to the key of
the tune, and the needle ebbs back to the right. Besides playing hundreds of songs with complex
harmonies, Parker also often played 12-bar blues. When Parker is playing the blues form, I see the
needle spending more time on the right side, but it doesn’t get stuck there. Listen to his classic 12-
bar blues “Parker’s Mood” for a beautiful example. It’s Parker’s perpetual re-balancing of highly
Blue Notes 57
Figure 7.5 Bluesy meter 
Acc 148
Figure 7.6 Performance Exercise with Written Component: Bluesy version of the “Distilled Saints Melody” 
bluesy content along with a gorgeous richness of chromaticism that make his improvisations so
compelling.
Some improvisers may lean towards one side or the other, and they may vary how bluesy
they are depending on the tune they’re performing. But ultimately, I believe it’s up to every
aspiring jazz improviser to undergo the process of seeking their own sense of balance within this
continuum.
Practicing Blue Notes
Yes, one could practice bluesiness by playing and singing the blues scale. But I’d like to suggest
another method. Because the three blue notes –the lowered 3rd, 5th, and 7th –occupy lowered
versions of their positions in the diatonic major scale, start by practicing the chorus in Figure 7.6,
a bluesified version of the “Distilled Saints Melody” where every instance of the 3rd or 5th of the
key have blue –or lowered –versions added as chromatic lower neighbors into a triplet rhythm
(there are no 7ths in the “Distilled” melody, so there are no blue 7ths). Be sure to circle all the
pitches originally from the “Distilled” melody.
The next exercise in Figure 7.7 applies the same principle to “Mike’s Original Saints Melody,”
adding blue notes in a triplet rhythm each time the 3rd, 5th, or 7th of the key is present. The
written component is to circle all the pitches from my original melody.
58 Blue Notes
Acc 149
Figure 7.7 Performance Exercise with Written Component: Bluesy version of “Mike’s Original Saints Melody” 
Acc 150
Figure 7.8 Performance Exercise: Freely varied bluesy version of “Mike’s Original Saints Melody” 
The choruses in Figures 7.6 and 7.7 may not be unpleasant, but the repetitive nature make
them still feel like exercises. To remedy that, we should allow ourselves to treat the bluesy exer-
cise less strictly to achieve more improvisational results. Look at the variation of “Mike’s Original
Saints Melody” in Figure 7.8. There are several important things to notice in this exercise. Several
times I added blue notes alongside the original pitches. In a few instances I replaced the original
diatonic pitch entirely with the blue note. In the tenth bar I used an upper neighbor tone to embel-
lish my original melody note but utilized a blue note instead of the diatonic neighbor. I’ve sought
to balance bluesy gestures that emphasize the key of the piece with ones that are more connected
to the chord of the moment. I also added some pitch bending effects and included a variety of
articulations so it will sound closer to something I might have actually improvised spontaneously.
Practice this version and see if you agree it works better.
Blue Notes 59
Acc 37
Figure 7.9 Written Exercise: Freely varied bluesy version of your own “Saints” melody 
For the final exercise of this chapter, refer back to your own simple half-note melody from
Chapter 4 Written Exercise Figure 4.15. Review it and identify all opportunities to utilize blue
notes, when you used scale degrees 3, 5, and 7 in the key of the song. Then, add the blue versions
of those pitches or sometimes use the blue notes in place of the original notes. Let this exercise
help you to develop your own sense of balance along the bluesy continuum of Figure 7.2. As you
work to incorporate bluesiness into your melody, you may find that using too few blue notes
makes this exercise sound unmoored from the traditions of blues; too many and it may sound
too far removed from the harmonies of the tune. Write your new variation into the staves into
Figure 7.9. Be sure to vary the rhythms, articulations, and style, allowing it to be more natural
and to maximize the beauty and sense of drama.
As with the composition exercises in the previous chapters, I encourage you to use an iterative
process of improvisation and composition where you record yourself improvising, transcribe
those recordings, then utilize the successful parts combining them into a composition. Spend a
good deal of time performing your own bluesy variation after you’ve completed writing it. Where
would you measure your version on the bluesy meter in Figure 7.5? Is it in the middle some-
where? Spend some time improvising and composing additional variations that are consciously
more bluesy, and some that are less so. The goal of this chapter is to build your skills so that you
can maximize your expressive options and choose how bluesy your music will be at any time. You
do not want to be stuck with only one way of doing things.
Performance Etude Featuring Blue Notes

To wrap up this chapter, practice Figure 7.10 which I called “Blue Dolphin Street,” where I’ve
written a contrafact over the chord changes to “Green Dolphin Street.” The tune uses a signifi-
cant quantity of blue notes for bluesy effect. The fact that the song is in the key of E♭ major and
contains a ii–V–I chord progression to G♭ major in the fourth line creates an interesting oppor-
tunity. I used the pitch A♮, an enharmonically spelled blue 5th, in the second bar. During the G♭
cadence, that same pitch –A♮ –sounds a little like a blue 3rd instead of a blue 5th because of the
temporary G♭ tonal area.
The accompaniment track plays four choruses. You perform the melody then improvise two
choruses, ending with one final chorus of the melody.
60 Blue Notes
Acc 53
Figure 7.10 Performance Etude: “Blue Dolphin Street” 

Blue Notes 61

Practice adding blue notes to the “Distilled Saints Melody,” “Mike’s Original Saints Melody” and
your own “Saints” melody in all 12 major keys. Use the grid in Table 2.1 to help determine the
accompaniment recordings to use, and use Accompaniments 37–48 for your own melody.
Notes
1 Amiri Baraka, “Jazz Criticism and Its Effect on the Music,” in Digging: The Afro-American Soul of
American Classical Music, ed. Samuel A. Floyd and Guthrie P. Ramsey (Berkeley: University of California
Press, 2009), 77.
2 “Columbia matrix 80995. Mama’s got the blues/Fletcher Henderson; Bessie Smith,” in Discography
of American Historical Recordings, accessed August 13, 2020, https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/
matrix/detail/2000028762/80995-Mamas_got_the_blues.
3 Leonard Bernstein, “What Is Jazz,” Columbia Records CL 919, recorded July 12, 19, and 26, 1956, track
4 Ibid.
Chapter 8
Enclosures
In the 1940s, bebop innovators Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie popularized an increasing use
of chromaticism into jazz. One of the melodic techniques they often employed was to precede a
harmonic target note by chromatic pitches both above and below. Because it surrounds a target
pitch from both directions, this technique can be called a pitch enclosure1 or chromatic enclosure.
More technically, we could consider it an incomplete triple (or even quadruple) neighbor where
a chord tone, the melodic target, is preceded by both upper and lower neighbors.2 For reasons of
simplified nomenclature, I prefer the more concise term enclosure. Because of its chromaticism,
enclosures are one of the most colorful embellishments in jazz improvisation. Enclosures existed
before Parker and Gillespie, but beboppers elevated the practice to an entirely new level of artistic
achievement, and many other jazz musicians have incorporated the technique beautifully since.
Enclosures are often used to connect harmonic tones from one chord to the next, so we might
think of the technique as form of highly chromatic voice leading. Typically, at least one of the
pitches in an enclosure can be heard as a pitch inside in the chord of the moment which resolves
to a chord tone over the next chord. Performers often intend the listener to hear the voice leading
connection between the enclosure pitches and the ultimate target.
The examples in Figure 8.1 show several variations of enclosures. In all the phrases the notes
preceding the target pitch “enclose” it from both above and below. In the first two cases, the
target is approached by three pitches surrounding it. In the first case the target in preceded by
two half steps above and one half step below. In the second case, the target is preceded by one
half step above and two half steps below. The third example uses the same pitches as the second
ME 8.1
Figure 8.1 Musical Example: Several possible versions of enclosures 

Enclosures 63
example, but the pitches are in a different order. The fourth and fifth phrases precede the target
by four pitches, two half steps on either side but each is configured in a different order. The sixth
phrase also uses four pitches before the target, but all the pitches are all from the diatonic scale
rather than being chromatic color tones.
For purposes of simplicity and clarity, all the examples in Figure 8.1 use the enclosures as
a pickup over C7, the V7 chord, resolving to their target C♮ on beat one of the subsequent
measure when the chord changes to the tonic F major. However, in real-world musical situations
improvisers employ a great variety of rhythms and target resolutions. Jazz improvisers often vary
which beats or offbeats these types of gestures land on. Master improvisers like saxophonist Lee
Konitz and pianist/organist Gary Versace have elevated varying rhythms of enclosure targets
into an art unto itself. Listen to their amazing duo recording “Organic-Lee” to hear numerous
effective examples.3
Studying a solo transcription by a great improviser may help in understanding how enclosures
are used. Saxophonist Chad Lefkowitz-Brown utilizes enclosures frequently in his playing. You
can hear several effective examples in the opening 16 measures of his improvised solo over the
Charlie Parker tune “Yardbird Suite,” a concert key transcription of which is found in Figure 8.2.4
The musical example in Figure 8.3 examines the six enclosures Lefkowitz-Brown uses in the
first two “A” sections of his solo. Notice how much variety he employs in his enclosures, including
the contour of each gesture, which beat each enclosure lands on, and the chord tones he employs:
#1. Lands on beat one on the 3rd of the presumed G7 chord (presumed because this is during the
solo break while the rhythm section is not playing).
Figure 8.2 Musical Example: Solo transcription “Chad Lefkowitz-Brown Standard Sessions #8: Yardbird Suite” video

64 Enclosures
ME 8.3
Figure 8.3 Musical Example: Lefkowitz-Brown’s enclosures 
#2. Lands on beat four of the same measure on the root of the G7 chord.
#3. This enclosure particularly interesting because the target is well-hidden rhythmically but the
G as the 7th of the A7 chord is quite clear harmonically.
#4. Uses the same rhythm and contour as #1, but lands on the 5th of the chord.
#5. Uses a more deliberate, slower quarter note rhythm, landing on the 3rd of the A7 chord on
beat two.
#6. Like #5, the resolution is not until beat two, also on the 3rd of the chord, this time a tonic C
major chord.
Practicing Enclosures
To learn to perform enclosures, we will examine the first two patterns from Figure 8.1 more
closely. For purposes of simplification, these two versions will be the only enclosure patterns used
in this chapters’ exercises. One version starts a whole step above the target; the other starts a
half step above. Even though enclosures are incomplete neighbors, the pitch each gesture begins
with can be heard and understood as the upper neighbor. For all the performance exercises in this
chapter, the choice of specific enclosure pattern used will always be based on whether this upper
diatonic neighbor is a whole step or half step above the target.
Figure 8.4 shows how the interval of a 2nd between the target pitch and its diatonic upper
neighbor varies depending on the scale degree of the target pitch. When the target is the pitch C,
the 5th scale degree of F major, the diatonic upper neighbor is D, the 6th scale degree, a whole
step above. When the target is A, the 3rd scale degree, the diatonic upper neighbor is the 4th scale
degree B♭, only a half step above.
When the target’s diatonic upper neighbor is a whole step above the target note, the enclosures
the exercises in this chapter will practice will follow the pattern found in Figure 8.5. The gesture
starts with the diatonic upper neighbor a whole step above the target, then proceeds to an upper
neighbor only a half step above the target, then to the lower neighbor a half step below the target,
then lastly to the target itself.
When the target’s diatonic upper neighbor is a half step above, the exercises follow a different
pattern, as found in Figure 8.6. This version starts with the diatonic upper neighbor a half step
above the target, then proceeds to the lower neighbor a whole step below the target, then to the
lower neighbor a half step below the target, then lastly to the target pitch.
Figure 8.7 in an exercise that covers the entire major scale, determining whether the upper
neighbor of each diatonic pitch is a whole step or half step above, applying an enclosure depending
on the neighbor, then moving up to the next step of the scale. As you can see, only two pitches
Enclosures 65
ME 8.4
Figure 8.4 Musical Example: Diatonic upper neighbors can either be a whole step or a half step 
ME 8.5
Figure 8.5 Musical Example: Examining an enclosure when the upper diatonic neighbor is a whole step above the target 
ME 8.6
Figure 8.6 Musical Example: Examining an enclosure when the upper diatonic neighbor is a half step above the target 
Acc 151
Figure 8.7 Performance Exercise: Enclosing each pitch of the major scale 
of the diatonic major scale have upper neighbors that are half steps: the 3rd and 7th. A mental
image may help to remember this fact. Think of how piano keys are organized around the key
of C major. The only white keys on a keyboard that do not have black keys immediately to their
right are the 3rd E, and the 7th B. Therefore, their upper diatonic neighbors are white keys, only
a half step higher. All other diatonic upper neighbors are a whole step above.
Play through the entire exercise, repeating each measure multiple times to get the feeling of it in
your ears and under your fingers. The audio file Accompaniment 151.MP3 repeats each measure
four times.
66 Enclosures
Acc 152
Figure 8.8 Abbreviated Performance Exercise: Enclosing the ascending major scale 
Acc 153
Figure 8.9 Abbreviated Performance Exercise: Enclosing the descending major scale 
The style and articulation is as important as the pitches themselves. In each measure of Figure 8.7
I notated a pattern of articulation used often by great jazz saxophonists Cannonball Adderley
and others. The first and last notes of each gesture are accented. The second note is slurred, so
it is not emphasized as much as the accented notes. The third note is ghosted, deemphasized sig-
nificantly, indicated with the parenthesized notehead, just before the accented final target note.
You may remember that this technique was introduced in Chapter 3. In jazz performance prac-
tice, the last pitch immediately before an accented target is often deemphasized, highlighting the
harmonic movement from the first pitch of the gesture to the target. The deemphasized notes are
quite often the non-chord chromatic pitches of the enclosure, allowing the performer to end the
gesture with an accent on the target pitch. This articulation pattern is utilized with enclosures
throughout the chapter.
Now that you have learned which diatonic pitches have half- step vs. whole-step upper
neighbors, practice applying enclosure patterns for the entire major scale in sequence, preceding
each circled note of the scale with an enclosure around it. Follow the abbreviated pattern in
Figure 8.8 through the entire ascending major scale.
The Abbreviated Performance Exercise in Figure 8.9 does the same exercise on a descending
major scale. Follow the pattern and practice the entire descending scale.
Once you have learned enclosures around each note of the major scale, the exercise in
Figure 8.10 speeds up the thought process with a continuous sequence of enclosures on each
pitch of the major scale, but not pausing on the target notes. This exercise also contains a 2nd
exercise, a fully enclosed melodic minor scale. Notice how the melodic minor scale changes
depending on whether it is ascending or descending; the ascending version of the melodic minor
scale contains a major 6th and major 7th. The descending version contains a minor 6th and
minor 7th. These differences change the contour of the enclosures and make for a very colorful
exercise.
Note that the completely enclosed major scale in Figure 8.10 is similar to one of the exercises
Lefkowitz-Brown demonstrates in his video “15 Approach Note and Enclosure Exercises That
Every Jazz Musician Should Know” and expanded upon in his excellent book 15 Approach
Note and Enclosure Exercises: Essential Practice for Bebop Techniques5, a highly recommended
resource for advanced students.
As in previous chapters, the next step before applying the new embellishment technique to mel-
odies will be to practice it with basic triads. The four exercises in Figure 8.11 are:
1. Major  triad
2. Major triad with enclosures
3. Minor  triad
4. Minor triad with enclosures
Enclosures 67
Acc 154
Figure 8.10 Performance Exercise: A continuous sequence of enclosures of major and melodic minor scales 
Acc 155
Figure 8.11 Performance Exercise: Major and minor triads with enclosures 

68 Enclosures
Table 8.1 Practice Grid: Enclosures on scales and triads in all 12 keys
Figures 8.10 and 8.11 In All 12 Keys – Treble Clef Instruments.pdf
Concert Accompaniment Enclosures Enclosures to Enclosures to Enclosures

key audio file to the major the melodic the major to the minor
Acc 156–167 scale minor scale triad triad
Accompaniment
F
156.MP3
F♯ /G♭
Accompaniment
157.MP3
Accompaniment
G
158.MP3
Accompaniment
A♭ 159.MP3
Accompaniment
A
160.MP3
Accompaniment
B♭ 161.MP3
Accompaniment
B
162.MP3
Accompaniment
C
163.MP3
Accompaniment
D♭ 164.MP3
Accompaniment
D
165.MP3
Accompaniment
E♭ 166.MP3
Accompaniment
E
167.MP3
The second and fourth lines create a densely packed chromatic effect, yet the circled pitches from
the underlying triads are still audible, in part because they are placed rhythmically on strong
beats one and three. Because the enclosures precede each pitch in the triad, both enclosed versions
contain a one and a half beats of pickup.
In order to be fluent in enclosures, you will need to practice enclosures in several contexts
in all 12 keys. Use the checklist in Table 8.1 to ensure you’ve learned various permutations of
enclosures, including major and melodic minor scales as in Figure 8.10, and major and minor
chords as in Figure 8.11. The accompaniment recordings listed can assist in your practice. If you
find it too tricky to complete the enclosure exercises in 12 keys in your head, you can download
the associated PDF file that contains the exercises from Figures 8.10 and 8.11 notated in all 12
keys. Side note: my personal goal is to be able to play each exercise in one breath, which means
they have to be done in a fairly quick tempo.
Applying Enclosures to the Distilled Saints Melody

The following three exercises apply enclosures to the “Distilled Saints Melody.” These exercises
will separate the enclosure exercises into three permutations, adding enclosures that to precede
Enclosures 69
Acc 168
Figure 8.12 Performance Exercise: “Distilled Saints Melody” with enclosures preceding melody notes from the first half
of the bar 
the melody notes on (1) the first half of each bar, (2) the second half of each bar, and lastly (3) on
both halves.
The exercise in Figure 8.12 embellishes the “Distilled Saints Melody” with enclosures pre-
ceding the melody notes on first beat of each bar. There are a few notable aspects to this exercise.
First, note that this version has 1½ beats of pickup, because the enclosure gestures precede the
melody notes, including the very first one. Also, notice that in order to make the non-enclosed
pitches more recognizable as melody notes, all of them are accented and are anticipated by an
eighth note to make them last longer. I believe this sounds better, because making a pitch last
longer is a form of accent unto itself, known as an agogic accent.
The next exercise, Figure 8.13, encloses the melody notes on the second half of each “Distilled
Saints Melody” measure. This version has a half beat of pickup because all of the non-enclosed
melody notes are anticipated by an eighth and accented to bring them out.
If we apply enclosures to all pitches of the “Distilled Saints Melody,” the results are a densely
packed variation with a great deal of chromaticism seen in the exercise in Figure 8.14. Because
each enclosure in the exercise requires four eighth notes, there are no anticipations. All of the
circled pitches from the “Distilled Saints Melody” are on beats one and three and the enclosures
are on all the eighth notes that precede them.
Applying Enclosures to Mike’s Original Saints Melody

The next three exercises apply enclosures to “Mike’s Original Saints Melody.” The order of how
enclosures are applied in these three exercises will be the same as in Figures 8.12, 8.13 and
8.14: enclosures precede the melody notes on (1) the first half of each bar, (2) the second half
of each bar, and lastly (3) on both halves. As you practice these exercises, try to perform the
embellishments without reading the exercise before you read them from the printed page. Keep
in mind that this task is not the same as memorizing the exercise. The ultimate goal is to increase
70 Enclosures
Acc 169
Figure 8.13 Performance Exercise: “Distilled Saints Melody” with enclosures preceding melody notes from the second
half of the bar 
Figure 8.14 Performance Exercise: “Distilled Saints Melody” with enclosures preceding melody notes from both halves
Acc 170 of the bar 
Enclosures 71
Acc 171
Figure 8.15 Performance Exercise: “Mike’s Original Saints Melody” with enclosures preceding melody notes from the
first half of the bar 
Acc 172
second half of the bar 
your own embellishment abilities, so being able to embellish melodies with highly chromatic and
complex enclosures is the skill you’re learning.
The first of the three versions enclose the first pitch of each measure of “Mike’s Original Saints
Melody” as you can see in Figure 8.15. Like Figure 8.12, the exercise in Figure 8.15 anticipates
and accents melody notes that are not preceded with enclosures. In the pickups to the last phrase,
notice that I used D♭ as the diatonic upper neighbor to C, and not D♮, which means I’ve used the
enclosure contour when the upper neighbor is a half step above. I chose to use the chord of the
moment to make this decision. The chord in the last bar of the third phrase changes to B♭ minor,
72 Enclosures
Acc 173
Figure 8.17 Performance Exercise: “Mike’s Original Saints Melody” with enclosures preceding melody notes from both
halves of the bar 
the minor iv chord, so D♭ is the important minor 3rd of that chord, and I wanted to bring out that
voice leading gesture.
The next performance exercise, Figure 8.16, encloses the half notes found on the second half
of each measure of “Mike’s Original Saints Melody.”
And lastly, the dense third version which encloses all the pitches from “Mike’s Original Saints
Melody” is found in the performance exercise in Figure 8.17. Once again, notice the D♭ upper
neighbor of C in the last phrase.
Applying Enclosures to Your Own Melody

Now that you’ve practiced enclosures in multiple melodic contexts, the next step is to apply
enclosures to your own Saints melody. Refer back to your simple melody from the written exer-
cise in Figure 4.14. Apply enclosures in the same three ways as before: (1) on the melody pitches
the occur on the first half of the bar, (2) the pitches on the second half, and (3) to every half of
your melody.
Like with previous written exercises, try to perform each of three versions of the enclosures
from your head prior to writing the results down. Do it slowly at first, out of tempo if needed,
or in a very slow tempo, so you can practice what is sure to be a very challenging exercise. After
you’ve mastered the chromatic embellishments on your own melody, write them in the written
exercises that follow.
In Figure 8.18, the exercise is to write your melody with enclosures preceding the first pitch of
each bar. This version will presumably require a pickup measure since the enclosures will precede
the melody notes of your melody.
In Figure 8.19, write a version where you enclose the second half note of each of your melody
pitches.
And finally, in Figure 8.20, write a version that encloses all the pitches of your simple melody.
Enclosures 73
Acc 37
Figure 8.18 Written Exercise: Your own “Saints” melody with enclosures preceding melody notes from the first half of
the bar 
Acc 37
Figure 8.19 Written Exercise: Your own “Saints” melody with enclosures preceding melody notes from the second half
of the bar 

The performance exercises in Figure 8.10 drilled enclosures on major and minor scales. For
added challenge, include variations where Lydian dominant, Dorian, or harmonic minor scales
are the foundation. The complexity of minor keys is stunningly beautiful when enclosed with
such complex chromaticism.
Another advanced exercise is to rhythmically displace the enclosures by an eighth or a beat
earlier or later. This type of displacement can introduce a great deal of ambiguity for the listener,
masking which notes are your harmonic targets. Master improvisers like Lee Konitz use this
74 Enclosures
Acc 37
Figure 8.20 Written Exercise: Your own “Saints” melody with enclosures preceding melody notes from both halves of
the bar 
Acc 174
Figure 8.21 Abbreviated Performance Exercise: “Mike’s Original Saints Melody” melody with enclosures preceding melody
notes from the first half of the bar, displaced an eighth note earlier 
Acc 175
notes from the first half of the bar, displaced an eighth note later 
ambiguity to great effect. For example, if you were to displace the exercise in Figure 8.15 by
moving the entire chorus an eighth note ahead (earlier), the results would begin like Figure 8.21.
Note that the articulation pattern is altered to be musical within this revised rhythmic construction.
You could also displace the exercise to be an eighth note later, as seen in the exercise in
Figure 8.22.
You could continue, displacing the exercise by a full beat later, as seen in the exercise in
Figure 8.23.
There are many other rhythmic permutations that can help to expand the melodic intrigue of
these embellishments. Be sure to explore a wide variety of possibilities.
Performance Etude Featuring Enclosures

The concluding etude of the chapter is called “Enclosable You,” found in Figure 8.24. You per-
form the melody for one chorus, improvise a solo for a chorus then end with one final chorus of
melody.
Enclosures 75
Acc 176
notes from the first half of the bar, displaced a full beat later 
Acc 56
Figure 8.24 Performance Etude: “Enclosable You” 
76 Enclosures
Additional Video Resources

• Chad Lefkowitz-Brown Standard Sessions #8: Yardbird Suite (Charlie Parker) www.youtube.
com/watch?v=4MDOzgnxVdo
• 15 Approach Note and Enclosure Exercises That Every Jazz Musician Should Know https://
youtu.be/bP72amBkcBc?t=486
Notes
1 Dariusz Terefenko, Jazz Theory: From Basic to Advanced Study, 2nd ed. (New York: Routledge,
2018), 170.
2 Edward Aldwell and Carl Schachter, Harmony and Voice Leading, 3rd ed. (Belmont, CA: Thomson/
Schirmer, 2003), 336–338.
3 Organic-Lee, Lee Konitz and Gary Versace, SteepleChase SCCD 31599, 2006, compact disc.
4 “Chad Lefkowitz-Brown Standard Sessions #8: Yardbird Suite (Charlie Parker),” performance by Chad
Lefkowitz-Brown, December 19, 2017, video, 0:40, www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MDOzgnxVdo.
5 Chad Lefkowitz-Brown, 15 Approach Note and Enclosure Exercises That Every Jazz Musician Should
Know, Chad LB, accessed August 17, 2020, www.chadlb.com/product-page/15-approach-note-enclosure-
exercises-for-jazz-musicians.
Chapter 9
Putting It All Together
In a fantastic 1985 interview with David Kastin in Downbeat, Lee Konitz presented his concept
for a 10-stage process for learning improvisation, each stage of which represented an increasing
level of melodic embellishment to the Jerome Kern song “All the Things You Are.”1 Konitz refers
to each stage in the process as a gradient. His first gradient is to perform the original melody
of a song completely unadorned by any embellishments. For his 10th and final gradient, which
contains the maximum amount of embellishment, Konitz calls it “an act of pure inspiration.”
I think it’s up to each improviser to determine how they want this final gradient to sound, because
it ultimately represents their own voice as a creative musician.
This chapter will take an organized approach to utilizing all the embellishments from previous
chapters, using them as a means of approximating Konitz’s gradients. The goal will be to create
choruses that feel more improvisational to the listener by re-combining the various embellishment
techniques to make increasingly ornate melodies that begin to express your own musical voice.
We will start with examining and performing four versions of “When the Saints Go Marching
In” with mounting levels of embellishment, loosely targeting the increasing gradients of Konitz’s
series. After that, you will compose gradients based on your own simple melody.
For each of the four of the following four exercises in Figures 9.1, 9.2, 9.3 and 9.4, you will
complete a series of performing and written tasks. Be sure to complete all of these tasks for each
exercise:
Acc 177
Figure 9.1 Performance Exercise with Written Component: The “Distilled Saints Melody” with a fairly small quantity of
embellishments 
78 Putting It All Together
Acc 178
Figure 9.2 Performance Exercise with Written Component: The “Distilled Saints Melody” with a greater quantity of
embellishments 
Acc 179
Figure 9.3 Performance Exercise with Written Component: “Mike’s Original Saints Melody” with a fairly small quantity
of embellishments 
1. Listen to the recording, sing it, and perform it on your instrument. Remember, you should
both play and sing, regardless of whether your primary musical outlet is an instrument or
your voice.
2. Circle all the tones from the source melody it is based on. The first two, in Figures 9.1 and 9.2,
are based on the “Distilled Saints Melody” and the next two, Figures 9.3 and 9.4, are based
on “Mike’s Original Saints Melody.”
3. Lastly, identify the embellishment techniques that embellish the melody notes, and write them
above the line.
Putting It All Together 79
Acc 180
Figure 9.4 Performance Exercise with Written Component: “Mike’s Original Saints Melody” with a great quantity of
embellishments 
The first exercise in Figure 9.1 is based on the “Distilled Saints Melody” and includes a mix of
all types of embellishments we’ve practiced so far. In this version the quantity of embellishments
is fairly small, so the melodic texture is not exceedingly dense. Because of its sparse use of
embellishments, this chorus does not sound like a significant departure from the song “When
the Saints Go Marching In” it is based on. Even with the embellishments, I am confident most
listeners would still recognize the original song. Therefore, I consider this to be approximately the
2nd or 3rd gradient of Konitz’s stages.2 Be sure to (1) listen and perform it, (2) circle the original
notes from the “Distilled Saints Melody,” and (3) identify all the embellishment techniques used
to adorn the melody.
This next exercise in Figure 9.2 is also based on the “Distilled Saints Melody” but includes a
greater density of embellishments. The result is more ornate than the exercise in Figure 9.1. An
astute listener could still hear the original melody but would recognize that it was a significantly
embellished version of the tune. Therefore, I consider this version to be akin to the 4th or 5th
gradient of Konitz’s stages.3
The melodic foundation of the next exercise in Figure 9.3 is “Mike’s Original Saints Melody”
instead of the “Distilled Saints Melody” of the previous two versions. Because it is based on my
own melody, it is far less audibly connected to the song “When the Saints Go Marching In” and
therefore feels more improvisational to the listener. For this reason, I consider it to be higher
on Konitz’s gradients scale than the previous two versions. However, because it is not overly
dense with embellishments, it is not yet near the top of the scale. I still consider this a 6th or 7th
gradient.4
This fourth exercise in Figure 9.4 is based on “Mike’s Original Saints Melody” ornamented
with a much greater density of embellishments than in Figure 9.3. I may have even added a few
new melody notes; try to identify them. This version sounds almost completely improvised, so
I consider it to be 8th or 9th gradient on Konitz’s scale.5
Konitz calls his 10th and final gradient “an act of pure inspiration,” and I think it would be
foolish for me to attempt to present my own 10th version here. With some luck on both our parts,
you can hear me play a “10” on my gig tonight.
Your Own Composed Improvisations

The next steps are for you to compose four of your own improvisations, targeting the same four
approximate gradients as I did in the previous exercises. Your first two versions will be based on
the “Distilled Saints Melody,” but the next two will be based on your own “Saints” melody, which
will ensure that your own mark will be stamped on the results.
For this first version, using the blank staves of Figure 9.5, compose a simple variation on
the “Distilled Saints Melody,” freely mixing the various embellishment techniques. Keep the
“Distilled” melody clear, using a fairly small number of embellishments in order to target this
version to Konitz’s 2nd or 3rd gradient.6 Notice there is room for the pickup bar before the start
of the form, since the “Distilled” melody contains a pickup measure, too.
Once you have finished notating your composition, perform it repeatedly. I encourage you to
have friends or colleagues perform it, too. Listen to others performing your composition and ask
yourself some questions: Do you like it? Does hearing it performed by others make you want to
change it in any way? If they perform it any differently than you intended it, do you think the
issue is their interpretation, or the way you notated it? Do you feel you achieved the goal of a 2nd
or 3rd gradient, where the original melody is still clearly audible to the listener?
For your second composed version, write a more ornate variation on the “Distilled Saints
Melody” into Figure 9.6, freely mixing the various embellishment techniques with more density
than the previous version. You should still keep the melody clear but use a greater quantity of
embellishments in order to target this version to Konitz’s 4th or 5th gradient.7
For the third composition exercise, you will no longer be using the “Distilled Saints Melody”
as the melodic foundation, but instead use your own melody from Figure 4.15. For this exercise,
include a relatively small number of melodic embellishments and keep your tune fairly clear. Even
though the embellishments will be sparse as compared to the fourth and final written exercise
of the chapter, the foundational melody will be your own, and the listener would not hear clear
remnants of the original melody of “When the Saints Go Marching In,” so the results will be per-
haps akin to Konitz’s 6th or 7th gradient.8 Write your version into Figure 9.7.
The fourth exercise in this series is to write a highly ornate, densely embellished variation
of your own “Saints” melody. Because this version will be based on your own tune and will be
Acc 13
Figure 9.5 Written Exercise: Create your own version of the “Distilled Saints Melody” with a fairly small quantity of
embellishments 
Acc 13
Figure 9.6 Written Exercise: Create your own version of the “Distilled Saints Melody” with a greater quantity of
embellishments 
Acc 37
Figure 9.7 Written Exercise: Your own “Saints” melody with a fairly small quantity of embellishments 
greatly embellished, it will be a significant departure from “When the Saints Go Marching In”
and therefore will be Konitz’s 8th or 9th gradient.9 Write your variation into Figure 9.8.
Improvised Versions
The previous creative activities of this chapter focused more on composing than on improvising.
But as I mentioned earlier, composing is the opposite side of the same coin as improvising. This
a book on improvisation, so the work of chapter would be incomplete to only do these exercises
as compositional studies. You should improvise versions of each of the four previous written
Acc 37
Figure 9.8 Written Exercise: Your own “Saints” melody with a great quantity of embellishments 
exercises that target the same gradients. In other words, practice improvising four different
choruses that achieve the following goals:
• For the 2nd or 3rd gradient, vary the “Distilled Saints Melody” (using Accompaniment
13.MP3) with only a small quantity of improvised embellishments.
• For the 4th or 5th gradient, vary the “Distilled Saints Melody” (using Accompaniment 13.MP3)
with a greater density of improvised embellishments.
• For the 6th or 7th gradient, vary your own Saints melody (using Accompaniment 37.MP3)
with a small quantity of improvised embellishments.
• For the 8th or 9th gradient, vary your own Saints melody (using Accompaniment 37.MP3)
with a greater density of improvised embellishments.
If you are primarily an instrumentalist, I encourage you to scat sing improvisations targeting
these gradients. If you are primarily a singer, I encourage you to do the same on an instrument.
Remember that playing and singing are opposite sides of the same coin.
If you had any trouble composing in the exercises 9.5, 9.6, 9.7, or 9.8, I encourage you to utilize
these improvisation exercises in a cyclical process as I mentioned in Chapter 4. For example,
record yourself improvising some choruses with the provided accompaniment tracks where you
embellish the melody in a spontaneous way, then listen back to your own recording, transcribing
your favorite parts, and use that transcription to help compose these versions which target spe-
cific levels of embellishment. Then, these composed versions can help inspire you in your subse-
quent improvisations, and the cycle of creativity will continue.
And for one last task, finish your work by freely improvising choruses without any precon-
ceived underlying melody. You will create the underlying melody spontaneously, as you impro-
vise. This will be the 10th gradient, your “act of pure inspiration.”10
You can do this. Go for it!

Like the previous chapters, one of the most important advanced exercises is to do these types
of embellishments in all 12 keys. Improvise gradients of the “Distilled Saints Melody,” “Mike’s
Original Saints Melody,” and your own melody in all 12 keys. For this work, use the practice grid
in Table 2.1 to organize your practice and use the accompaniment recordings that match the key
you’re practicing. And use Accompaniments 37–48 for gradients of your own melody.
Notes
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid.
4 Ibid.
5 Ibid.
6 Ibid.
7 Ibid.
8 Ibid.
9 Ibid.
10 Ibid.
Chapter 10
Embellishing the Blues
In previous chapters, this book has focused primarily on the tune “When the Saints Go Marching
In,” but I also culminated chapters with etudes based on other tunes which utilize the embellish-
ment technique introduced in that chapter. Now for these final three chapters, we explore how
you can start utilizing these embellishment concepts in other song forms. In this chapter, we study
the 12-bar blues. The focus of this chapter will be different from Chapter 7, where I discussed
how blue notes are used as non-harmonic tones. This chapter will explore how to treat blue notes
and the blues form harmonically. It is the richly chromatic treatment of the harmony in jazz blues
that distinguishes it from other forms of blues.
One of the most important melodic aspects of jazz blues is the blue 3rd. Chapter 7 established
that the blue 3rd is the minor 3rd in the key of the tune, but is not just used as a non-harmonic
tone over tonic I chords. Jazz musicians use the blue 3rd extensively when it becomes the 7th of
the IVdom7 chord, often in I–IV–I progressions. Figure 10.1 shows how the major 3rd A♮ leads to
A♭ as the chord changes to B♭7, when A♭ becomes the 7th of the IVdom7 chord.
This melodic property –the toggling back and forth between the home key’s major and minor
3rds –exemplifies the harmonic movement of these chords. It is perhaps the primary harmonic
marker of how jazz embodies the blues feeling. For a clear example of this major 3rd → minor
3rd melodic device, listen to Sonny Rollins’s tune “Tenor Madness.”1 The tune is the title track
of his 1956 album which also features John Coltrane, the other leading tenor saxophonist of the
era. “Tenor Madness” is a 12-bar blues in B♭ major with Rollins and Coltrane playing the melody
in unison. The melody uses a simple, repeating one-bar phrase. The first time we hear the phrase
over the tonic B♭ chord, it begins with D♮, the major 3rd. Each time the chord changes to the IV
E♭7 chord, Rollins replaces the major 3rd with D♭, the blue 3rd of the key, which becomes the 7th
of the chord. I enjoy how Rollins accents, anticipates, and scoops into these pitches, techniques
that help bring out the bluesy feeling and voice leading.
This melodic device was also used effectively by Great American Songbook composers.
A clear example can be found in the song “Somebody Loves Me” by George and Ira Gershwin.
Figure 10.2 shows how A♭, the minor 3rd of the key, is used over the IVdom7 chord in both the
4th and 6th measures of the chorus.2
Mike’s Simple Blues Melodies

Like previous chapters, the exercises in this chapter will be based on simple melodies made up
entirely of half notes and whole notes. There are perhaps thousands of 12-bar blues heads (and
presumably equally as many variations on blues chord progressions) that could serve as our point
ME 10.1
Figure 10.1 Musical Example: The minor 3rd of a major key as the 7th of the IVdom7 chord 
Embellishing the Blues 85
ME 10.2
Figure 10.2 Musical Example: Excerpt of Gershwin’s “Somebody Loves Me” showing how the minor 3rd of the key is used
over IVdom7th chords 
Acc 57
Figure 10.3 Performance Exercise: “Upper Guide Tone Blues” 
Acc 58
Figure 10.4 Performance Exercise: “Lower Guide Tone Blues” 
of departure. But for purposes of providing a simple foundation for this chapter, I have composed
two new blues that are simple and melodic, and that delineate the chord progression clearly.
The first foundational blues chorus, found in Figure 10.3, is called the “Upper Guide Tone
Blues.” My primary goal in writing this chorus was to achieve a balance of the continuum
explored in Figure 7.2 between the chord of the moment and the key of the tune. The “chord of
the moment” side of the continuum is addressed by the major 3rd → minor 3rd voice leading ges-
ture in the I–IV–I chord progression. The “key of the tune” side of the continuum is addressed by
repeatedly returning to F, the tonic home note, regardless of whether the chord is I or IV.
The second chorus, the “Lower Guide Tone Blues” in Figure 10.4, follows the toggling of the
I to IV chords by melodically using the half-step change between 7th of the tonic dominant chord
to the 6th of the key, the 3rd of the IV chord.
86 Embellishing the Blues
These two choruses are not very difficult to memorize, so practice both melodies many times
until they are completely internalized.
Rhythmic and Phrasing Embellishments on the Blues

Now that we have established two foundational blues melodies, we will apply the embellishment
techniques from previous chapters to each of these choruses, starting with some straightforward
rhythmic variations. The first chorus in Figure 10.5 is the “Upper Guide Tone Blues” with a
syncopated rhythmic variation on the first half notes of the measures. The second chorus applies
the same rhythmic variation on the “Lower Guide Tone Blues.” As always, the circled noteheads
represent pitches from the original melodies. Notice how both variations anticipate and accent
the melody notes from the second halves of each bar from the original melodies.
The exercise in Figure 10.6 utilizes a similar pattern of syncopation and style but applies it to
the half notes that occur on the second half of the bar, from both the first “Upper Guide Tone
Blues” chorus and second “Lower Guide Tone Blues” chorus.
Notice that the final two measures are not varied from the original melodies. This is true for all
the embellishments in this chapter. I find that ending each chorus with the exact same concluding
gesture allows me and the students to feel good about wrapping up each chorus, regardless of
whether we made a few errors while practicing the embellishments.
In addition to the exercises presented in Figures 10.5 and 10.6, practice a variety of additional
rhythmic and stylistic variations. For ideas, review the variations from Chapter 3 and apply them
to both “Upper” and “Lower” guide tone blues. And just like the end of Chapter 3, be sure to
Acc 181
Figure 10.5 Performance Exercise: “Upper” and “Lower” blues choruses with a syncopated rhythmic variation on the
first half 
Acc 182
second half 
come up with your own and try improvising a combination of rhythmic embellishments in order
to make it feel spontaneous and improvisational.
PEDAGOGICAL NOTE
In my improvisation classes, I teach these “Upper” and “Lower” guide tone blues entirely by
ear, and I often use simple rhythmic and stylistic variations to help teach. I have discovered
that once the class does a few iterations with different rhythms, they will have inherently
memorized the original melodies. In other words, one does not have to memorize a melody
in order to subsequently do variations; you can do variations in order to memorize a melody.
I find that it doesn’t take overly long for a whole group to learn both guide tone lines by ear,
and it will prove to be well worth the effort in the end. I often hear my students singing the
melodies as they walk out of the classroom!
Melodic Embellishments on the Blues

We will begin melodic embellishments on the blues by adding upper neighbors to the two guide
tone blues. The exercises in Figure 10.7 add upper neighbors to the half notes from the first
halves of the two melodies. Chorus one is the “Upper” blues and chorus two is the “Lower” blues.
Notice that these choruses vary the rhythm slightly, anticipating the melody note by an eighth
Acc 183
Figure 10.7 Performance Exercise: “Upper” and “Lower” blues choruses with upper neighbors on the first half 
immediately after each neighbor tone gesture. I believe this anticipation adds just enough synco-
pation to make the chorus more fun and compelling.
The exercise in Figure 10.8 is similar to Figure 10.7, except the upper neighbors are added
to the pitches on the second half notes of the bars from the two blues choruses, “Upper” then
“Lower.” Like the previous exercise, these choruses vary the rhythm a similar way, where the
melody note following the neighbor gesture is anticipated by an eighth.
Before we move on to practicing more complex embellishments to the blues, we need to dis-
cuss the diatonic upper neighbors in Figure 10.8, because the choices I made here determine the
contour of the later embellishments. You may remember that we investigated this moment in the
blues in Chapter 4 when discussing diatonic upper neighbors. Figure 4.6 examined the upper
diatonic neighbors of the 9th bar of the Upper Guide Tone Blues. You can see that over the C7 V
chord, the diatonic upper neighbor of G could have been either a half step up to A♭, or a whole
step up to A♮. The decision turns out to not be a simple choice.
When we get to this moment of the blues in my improvisation classes, I pause to ask the class
which version of the upper neighbor they prefer. The question comes down to whether we’re
hearing the embellishment more as a part of the chord of the moment, or more within the context
of the overall key of the tune. I ask the class to practice this one measure alone, out of harmonic
context as well as putting it in the context of the whole phrase. We also do it at various tempos,
accenting that pitch. In the end, I asked the class to vote. Entirely unscientifically, I believe about
80 percent of my students seem to prefer A♭, the chromatic neighbor just a half step above.
During our discussion, one student mentioned that when performed slowly, out of tonal context,
A♮ sounded “better” because the major 6th (or 13th) of V7 sounds like a color tone on the chord.
But this student observed that A♮ is an important melodic resolution of this phrase two bars later,
Acc 184
Figure 10.8 Performance Exercise: “Upper” and “Lower” blues choruses with upper neighbors on the second half 
so hearing it in this earlier bar “gives it away” too soon. For this reason, they preferred A♭ as the
upper neighbor to G in the V7 chord. I agreed, so that’s what I chose here.
More Complex Melodic Embellishments

For the next variations in Figure 10.9, I have only notated the first few measures of each chorus
with the melody notes circled. Be sure to complete the choruses by continuing the patterns
indicated. Notice that all the variations in Figure 10.9 use neighbor tone embellishments, applied
to the “Upper Guide Tone Blues” at the beginning of the line, and the “Lower Guide Tone Blues”
afterwards. Just like in Chapter 4, whenever upper neighbors are employed, they are diatonic,
while lower neighbors are chromatic. Also note that just like the previous exercises, each chorus
uses a small rhythmic variation to make the results feel more musical.
The next twelve embellishment exercises, in Figure 10.10, only present the first few bars of
each chorus with the original melody notes circled. Be sure to practice the complete choruses by
continuing the patterns indicated. These abbreviated exercises include 12 choruses:
1. “Upper Guide Tone Blues” with appoggiaturas from the 1st half to the 2nd half
2. “Lower Guide Tone Blues” with appoggiaturas from the 1st half to the 2nd half
3. “Upper Guide Tone Blues” with appoggiaturas from the 2nd half to the 1st half of the next bar
4. “Lower Guide Tone Blues” with appoggiaturas from the 2nd half to the 1st half of the next bar
5. “Upper Guide Tone Blues” with passing tones from the 1st half to the 2nd half
6. “Lower Guide Tone Blues” with passing tones from the 1st half to the 2nd half
Acc 185 & 59
Figure 10.9 Abbreviated Performance Exercise: “Upper” and “Lower” blues choruses with various neighbor tones 
7. “Upper Guide Tone Blues” with passing tones from the 2nd half to the 1st half of the next bar
8. “Lower Guide Tone Blues” with passing tones from the 2nd half to the 1st half of the next bar
9. “Upper Guide Tone Blues” with enclosures preceding the 1st half of the bar
10. “Lower Guide Tone Blues” with enclosures preceding the 1st half of the bar
11. “Upper Guide Tone Blues” with enclosures preceding the 2nd half of the bar
12. “Lower Guide Tone Blues” with enclosures preceding the 2nd half of the bar
Just like embellishing “Saints” melodies in previous chapters when applying appoggiaturas and
enclosures, the pitch that would be the neighbor tone a step away is used to structure the embel-
lishment. For example, when appoggiaturas are added to descending leaps, the non-chord lower
pitch added to the gesture is the same as the lower chromatic neighbor. When appoggiaturas
are added to ascending leaps, the non-chord tone pitch added is the same as the upper dia-
tonic neighbor. For choruses that use enclosures, you determine the contour of the enclosure
that precedes the chord tone by first establishing which pitch the upper neighbor would be, then
enclose it with one of the two patterns we practiced in Chapter 8, depending on whether that
diatonic upper neighbor is a half step or whole step above. This is particularly interesting in the
ninth chorus where B♭ is the upper diatonic neighbor of both A♮ and A♭. When enclosing A♮, you
use one enclosure pattern; when enclosing A♭, you would use the other.
The next six exercises, in Figure 10.11, are the densest choruses of the chapter, and several
of them contain continuous streams of eighth notes. These choruses can be quite challenging
because of the audiation gymnastics required to perform embellishments this thick. Therefore, be
sure to practice them slowly at first, and let yourself learn them gradually, over a long stretch of
time. The sequence of choruses is:
1. “Upper Guide Tone Blues” with appoggiaturas connecting all pitches

2. “Lower Guide Tone Blues” with appoggiaturas connecting all pitches
3. “Upper Guide Tone Blues” with double neighbors on all pitches
4. “Lower Guide Tone Blues” with double neighbors on all pitches
5. “Upper Guide Tone Blues” with enclosures preceding all pitches
6. “Lower Guide Tone Blues” with enclosures preceding all pitches
Acc 186 & 59
Figure 10.10 Abbreviated Performance Exercise: “Upper” and “Lower” blues choruses with appoggiaturas, passing tones
and enclosures 
To culminate the embellishment exercises based on my blues melodies, I have provided two
choruses in Figure 10.12, the first based on the “Upper” blues and the second based on the
“Lower” blues, where I freely mixed the various embellishment techniques to compose new
versions of my own guide tone choruses to sound as spontaneous as possible. In addition to prac-
ticing my freely mixed embellishments, practice freely mixing embellishments spontaneously to
see if you can create improvisational-sounding solos.
Compose Your Own Blues

This chapter has provided a series of exercises that embellish my blues melodies, but blues a
personal expression of the performer, so it is important to create your own melodies. The next
exercise is for you to write your own simple 12-bar blues which you will then embellish with the
techniques from earlier chapters. Compose a 12-bar blues, notating it into Figure 10.13, adhering
Acc 187 & 59
Figure 10.11 Abbreviated Performance Exercise: “Upper” and “Lower” blues choruses with densest amount of
embellishments 
to the same rules for writing a simple melody in Chapter 4 Figure 4.15: Use only half notes and
whole notes, stay inside the key and/or the chord of the moment, end your phrases with longer
notes near the end of each line, and keep it simple. You can utilize blue notes but be sure they are
harmonic tones that fit inside the chord of the moment.
I encourage you to use the cyclical improvisation/ composition approach I mentioned in
Chapter 4 for this compositional step. Record yourself improvising blues choruses made up
exclusively of half and whole notes, then listen back to the results. Do this repeatedly, then select
the best melodic portions and transcribe them, then use those transcriptions to inspire your
written blues choruses.
Practice varying the rhythms, articulations and style like the exercises in Figure 10.3 and
Figure 10.4 but also improvise a mix of rhythmic variations on your newly composed blues
melody. After that, apply and practice the entire series of embellishments you practiced on my
two blues choruses. To help you practice, the list of exercises to apply to your own half/whole-
note melody is in the practice grid in Table 10.1.
It is possible that not every embellishment will make sense for every melody note, depending on
the contour of your tune. For example, if you employ wide melodic intervals, which can be quite
dramatic, passing tones are unlikely to make sense between the wide intervals.
Acc 188 & 59
Figure 10.12 Performance Exercise: “Upper” and “Lower” blues choruses with freely mixed embellishments 
Acc 59
Figure 10.13 Written Exercise: Compose your own simple blues melody with only half notes and whole notes 
Table 10.1 Practice Grid: Your blues melody with all embellishment exercises
Embellishment exercise Your composed blues chorus

Acc 59
Rhythmic and stylistic variations on the first half
Rhythmic and stylistic variations on the second half
Diatonic upper neighbors on the first half
Diatonic upper neighbors on the second half
Lower chromatic neighbor in the first half
Lower chromatic neighbor on the second half
Double neighbors on the first half
Double neighbors on the second half
Appoggiaturas from the first half to the second half
Appoggiaturas from the second half to the first half of the next bar
Passing tones from the first half to the second half of next bar
Passing tones from the second half to the first half of the next bar
Enclosures preceding the first half of each bar
Enclosures preceding the second half of each bar
Double neighbors on all pitches
Appoggiaturas to all pitches
Passing tones between all pitches
Enclosures to all pitches
Freely mixed embellishments
Table 10.2 Practice Grid: Table to organize your blues practice in all 12 keys
Concert key Accompaniment audio file Mike’s upper and Your own blues
Acc 59–70
lower blues chorus
F♯ /G♭ Accompaniment 60.MP3
PEDAGOGICAL NOTE
I highly recommend doing collaborative composition work with your class. For example,
after the students compose a simple blues chorus, have the entire class perform the sequence
of embellishments on their classmates’ blues. You could also have smaller groups of students
do embellishments of each other’s choruses in unison, or as soloists, or a mix. These types of
group activities provide many benefits: Everyone learns from each other’s melodic ideas and
will also get more practice on the embellishment techniques. I think all your students will
find it illuminating how much melodic material one can glean from a single simple chorus.
And I think it can be a great way to build a supportive culture of improvisers among your
students.

At this point in the book, you may be able to predict that I will recommend learning all the
chapter exercises in all 12 keys. I have provided accompaniment recordings in all 12 keys for you
to practice with. Start by transposing my two guide tune blues choruses into 12 keys, and then
complete the same progression with your own melody.
Notes
1 Sonny Rollins, “Tenor Madness,” recorded May 24, 1956, track 1 on Tenor Madness, Original Jazz
Classics OJCCD-124–2, 1987, compact disc.
2 George Gershwin, Somebody Loves Me, ed. Herman Wasserman, George Gershwin’s Song Book: Special
Piano Arrangements (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1941), 47–49.
Chapter 11
Embellishing a Standard Chord Progression
For this chapter, we will do the same series of embellishments as before, but now the exercises
will be applied to melodies over a different yet standard chord progression. Like Chapter 10, this
chapter will begin with embellishing simple melodic lines I created over these standard chords,
then end with you writing your own simple melody to embellish. I created two simple half-note
melodies for study. The first one is called “Melodic Arpeggios” and the second is “Who Is This
One I Like?” The “Melodic Arpeggios” are intended to be a relatively simple line which achieves
the goals of practicing the chords and hearing some of the simple guide tones that connect them.
“Who Is This One I Like?” is more free-wheeling, representing a more through-composed melodic
approach to choosing chord tones.
This tune uses the AABA song form common to many jazz standards, in which each section
contains 8 bars. Each “A” section is harmonically identical to the others. The song is in C major,
but the first chord is a C7 chord, not the I chord but a V chord of a cadence in F minor, which
turns out to be the iv chord, which we only discover upon the next cadence of the “A” section
which is a V–I in C major. The “B” section, or “bridge,” is intended to be a significant harmonic
departure, so it contains a chord progression different from the “A” sections. The bridge begins
with a four-bar cadence in B♭, followed by two bars of A♭7 and two bars of G7 before returning
to the final “A” section.
Melodic Arpeggios
When I start learning a new song, I spend a long time with the melody, ensuring I internalize it
fully. But I don’t just work on the melody, I simultaneously learn the chord progression. I play
the chords on piano as I sing the melody, and also arpeggiate the chords on saxophone. I often
use simple arpeggiation patterns to start, ascending each chord with chord tones R–3–5–7 then
descending 7–5–3–R. If a chord has no 7th, I substitute the 6th or another root in a different
octave to keep a similar contour throughout. My favorite arpeggio pattern is 3–5–R–7 because
the 7th scale degrees often resolve to the 3rd of the next chord, allowing me to hear the voice
leading most readily.
During this phase of learning a song, I work up a set of “melodic arpeggios” with the dual
goal of learning the chord tones and some of the melodic voice leading the chords imply. With
this first chapter exercise, the “Melodic Arpeggios” in Figure 11.1, I created a melody that serves
to arpeggiate the basic chord tones and create a larger sense of voice leading. It is simple and
follows many of the same phrasing and construction principles as my “Saints” and “Blues” mel-
odies. Notice that all the “A” sections are identical (just like the chords), so they are fairly easy to
learn. The melody in the bridge, however, follows a different contour. It is important to memorize
“Melodic Arpeggios” so that the subsequent embellishments will be as facile as possible.
Similar to the previous chapters, the task will be to do rhythmic and phrasing variations to
the simple melody. The abbreviated exercises in Figure 11.2 shows the first four bars of eight
rhythmic variations on “Melodic Arpeggios” with noteheads from the original melody pitches
circled for clarity. For each line, continue all the rhythms indicated for the entire 32-bar AABA
Embellishing a Standard Chord Progression 97
Acc 71
Figure 11.1 Performance Exercise: “Melodic Arpeggios” 
Acc 190 & 71 (R)
Figure 11.2 Abbreviated Performance Exercise: Rhythmic variations on “Melodic Arpeggios” 

98 Embellishing a Standard Chord Progression
chorus. After you’ve completed the exercises in Figure 11.2, I encourage you to add some of your
own rhythms to the mix.
The next series of abbreviated exercises compiled into Figure 11.3 only present the top four
bars of nine choruses of “Melodic Arpeggios,” each with a variation of neighbor tones:
1. Upper diatonic neighbors on the first half

2. Upper diatonic neighbors on the second half
3. Upper diatonic neighbors on both halves
4. Lower chromatic neighbors on the first half
5. Lower chromatic neighbors on the second half
6. Lower chromatic neighbors on both halves
7. Double neighbors on the first half
8. Double neighbors on the second half
9. Double neighbors on both halves
For each chorus, continue to apply the neighbor pattern to the “Melodic Arpeggios” for the
remainder of the entire 32-bar form. Several of these exercises –number 9 in particular –are quite
dense and challenging, so I encourage you to start slowly, out of tempo, before you try to use the
accompaniment recordings. You may notice that I made some interesting chromatic choices in
choosing upper neighbors, the reasoning for which may not always be clear, since the song is in C
major, and every “A” section ends on a C major chord. These three choices warrant some discussion:
1. D♭ as the upper neighbor of C in the first measure

2. D♮ as the upper neighbor of C in the third measure
3. A♭ as the upper neighbor of G in the second measure
At first, a listener hearing this chord progression may assume the “A” sections will end in C minor
because it temporarily cadences on an F minor iv chord at the end of the first phrase. I think we
as performers serve the song well to highlight this lovely bit of ambiguity, preserving the idea
that the ultimate cadence might just be C minor by treating the first 6 bars of the “A” sections
as if they were going to end on a minor tonic chord. The actual cadence to C major feels like a
happy surprise. Therefore, we might think of these first four bars as if they were in the key of F
minor, temporarily as that sound may be. We can use the surprise cadence to C major as a way of
lightening the mood at the end of the phrase. After several repeats through the form, a sensitive
listener would no longer be surprised by this, but I believe the melodic principle still makes sense.
So, I chose D♭ as the upper neighbor of C in the first bar because that could be heard as the col-
orful ♭9 of the C7 chord in F minor. But I chose D♮ two bars later because I like the sound of the
ascending melodic minor scale, and D♮ would be the 6th of that F minor chord. I chose A♭ in the
second bar as something of an anticipation of F minor which contains an A♭.
You may feel that the previous paragraph was overly laden with theoretical discussion, but
I think this thought process is critical. The exercises in Figure 11.3 are abbreviated, which means
you are required to make these types of decisions when choosing upper neighbors because they
will continue to impact the following exercises. When choosing the neighbor, you will need to
think about which aspect takes precedence: the chord of the moment, the key of the tune, or
sometimes the temporary key of the cadence. I encourage you to attempt each upper neighbor as
half step or whole step and see which you think sounds “better” in each situation.
The next exercises apply more embellishments from previous chapters to the “Melodic
Arpeggios,” including appoggiaturas, passing tones and enclosures. The abbreviated exercises in
Figure 11.4 provide you with only four bars at the top of each chorus. For each exercise, com-
plete each 32-bar chorus by continuing the pattern. The embellishments of the nine choruses in
Figure 11.4 are in the following order:
Acc 191 & 71 (R)
Figure 11.3 Abbreviated Performance Exercise: Neighbors on “Melodic Arpeggios” 
1. Appoggiaturas from the first half to the second half of the bar

2. Appoggiaturas from the second half to the first half of the next bar
3. Appoggiaturas from both halves
4. Passing tones between the first half to the second half of the bar
5. Passing tones between the second half to the first half of the next bar
6. Passing tones between both halves
7. Enclosures preceding the first half
8. Enclosures preceding the second half
9. Enclosures preceding both halves
Acc 192 & 71 (R)
Figure 11.4 Abbreviated Performance Exercise: Appoggiaturas, passing tones and enclosures on “Melodic Arpeggios” 
Embellishing “Who Is This One I Like?”

“Melodic Arpeggios” is intended to balance melodicism with teaching the underlying chord
structure. But when improvising in real-world situations you would be more likely to improvise
from a foundational melody that is more free-flowing. To that end, I wrote the melody “Who Is
This One I Like?,” found in the exercise in Figure 11.5, for embellishing.
I spent quite a bit of time embellishing my own melody, using the grid in Table 10.1 to ensure
I practiced all the permutations from previous chapters. After doing that, I composed a new
version in Figure 11.6 by freely mixing various embellishment techniques. The written component
Acc 72
Figure 11.5 Performance Exercise: “Who Is This One I Like?” 
Acc 73
Figure 11.6 Performance Exercise with Written Component: Freely mixed embellishments on “Who Is This One I Like?” 
of the exercise in Figure 11.6 is to circle each of the melody pitches in “Who Is This One I Like?”
from Figure 11.5 and identify the embellishment techniques that adorn the melody notes.
Compose Your Own Simple Melody on “Who Is This One I Like?”

In order for the results of these exercises to sound closer to expressing your own voice, the next
step is for you to write your own melody over the chords to “Who Is This One I Like?” which you
will then use as the foundation for embellishment. Using your own melody will allow the results
of the embellishments to be your own personal musical statement. Use the same guidelines from
Chapter 4 when composing this melodic line. For this assignment, you should decide if you would
prefer to use a repetitive approach like I did in the “Melodic Arpeggios” from Figure 11.1 where
all the “A” sections are identical, or a more through-composed approach like in “Who Is This One
I Like?” in Figure 11.5. Either a repetitive or through-composed approach can work well but it is
wise to make a conscious decision about your approach.
Acc 73 (R)
Figure 11.7 Written Exercise: Compose your own line on the “Who Is This One I Like?” chords 
Table 11.1 Practice Grid: Table to organize practicing embellishments on your own “Who Is This One I Like?” line
Acc 73 (R)
Embellishment exercise Grade yourself

Rhythmic and stylistic variations on the first half
Rhythmic and stylistic variations on the second half
Diatonic upper neighbors on the first half
Diatonic upper neighbors on the second half
Lower chromatic neighbor in the first half
Lower chromatic neighbor on the second half
Double neighbors on the first half
Double neighbors on the second half
Appoggiaturas from the first half to the second half
Appoggiaturas from the second half to the first half of the next bar
Passing tones from the first half to the second half of next bar
Passing tones from the second half to the first half of the next bar
Enclosures preceding the first half of each bar
Enclosures preceding the second half of each bar
Double neighbors on all pitches
Appoggiaturas to all pitches
Passing tones between all pitches
Enclosures to all pitches
Freely mixed embellishments
As with all the previous exercises that required you to compose simple melodies, I encourage
you to use an iterative improvisation/ composition approach. Use the accompaniment track
Accompaniment 73.MP3 (Figure 11.7) to help. Spend a good chunk of time improvising half
notes and whole notes, working diligently to achieve a strong melody without the aid of any
rhythmic interest. Record yourself doing this, then listen back to your own improvised melodies.
Choose parts that you like, transcribe them, and assemble them into a composition. Write a
completed version into Figure 11.7.
The final step is to apply the entire set of embellishments you’ve learned onto your melody.
To help organize your practice, the list of embellishment techniques to apply are found in the
practice grid in Table 11.1. This table includes column to help organize practice on the melodic
arpeggios as well as on your own melody.
The final line of the practice grid in Table 11.1 is for you to freely mix all the embellishment
techniques. This is certainly a critical step, but your work in this chapter would not be complete
if you didn’t also spend some time improvising on the chords to “Who Is This One I Like?” freely,
without any planning or forethought whatsoever. You can still use the track Accompaniment 73,
but I also encourage you to practice the tune along with friends and colleagues. Keep in mind
what I said in Chapter 1: Making music is critical to making music.
Chapter 12
Using Improvisation to Learn Improvisation
The crux of this book is that improvising in a beautiful, ornate fashion can be the result of
starting with simple underlying melodies, then embellishing them. However, you may remember
that in Chapter 1 I answered a student’s question by saying that once improvisers have years of
experience under their belt, they no longer have to “think” through the process. They proceed
directly to improvising elaborately.
With this final chapter, I have approximated the process that experienced improvisers use,
taking a different approach to arrive at the exercises. Instead of writing a simple melody
composed of half and whole notes and then embellishing that melody, I used something of a
reversed process. I began by composing an improvised-sounding melody, then retroactively
analyzed it to ascertain the melodic foundation I had used to create it. For experienced jazz
musicians, this may be closer to their typical process. If you asked a great improviser, post-
performance, to describe or analyze the melodic content they’d just played, they’d likely have
no clue whatsoever. They’d have to listen to a recording and analyze it to figure out how they
came up with it.
The first exercise of this chapter is my improvised-sounding etude “Now, Out of Here” in
Figure 2.1, based on a standard chord progression. Like ““Who Is This One I Love?” all the
phrases are 8 measures long, but “Now, Out of Here” uses the song form ABAC. Instead of a
bridge section with new harmonies, the 17th bar is when the song returns to the same material
as at the top, and the second and fourth 8-bar phrases –the B and C phrases –are different from
each other. Practice “Now, Out of Here” several times. Do you agree that it the tune sounds
improvisational?
The next task for me as an author was to reverse-engineer the simple melody that lies beneath
“Now, Out of Here.” After composing this etude, I evaluated the tune to see which pitches I heard
as chord tones and which pitches felt non-harmonic. The results of that analysis are shown
in Figure 12.2, which represents the same tune from Figure 12.1 with all non-harmonic tones
removed, so only chord tones remain. Notice I have added numerical analysis on all pitches, iden-
tifying which chord tones they are. The abbreviations used are:
• NT for neighbor tone
• DN for double neighbor
• PT for passing tone
• APP for appoggiatura
• ENC for enclosure
• ANT for anticipation (where I was intending the pitches to be heard over the subsequent chord
instead of the chord of the moment).
It is important to note a common nomenclature practice among jazz musicians which can be con-
fusing if you are not familiar with it. When jazz musicians talk about chordal color tones that are
either a half step higher or lower than pitches in the diatonic scale, they often refer to lowering
those scale degrees as “flat” and raising the scale degrees as “sharp” regardless of whether the
Using Improvisation to Learn Improvisation 105
Acc 74
Figure 12.1 Performance Etude: “Now, Out of Here” 
written accidentals needed to produce those pitches are actually sharps or flats.1 Therefore, while
the raised eleventh (or raised 4th) color tone over a B♭Maj7 chord is E♮, it is often called “sharp
11” and can be written “♯11.” Likewise, the “flat five” of a B7 chord is F♮, not F♭. This is the reason
F♮ in the 9th bar of Figure 12.2 is called “♭9” over the anticipated E7 chord even though the pitch
itself is spelled with a natural sign and not a flat.
After determining the chord tones, the next step I used was to isolate the chord tones, which
revealed all the non-chord tones, in order to identify which embellishment techniques I had used.
You can see in Figure 12.3 the pitches from Figure 12.2 circled, and then I have identified all
the embellishment techniques for the other pitches. Through my analysis I observed I had pri-
marily used neighbors, passing tones, enclosures, and appoggiaturas. The pitches of the last four
measures could all be heard as chord tones, so I didn’t identify any embellishment techniques in
the final line.
106 Using Improvisation to Learn Improvisation
Acc 75
Figure 12.2 Performance Exercise: Reduced version of “Now, Out of Here” with all non-harmonic tones removed 
I have also provided Accompaniment 76.MP3, which lasts three choruses, treating “Now, Out
of Here” as a head for the first and third choruses. This accompaniment allows you to improvise
during the second chorus.
Reversing Your Own Process

Acc 76
If you have completed the exercises in this book, you will have surely developed a significant
quantity of skills to use when learning a new song: distilling a melody, composing your own
simple melody as a foundation, and a broad array of useful embellishment techniques. I believe
these are all critical skills improvisers need. However, it’s equally important to use improvisation
itself as a means to learning a song.
To that end, the next exercise is for you to improvise on the chords to “Now, Out of Here.”
Record yourself improvising in many different ways, with lots of targeted goals. Come up with
little rules. Every “rule” or “restriction” you place on yourself is an opportunity to exercise a
Acc 74
Figure 12.3 Performance Exercise: All non-

harmonic pitches of “Now, Out of Here” analyzed for embellishment
techniques used 
different creative muscle. I provided Accompaniment 193.MP3, which provides 10 choruses

of simple chords on a Fender Rhodes. Try improvising 10 contiguous choruses targeting 10
increasing levels of melodic embellishment, a la Lee Konitz’s gradients.2 Then, reverse the exercise
with 10 decreasing levels, ending with the least ornate version.
Yes, you can practice improvising with the supplemental tracks I provided you, but you will
learn different skills when improvising with other live musicians, or with accompaniment tracks Acc 193
you record yourself on piano or another instrument. It is also important to practice with no
accompaniment at all, testing yourself to ascertain whether you can audiate the chord progres-
sion, time feel, and form of a song when the only accompaniment is in your own mind. Try
improvising unaccompanied solos made up of nothing but whole notes, non-stop for 20 minutes.
Improvise another unaccompanied 20 minutes with half notes, then quarter notes, and then
eighth notes. I promise that the way you improvise will be quite different after completing that
80-minute sequence.
108 Using Improvisation to Learn Improvisation
Keep varying the way you practice for many days, weeks, or even months. There are virtually
limitless permutations to the exercises you can make for yourself, so don’t only use one approach.
Don’t rush the process. it can take a long time and hundreds or thousands of iterations for a song
to feel so comfortable that you can speak its language as easily as breathing, at which point you
no longer having to “think” about the structure, form, chords, or melody.
You are welcome to use any or all of these suggestions for practice, or to use the exercises
from earlier in the book to help you learn to improvise on the song’s chords. But it is important
to remember that this exercise is to use improvisation as the primary learning tool unto itself.
After all, improvisation is the ultimate goal of this book. Jazz musicians have been organizing jam
sessions for generations because we know that you don’t only have to practice exercises to learn
improvisation; you can use improvisation to learn improvisation.
Listen to the many recordings of yourself improvising on the chords to “Now, Out of Here.”
After you find a recording of a 32-bar chorus you’re happy with, transcribe your solo into the
staves of Figure 12.4.
Acc 76 & 193
Figure 12.4 Written Exercise: Transcribe your own improvisation on the chords to “Now, Out of Here” 
Acc 76 & 193
Figure 12.5 Written Exercise: Analyze your own improvisation to identify chord tones and non-chord tone techniques  used 
The next exercise is for you to do the same type of analysis I completed in Figure 12.3. For
every chord tone you used, identify which chord tone it is. For every non-chord tone, analyze
what technique or approach you used. If you cannot identify a specific non-chord technique, ask
yourself whether that moment in the solo works well, or if it sounds like a mistake. Write the
analyzed version of your transcription into Figure 12.5.
As a final step, I encourage you to use the analysis you completed in 12.5 to edit your tran-
scription with the goal of turning it into a composed etude you could use with your students. If
you heard any parts of it as “mistakes” you can edit it to something that sounds better. Then, you
could use that to jumpstart your own book of exercises and etudes or recording project. I very
much look forward to reading that book and hearing your music!
Notes
Mark Levine, The Jazz Theory Book (Petaluma, CA: Sher Music Co., 1995), ix.
1
Appendix 1
Exercises Transposed for E♭ Instruments
Chapter 2 Exercises
Acc 1
Figure 2.1 Performance Exercise: “When the Saints Go Marching In” 
Acc 13

Appendix 1 111
Acc 25

Key transposed Figure 2.1 In All 12 Keys - Eb Instruments.pdf
for E♭
instruments Figure 2.2 In All 12 Keys - Eb Instruments.pdf
Figure 2.3 In All 12 Keys - Eb Instruments.pdf
Accompaniment audio Accompaniment audio Accompaniment audio

file for “When the Saints file for the “Distilled file for “Mike’s Original
Go Marching In” Saints Melody” Saints Melody” Acc 1–36
F♯ Accompaniment 5.MP3 Accompaniment 17.MP3 Accompaniment 29.MP3

112 Appendix 1
Chapter 3 Exercises
Acc 194
Acc 195
Acc 196
an anticipation 
Appendix 1 113
Acc 197
Acc 198 & 13 (R)
114 Appendix 1
Acc 199 & 25 (R)
Figure 3.6 Abbreviated Performance Exercise: Several rhythmic and stylistic variations on “Mike’s Original Saints Melody” 
Appendix 1 115
Acc 200 & 25 (R)
Acc 37
116 Appendix 1
Chapter 4 Exercises
Acc 77
Acc 78

Appendix 1 117
Acc 79
Figure 4.10 Performance Exercise with Written Component: Neighbor diminished on a diminished triad 
All major
chords PDF Figure 4.8 In All 12 Keys -Eb Instruments.pdf
All minor
chords PDF Figure 4.9 In All 12 Keys –Eb Instruments.pdf
All diminished
chords PDF Figure 4.10 In All 12 Keys –Eb Instruments.pdf
Key and Accompaniment 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

chord audio file Triad Upper Lower Double Double Double
transposed neighbors chromatic neighbors neighbors neighbors
for E♭ neighbors on the on the on both Acc 77–112
Instruments first half second halves
half
Accompaniment
D maj
77.MP3
Accompaniment
D min
78.MP3
Accompaniment
D dim
79.MP3
Accompaniment
E♭ maj 80.MP3
Accompaniment
E♭ min 81.MP3
Accompaniment
E♭ dim 82.MP3
(continued)
118 Appendix 1
Table 4.1 Cont.
for E♭ neighbors on the on the on both
half
Accompaniment
E maj
83.MP3
Accompaniment
E min
84.MP3
Accompaniment
E dim
85.MP3
Accompaniment
F maj
86.MP3
Accompaniment
F min
87.MP3
Accompaniment
F dim
88.MP3
F♯ maj
Accompaniment
89.MP3
F♯ min
Accompaniment
90.MP3
F♯ dim
Accompaniment
91.MP3
Accompaniment
G maj
92.MP3
Accompaniment
G min
93.MP3
Accompaniment
G dim
94.MP3
Accompaniment
A♭ maj 95.MP3
Accompaniment
A♭ min 96.MP3
Accompaniment
A♭ dim 97.MP3
Accompaniment
A maj
98.MP3
Accompaniment
A min
99.MP3
Accompaniment
A dim
100.MP3
Accompaniment
B♭ maj 101.MP3
Accompaniment
B♭ min 102.MP3
Accompaniment
B♭ dim 103.MP3
Accompaniment
B maj
104.MP3
Accompaniment
B min
105.MP3
Appendix 1 119
Table 4.1 Cont.
for E♭ neighbors on the on the on both
half
Accompaniment
B dim
106.MP3
Accompaniment
C maj
107.MP3
Accompaniment
C min
108.MP3
Accompaniment
C dim
109.MP3
Accompaniment
D♭ maj 110.MP3
Accompaniment
D♭ min 111.MP3
Accompaniment
D♭ dim 112.MP3
Acc 113 & 13 (R)
Figure 4.11 Abbreviated Performance Exercise: Neighbor tone variations on the “Distilled Saints Melody” 

120 Appendix 1
Acc 114 & 25 (R)
Acc 115
Appendix 1 121
Acc 37
Acc 49

122 Appendix 1
Acc 50

Appendix 1 123

124 Appendix 1
Chapter 5 Exercises
Acc 116
Key transposed Accompaniment audio Appoggiaturas Appoggiaturas Appoggiaturas

for E♭ file on major triads on minor on diminished
Acc 116–127 instruments triads triads
F♯ Accompaniment 120.MP3
Appendix 1 125
Acc 128
Acc 129

126 Appendix 1
Acc 130 & 25 (R)

Appendix 1 127
Acc 131
Melody” 
Acc 37
128 Appendix 1
Acc 51
Figure 5.8 Performance Etude: “Appoggiaturas with Cathy” 

Appendix 1 129
Chapter 6 Exercises
Acc 132
130 Appendix 1
Key Accompaniment 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Diat. 6. 7. 8.

transposed recording Major Diat. Chrom. Minor passing Chrom. Dim. Passing
for E♭ triad passing passing triad tones passing triad tones
instruments tones tones on tones on dim.
on on minor on triad
Acc 132–143
major major triad minor
triad triad triad
Accompaniment
D
132.MP3
Accompaniment
E♭ 133.MP3
Accompaniment
E
134.MP3
Accompaniment
F
135.MP3
F♯
Accompaniment
136.MP3
Accompaniment
G
137.MP3
Accompaniment
A♭ 138.MP3
Accompaniment
A
139.MP3
Accompaniment
B♭ 140.MP3
Accompaniment
B
141.MP3
Accompaniment
C
142.MP3
Accompaniment
D♭ 143.MP3
Appendix 1 131
Acc 144
Figure 6.7 Performance Exercise: Diatonic passing tones on the “Distilled Saints Melody.” 
Acc 145
Figure 6.8 Performance Exercise: Chromatic passing tones on the “Distilled Saints Melody.” 

132 Appendix 1
Acc 146
Melody.” 
Acc 147
Melody.” 
Appendix 1 133
Acc 37

134 Appendix 1
Acc 52

Appendix 1 135

136 Appendix 1
Chapter 7 Exercises
Acc 148
Acc 149
Appendix 1 137
Acc 150
Acc 150
Figure 7.9 Written Exercise: Freely varied bluesy version of your own “Saints” melody> 

138 Appendix 1
Acc 53

Appendix 1 139
Chapter 8 Exercises
Acc 151
Figure 8.7 Performance Exercise: Enclosing each pitch of the major scale. 
Acc 152
Acc 153
Acc 154
140 Appendix 1
Acc 155

Figures 8.10 and 8.11 In All 12 Keys – Eb Instruments.pdf
Key Accompaniment Enclosures Enclosures Enclosures Enclosures
transposed for audio file to the to the to the to the
E♭ instruments major melodic major triad minor
Acc 156–167
scale minor scale triad
Appendix 1 141
Acc 168
of the bar 
Acc 169
142 Appendix 1
Acc 170
of the bar 
Acc 171
Appendix 1 143
Acc 172
Acc 173
144 Appendix 1
Acc 37
the bar 
Acc 37
of the bar 
Appendix 1 145
Acc 37
the bar 
Acc 174
Acc 175
Acc 176
146 Appendix 1
Acc 56
Appendix 1 147
Chapter 9 Exercises
Acc 177
embellishments 
Acc 178
embellishments 
148 Appendix 1
Acc 179
Acc 180
embellishments 
Appendix 1 149
Acc 13
embellishments 
Acc 13
embellishments 
150 Appendix 1
Acc 37
Acc 37

Appendix 1 151
Chapter 10 Exercises
Acc 57
Acc 58

152 Appendix 1
Acc 181
first half 
Acc 182
second half 
Appendix 1 153
Acc 183
Acc 184
154 Appendix 1
Acc 185 & 59
Appendix 1 155
Acc 186 & 59
and enclosures 
156 Appendix 1
Acc 187 & 59
embellishments 
Appendix 1 157
Acc 188 & 59
Acc 59
158 Appendix 1
Key transposed for E♭ Accompaniment audio file Mike’s upper and Your own blues
instruments lower blues chorus
Acc 59–70
Acc 71

Appendix 1 159
Acc 190 & 71 (R)

160 Appendix 1
Acc 191 & 71 (R)

Appendix 1 161
Acc 192 & 71 (R)

162 Appendix 1
Acc 72

Appendix 1 163
Acc 73
164 Appendix 1
Acc 73 (R)
Appendix 1 165
Acc 74

166 Appendix 1
Acc 75
Appendix 1 167
Acc 74

168 Appendix 1
Acc 76 & 193
Figure 12.4 Written Exercise: Transcribe your own improvisation on the chords to “Now, Out of Here”
Appendix 1 169
Acc 76 & 193
Figure 12.5 Written Exercise: Analyze your own improvisation to identify chord tones and non-chord tone techniques  used
Appendix 2
Exercises Transposed for B♭ Instruments
Chapter 2 Exercises
Acc 1
Acc 13

Appendix 2 171
Acc 25

Key transposed
for B♭ Figure 2.1 In All 12 Keys - Bb Instruments.pdf
instruments
Figure 2.2 In All 12 Keys - Bb Instruments.pdf
Accompaniment audio Accompaniment audio Accompaniment audio

file for “When the Saints file for the “Distilled file for “Mike’s Original
Go Marching In” Saints Melody” Saints Melody” Acc 1–36
F♯ Accompaniment 12.MP3 Accompaniment 24.MP3 Accompaniment 36.MP3

172 Appendix 2
Chapter 3 Exercises
Acc 194
Acc 195
Acc 196
an anticipation 
Appendix 2 173
Acc 197
Acc 198 & 13 (R)
174 Appendix 2
Acc 199 & 25 (R)
Appendix 2 175
Acc 200 & 25 (R)
Acc 37
176 Appendix 2
Chapter 4 Exercises
Acc 77

Appendix 2 177
Acc 78
Acc 79

178 Appendix 2
All major
chords PDF
All minor
chords PDF
All
diminished Figure 4.10 In All 12 Keys - Bb Instruments.pdf
chords PDF
for B♭ neighbors on the on the on both
Acc 77–112 half
Accompaniment
G maj
77.MP3
Accompaniment
G min
78.MP3
Accompaniment
G dim
79.MP3
Accompaniment
A♭ maj 80.MP3
Accompaniment
A♭ min 81.MP3
Accompaniment
A♭ dim 82.MP3
Accompaniment
A maj
83.MP3
Accompaniment
A min
84.MP3
Accompaniment
A dim
85.MP3
Accompaniment
B♭ maj 86.MP3
Accompaniment
B♭ min 87.MP3
Accompaniment
B♭ dim 88.MP3
Accompaniment
B maj
89.MP3
Accompaniment
B min
90.MP3
Accompaniment
B dim
91.MP3
Accompaniment
C maj
92.MP3
Accompaniment
C min
93.MP3
Accompaniment
C dim
94.MP3
Accompaniment
D♭ maj 95.MP3
Appendix 2 179
Table 4.1 Cont.
for B♭ neighbors on the on the on both
half
Accompaniment
D♭ min 96.MP3
Accompaniment
D♭ dim 97.MP3
Accompaniment
D maj
98.MP3
Accompaniment
D min
99.MP3
Accompaniment
D dim
100.MP3
Accompaniment
E♭ maj 101.MP3
Accompaniment
E♭ min 102.MP3
Accompaniment
E♭ dim 103.MP3
Accompaniment
E maj
104.MP3
Accompaniment
E min
105.MP3
Accompaniment
E dim
106.MP3
Accompaniment
F maj
107.MP3
Accompaniment
F min
108.MP3
Accompaniment
F dim
109.MP3
F♯ maj
Accompaniment
110.MP3
F♯ min
Accompaniment
111.MP3
F♯ dim
Accompaniment
112.MP3
180 Appendix 2
Acc 113 & 13 (R)

Appendix 2 181
Acc 114 & 25 (R)
Acc 115
182 Appendix 2
Acc 37

Appendix 2 183
Acc 49

184 Appendix 2
Acc 50

Appendix 2 185

186 Appendix 2
Chapter 5 Exercises
Acc 116
Appendix 2 187
Figure 5.2 In All 12 Keys – Bb Instruments.pdf

Key Accompaniment audio Appoggiaturas Appoggiaturas Appoggiaturas
transposed file on major triads on minor triads on diminished
for B♭ triads
instruments Acc 116–127
Acc 128

188 Appendix 2
Acc 129
Acc 130 & 25 (R)

Appendix 2 189
Acc 131
Melody” 
Acc 37
190 Appendix 2
Acc 51

Appendix 2 191
Chapter 6 Exercises
Acc 132
192 Appendix 2

Key Accompaniment 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
transposed recording Major Diat. Chrom. Minor Diat. Chrom. Dim. Passing
for B♭ triad passing passing triad passing passing triad tones
instruments tones tones tones tones on dim.
on on on on triad
major major minor minor
Acc 132–143 triad triad triad triad
Accompaniment
G
132.MP3
Accompaniment
A♭ 133.MP3
Accompaniment
A
134.MP3
Accompaniment
B♭ 135.MP3
Accompaniment
B
136.MP3
Accompaniment
C
137.MP3
Accompaniment
D♭ 138.MP3
Accompaniment
D
139.MP3
Accompaniment
E♭ 140.MP3
Accompaniment
E
141.MP3
Accompaniment
F
142.MP3
F♯
Accompaniment
143.MP3
Appendix 2 193
Acc 144
Acc 145

194 Appendix 2
Acc 146
Melody.” 
Acc 147
Melody.” 
Appendix 2 195
Acc 37

196 Appendix 2
Acc 52

Appendix 2 197

198 Appendix 2
Chapter 7 Exercises
Acc 148
Acc 149
Appendix 2 199
Acc 150
Acc 37

200 Appendix 2
Acc 53

Appendix 2 201
Chapter 8 Exercises
Acc 151
Acc 152
Figure 8.8 Abbreviated Performance Exercise: Enclosing the ascending major scale
Acc 153

202 Appendix 2
Acc 154
Acc 155

Appendix 2 203
Figures 8.10 and 8.11 In All 12 Keys – Bb Instruments.pdf
Key transposed Accompaniment Enclosures Enclosures Enclosures Enclosures

for B♭ audio file to the to the to the major to the
instruments major melodic triad minor
scale minor triad Acc 156–167
scale
Acc 168
of the bar 
204 Appendix 2
Acc 169
Acc 170
of the bar 
Appendix 2 205
Acc 171
Acc 172
206 Appendix 2
Acc 173
Acc 37
the bar 
Appendix 2 207
Acc 37
of the bar 
Acc 37
the bar 
208 Appendix 2
Acc 174
Acc 175
Acc 176
Appendix 2 209
Acc 56
210 Appendix 2
Chapter 9 Exercises
Acc 177
embellishments 
Acc 178
embellishments 
Appendix 2 211
Acc 179
Acc 180
embellishments 
212 Appendix 2
Acc 13
embellishments 
Acc 13
embellishments 
Appendix 2 213
Acc 37
Acc 37

214 Appendix 2
Acc 57
Acc 58

Appendix 2 215
Acc 181
first half 
216 Appendix 2
Acc 182
second half 
Appendix 2 217
Acc 183
218 Appendix 2
Acc 184
Acc 185 & 59
Appendix 2 219
Acc 186 & 59
and enclosures 
220 Appendix 2
Acc 187 & 59
embellishments 
Appendix 2 221
Acc 188 & 59
Acc 59
222 Appendix 2
Key transposed for B♭ Accompaniment Mike’s upper and Your own blues
Acc 59–70 instruments audio file lower blues chorus
Acc 71

Appendix 2 223
Acc 190 & 71 (R)

224 Appendix 2
Acc 191 & 71 (R)

Appendix 2 225
Acc 192 & 71 (R)

226 Appendix 2
Acc 72

Appendix 2 227
Acc 73
228 Appendix 2
Acc 73 (R)
Appendix 2 229
Acc 74

230 Appendix 2
Acc 75
Appendix 2 231
Acc 74

232 Appendix 2
Acc 76 & 193
Appendix 2 233
Acc 76 & 193
Appendix 3
Exercises Transposed for Bass Clef Instruments
Chapter 2 Exercises
Acc 1
Acc 13

Appendix 3 235
Acc 25

Concert Key
Figure 2.1 In All 12 Keys - Bass Clef Instruments.pdf
Accompaniment audio file Accompaniment audio Accompaniment audio

for “When the Saints Go file for the “Distilled file for “Mike’s Original
Marching In” Saints Melody” Saints Melody” Acc 1–36
F♯ /G♭ Accompaniment 2.MP3 Accompaniment 14.MP3 Accompaniment 26.MP3

236 Appendix 3
Chapter 3 Exercises
Acc 194
Acc 195
Acc 196
an anticipation 
Appendix 3 237
Acc 197
Acc 198 & 13 (R)

238 Appendix 3
Acc 199 & 25 (R)
Appendix 3 239
Acc 200 & 25 (R)
Acc 37
240 Appendix 3
Chapter 4 Exercises
Acc 77

Appendix 3 241
Acc 78
Acc 79

242 Appendix 3
All major
chords Figure 2.1 In All 12 Keys - Bass Clef Instruments.pdf
PDF
All minor
chords Figure 2.2 In All 12 Keys - Bass Clef Instruments.pdf
PDF
All
diminished
chords
PDF
Acc 77–112
half
Accompaniment
F Maj
77.MP3
Accompaniment
F Min
78.MP3
Accompaniment
F Dim
79.MP3
F♯ Maj
Accompaniment
80.MP3
F♯ Min
Accompaniment
81.MP3
F♯ Dim
Accompaniment
82.MP3
Accompaniment
G Maj
83.MP3
Accompaniment
G Min
84.MP3
Accompaniment
G Dim
85.MP3
Accompaniment
A♭ Maj 86.MP3
Accompaniment
A♭ Min 87.MP3
Accompaniment
A♭ Dim 88.MP3
Accompaniment
A Maj
89.MP3
Accompaniment
A Min
90.MP3
Accompaniment
A Dim
91.MP3
Accompaniment
B♭ Maj 92.MP3
Appendix 3 243
Table 4.1 Cont.
half
Accompaniment
B♭ Min 93.MP3
Accompaniment
B♭ Dim 94.MP3
Accompaniment
B Maj
95.MP3
Accompaniment
B Min
96.MP3
Accompaniment
B Dim
97.MP3
Accompaniment
C Maj
98.MP3
Accompaniment
C Min
99.MP3
Accompaniment
C Dim
100.MP3
Accompaniment
D♭ Maj 101.MP3
Accompaniment
D♭ Min 102.MP3
Accompaniment
D♭ Dim 103.MP3
Accompaniment
D Maj
104.MP3
Accompaniment
D Min
105.MP3
Accompaniment
D Dim
106.MP3
Accompaniment
E♭ Maj 107.MP3
Accompaniment
E♭ Min 108.MP3
Accompaniment
E♭ Dim 109.MP3
Accompaniment
E Maj
110.MP3
Accompaniment
E Min
111.MP3
Accompaniment
E Dim
112.MP3
244 Appendix 3
Acc 113 & 13 (R)

Appendix 3 245
Acc 114 & 25 (R)
Acc 115
Figure 4.13 Performance Exercise with Written Component: Freely mixed neighbors on “Mike’s Original Saints Melody 7” 
246 Appendix 3
Acc 37

Appendix 3 247
Acc 49

248 Appendix 3
Acc 50

Appendix 3 249

250 Appendix 3
Chapter 5 Exercises
Acc 116
Appendix 3 251

Concert key Accompaniment Appoggiaturas Appoggiaturas Appoggiaturas
audio file on major triads on minor triads on diminished
triads Acc 116–127
Acc 128

252 Appendix 3
Acc 129
Acc 130 & 25 (R)

Appendix 3 253
Acc 131
Melody” 
Acc 37
254 Appendix 3
Acc 51

Appendix 3 255
Chapter 6 Exercises
Acc 132
For Table 6.1, see page 160.

256 Appendix 3
Acc 144
Acc 145
Acc 146
Melody.” 
Appendix 3 257
Acc 147
Melody.” 
Acc 37

258 Appendix 3
Acc 52

Appendix 3 259

260 Appendix 3
Concert Accompaniment 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Diat. 6. 7. 8.

key recording Major Diat. Chrom. Minor passing Chrom. Dim. Passing
triad passing passing triad tones passing triad tones
Acc 132–143 tones tones on tones on dim.
on on minor on triad
major major triad minor
triad triad triad
Accompaniment
F
132.MP3
F♯ / G♭
Accompaniment
133.MP3
Accompaniment
G
134.MP3
Accompaniment
A♭ 135.MP3
Accompaniment
A
136.MP3
Accompaniment
B♭ 137.MP3
Accompaniment
B
138.MP3
Accompaniment
C
139.MP3
Accompaniment
D♭ 140.MP3
Accompaniment
D
141.MP3
Accompaniment
E♭ 142.MP3
Accompaniment
E
143.MP3
Appendix 3 261
Chapter 7 Exercises
Acc 148
Acc 149
262 Appendix 3
Acc 150
Acc 37

Appendix 3 263
Acc 53

264 Appendix 3
Chapter 8 Exercises
Acc 151
Acc 152
Acc 153
Acc 154
Appendix 3 265
Acc 155
Figures 8.10 and 8.11 In All 12 Keys – Bass Clef Instruments.pdf
Concert Accompaniment Enclosures Enclosures to Enclosures to Enclosures

key audio file to the the melodic the major to the minor
major minor scale triad triad
scale Acc 156–167

Eb♭ Accompaniment 166.MP3
266 Appendix 3
Acc 168
of the bar 
Acc 169
Appendix 3 267
Acc 170
of the bar 
Acc 171
268 Appendix 3
Acc 172
Acc 173
Appendix 3 269
Acc 37
the bar 
Acc 37
of the bar 
270 Appendix 3
Acc 37
the bar 
Acc 174
Acc 175
Acc 176
Appendix 3 271
Acc 56
272 Appendix 3
Chapter 9 Exercises
Acc 177
embellishments 
Acc 178
embellishments 
Appendix 3 273
Acc 179
Figure 9.3 Performance Exercise with Written Component: “Mike’s Original Saints Melody” with a fairly small quantity of
embellishments Melody” with a great quantity of embellishments 
Acc 180
embellishments 
274 Appendix 3
Acc 13
embellishments 
Acc 13
embellishments 
Appendix 3 275
Acc 37
Acc 37

276 Appendix 3
Acc 57
Acc 58

Appendix 3 277
Acc 181
first half 
278 Appendix 3
Acc 182
second half 
Appendix 3 279
Acc 183
280 Appendix 3
Acc 184 & 59
Acc 185 & 59
Appendix 3 281
Acc 186 & 59
and enclosures 
282 Appendix 3
Acc 187 & 59
embellishments 
Acc 188 & 59
Appendix 3 283
Acc 59
Concert key Accompaniment Mike’s upper and Your own blues

audio file lower blues chorus Acc 59–70
284 Appendix 3
Acc 71
Acc 190 & 71 (R)

Appendix 3 285
Acc 191 & 71 (R)
Figure 11.3 Abbreviated Performance Exercise: Neighbors on “Melodic Arpeggios”  

286 Appendix 3
Acc 192 & 71 (R)
Figure 11.4 Abbreviated Performance Exercise: Appoggiaturas, passing tones and enclosures on “Melodic Arpeggios”

Appendix 3 287
Acc 72
Acc 73
288 Appendix 3
Acc 73 (R)
Appendix 3 289
Acc 74

290 Appendix 3
Acc 75
Appendix 3 291
Acc 74

techniques used
292 Appendix 3
Acc 76 & 193
Appendix 3 293
Acc 76 & 193
About the Author
Saxophonist/composer/arranger Mike Titlebaum is Associate Professor and Director of Jazz

Studies at Ithaca College, where he directs the Ithaca College Jazz Ensemble and teaches jazz
saxophone and several courses in jazz studies. Titlebaum is co- editor of Teaching School
Jazz: Perspectives, Principles, and Strategies, published by Oxford University Press in 2019. He
has published numerous musical compositions and arrangements through Advance Music, Lorenz
(Heritage Jazz Works), and GIA Publications. Titlebaum has delivered workshops, lectures,
and performances at numerous state and national conferences, including the Jazz Education
Network, the International Society for Improvised Music, the New York State School Music
Association, the New York State Band Directors Association, and the Texas Music Educators
Association. He has performed in many of New York City’s world-famous venues, including the
Blue Note, Smalls, the former CBGB, as well as the pit orchestra of the Broadway musical “Cats”
at the Winter Garden Theater. He has performed with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and
the Binghamton Philharmonic Orchestra, and with dozens of internationally recognized artists
and groups. Titlebaum earned a B.M. in Saxophone Performance and the Performer’s Certificate
in Saxophone from University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music in 1991, where he also
completed his M.M. in Jazz Studies and Contemporary Media with a Writing Skills emphasis
in 1992.
Glossary
Accent Strong emphasis on a note.

Agogic accent A pitch emphasized by increasing its duration.
Anticipation A melodic tone intended to be heard with the subsequent chord instead of the
chord it is actually sounded with.
Appoggiatura A non-chord tone approached by leap, resolved by stepwise motion in the
opposite direction.
Audiate To hear music in one’s mind. EXAMPLE: It is presumed that as a trained musician,
Beethoven was able to audiate even after he became deaf, so he could continue to compose.
Axe A player’s instrument.
Blues 1. A feeling of sadness. 2. A 12-bar musical form. 3. A song in a 12-bar musical form.
4. Music that exemplifies the Black American experience.
Cantus firmus In early music and chant, refers to a fixed melody that forms the foundation of
another polyphonic composition.
Chord A collection of notes heard together in harmony.
Chord progression A sequence of chords. To trained musicians, chord progressions of
standard songs can be recognizable unto themselves.
Chord of the moment. The harmony heard at a precise time in a piece.
Chorus One complete iteration of the chord progression of a song.
Contrafact A melody composed over an existing chord progression, often from a standard
or other well-known song. Writing contrafacts is common practice throughout the history
of Western music. The practice in jazz may be partly due to the financial considerations of
copyright restrictions, because a melody can be copyrighted, but the chord progression
alone cannot be. Composing contrafacts has become an art unto itself, practiced by many
jazz musicians.
Diminished scale In jazz, refers to the 8-note symmetrical scale made up of alternating half
steps and whole steps. In the form that begins with a whole step, it is associated with
diminished chords. The version starting with a half step is associated with dominant 7th
chords with the combination of color tones including ♭9, ♯9, ♯11 and 13. Because the scale
contains eight notes, it can also be called the octatonic scale.
Dissonance A pitch that is heard as against or outside of the chord of the moment or another
pitch. Also non-chord tone.
Dominant 1. The chord whose root is the 5th scale degree of the scale. In jazz, the intervals
above the root typically include a major 3rd, perfect 5th, and minor 7th. 2. Any chord
that contains the properties of the V7th chord, regardless of whether or not the root of the
chord is the 5th scale degree of the key.
Enclosure A gesture where a target chord tone is preceded by several non-chord tones above
and below.
Head The melody of a song. Jazz musicians may point to their head, indicating to the rest
of the band that they are planning to return to the original melody, often at the end of a
performance.
296 Glossary
Key, or key of the tune The scale that a song is organized around. In notation, the key is
represented by a series of sharps or flats (or in the key of C, the lack thereof) called a key
signature. For example, a major key signature of two sharps, F♯ and C♯, represents the
key of D major.
Leap An interval between two notes greater than a step, a 3rd or larger.
Neighbor tone A dissonant non-chord pitch approached by step, resolved by stepwise motion
in the opposite direction, which returns back to the previous note.
Non-chord tone A dissonant pitch outside the chord, heard as a dissonance that requires
resolution.
Octatonic scale See Diminished scale.
Passing tone A non-chord pitch approached by step, resolved by stepwise motion in the same
direction.
Scoop A gesture where a performer attacks a note below pitch, glissing smoothly up to
the note.
Shed Verb. Short for “woodshed.” To practice something however long it takes until it is
learned thoroughly.
Slur When one or more notes are connected smoothly without an audible use of the tongue
(on a wind instrument) or other articulation.
Species counterpoint A pedagogical tool used to teach students to compose counterpoint with
increasing levels of complexity.
Standard A song that most jazz musicians know well from years of listening and performing.
It is expected that such songs would be memorized to the point where they could be called
on a gig and no musicians would need to read the song from sheet music.
Step An interval of a second. Typically a step is a minor 2nd or major 2nd, but an augmented
2nd could also be considered a step.
Swing A rhythmic feeling often used by jazz musicians where the eighth-note divisions of the
beat are uneven. The opposite of swung is straight or even eighths. Often, the eighths on the
beat last longer, and the upbeat eighths are later and not as long. The amount of unevenness
varies among jazz performers and styles. In notation, swing is sometimes notated as straight
with a stylistic instruction indicating the performers should swing the eighth notes.
Suspension A melodic tone intended to be heard with the previous chord instead of the chord
it is actually sounded with.
Tonic The first note of the scale represented by the key, which feels to the listener as the
“home” note. Can also be used to mean a chord for which the tonic is the root.
Woodshed See Shed.
Index
Note: Page numbers in italics refer to illustrations and those in bold refer to tables.
accents, agogic 69 blue notes: definition 2, 55, 295; in “Distilled

Adderley, Cannonball 66 Saints” 57 (Bass 261; B♭ 198; Concert Pitch 57;
“All the Things You Are” (Jerome Kern) 35, 77 E♭ 136); and key of the piece vs chord of the
“Another You There Will Never Pass” (performance moment 55–57, 55, 56, 57, 85, 88; in “Mike’s
etude) 50; Bass 258–259; B♭ 196–197; Concert Original Saints” 57–58 (Bass 261, 262; Concert
Pitch 52–53; E♭ 134–13 Pitch 58; E♭ 136, 137; B♭ 198, 199); minor 3rd
anticipation (ANT): definition 12, 295; in “Now, 84, 84, 85; in own original melody 59 (Bass 262;
Out of Here” (Bass 290; B♭ 230; Concert Pitch B♭ 199; Concert Pitch 59; E♭ 137); performance
106; E♭ 166); in “Saints” 12, 12, 38 etude see “Blue Dolphin Street”
appoggiaturas (APP): and audiation 37; definition blues: cultural heritage 54; definition 295;
35, 295; in “Distilled Saints” 37–38 (Bass 251, early blues singers 54; examples 54–55, 54,
252; B♭ 187, 188; Concert Pitch 38; E♭ 125); 56–57, 84; own 12-bar blues composition
examples 35, 35; as fun to play 35; in “Melodic (with embellishments) 91–92, 93 (Bass 283,
Arpeggios” 98–99 (Bass 286; B♭ 225; Concert 283; B♭ 221, 222; Concert Pitch 93, 94; E♭ 157,
Pitch 100; E♭ 161); in “Mike’s Original Saints” 158); “Upper/Lower Guide Tone Blues” see
38–39 (Bass 252, 253; B♭ 189; Concert Pitch 39, “Upper/Lower Guide Tone Blues”; see also jazz
40; E♭ 126, 127); in “Now, Out of Here” 105 techniques
(Bass 291; B♭ 231; Concert Pitch 107; E♭ 167); in blues scale 56, 56
own original melody 40–41 (Bass 253; B♭ 189; Brookmeyer, Bob 7
Concert Pitch 41; E♭ 127); performance etude
see “Appoggiaturas with Cathy”; practicing in chord of the moment: definition 295; vs key of the
major, minor and diminished triads 36–37 (Bass piece, continuum 55–57, 55, 56, 57, 85; vs key of
250, 251; B♭ 186, 187; Concert Pitch 36, 37; E♭ the piece, dichotomy 20, 88; and neighbor tones
124, 124); practicing on arpeggios 41; in “Upper/ 20; pitches and 2; and tonal vs jazz music 3
Lower Guide Tone Blues” 89–91 (Bass 281, 282; chord progressions: definition 295; standard
B♭ 219, 220, 221; Concert Pitch 90, 91, 92; E♭ progressions 96; surprising 98
155, 156, 157); used by Bach 2 chords, definition 295
“Appoggiaturas with Cathy” (performance etude) chord tones (overview) 1–2, 2
41; Bass 254; B♭ 190; Concert Pitch 42; E♭ 128 chorus, definition 295
Armstrong, Louis 4, 10, 55 chromaticism: enclosures see enclosures (ENC);
arpeggiation patterns: and internalizing melodies examples 56–57, 62
96; “Melodic Arpeggios” see “Melodic circled pitches (explanation) 9, 9
Arpeggios” melody and embellishments circle of 5ths vs chromatic order of keys 4
articulation 11, 12, 13, 15, 31, 39, 47, 66 color tones: in “All the Things You Are” 35; in
asymmetrical meters 17 jazz 44; in “Mike’s Original Saints” 8–9; in own
audiation: and appoggiaturas 37; of chord composition 29
progressions 107; definition 295; during Coltrane, John 84
practice 9 composition: 12-bar blues (with embellishments)
audience experience of music 4–5 91–92, 95 (Bass 283, 283; B♭ 221, 222; Concert
axe (instrument) 5, 295 Pitch 94, 95; E♭ 157, 158); appoggiaturas 40–41
(Bass 253; B♭ 189; Concert Pitch 41; E♭ 127);
Bach, Johann Sebastian 1, 2, 2 blues 93 (Bass 283; B♭ 221; Concert Pitch 93;
Bechet, Sidney 10 E♭ 157); contrafacts see contrafacts; enclosures
Bernstein, Leonard, “What is Jazz” (album) 72–73 (Bass 269, 270; B♭ 206, 207; Concert Pitch
55 73, 74; E♭ 144, 145); vs improvisation 4, 103;
“Blue Dolphin Street” (performance etude) 59; Bass “Mike’s Original Saints Melody” chorus and
263; B♭ 200; Concert Pitch 60; E♭ 138 rhythmic variations 17; own blues melody 29–30
298 Index
(Bass 246; B♭ 182; Concert Pitch 29; E♭ 121); half-tonguing 13

own melody over chord progression of “Who Is harmonies, and audience experience 5
This One I Like?” 102–103, 103 (Bass 288; Harris, Benny, “Ornithology” 8
B♭ 228; Concert Pitch 102; E♭ 164); passing tones head (melody) 6; definition 295
48–49 (Bass 257; B♭ 195; Concert Pitch 51; E♭ Hickman, Art, “Rose Room” 8
133); see also improvisation Hirt, Al 10
contrafacts: definition 295; examples from jazz 8; “Hot House” (Tadd Dameron) 8
from “Saints” see “When the Saints Go Marching “How High the Moon” (Morgan Lewis) 8
In”: “Mike’s Original Saints Melody”
improvisation: vs composition 4, 103; gradient
Dameron, Tadd, “Hot House” 8 approach see gradient approach; to learn
diminished (octatonic) scale, definition 295 improvisation 107–108; on “Now, Out of Here”
dissonance, definition 295; see also non-chord 106–109 (Bass 292, 293; B♭ 232, 233; Concert
tones Pitch 108, 109; E♭ 168, 169); with and without
distilled melodies 6–7, 8; see also reverse- accompaniment/other musicians 107; see also
engineering melodies composition
“In a Mellow Tone” (Duke Ellington) 8
Ellington, Duke 55; “It Don’t Mean a Thing If It internalizing melodies 6, 7, 100; see also
Ain’t Got That Swing” 11; “In a Mellow Tone” 8 memorizing melodies
embellishment see melodic embellishment
techniques jazz techniques: articulation see articulation; blue
“Empty Bed Blues” (Bessie Smith) 55 notes see blue notes; chord tones 1–2; color
“Enclosable You” (performance etude) 76; (Bass tones 44; ghosted notes 6, 13; neighbor tones
271; B♭ 209; Concert Pitch 75; E♭ 146) 20–21, 21; scoop 54–55, 296; swing 2–3, 296;
enclosures (ENC): articulation 66; definition 62, syncopation see syncopation; vibrato 12–13;
295; in “Distilled Saints” 68–69 (Bass 266, 267; see also blues
B♭ 203, 204; Concert Pitch 69, 70; E♭ 141, 142); Jentsch, Chris 4
examples 62–64, 62, 63, 64, 65; in “Melodic Jones, Leroi (Amiri Baraka), Blues People 54
Arpeggios” 98–99 (Bass 286; B♭ 225; Concert “Just Neighbors” (performance etude) 30–31; (Bass
Pitch 100; E♭ 161); in “Mike’s Original Saints” 247, 248–249; B♭ 183, 184–185; Concert Pitch
69–72, 74 (Bass 267, 268, 270; B♭ 205, 206, 31, 32–33; E♭ 183, 184–185
208; Concert Pitch 71, 72, 74, 75; E♭ 142, 143, “Just You, Just Me” (Jesse Greer) 8
145); in “Now, Out of Here” 105 (Bass 291; B♭
231; Concert Pitch 107; E♭ 167); in own original Kastin, David 77
melody 72–73 (Bass 269, 270; B♭ 206, 207; Kern, Jerome, “All the Things You Are” 35, 77
Concert Pitch 73, 74; E♭ 144, 145); performance key (of the piece): vs chord of the moment,
etude see “Enclosable You”; practicing in major continuum 55–57, 55, 56, 57, 85; vs chord of the
and minor scales 64–66, 68 (Bass 264, 265; B♭ moment, dichotomy 20, 88; definition 296
201, 202, 203; Concert Pitch 65, 66, 67, 68; E♭ Konitz, Lee 27; gradient approach see gradient
139, 140); practicing in major and minor triads approach; “Organic-Lee” 63
66–68 (Bass 265, 265; B♭ 202, 203; E♭ 140, 140);
practicing in other scales 73; practicing with leap (interval), definition 296
rhythmic displacement 74; in “Upper/Lower Lefkowitz-Brown, Chad 66; “Yardbird Suite” (solo)
Guide Tone Blues” 90–91 (Bass 281, 282; B♭ 219, 63–64, 63, 64
220, 221; Concert Pitch 91, 92, 93; E♭ 155, 156, Lewis, Morgan, “How High the Moon” 8
157) “Lower Guide Tone Blues” see “Upper/Lower
“Evidence” (Thelonius Monk) 8 Guide Tone Blues”
Fountain, Pete 10 “Mama’s Got the Blues” (Bessie Smith) 54–55, 54,
56
Gershwin, George and Ira, “Somebody Loves Me” marcato 13
84, 85 Mehldau, Brad 3
ghosted notes 13, 14, 65, 66 “Melodic Arpeggios” melody and embellishments
Gillespie, Dizzy 2, 62 96–99 (Bass 284, 285, 286; B♭ 222, 223, 224,
gradient approach: in “Distilled Saints” 77–79 225; Concert Pitch 97, 99, 100; E♭ 158, 159,
(Bass 272, 273; B♭ 210, 211; Concert Pitch 77, 160, 161)
78, 79; E♭ 147, 148); improvisation exercises melodic embellishment techniques: analysis, “Now,
81–83; in “Mike’s Original Saints” 79 (Bass 273; Out of Here” 105 (Bass 291; B♭ 231; Concert
B♭ 211; Concert Pitch 78, 79; E♭ 148); in own Pitch 107; E♭ 167); analysis, own improvisation
original melody 80–81 (Bass 274, 275; B♭ 212, on “Now Out of Here” 109 (Bass 293; B♭ 233;
213; Concert Pitch 80, 81, 82; E♭ 149, 150) Concert Pitch 109; E♭ 169); overview 1, 2, 103
Greer, Jesse, “Just You, Just Me” 8 melodies: audiation 9; and audience experience
Greybeal, Nathan 13 4–5; contrafacts see contrafacts; distilled melody
Index 299
6–7, 7; head 6, 295; internalizing 6, 7, 100; practice: importance 3–4; learning 12 keys 3, 4;
reverse-engineering 104–106 recording 17; variety in 107–108; woodshed
memorizing melodies 87; see also internalizing practice see shed (woodshed) (practice
melodies technique)
Monk, Thelonious, “Evidence” 8
recording 17, 29, 49, 59, 82, 92, 103, 106, 107
neighbor tones (NT): definition 19, 296; diatonic reverse-engineering melodies 104–106
and chromatic 19–20, 20, 21–22, 88–89; in rhythm: and audience experience 5, 11; importance
“Distilled Saints” 24–27 (Bass 244; B♭ 180; 11; and passing tones 45; syncopation see
Concert Pitch 27; E♭ 119); double neighbors 21, syncopation
21; in jazz 20–21, 21; in “Melodic Arpeggios” 98 Rivello, Dave 7
(Bass 285; B♭ 224; Concert Pitch 99; E♭ 160); in Rollins, Sonny, “Tenor Madness” 84
“Mike’s Original Saints” 27 (Bass 245; B♭ 181; “Rose Room” (Art Hickman) 8
Concert Pitch 28; E♭ 120); in “Now, Out of Here”
105 (Bass 291; B♭ 231; Concert Pitch 107; E♭ scoop 54–55; definition 296
167); in own original melody 29–30 (Bass 246; shed (woodshed) (practice technique): definition
B♭ 182; Concert Pitch 29; E♭ 182); performance 296; learning 12 keys 3, 4; origins (Charlie
etude see “Just Neighbors”; practicing in major, Parker) 3
minor and diminished triads 22–24 (Bass 240, Simkin, Elizabeth 35
241, 242–243; B♭ 176, 177, 178–179; Concert singing, value of 4, 6
Pitch 22, 23, 24, 25–26; E♭ 116, 117–119, 117); slur, definition 296
practicing on arpeggios 34; upper and lower Smith, Bessie: “Empty Bed Blues” 55; “Mama’s Got
neighbors (UN and LN) 19, 21–22; in “Upper/ the Blues” 54–55, 54, 56
Lower Guide Tone Blues” 87–89 (Bass 279, 280; “Somebody Loves Me” (George and Ira Gershwin)
B♭ 217, 218; Concert Pitch 88, 89, 90; E♭ 153, 84, 85
154); used by Bach 2; see also enclosures (ENC) staccato 11
non-chord tones: definition 296; as vowels in standards (songs): definition 296; form and chord
language 1; see also melodic embellishment progressions 96
techniques step (interval), definition 296
“Now, Out of Here” (performance etude) 104–106; suspension: and appoggiaturas 37–38; definition
(Bass 289, 290, 291; B♭ 229, 230, 231; Concert 296
Pitch 105, 106, 107; E♭ 165, 166, 167); own swing 2–3; definition 296
improvisation on 106–109 (Bass 292, 293; B♭ syncopation 2–3; and audience experience 11;
232, 233; Concert Pitch 108, 109; E♭ 168, 169) definition 11; too much/too little 16; variations
on “Distilled Saints” 11–13 (Bass 236, 237; B♭
octatonic (diminished) scale, definition 295 172, 173; Concert Pitch 12, 13, 14; E♭ 112, 113);
“Organic-Lee” (Lee Konitz and Gary Versace) 63 variations on “Melodic Arpeggios” 96–97 (Bass
“Ornithology” (Charlie Parker and Benny Harris) 8 284; B♭ 223; Concert Pitch 97; E♭ 159); variations
on “Mike’s Original Saints” 14–15, 47 (Bass 256,
Parker, Charlie (“Bird”) 1, 2, 3, 55, 56, 62; 257; B♭ 174, 175, 181, 194; Concert Pitch
“Ornithology” 8; “Parker’s Mood” 56–57; 15, 16, 50; E♭ 114, 115, 132); variations on
woodshed practice 3; “Yardbird Suite” (Chad “Upper/Lower Guide Tone Blues” 86–87
Lefkowitz-Brown’s solo) 63–64, 63, 64 (Bass 277, 278; B♭ 215, 216; Concert Pitch 86,
“Parker’s Mood” (Charlie Parker) 56–57 87; E♭ 152)
passing tones (PT): definition 44, 296; in “Distilled
Saints” 47 (Bass 256; B♭ 193; Concert Pitch 49; E♭ “Tenor Madness” (Sonny Rollins) 84
131); examples 44, 45; vs harmonic tones 44–45; tenuto 11
in “Melodic Arpeggios” 98–99 (Bass 286; B♭ 225; time signatures, asymmetrical meters 17
Concert Pitch 100; E♭ 161); in “Mike’s Original transposition, in your head 4
Saints” 47 (Bass 256, 257; B♭ 194; Concert Pitch
50; E♭ 132); in “Now, Out of Here” 105 (Bass “Upper/Lower Guide Tone Blues”: accompaniment
291; B♭ 231; Concert Pitch 107; E♭ 167); in files (Bass 283; B♭ 222; Concert Pitch 94; E♭ 158);
own original melody 48–49 (Bass 257; B♭ 195; complex melodic embellishments 89–91 (Bass
Concert Pitch 51; E♭ 133); performance etude see 281, 282; B♭ 219, 220, 221; Concert Pitch 91,
“Another You There Will Never Pass”; practicing 92, 93; E♭ 155, 156, 157); foundational chorus
in major, minor and diminished triads 45–47 84–86 (Bass 276; B♭ 214; Concert Pitch 85; E♭
(Bass 255, 260; B♭ 191, 192; Concert Pitch 46, 151); neighbor tones 87–89 (Bass 279; B♭ 217,
48; E♭ 129, 130); and rhythm 45; in “Upper/ 218; Concert Pitch 88, 89, 90; E♭ 153, 154);
Lower Guide Tone Blues” 89–90, 91 (Bass 281, syncopated variations 86–87 (Bass 277, 278; B♭
282; B♭ 219, 220, 221; Concert Pitch 91, 92, 93; 215, 216; Concert Pitch 86, 87; E♭ 152)
E♭ 155, 156, 157); used by Bach 2
Porter, Cole, “What Is This Thing Called Versace, Gary, “Organic-Lee” 63
Love?” 8 vibrato 12–13
300 Index
warmup exercises 15–16 gradient approach 79 (Bass 273; B♭ 211; Concert

“What is Jazz” (album) (Leonard Bernstein) 55 Pitch 78, 79; E♭ 148); “Mike’s Original Saints
“What Is This Thing Called Love?” (Cole Porter) 8 Melody,” neighbor tones 27 (Bass 245; B♭ 181;
“When the Saints Go Marching In”: Concert Pitch 28; E♭ 120); “Mike’s Original Saints
accompaniment files and transcriptions (Bass Melody,” passing tones 47 (Bass 256, 257; B♭ 194;
235; B♭ 171; Concert Pitch 10; E♭ 111); “Distilled Concert Pitch 50; E♭ 132); “Mike’s Original Saints
Saints Melody” 7 (Bass 234; B♭ 170; Concert Melody,” syncopated variations 14–15, 47 (Bass
Pitch 8; E♭ 110); “Distilled Saints Melody,” 256, 257; B♭ 174, 175, 181, 194; Concert Pitch
appoggiaturas 37–38 (Bass 251, 252; B♭ 187, 15, 16, 50; E♭ 114, 115, 132); original melody 6
188; Concert Pitch 38; E♭ 125); “Distilled Saints (Bass 234; B♭ 170; Concert Pitch 7; E♭ 110); own
Melody,” bluesy version 57 (Bass 261; B♭ 198; original melody, appoggiaturas 40–41 (Bass 253;
Concert Pitch 57; E♭ 136); “Distilled Saints B♭ 189; Concert Pitch 41; E♭ 127); own original
Melody,” enclosures 68–69 (Bass 266, 267; B♭ melody, bluesy version 59 (Bass 262; B♭ 199;
203, 204; Concert Pitch 69, 70; E♭ 141, 142); Concert Pitch 59; E♭ 137); own original melody,
“Distilled Saints Melody,” gradient approach enclosures 72–73 (Bass 269, 270; B♭ 206, 207;
77–79 (Bass 272; B♭ 210; Concert Pitch 77, 78; E♭ Concert Pitch 73, 74; E♭ 144, 145); own original
147); “Distilled Saints Melody,” neighbor tones melody, gradient approach 80–81 (Bass 274, 275;
24–27 (Bass 244; B♭ 180; Concert Pitch 27; E♭ B♭ 212, 213; Concert Pitch 80, 81, 82; E♭ 149,
119); “Distilled Saints Melody,” passing tones 150); own original melody, neighbor tones 29–30
47 (Bass 256; B♭ 193; Concert Pitch 49; E♭ 131); (Bass 246; B♭ 182; Concert Pitch 29; E♭ 182); own
“Distilled Saints Melody,” syncopated variations original melody, passing tones 48–49 (Bass 257;
11–13 (Bass 236, 237; B♭ 172, 173; Concert Pitch B♭ 195; Concert Pitch 51; E♭ 133); versions by jazz
12, 13, 14; E♭ 112, 113); “Mike’s Original Saints greats 10
Melody” 8–9 (Bass 235, 238, 239; B♭ 171, 188; “Who Is This One I Like?” melody and
Concert Pitch 9; E♭ 111); “Mike’s Original Saints embellishments 100–102; Bass 287; B♭ 226, 227;
Melody,” appoggiaturas 38–39 (Bass 252, 253; B♭ Concert Pitch 101; E♭ 162, 163; own original
189; Concert Pitch 39, 40; E♭ 126, 127); “Mike’s melody over chord progression 102–103, 103,
Original Saints Melody,” bluesy version 57–58 228 (Bass 288; B♭ 228; Concert Pitch 102; E♭ 164)
(Bass 261, 262; Concert Pitch 58; E♭ 136, 137; woodshed (practice technique): definition 296;
B♭ 198, 199); “Mike’s Original Saints Melody,” learning 12; keys 3, 4; origins (Charlie Parker) 3
enclosures 69–72, 74 (Bass 267, 268, 270; B♭
205, 206, 208; Concert Pitch 71, 72, 74, 75; E♭ “Yardbird Suite” (Charlie Parker), Chad Lefkowitz-
142, 143, 145); “Mike’s Original Saints Melody,” Brown’s solo 63–64, 63, 64

Jazz Improvisation Using Simple Melodic Embellishment

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

You might also like

Jazz Improvisation Using Simple Melodic Embellishment

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Jazz Improvisation Using Simple Melodic Embellishment

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Jazz Improvisation Using Simple Melodic

Jazz Improvisation Using Simple Melodic Embellishment teaches fundamental concepts of

Detailed Contents vii

1 Melodic Embellishment: The Concept 1

Appendix 1: Exercises Transposed for E♭ Instruments 110

List of Figures and Tables ix

1 Melodic Embellishment: The Concept 1

Appendix 1: Exercises Transposed for E♭ Instruments 110

(R) = Rhythm Section Only

1.1 Musical example: Famous piece with embellishments removed 2 ME 1.1

2.1 Performance Exercise: “When the Saints Go Marching In” 7 Acc 1

2.2 Performance Exercise: “Distilled Saints Melody” 8 Acc 13

2.3 Performance Exercise: “Mike’s Original Saints Melody” 9 Acc 25

2.4 Musical Example: Demonstrating how circled pitches are derived 9 ME 2.4

3.1 Performance Exercise: “Distilled Saints Melody” with syncopations

3.2 Performance Exercise: “Distilled Saints Melody” with syncopations on the

3.3 Abbreviated Performance Exercise: “Distilled Saints Melody” with

3.4 Abbreviated Performance Exercise: “Distilled Saints Melody” with

3.5 Abbreviated Performance Exercise: Several rhythmic and stylistic

3.6 Abbreviated Performance Exercise: Several rhythmic and stylistic

3.7 Performance Exercise: Mixed syncopations and articulations on

3.8 Written Exercise: Compose your own rhythmic variation of “Mike’s

4.1 Mike’s neighbors as a kid in Rochester 19

ME 4.2 4.2 Musical Example: Diatonic neighbors 20

ME 4.3 4.3 Musical Example: Chromatic neighbors 20

ME 4.4 4.4 Musical Example: Indistinguishable neighbors 20

ME 4.5 4.5 Musical Example: Diatonic or Chromatic 20

ME 4.6 4.6 Musical Example: Which diatonic neighbor do you prefer? 21

ME 4.7 4.7 Musical Example: Double neighbors 21

4.8 Performance Exercise with Written Component: Neighbor tones on a

4.9 Performance Exercise with Written Component: Neighbor tones on a

4.10 Performance Exercise with Written Component: Neighbor tones on a

4.11 Abbreviated Performance Exercise: Neighbor tone variations on the

4.12 Abbreviated Performance Exercise: Neighbor tone variations on

4.13 Performance Exercise with Written Component: Freely mixed neighbors on

Acc 37 4.14 Written Exercise: Compose your own simple “Saints” melody 29

4.16 Performance Exercise with Written Component: Etude “Just Neighbors”

4.17 Performance Exercise: Etude “Just Neighbors” page 2 33

ME 5.1 5.1 Musical Example: Appoggiaturas 35

5.2 Performance Exercise with Written Component: Major, minor and

5.3 Performance Exercise: Appoggiaturas on the “Distilled Saints Melody” 38 Acc 128

5.4 Performance Exercise: Appoggiaturas on the “Distilled Saints Melody”

5.5 Performance Exercise with Written Component: Appoggiaturas on

5.6 Performance Exercise with Written Component: Freely mixed

5.7 Performance Exercise with Written Component: Write a version of your own

5.8 Performance Etude: “Appoggiaturas with Cathy” 42 Acc 51

6.2 Musical Example: Passing tones 45 ME 6.2

6.3 Musical Example: Chromatic passing tones 45 ME 6.3

6.4 Musical Example: Groups of passing tones 45 ME 6.4

6.6 Performance Exercise with Written Component: Major, minor, and

6.7 Performance Exercise: Diatonic passing tones on the “Distilled

6.8 Performance Exercise: Chromatic passing tones on the “Distilled

6.9 Performance Exercise with Written Component: Mostly diatonic passing

6.10 Performance Exercise with Written Component: Mostly chromatic passing

6.13 Performance Etude: “Another You There Will Never Pass” page 2 53

7.1 Musical Example: Bessie Smith’s “Mama’s Got the Blues” 54 ME 7.1

7.2 Chord of the moment vs. key of the piece continuum 55

7.3 Musical Example: Using only chord arpeggios, too extreme on the

7.5 Bluesy meter 57

4.1 Mike’s neighbors as a kid in Rochester  19

4.17 Performance Exercise: Etude “Just Neighbors” page 2  33

7.2 Chord of the moment vs. key of the piece continuum  55

7.5 Bluesy meter  57

8.2 Musical Example: Solo transcription “Chad Lefkowitz-Brown Standard

ME 8.3 8.3 Musical Example: Lefkowitz-Brown’s enclosures 64

12.3 Performance Exercise: All non-harmonic pitches of “Now, Out of Here”

A final thought before we start

Was [great improviser in question] really thinking about all this stuff?

Figure 2.1 Performance Exercise: “When the Saints Go Marching In”

Mike’s Original Saints Melody

Figure 2.2 Performance Exercise: “Distilled Saints Melody” 

Figure 2.3 Performance Exercise: “Mike’s Original Saints Melody” 

Figure 2.4 Musical Example: Demonstrating how circled pitches are derived 

Table 2.1 Practice Grid: Accompaniment audio files in all 12 keys

F♯ /G♭ Accompaniment 2.MP3 Accompaniment 14.MP3 Accompaniment 26.MP3