Embellishing Melody in Guitar Playing

Okay, then. So, the next approach I want to talk about is taking a melody. We're going to use the same melody over and over again and start thinking about ways that we can embellish that melody.

What is Embellishment?

An embellishment could be something as simple as:

• Adding vibrato
• Approaching a specific note:
  • Do we slide into it?
  • Do we pick it?
  • Are we playing legato with hammer-ons and pull-offs?
  • Are we tapping the note?
  • Are we bending up to the note?

There are plenty of different ways we can approach playing even just one single note on the guitar.

Example: "Sweet Child of Mine"

What I thought would be a good idea is if we take a melody that I imagine a lot of you will know. We're going to use the vocal melody, just one bar of it, from "Sweet Child of Mine" by Guns N' Roses.

Hopefully, this melody is familiar to you. If you're not familiar with that song, go and check it out. Just have a listen to the opening vocal phrase. You'll instantly recognize that melody.

Key and Note Structure

• We're in the key of D major here.
• Starting on the B string with the little finger and picking it three times.
• Then, we're descending down and crossing over to the G string for the last two notes.

It's a really simple melody to play at the moment, but it sounds a little bit flat because I'm not adding any articulation or embellishment to those notes whatsoever. So, it sounds a little stale really at the moment.

Experimenting with Embellishments

What I'd like you to work on is playing that same melody but thinking about different ways of approaching various notes within it. For example:

• Perhaps you might bend up to the third note that you're repeating.
• Maybe add some slides in there.
• Add a little bit of vibrato.

There are so many different ways we could try playing that melody. You might change the position of it to get a different tone, perhaps moving it higher for a warmer sound.

Focused Technique Practice

To start with, try restricting yourself and just apply one technique at a time. For instance, if we were to just go for slides:

• "Yeah, it's kind of overdoing the slides a bit, but it just gives you an idea."

Perhaps a little more musical there, but we don't want to do it on every single note, it could be overkill. Find the spots where it suits a specific technique.

Adding Vibrato

Certainly, on any sustained notes, those that have a reasonable duration to them, let's get some vibrato added in there. It's one of the most expressive things you can do to a note to really make it work.

• Focus on that third note and especially the final note of the phrase, get some nice vibrato on there.

Combining Techniques

Let's have a look at combining a few different techniques. For example, some slides and some bends, perhaps:

• "That's quite cool. We're throwing in a few bends there."

We could do pre-bends and get some vibrato that way as well. There are almost infinite possibilities just by sticking with that melody and changing the way you approach playing it.

Thinking Like a Vocalist

I think it's a really nice example using that particular melody because it's a vocal phrase. You can gain a lot from trying to think a bit more like a vocalist would in terms of your phrasing.

The Importance of Phrasing

When you play your notes as a guitar player, we can just keep going up and down shapes all day long without needing to take a physical breath. In contrast, a vocalist has to breathe when performing, creating gaps and starting again.

Consider this when you're working on your phrasing:

• Play a little bit, breathe, let it sit.
• Next phrase, play a bit, let it breathe.

Combine all these little things together and suddenly your improvisations start to sound a lot more musical, rather than just playing up and down familiar scales.

Practice with Your Own Melodies

Do give that a try and try it with your own melodies as well. Not just melodies from songs you like, while that's a great practice, but come up with your own melodies using the methods we've talked about previously.

Then, try keeping those melodies the same while varying how you embellish them. Focus on techniques like:

• Bending up to notes
• Sliding into notes
• Adding vibrato

Think about all that rather than the note choice because you've already settled on a melody that you like and think works.

It's a really cool thing to experiment with, so good luck with that!