How to Embellish Piano Melodies
You hear well-known music played as it has been written and it sounds good. If you hear someone else play the same piece of music, that musician may add some embellishments, making the piece sound like a different song. The mood may change--it may sound peppier or more soulful, just by adding additional notes in some measures. Learn how to change the tone of a song by using minor or major chords, making the mood brighter or darker.
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Instructions
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Read your sheet music and look at the time signature. This tells you how fast or slow the music should be played, as well as how many beats are in each measure.
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Look at each note in your sheet music and change longer notes--whole notes, dotted half notes and half notes--into shorter notes, such as quarter notes and eighth notes.
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Look for any printed rests in your sheet music. A rest is a pausing point, where no notes are played. As you find rests, look at the measure and determine if the melody stops on a two-bar or a four-bar phrase.
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Play your sheet music as it is printed on the page. Listen to how it sounds. Add additional notes, making single notes into chords.
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Add different note combinations to your basic melody. As you do, play short eighth notes using the notes that make up a chord progression. Using a Cmaj7 chord, these notes are C, E, G and B. Shuffle these notes around and play them in different combinations.
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Harmonize your song. If the piece is composed in a major key, add major chords. Change the mood of the piece with some minor chords.
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Tips & Warnings
Begin adding simple embellishments on easier melodies until you become more comfortable with adding additional notes, rhythm or harmony.
As you add additional rhythm notes, remember to vary them--along with adding more eighth notes, add quarter notes and half notes.
References
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