Melody Instruments

• Examples
• Roles

This is a preview of the educational program A Jazz Improvisation Almanac which is under development for the Outside Shore Music Online School. Feel free to browse this preview and learn what you can from it. For a more completed product, though, check out the original freely browsable jazz textbook, A Jazz Improvisation Primer.

Examples

Instruments in this category include the trumpet:

Trombone:

The saxophone family (soprano, alto, tenor, and baritone most notably):

Clarinet:

Flute:

and violin:

Note that wind instruments in jazz are commonly referred to as horns, regardless of whether they are woodwind or brass. These instruments are generally capable of playing only one note at a time, and their range resembles that of the human voice. Indeed, for the purposes of this categorization, we should include the human voice as well:

Roles

Melody instruments are often found playing the theme of a composition, accompanied by instruments of the other families (chordal, bass, and percussion), as in the muted trumpet in this example:

Melody instruments also tend to take the bulk of the improvised solos, as in the muted trumpet again:

Melody instruments generally serve as the focus of attention in the same way that singers in popular music do. Ironically, however, jazz singers do not solo as often as horn players. This may be because singers are normally attuned to the lyrics as well as the melody, and it is extremely difficult to improvise words while singing. Instead, many singers improvise by scatting nonsense syllables:

Melody instruments, including the voice, can also be used to provide accompaniment. Just as pop groups may have backup singers, combos and especially big bands may also use melody instruments in background parts. This is sometimes heard as a single melody instrument playing a countermelody to the main theme or solo, as in the flute in this example:

Or, several melody instruments may be used together to form chords, as in the saxophones in this example:

The use of melody instruments to provide accompaniment is more common in big bands than in combos, because big bands are more likely to employ written arrangements that can organize this accompaniment.

Copyright 2000 Outside Shore Music
Authored by Marc Sabatella

Melody Instruments