I really enjoyed looking at this pamphlet shared by a user on the Sax On The Web forums, titled “Studies in Hot Playing” by R.A. Schwab, 1926. It sets out rules for embellishing a melody: note above, note below, various eighth note embellishments. I think it’s great, and pretty straightforward and relevant to beginner students even now. Here’s the introduction:
Don’t get too hot!
And here’s one of the later examples:
This reminds of an article Lee Konitz did for Downbeat a while back, explaining his various stages of embellishing a melody, the last one being an entirely new melody. I always thought that was a great way of looking at improvisation, versus a chordal approach. Here’s the article: http://www.melmartin.com/html_pages/Interviews/konitz.html
UPDATE 2020! The original site is down now, so here are the images of the Lee Konitz material. RIP Lee:
‘Til next time, happy practicing!