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[Music] hi my name is Ruka and in this video we’re going to talk about passing tones and how you can use passing tones to embellish existing Melodies In your own piano Arrangements what are passing tones they’re a compositional technique that embellishes Melodies it makes your Melody sound fancier passing tones are notes that fill in the space between two existing melodic notes where those two melodic notes are part of the same Harmony but let’s jump straight into an example because if I only give you definitions ah I lose your attention you know the tune Jesus loves me this I know now between G and E I have a third inside that third I can fill in the space with passing tones in order to create a more flowy line like this and if I want to maintain the eighth note pulse even on those chord notes I can add passing tones that go around the melody line without being restricted by this is my starting point this is my ending point let’s take the next phrase the original is and if I want to add some passing tones or and when you write your own piano Arrangements you got to make sure that people still recognize the melody especially if you’re going to perform it in church you don’t want to embellish it so much that it becomes a standalone composition that has almost nothing in common with the original Melody after all that’s the difference between a composition and arrangement with an arrangement because you’re arranging an existing Melody we still have to keep the melody so clear that people can follow along and they’re familiar with it so so be careful when you embellish your Melodies not to overdo it with passing tones well let’s continue to the next phrase it’s the same as the beginning and then we have a a g c e d c I have a big leap between G and C that’s a fifth that doesn’t give me enough time to move in eighth notes so it’s okay to it’s okay to simplify things there you balance it out allowing people to just enjoy the familiar Melody without overdoing it because if you try to really fit in all of the other notes between G and C it will sound [Music] uh unless you’re trying to make a different point moving on to the chorus now we start with a half note let’s see what we can do with that [Music] or if I want to fill in more of that space how’d you like that G sharp then we have jesuses let’s see how we can fill in that space I borrowed that from Mozart when we continue it’s the same as earlier then I [Music] have oh so after I go to L I can maybe fit in a be there the could do that I wouldn’t put 16th notes in there just [Music] yet I would put it like that now I’ll try to improvise my way through using rightand embellishments passing tones in the melody and we’ll see how much of that I retained and how much will be brand new because I kind of forgot half of what I told you already the [Music] did you catch that I’m quite proud of it I should probably write it down good thing I recorded this video I can go back and transcribe what I did you’ll find the free pdf download of what I just played down down below it’s free you can use it for yourself you can use it with your students and if you want to learn more about how to write your own piano arrangements check out my online course below called Piano arranging I know what an inspired title at least it gets the point across where I take you step by step through all the different kinds of embellishments you can use to take an existing Melody and write your own piano Arrangements starting with embellishing Melodies like I showed you in this video going all the way up to what was it extended chords like Jazzy stuff and gospel music details in the description subscribe share this video with another pianist friend and I’ll see you in the next tutorial bye …