Approach Notes & Embellishments – In jazz improvisation these are specifically chosen notes which are used to highlight or ‘frame’ others – usually chord tones. There are a number of names applied to them, however I usually refer to them generically as either approach notes or embellishments. They can be employed in several different ways, however the most common applications are shown in the musical examples below.

I have arranged the examples to demonstrate the various note applications applied to four common chord types: Major 7th, Minor 7th, Dominant 7th and Minor 7th b5 chords. 

On each line I begin with the core arpeggio tones of each chord (all played from a C root note) and then (moving left to right) I add an approach note from a semitone below, a scale step above and finally a combination approach. You should get the idea quite quickly once you play these exercises.  

I have also included a couple of video links below (from my YouTube guitar channel) where I discuss the use of approach notes in a little more detail and these may help in understanding the examples above. 

Approach notes are an important feature in the language of jazz and hopefully these introductory exercises will help you to start employing them in your own playing.

Here’s a MIDI generated audio file of the above examples. (Please also note that in real-world playing, approach notes are commonly played on weaker beats in a bar and lead to chord tones being played on the stronger beats. The MIDI examples here do not reflect that application)

Here is a PDF of the above exercises: A Brief Guide to Approach Notes