Quoting Songs in Your Improv

Hey Everyone,

I just wanted to make a real quick post concerning quotes. We've all heard a phenomenal solo from a top-notch player who, in the middle of making sense of musical chaos, finds a way to insert a popular melody into their solo without breaking any kind of sweat. I always used to wonder, "How do they do that and make it look so easy?" Well, some people have different methods for incorporating this technique, but the one I've found that works best for me is the number system.

In my opinion, the number system is the most efficient way to work quotes or any other type of pre-determined lick into an improv solo. The reason I say that is because numbers are not constrained by key signatures. Let me demonstrate:

Let's say for instance, we're in the key of C, so our C scale looks like:
C D E F G A B C

Now if we want to play "Mary Had a Little Lamb" in the key of C, we need to start on E to make to melody sound right. It would look like this:
E-D-C-D-E-E-E
D-D-D E-G-G
E-D-C-D-E-E-E D-D-E-D-C

But what if we take Mary and turn her into numbers? If we think in numbers, we have to keep in mind the scale/key we're working in. In other words, in the key of C, 3=E. So Mary would look like:

3-2-1-2-3-3-3
2-2-2 3-5-5
3-2-1-2-3-3-3 2-2-3-2-1

Now if you know all 12 scales and key signatures, you can take Mary and put her in any key as long as you can quickly figure out which letter is #3 in the scale.

As you progress, you'll be able to learn more sophisticated and/or obscure melodies and incorporate them into a solo.

I've listed below some popular folk tunes as well as a jazz standard. See if you can figure out which melodies they are. Post a comment with your guess and I might have a prize for the person who gets more correct.

1)1-1-5-5-6-6-5 4-4-3-3-2-2-1
5-5-4-4-3-3-2 5-5-4-4-3-3-2
1-1-5-5-6-6-5 4-4-3-3-2-2-1

2)1-1-5-5-6-6-5 3-3-2-2-1

3)5-1 8-6-5-1 5-4-3-3-4-5-1-2-3

4)5-1-7-6-5-6-3-4-5-1-7-1 (jazz standard)