Embraceable You — Free Lead Sheet PDF (Eb, Bb, Concert)

Music by George Gershwin · Published 1930 · Melody & chords only

Not sure which to pick? Our interactive saxophone transposition chart can help. PDFs open in a new tab — right-click (or long-press on mobile) and choose “Save as” to download.

About Embraceable You

From an Unproduced Operetta to Girl Crazy

Embraceable You was composed by George Gershwin, with lyrics by his brother Ira, in 1928 — but not for the show most people associate it with. It was originally written for an operetta called East Is West, which was never produced. Gershwin held onto the song, and it was published in 1930 when it was placed into Girl Crazy, the same Broadway musical that introduced I Got Rhythm. In the original production it was performed by Ginger Rogers in a song-and-dance number choreographed by Fred Astaire — two years before the pair became one of Hollywood’s most celebrated dance partnerships on screen.

Where I Got Rhythm is a fast, sturdy vehicle built for jam sessions, Embraceable You is a warm, spacious ballad in the key of G — and it went on to have an entirely different second life. Its smooth harmonic movement and clear 32-bar AABA form made it one of the most popular standards for bebop musicians to improvise over in the 1940s, above all in Charlie Parker’s celebrated 1947 recording, discussed in more detail below.

The chart on this page offers the melody and chords, no lyrics. If you are also working through The Man I Love, I Got Rhythm or Someone to Watch Over Me, it is worth hearing all four side by side — four Gershwin standards from the 1920s and 30s that each treat melody, harmony and tempo in strikingly different ways.

The Form & Harmony

A Simple Melody Over Deceptively Rich Changes

Embraceable You is a standard 32-bar AABA song form in the key of G, and its melody is famously simple — short, repeated phrases that barely move outside a narrow range. That simplicity is exactly why the tune has become such a popular vehicle for improvisation: a plain, uncluttered melody sitting on top of harmonically rich changes leaves plenty of room for a soloist to fill in without fighting the tune for space.

One of the harmony’s defining features is how often it resolves motion from the IV chord back to the I chord, rather than leaning on the more common ii–V–I cadence that drives so much of the standard repertoire. That IV-to-I pathway gives the tune a slightly different harmonic colour to many of its contemporaries, and it is worth deliberately isolating and listening for as you learn the chart, since it shapes the character of the A sections as much as the melody does.

The bridge moves through more conventional territory, giving contrast before the final A section returns. As with most standards of this vintage, different fake books show minor variations in the exact voicings and passing chords, but the overall shape — a plain, singable melody over harmony that keeps resolving through the IV chord — is consistent across nearly every version you will encounter.

How to Play It on Saxophone

Learning It Both as a Ballad and as a Bebop Vehicle

1. Learn the plain melody thoroughly first. Because this tune is so often used as a launchpad for improvisation, it is easy to absorb a version of it that has already drifted away from Gershwin’s actual tune. Go back to the lead sheet and learn the real melody before layering anything else on top.

2. Isolate the IV-to-I resolutions. Play slowly through the places where the harmony resolves from the IV chord back to the tonic, since this happens more often here than the more familiar ii–V–I motion. Hearing that pathway clearly will shape how you outline the changes when you start to improvise.

3. Work rubato before you work in time. Practise the melody freely, shaping phrases the way a singer would, before locking it to a metronome. Even though this tune is a common up-tempo improvisation vehicle, the melody itself is a ballad and deserves to be learned as one.

4. Study how Charlie Parker floats over the changes. Once the plain melody is secure, listen closely to Parker’s 1947 recording and notice how little of Gershwin’s actual tune he plays. Transcribing even a short phrase is a masterclass in treating a familiar chord progression as raw material rather than a fixed melody to decorate.

5. Practise moving between the tune and improvised lines. Alternate choruses of the plain melody with choruses of your own lines over the same changes, building the ability to move fluidly between stating the tune and departing from it, exactly as the great interpreters of this standard do.

If you would like one-to-one guidance on ballad playing, improvisation or building a wider jazz vocabulary, saxophone lessons in person in South East London or online are available. The free saxophone transcriptions on this site are also useful for hearing how great players navigate this and other standards.

Essential Recordings

Where to Start Listening

No recording of this tune matters more to jazz musicians than Charlie Parker’s, cut for Dial Records on 28 October 1947 at WOR Studios in New York, with Miles Davis on trumpet, Duke Jordan on piano, Tommy Potter on bass and Max Roach on drums. Two takes were recorded back to back; the second became the master. Writers Gary Giddins and Scott DeVeaux famously observed that Parker “barely touches down on Gershwin’s melody,” floating instead through a stream of rapid, constantly shifting phrases at a deceptively slow tempo — one of the clearest examples on record of a bebop musician treating a standard as pure harmonic material.

Billie Holiday’s reading is essential from the vocal side, bringing an aching intimacy that has made her version a benchmark for decades. Sarah Vaughan and Nat King Cole both recorded classic versions of their own, each finding a different balance between the tune’s simple melody and its rich underlying harmony — well worth hearing side by side to appreciate just how much interpretive room this deceptively simple tune leaves a great musician.

If you are working through the broader Great American Songbook repertoire, browse the online real book index for related tunes, all available as free lead sheet PDFs in Concert, Bb and Eb. If you are also studying The Man I Love, I Got Rhythm or Someone to Watch Over Me, comparing all four is a good way to hear the real range of Gershwin’s writing.