Hi, Scotty. Not many takers for this topic, eh? Phrasing is such a subtle aspect of music that it's hard to even think of a way of discussing it.
I think the main thing I do when playing melodically, whether it's off the cuff or a set melody line, is really try to imagine singing the lines. Singers need to take breaths, the same applies to playing; singers are singing actual phrases of English language, players need to emulate that ... play phrases of music, in other words deliver the melody in self contained chunks that add up to the whole; singers tell the story of the song, so should instrumentalists; singers don't sing scales, they sing melodies, so try and emulate that too.
Apart from all of those aspects, there's the question of how you play the phrases ... on the beat, behind the beat, in front of the beat ...
Good question, but it's a hard one!
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