Chord Melody Confusion

[jazzjunky]

Good Morning!

I'm wondering if anyone can help shred some words of wisdom on this subject...
Ever since I played my first ever chord-melody, I was hooked! Its really the equivalent of a four (or five) part choir, all on one guitar...!
Recently I'm trying my hand at creating my own chord melody from a jazz standard. Just in terms of harmonizing and phrasing - are there any "golden rules" or specific guidelines that anyone could send my way?

For example: In Autumn Leaves, according to the Real Book version, the first note of the melody (i.e. These autumn leaves) is a high C, over A-7 chord. It's a tied whole note (that is tied to a quarter note in the next bar), over which a D7 chord is played. My query is what sort of progression would one use, to really "jazz up" the A-7 chord moving into the D7? Or how would you go about doing it?

Aside from that, how would one go about arranging a chord melody?
I'd be extremely grateful if anyone could shed any light on this subject...!

Tuneful Regards,

jazzjunky

[DINOEL GANDINI]

KEEP THE Am7 chord and in the following measure make it with D in the bass (Am7/D = Dsus4) there would be many other alternatives ) if you would email me your arrangement I might give you some opinions. regards

[m78w]

To spice up those first two chords on autumn leaves you could do:

Am7Eb13/D7

Am7A7alt/D7

Those are too "jazzy" sounding progressions.

Good luck with your arrangement! If you get it recorded post it on the site, I'm sure we'd all love to hear it.

MW