Solo playing....

[franco6719]

What's the best way to work on chord melody/chord solo playing technique and things like that? Practice other people's arrangements or just work out your own and keep going at it?

In other words, is there any kind of methodical approach to this that people use or do you just take some ideas from here and there, work on different voicings, etc?

[JohnW400]

How I did it , aside from spending HOURS AND HOURS working on chords, was to learn from the master. Joe P. I shedded his book of chord solos until i could play each one from memory. At the same time I started working on my own 'chord lick' vocabulary.

I did this by thinking about what I wanted to achieve (ie doing a altered dominant run) and then worked out how to do it.

There are several tools and concepts to use. You can do a bass/comp thing, intervals, compound intervals, harmonize the scale, octaves with an interval (Benson), chord substitution etc.

The other thing to keep in mind is how do you want the lines (voices) to
move. There's parrallel motion, contrary motion, pedal notes etc.

So you see there is a ton of stuff to work on , and continue to work on.

One thing I'm working on now is to have 3 or more voices with the top and bottom voices moving in contrary motion but maintaining at least one inner voice on a static note

Ex. first 4 strings

CEGB
BEGC
AEGD
GEBE

[mr. beaumont]

I guess my experience was different than John's.

I learned more by creating my own arrangements than any book ever could teach me.

I've studied other folks' arrangements and taken ideas here and there, but I've never learned anyone's arrangement note for note. This is jazz...that just seemed useless in my opinion. Steal the good stuff, make it your own, and move on.

It took me weeks to knock out my first arrangement. Now I can pull one together in an hour or so (with tweaks/changes, well, forever--they're "living" arrangements, not classical pieces) In about a year after I started, I had enough to do short gigs, and now, 7-8 years after I started, I have about 100 tunes I can do, with about 30-40 in "practiced up" shape ready to go for gigs (the others I could pull off with a little black coffee and an hour in the shed)

But I do agree with John that it's all about CHORDS. Knowing how to make 'em, finding them ALL over the neck. Crucial. That's the biggest thing right there.

[ksjazzguitar]

Yeah, I never was very good at copying others arrangements. I think I checked some out and tried to get the basic idea, but ultimately I had to come up with my own.

You just have to keep at it. It took me about a month to do my first, then about 3 weeks for the next couple, then 2 weeks, etc. Now most of the time it can be about 20 minutes. It's like anything else - it just takes practice. But it is going to be very frustrating at first. You just have to keep at it and don't give up, be willing to make mistakes.

Yeah, you need lots of chords. Learn what function each of the notes is (root, third, etc.) You'll find that you end up inventing new chords.

I have some CM on my youtube at the bottom if you want to check it out.

Peace,
Kevin

[JohnW400]

Oh, Chord Melody? I thought he was asking about soloing with chords as opposed to single note solos.

To make a CM, check out a couple of different players for reference and then do your own.

Even the ones I posted here way back when where more technical studies. I'm sure Mr B and Kevin have tunes where they have yet to play the CM the same way twice.

[derek]

I took simpler ballads in the real book. Simpler meaning, one change per bar stuff. Then using mostly just shell voicings (r,3,7), along with root and 2nd inversion 7th chords, put the melody on top, and arranged a bunch of tunes like that. Very gratifying.

From there I picked up arrangements of the same tunes by pro players, and analyzed what they were doing, and began incorporating some of their ideas into what I had done. That is how I started putting it together. Good luck

[Reg]

Copy the guys you have the chops to copy... doesn't need to be perfect. You'll pick up on their styles... and usually in the process you begin to develop your own voice. Chord melodies tend to get boring when you don't have enough too say... just playing the melody with voicings. I played a three hour solo gig last night. If your back ground... you can play anything... but when people listen... you need more than simple voiced melodies at slow and medium tempos... I usually have sections where I improve and try and take the audience somewhere... and then crash land back with tune... it works and I have fun and sometimes find material I like and try and remember. Best Reg

[wizard3739]

I found putting a song into a 3 or 4 different keys was very helpful for chord melodies. It forced me to think about different grips for each key and eventually helped me to play more spontaneous chord melodies during gigs where we had no bass player. BTW, Kevin (KSjazzguitar) I went to your site and listened to some of your chord melodies. VERY nice! My favorite is "Moonglow" with "Witchcraft" running a close second.

wiz

[franco6719]

No, I WAS thinking more about chord soloing actually. But those are all helpful tips anyway.

[Reg]

OK... yea very traditional to finish up solo with chordal solo which uses many techniques of chord- melodies or guitar solo style. I use same method I always say... voice your lead line. If you have the chops have more lines going on, but the point is to wind up your improve and set up whats to come. If your simply talking about soloing with chords... 1st thing... same concepts, I use double and triple stops or notes for soloing all the time depending on context. Guitar can sound pretty thin, so helps ideas ring a little longer. Can begin to sound like someone comping without a melody, rhythmic or harmonic groove... check out Bensons chordal soloing... he's definitely not simply comping. Why don't you post something and we can swap some ideas... Best Reg

[ksjazzguitar]

Thanks Wizard.

But on the subject of soloing in your CMs, yeah, it can be a very useful thing - right away you can triple the length of your tunes (when you're starting out, filling up a 3 or 4 hour gig can be tough.)

Of course you can always just solo, and either punch in chords in the holes or just imply them strongly with your chords. If I may use my youtube stuff as an example, songs like "Witchcraft," "Don't Get Around Much Anymore," and "Blue Monk" have solos that start out like that. Another approach of course is chord soloing. These songs end up doing this by the end of the solo.

I think that these approaches work well if the arrangement is less "quarter-note-pulse-y" for lack of a better term - they still have time, but I'm not hitting every quarter note.

Some of the arrangements have a very strong quarter note pules and even walking bass lines at times. With this I'm usually trying to create more of a "combo" sound so I find it distracting to suddenly switch to a thinner texture (but maybe that's just me.) For these I try to keep the pulse going during the solos, so you often see my thumb hitting a bass note and/or a chord on every beat. "Moonglow" and "Ain't Misbehavin'" are good examples of this.

I think that one of the things that you have to free yourself up with a chord solo is from the worry about having an awesome melody. It can still be good, but you are not going to have the freedom that you would with single-note playing. Try to focus more on creating interesting harmonies (through subs, reharms, and half-step slides) and interesting rhythms. Obviously you do need to think about melody, and it should be the centerpiece, but just realize that it is only one part of the equation - it doesn't have to carry all the weight. I like to think that there are 3 components to the "full" sound - melody, comping, and pulse (often the bass line.) If you can get two of these going you have a pretty good texture. If you can get all three going, you're ready for the big leagues.

Other than that you just need to dive in and start doing it. I remember when I started doing it, I just told myself every night I was going to start taking a chord solo on every song, even if it was just the last 4 bars of my solo. It was a little hairy at first, but it got better. And people dug it.

Just my thoughts.

Peace,
Kevin