Advice for beginner at chord melody playing

[Paul Mitchell-Davidson]

My comment about voice leading should have been, use good voice leading whenever possible. The shape of the melody,where it is positioned on the fingerboard,the availability of the correct bass note and the key,whether you are playing fingerstyle or with a pick are all considerations in how you fill in the rest of the harmony.
This sometimes precludes smooth movement of parts from one chord to another but often the colour or tension of the harmony makes up for it.
Another factor is your technical ability,chord knowledge and harmonic vocabulary. The nice thing is that the arrangement can constantly evolve,
there needn't be a final version. There are always new things to learn even about tunes you may have played thousands of times.

[Tomtom94]

If you love Wes montgomery like I do, I recommend the Wes montgomery guitar folio (fourth edition). The book has 30 transcribed solos and lots of chord melodies. 2 Different recordings of the chord melody solos on West Coast Blues, the chord meldy on Round midnight etc. I find it really difficult to read chordmelody notated but if you take your time you could probably learn alot of it.

[Brian B.]

Originally Posted by Tomtom94

If you love Wes montgomery like I do, I recommend the Wes montgomery guitar folio (fourth edition). The book has 30 transcribed solos and lots of chord melodies. 2 Different recordings of the chord melody solos on West Coast Blues, the chord meldy on Round midnight etc. I find it really difficult to read chordmelody notated but if you take your time you could probably learn alot of it.

Well, of course, who doesn't love Wes! The name of my Youtube channel (montgomerylatin), though, is from the high school where I teach Latin (the rest of the videos are all about the Latin subjunctive!!!) As fate would have it, though, I just recorded Barry Galbraith's arrangement of I've Grown Accustomed to Your Face, and appended Wes' intro and exit (since the Galbraith arr. seems to be just a slight simplification of Wes'). I realize that Wes probably played the intro up higher on the Guitar (judging by how the chords lay), but I love the way Monarch sounds right in the middle ... so that's where I played it!

YouTube - I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face (arr. Barry Galbraith w/ Wes's intro & Exit)

This is not a good recording by any means (not least of all because I can't figure out how to boost the volume!). I don't think it gives a good sense of just how simple and lovely the Galbraith arrangement is (nor of how absolutely lovely the Monarch that I just brought sounds!). It was Sunday morning, though, and I had to run to do laundry! Maybe I'll try it again if I have the time this week (when I'm not so concerned with what chord comes next and can just think about making it sound nice!).

Vale!

Brian

[fumblefingers]

very nice sound. what amp are you using?

some feedback if you don't mnd: i think that you should strive to keep time. keep things moving along and don't over indulge the rubato feel. save the romanticsm for fewer parts, and really make them count.

[Brian B.]

Originally Posted by fumblefingers

some feedback if you don't mnd: i think that you should strive to keep time. keep things moving along and don't over indulge the rubato feel. save the romanticsm for fewer parts, and really make them count.

I don't mind at all! Quite the contrary: I appreciate feedback very much. Yes, you're right about the over use of the rubato (of course, you have to feel comfortable with the tune to play it convincingly and in tempo!!!). The one part where I'd really like to play it rubato is on the F#7#5 to B7#5 (leading to the E7 near the end). It's just so, so lovely and I'd really like to lay on it. Maybe this is over-doing it (or not setting it up correctly):

http://www.mtsd.k12.nj.us/6459125927...844/rubato.mp3

Originally Posted by fumblefingers

very nice sound. what amp are you using?

No amp at all! I'm playing directly into my computer using a Line 6 POD (GX). I had a very limited budget and decided not to buy an amp at all. I couldn't be happier with the sound -- both with the Line 6 and the absolutely lovely sounding Peerless Monarch. They really sound much better than I had anticipated.