Chord Melody instruction

[kappa2583]

I've recently had my hours cut back at work and unfortunately I have to sacrifice my lessons for a little while. My instructor has had me working on some real book tunes (all of me, satin doll, autumn leaves...I'm still a beginner!). We've also been working on chord melodies and some simple improvising using arpeggios and chord tones.

The thing is, I would like to continue to study chord melodies but I'll obviously have to do some self teaching. I was hoping that some of the instructors on this forum could give me some recommendations for chord melody instruction books.

I've been thinking about the following books:

Hal Leonard's Building a Jazz Chord Solo: A Guitarist's Guide to the Art of Chord Melody Playing

and

Mel Bay Jazz Guitar Standards Chord Melody Solos

I have also been usnig Mel Bay Rhythm Guitar Chord System to expand my chord knowlege which, I think, also helps my fretboard knowledge in conjunction with my classical stuff.

I appreciate any recommendations any of you may suggest. Thanks a bunch!

-Joe

[NSJ]

Can you play any relevant 7th chord with any note of the scale on top? (ie, R, 9, M3/M3, 11, P5, 6/13, M7/m7)???

Can you find 4 fundamental open voicings, dispersed as follows, on 4 parts of the neck (1) on the first 4 strings (2) inner 4 strings and (3) last 4 strings?

1573
3715
5137
7351???

[markerhodes]

Originally Posted by NSJ

Can you play any relevant 7th chord with any note of the scale on top? (ie, R, 9, M3/M3, 11, P5, 6/13, M7/m7)???

That question scares me and I can *do* that. I think this is the wrong way to go about learning to play chord melodies. Sure, it's good to have all that knowledge at one's fingertips, but it's not *necessary* to get up and running, and indeed, it might make things harder than they need be.

Better, I think, to learn a few chord melody solos, fiddle around with them--try them in one other common key, then a second---and then learn another solo and do the same thing. It's good to make up your own, but it is also good to find some online done by good players for novices. This way, you learn the 'moves' that crop up again and again. (In chord melody playing, a *lot* of phrases repeat with slight variations. Indeed, Ron Eschete has a nice, small book out called "Chord Melody Phrases for Guitar." Here's the Amazon link: Amazon.com: Chord-Melody Phrases for Guitar (REH Pro Lessons) (9780634029653): Ron Eschete: Books Learning these phrases--about 3 dozen--sharpens your ear, develops your taste, and gives you a springboard to work from. Along the way, you learn how to put any note on top but the difference is, when you gain that knowledge this way, you know how to play a lot of tunes, whereas the other way you know how to put any note on top of a chord but you don't have any tunes under your fingers.)

[Jazz Junior]

Hal Leonard's Building a Jazz Chord Solo: A Guitarist's Guide to the Art of Chord Melody Playing

I bought this book for the exact same reasons, self-taught, wanting to learn how to make chord melodies,
It's a good book which has also helped me learn chord substitutions, but I kinda think that just a book full of chord melodies may have been better for me, I'm still just getting into it, but none of the example songs really excite me.

[Drumbler]

Jody Fisher's book is really good.

Amazon.com: Complete Jazz Guitar Method: Mastering Jazz Guitar: Chord/Melody (BOOK & CD) (0038081128320): Jody Fisher: Books

The basics of chord melody are simple. Put the melody note on top of the chord (melody note is the highest note).

With a good chord book and this idea you can make up your own chord melodies using the Real Book.

Jody Fisher's book supplies some nice techniques. You can learn and apply those you like. Some are simple and some more advanced.

Markerhodes,

I'm going to check out that book you mentioned. Looks interesting.

[hot ford coupe]

That's how I learned to do chord melody. First I learned the melody. Then I applied the chords, no more that 3 or 4 notes at the most, with the meklody note on top as Drumbler has just described. Then, I fool around with the bass notes to make it more interesting. Finally, I try some chord substitutions. I don't get too far off the original chords because it seems to make the listeners a bit jumpy when you really alter a lot of harmony.

[Drumbler]

I think a good plan is to build a "book" of chord melodies (tunes) that you can play on command.

Learn chord voicings as needed in your tunes. Very quickly you will see repeated many of these voicings and you will develop favorite grips.

Practical application is best.

It takes quite awhile to get chords under your fingers, to be fluent. Why not accomplish two tasks at the same by learning actual chord melodies rather than learning permutations of chord voicings independent of application.

I generally put a chord under each melody note for a very full chord melody at first. Once I've got that down I can then experiment.

[NSJ]

Originally Posted by Drumbler

I think a good plan is to build a "book" of chord melodies (tunes) that you can play on command.

Learn chord voicings as needed in your tunes. Very quickly you will see repeated many of these voicings and you will develop favorite grips.

Practical application is best.

It takes quite awhile to get chords under your fingers, to be fluent. Why not accomplish two tasks at the same by learning actual chord melodies rather than learning permutations of chord voicings independent of application.

I generally put a chord under each melody note for a very full chord melody at first. Once I've got that down I can then experiment.

That's exactly how I've been trying to learn tunes at first---a very full chord associated with each melody note. I'll go through each note in the head and examine what chord voicing I'll need and what grip is associated with that (e.g., " ah, here comes a Gm7 with the m3 on top? piece of cake " )

[Drumbler]

Originally Posted by NSJ

That's exactly how I've been trying to learn tunes at first---a very full chord associated with each melody note. I'll go through each note in the head and examine what chord voicing I'll need and what grip is associated with that (e.g., " ah, here comes a Gm7 with the m3 on top? piece of cake " )

By full chord I mean a chord assigned to every melody note which is what I think you refer to.

However these chords could be 3, 4, or more note chords. And also dyads.

[whatswisdom]

Start by keeping it simple. Pick an easy melody (put on top) and harmonize it. Amazing Grace is a good choice. Don't underestimate the value of playing around with even easier melodies, e.g., Old McDonald, Pop Goes the Weasel.... I play these for my kids and always discover new ways to come up with voicings.

[kappa2583]

Thanks for all the recommendations everybody!

Now that I will be going lessonless I truly appreciate the advice, thank you.

[NSJ]

Check out this video from Martin Taylor--

YouTube - ‪Martin Taylor teaches "I Got Rhythm" Part 1 of 2‬‏


basic principles:

1. He used to think in terms of inversions.

2. Now, he plays the melody as written, the root progression as given (with some chromatics to give it a walking feeling), thus, melody and bass provide the structure, and the rest? Hefills in the "inner voices" as necessary, often using the barest elements of the chord--the 3rds and the 7ths.

[Dookychase]

I skimmed through the replies and didn't notice if someone had mentioned Robert Conti's materials. Some people here really like his method.

[nic]

Originally Posted by NSJ

Check out this video from Martin Taylor--

YouTube - ‪Martin Taylor teaches "I Got Rhythm" Part 1 of 2‬‏


basic principles:

1. He used to think in terms of inversions.

2. Now, he plays the melody as written, the root progression as given (with some chromatics to give it a walking feeling), thus, melody and bass provide the structure, and the rest? Hefills in the "inner voices" as necessary, often using the barest elements of the chord--the 3rds and the 7ths.

Here's another person with the same idea but far more folk than Jazz. And more suitable for intermediate.

Muriel Anderson, the book and DVD are called "Building Guitar Arrangements"
Muriel Anderson

[matt.guitarteacher]

Originally Posted by Dookychase

I skimmed through the replies and didn't notice if someone had mentioned Robert Conti's materials. Some people here really like his method.

I like Conti's method book, The Assembly Line a lot. It's basic "how to put any melody note on top of any chord" material. It'll definitely get you playing chord melody out of a fake book. I've also got his reharmonization method, The Formula. It's good stuff too, but a bit more advanced. He tries to keep things simple in explaining it, but honestly, there's a lot more going on harmonically than he even explains. I think it would make a lot of sense to learn some of his CM tunes first to give some context.

I've ordered one of his books with CM arrangements and intend on getting some of those reharmonizations in my ears and fingers for analysis purposes. Up to now I've been doing my own arrangements just reading through the Real Book using his Assembly Line method with a few chord substitutions thrown in; not a lot of real reharmonization.

Conti is one player and one style. There are other good method books in these previous discussions, and probably others as well.

http://www.jazzguitar.be/forum/chord...elf-study.html

http://www.jazzguitar.be/forum/chord...-books-cm.html