Chord-Melody love affair

[subtone]

Well I just started studying Chord-Melody with my teacher..... all I can say is wow!! this really opens up my brain to what the guitar is capable of... It's just so much fun and musical at the same time. I'm starting to see what jazz guitar is all about.

Does it ever get easy?

[jmstritt]

Originally Posted by subtone

Does it ever get easy?

No.

What I mean by that is this... The arrangements that you do at the beginning get easier, and it gets easier to work out something basic. You will notice however that as you progress you will add more and more elements to your chord melody playing and the arrangments you work on at the beginning seem boring to you 5 or 10 years later. Most folks start out using block chords and adding the melody note on top. From there you will see more possiblities on adding passing chords, subsituting chords, adding a bass line, counterpoint, chord licks and lines a la Joe Pass, and more.

The beautiful thing about jazz is that there are no easy and hard tunes. The tunes are as simple or as complex as you want to make them. Bill Evans can play Autumn Leaves and make something beautiful even though it is a, "Beginner" tune. Having said that, there are other players (You know who you are out there) that will burn a whole tone scale over Giant Steps and act like they are the bee's knees.

So to answer you question, making simple chord melodies will get easier, but as you go, you will learn more and more that will make it more complex. Best of luck to you as you progress!

[Banksia]

Yes it gets easier after the first 20 years or so.

If you are like many of us, you will just keep setting the bar higher as your skill level increases. We play a song, everyone in the room thinks we're geniuses, but all we hear is the fluffed chord changes.

[matt.guitarteacher]

Originally Posted by subtone

Well I just started studying Chord-Melody with my teacher..... all I can say is wow!! this really opens up my brain to what the guitar is capable of... It's just so much fun and musical at the same time. I'm starting to see what jazz guitar is all about.

I'm with you. I think this is the most fun aspect of playing jazz guitar.

Originally Posted by subtone

Does it ever get easy?

Yes, at some point, what you're doing now will seem easier if you really work at it. But, like others said, once you get to the point where you can more easily play at this level, you'll be reaching for the next level with more complex voicings, arrangement techniques, chord substitutions and such. Have fun with it.

[mr. beaumont]

Easy? I don't know if it ever gets easy...

But it certainly becomes a more natural way to think as you keep doing it...my first arrangements took me days if not weeks to get down...now like 7 or 8 years later I can pretty much sit down with a lead sheet and "read" a chord melody off the paper, or knock out an arrangement in an hour or two.

So it becomes faster, at least.

[bigdaddyguitar]

Like I tell my kids , if it was easy everybody would be doing it .

[jmstritt]

Originally Posted by bigdaddyguitar

Like I tell my kids , if it was easy everybody would be doing it .

BRAVISSIMO!!!

[legrandsommelier]

I think the important thing is not to be stressesd thinking that you need to fill in chords all the time. Just improvise and put in some chords where they suit. Having a perfect arrangment is kind of boring to me, i still like to have the freedom and the need to improvise. However some kind of arrangment, especially for intros and endings is useful, but always leave something open. Personally i never practice scales or arpeggios, i think the funniest way is just to fool around with songs.

[coolvinny]

Sure it gets easier. Actually, it gets WAY easier once you know about a dozen. But don't forget to work on your 'regular' comping skills...that's a very different skill set and a lot more useful for when you play with others (to state the obvious). It took me a while to discipline myself to work on regular comping because chord melodies were so addicting at first!

[guitarplayer007]

Anyone try the Howard Morgan Instuction on True Fire. Looks really good?
Ken

[Nylonstring]

Originally Posted by guitarplayer007

Anyone try the Howard Morgan Instuction on True Fire. Looks really good?
Ken

I started working with Morgan's material long before Truefire existed. His book "Concepts" was the single most helpful resource for me in learning to both play and arrange finger style solo guitar.

[guitarplayer007]

Thx Nylon, i'll probably get the True Fire version, i think
Ken