I need another "Stella by starlight"

[priscilo]

This video-lesson was a big improvement for me. It was very motivating. Now my progress is at a standstill. I know scales and chord progressions are very important, but not very motivating for me. I felt really good when I could play my first jazz tune.
Come on, Dirkji.

Thanks

[derek]

What kind of thing did you have in mind?

[priscilo]

I like this kind of tunes that include melody and chords because they sound great when you play alone. I think this is the reason I enjoyed a lot Stella.

[derek]

So you are interested in chord melody? If so, you might want to check out a buddy of mine. He has over a hundred videos on youtube. His handle there is jazzerman. If you enter his name, you should be able to see one of his vids. Click on the link that says jazzerman, and you will go to his page.

He specializes in playing melody and lead lines over Aebersold backing tracks, but he has several very nice chord melodies posted also. Check it out and let me know if this is what you are looking for. If not, I will find something else for you.

[avioravioavi]

If you're looking into chord melody, you might want to listen to Bill Frisell / Jim Hall, they have very good chord melody. Avi

[priscilo]

Fantastic videos. But the problem is that it´s imposible to find tabs.

[derek]

If you want tabs, go to Chord Melody Guitar Music: Guitar Sheet Music, Tab Books, Instruction Videos and DVDs He has the largest collection of chord melody resources I have seen. Dick (jazzerman) has used a number of Steve Crowell's arrangements, which are sold there.

You can also go to Guitar College - Home Study Guitar Courses Rich is a very good chord melody player, and you can buy downloadable lessons per song, and he also has some free arrangements on his site. I have learned about 4 of his, and they are very nice.

Finally, you can check out Professional Jazz Guitar Learning Resources Conti has a number of arrangements for sale in collections, and dvds where he walks you chord by chord thru one tune. He also has some books that teach you how he approaches chord melody.

I have googled free chord melody arrangements before, and have found several. Good luck

[priscilo]

Many thanks, very helpfull information.

[gravyTrain]

The book "Jazz Guitar Comping" by Andrew Green was mentioned in another thread as being a good book for learning how to play chord melody arrangements. I bought it, and feel it has been the most valuable book for helping me with chord melody playing (out of about a kazillion books that I have). It really breaks down voice leading into easily digestible bits.

In my opinion, using this book, and sitting down with a copy of Stella by Starlight from the Real book for a few hours would provide a lot of insight . Stella is such a great song, and relatively simple. So it is great to apply the knowledge to.

I'm not sure how most people approach new songs, but I prefer to learn them in the following order:
- melody
- chords
- simple mix of the melody and chords
- get fancy, which in this example would mean playing chord-melody style.

Unfortunately, those 4 steps take me about 2 months or so, since I never have enough time

It's always nice to have different transcriptions/versions of a song, but this book has allowed me to take the training wheels off(metaphorically speaking), and allowed me to get a better grip on this subject.

Hope that helps

[derek]

Gravy, I agree on the first two points. What I do at that point, is find as many chords/subs for the note I want a chord over. Once I have that list, I can move on to the next note I want a chord over and repeat.

This is pretty slow at first, but after doing a few tunes this way, you see some repeats showing up. By going thru this process, I have the luxury of having a handful of choices each time I grab a chord so I don't have to play it the same way each time.