Complete Chord Melody
Online course + printable PDF eBook (318 pages) | Tabs, notation, audio & backing tracks | Instant access | Works on all devices, including desktops, laptops, tablets, mobile phones, Apple, Linux, and Android
Have you always dreamed of being able to play full solo guitar arrangements of your favorite jazz standards, but have no idea where to begin?
Chord melody is one of the most satisfying ways to play jazz guitar. It’s the art of combining melody, chords, and bass lines together on a single instrument.
Jazz legends like Joe Pass, Tal Farlow, Ed Bickert, and Barney Kessel were masters of this chord-melody technique, and their style has inspired guitarists worldwide.
Complete Chord Melody offers a clear step-by-step system for creating beautiful AND playable chord melody arrangements of your favorite jazz standards.
Have you always dreamed of being able to play full solo guitar arrangements of your favorite jazz standards, but have no idea where to begin?
Chord melody is one of the most satisfying ways to play jazz guitar. It’s the art of combining melody, chords, and bass lines together on a single instrument.
Jazz legends like Joe Pass, Tal Farlow, Ed Bickert, and Barney Kessel were masters of this chord-melody technique, and their style has inspired guitarists worldwide.
Complete Chord Melody offers a clear step-by-step system for creating beautiful AND playable chord melody arrangements of your favorite jazz standards.
Why Learn Chord Melody?
In the words of Joe Pass:
Guitarists should be able to pick up the guitar and play music on it for an hour without a rhythm section or anything.
Maybe you’ve been in a situation where you’re with friends or family, and someone hands you a guitar and asks you to “play some jazz”.
Playing bass, chords, and melody all at once isn’t easy. When you listen to Joe Pass or Barney Kessel, it might sound effortless, but getting that smooth sound takes real work.
To learn how to play chord melody, you need a step-by-step plan. That’s exactly what Complete Chord Melody offers.
When you know the “tricks of the trade” for arranging, you’ll learn how to make simple tweaks to make an arrangement both easier on the hands AND sound better at the same time.
What will you learn in this course?
- Find out how to locate all the useful chord voicings across the fretboard, making chord melody a case of simple 'painting by numbers'.
- You will learn a straightforward four-step process to arrange your favorite jazz standards in your own style.
- Learn how to take out extra notes from your arrangements without losing the sound you want, so your arrangements are easier to play.
- Use easy-to-follow chord reference guides to quickly find the right voicings for your melodies.
- Find out how to make your arrangements more jazzy and interesting by adding substitutions, jazz lines, walking bass, and other creative touches.
- Learn how to arrange chord melodies you can play with a band, as well as more detailed solo jazz guitar versions for playing alone.
- Real-life examples of jazz standards like Summertime, Fly Me to the Moon, My Funny Valentine, Autumn Leaves, Alone Together, Don't Get Around Much Anymore, Stompin' at the Savoy, ...
- And much more!
What you get with Complete Chord Melody
- A complete step-by-step system that helps you create your own unique chord melody arrangements.
- You get lifetime access to the online course, where you can ask questions, add bookmarks, and play both video and audio.
- A printable PDF (318 pages) is included.
- You can watch video examples online or download them, and adjust the tempo to suit your practice.
- There are 128 audio examples you can play online or download, with adjustable tempo for easier learning.
- You also get 7 backing tracks, available online or for download, and you can change the tempo as needed.
- Both standard notation and guitar tabs are provided, complete with helpful annotations.
- You’ll receive Guitar Pro 7 files for all the chord melody arrangements.
18 reviews for Complete Chord Melody
David Swanepoel (verified owner) –
Dirk, your courses are the best as far as I am concerned. Well organized and orchestrated. Thanks for loving Jazz and Jazz musicians!
James Fisher (verified owner) –
Excellent in organization. While I’m familiar with most of the concepts presented, this course takes them and organizes the material in a way that I can methodically create a shell and expand from there. The ideas and concepts I’ve learned over the years as a guitar hobbyist are ceasing to exist in a vacuum and are now catalogued in this course. And of course any ideas I have of my own can be incorporated in this process as well.
David Roberts (verified owner) –
I purchased the Complete Chord Melody Course out of curiosity. It covers the same information you can find in many books and websites. Once you get past the intro chord collections and start using the material you have learned, the benefits of following the course shine through. What I like the most is the layout and the ease of access to previous lessons. This makes it so easy to practice material and revisit earlier concepts.
Explanations are brief but informative and the layman’s approach really will help those who are less academic. Overall this is a great course for beginners to intermediate level players as it gives you the nuts and bolts to move ahead with your own arrangements. Highly recommended.
David Roberts
Classical /Jazz Guitarist
Music Educator
Australia
Victor Sacramento (verified owner) –
I’m quite satisfied with the course. It fulfilled my expectations. Even playing acoustic guitar for a long time, I’ve learned a lot about jazz, harmony and arrangements.
Ramon Alfredo Siochi (verified owner) –
This course is at the right level for me. Everything is spelled out clearly, and it is organized in a way that makes sense to me. I like the appendices as well. They are very useful and rounds out the course. Everything I need to learn fingerstyle jazz and chord melody is there. (Well at least for me as a beginning jazz guitar player.)
Manuel JIMENEZ (verified owner) –
He echado una ojeada por encima a todas las lecciones, los contenidos están muy bien organizados, conectados entre sí y explicados, entiendo que, ante un material didáctico de calidad, es necesario dedicarle el tiempo suficiente para poder disfrutarlo y sacar un buen provecho, y en ello estoy. Enhorabuena Dirk, te animo a que sigas elaborando cursos.
Eric Lalumiere (verified owner) –
I’ve been on learning guitar for many years and have spent a lot of money on so many courses. Too often I lose interest in many of them. But it is very different here. I love how Dirk structures and present his content. It is intuitive and easy to digest while being feature rich even for the advance player. I, also, love that it feels usable right away even before completing the course. Thank you Dirk for reigniting my passion in learning guitar. Can’t recommend it enough.
Luigi Guerra (verified owner) –
It’s a fantastic course, as always. The goal it’s challenging, but you can take your time and progress step by step. I like the combo online version+pdf manual. Audios and videos are helpful in every lesson. The price is right for quality and quantity of the lessons, and I’m always grateful for the free stuff. So in someway, buying this course, I give back.
Kenneth Straus (verified owner) –
I’m about half way through the course. Excellent methodology that brings together many bits and pieces that I have been wrestling with for several years. I like the course layout very much and the concise manner that the material is organized. Very good value!
G Miller (verified owner) –
I just bought the course so I can’t give feedback on the content yet, but I just wanted to say the material looks great and well organized!