The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #26
    What really makes a chord melody arrangement sound good is good voice leading in the inner parts of the chord. Not always possible to sustain due to the nature of the instrument but a major consideration for good arranging of any type.

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    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #27

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    Truefire has three courses on this topic.

    i'm not a practitioner of CM. i worked up "I've grown accustomed to her face" by Wes once, and some Leavitt originals, but thats about it.

    regarding growing your own, would it make more sense to start your journey by just doing the minimum with the chords? in other words, first just make sure that you can support the melody. in this manner you are playing the melody first and foremost, and comping too. play the chords on the strong beats as a priority. as you get your sea legs moving, add more harmonic activity for musical effect, not mechanical effect. the melody is the point most of the time.

    but that is for playing heads mostly. when it comes to the solo parts there's a lot more to do...

    thoughts?

  4. #28

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    Quote Originally Posted by franco6719
    I am strongly convinced that you can it by yourself. (Of course, I believe this basically true of everything in life).
    This is how I was taught. As I was learning chords I was given a few tunes I was to arrange (starting with triads, I had to do Love is Blue, yeah the mid 70's)
    I'd buy the piano chart or lead sheet then write out the arrangement on paper and play it for my lesson. Tunes I arranged were, Alfie; Bohemian Rhapsody, Love of My Life, The Prophet Song, Teo Toriate and You Take My Breath Away by Queen: San Tropez (the Pink Floyd tune) and others. My teacher would offer corrections. I learned how to read and write chords pretty well, and after a while you don't have to write them out.

    If I really wanted I could read someone else's arrangements, and learn from that, but I get so much out of doing it myself I don't want to.

  5. #29
    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.

  6. #30

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    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.

  7. #31
    Quote 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!



    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

  8. #32

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    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.

  9. #33
    Quote 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

    Quote 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.