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How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
It's a total chick magnet. (kidding)
Less band members means more money for you. (sort of kidding)
Seriously though,
You learn and memorize tunes very effectively. Sure, you memorize the melody and the changes, which is great, but you also learn how they relate to one another. The better you know these things, the better you can improvise over a tune. At first you pick tunes you're all about, and then you branch out and discover new ones, and eventually, over years your repertoire becomes both wide and deep: wide in terms of size, and deep in terms of how well you know it.
You become an arranger of sorts. Howard Morgen said that arranging is where the real art is. I tend to agree with him. Even during your improvisation you're still arranging on some level.
You learn when certain substitutions are tasteful and when they aren't, at which point you can learn a different sub.
You learn how to build bass lines, and come out with a greater respect and understanding for bass players and what they do.
You become very comfortable with the voicings you already have under your fingers, and you learn a lot of new ones, out of necessity if nothing else. "I need a D7 with a 3rd in the bass, and the 7th on top... Okay, this works..." and so on. Not only do you learn a lot of voicings, but you learn how to quickly generate new ones. If you needed a D-7 with a 3rd in the bass and a 7th on top, flat the 3rd, and voila!
Solo guitar is a huge part of our instrument's pre-jazz heritage. Before amplification came along, the guitar was a relatively quiet instrument, not capable of being heard well even in a small orchestra. For this reason, much of the classical guitar literature is solo.
Finally, the whole reason I ever came to study Chord-Melody. I love that it gives me the ability to play a whole musical idea when I'm alone. When I'm bored, it gives me a reason to pick up the guitar and play, just to get that feeling of musical satisfaction.Last edited by =DK=; 03-18-2012 at 11:33 PM.
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03-18-2012 04:22 PM
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And I know I'm preaching to the choir here! Tell me what you love about chord melody.
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I like the way chord melodies evolve over time. (especially finger style). They start out as sketches based on building blocks and slowly become small orchestral arrangements of three or four moving lines. At some point, the right hand becomes more dominant and interesting than the left ... bringing in rhythm and feel, which is really the aspect that communicates the most. Each project is like a sculpture, where you strip away stuff that doesn't belong so that the musical ideas are clear and concise.
It's an incredibly rewarding way to spend time alone and its probably great for the brain as well! It's a skill that is best developed without any motivation to impress ... just to simply communicate.
The chicks do seem to like it too.
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ten left thumbs- rmember way back when when you first started to learn c/m- what and where did you get the material to start and is it applicable for today. i have always been interested but never knew where to get the basic info>
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Love to be able to accompany myself...embrace the guitar! It's one of the few instruments that can!
I actually just blathered on about this on my blog.
You have to be careful not to fall too much in love with your arrangement, but if you go about things right playing in this style can give you a lot of insight into the way a song "works."
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I love it because you get to play lots of notes and it sounds nice.
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Me?? You're asking the wrong chick. I'm working through Modern Method just now. I'm so green I spent a minute wondering why you were asking me about C minor.
Originally Posted by richard vandyne
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I like the fact that there are both chords and melody. It's weird, it's almost like they got the name chord-melody from that. :-0
Seriously though, I think I am on right the verge of diving head-first into CM for a good long while. Several things in my life are changing significantly right now, and suffice it to say, come early May I am going to have a lot of free time on my hands. I know Mr. Beaumont has claimed that spending a year doing nothing but CM was very helpful to his playing, so I plan to exploit this free time by really diving deep into some of my favorite standards.
The other thing I'm going to be focusing on is solidifying my repertoire. I've got a list of about 160 songs that I kind of know, but out of all those, only about 35 or so could I play at the drop of a hat. I want to get to the point where I could play any of these cold.
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I'll be honest here...I don't have to put up with other people...Been down that road in younger years..Sink or swim, its on me...can't complain about this guy or that guy screwing up or not showing up for practice...its on my own terms, I play when I want....That and the fact that the guitar, when fully used in solo playing is so much more interesting ..
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Yeah, I know I probably tell that story too much, but it really did help. Originally Posted by FatJeff
And it wasn't just chord melody...it was just fcusing on really learning as many chords as I could handle in as many places on the neck. But the chord melody helped too, as it helped me introduce new colors to chord forms I already knew, because now I was including the melody. It really helped me to think more polyphonically when I'm impovising too.
I should probably spend some more time in the shed with those ideas again, it's been a while, and I think I could use some new ideas.
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I've been playing solo in this style for a respectable number of years now and I know am not likely the only one who has found this playing approach to be a real plus as a tunesmith/songwriter. And playing it fingerstyle just gives one even more control and expressive abilities! .....for whatever reason it seems to continue get the chicks and the tip jar smiling :^)
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I talked to a couple of pianists (classical players, actually) and used the term "chord melody", and they were a bit dumbfounded by the term. Never heard of it before. When I explained the term to them, they responded, "duh, isn't that just called playing the piano"?
It appears to be a "guitar-centric" term that most musicians don't get. Like "hammer-ons" and "pull-offs".
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+1 More than one person has commented to me that I was playing the guitar " pianistically " Since the piano was my first instrument at the tender age of 6 I guess that means I now play " piano bar guitar " :^)
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Guitar terminology is very confusing, and what's difficult is that most guitarists don't realise how specific guitar-terminology is to guitaring. And guitar has so many different styles/genres, almost to the point of being different instruments, so there's a lot to learn.
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You left out no drummer. Originally Posted by =DK=
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I like that I can use that fingerstyle picking that I learned when I first started guitar and took lessons from a classical guitar teacher.
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Yes, as a piano player I was thinking the same thing reading this thread for the first time. Originally Posted by NSJ
I talked to a couple of pianists (classical players, actually) and used the term "chord melody", and they were a bit dumbfounded by the term. Never heard of it before. When I explained the term to them, they responded, "duh, isn't that just called playing the piano"?
It appears to be a "guitar-centric" term that most musicians don't get. Like "hammer-ons" and "pull-offs".
But just the same I listened to enough great C/M guitar to motivate me to take the plunge on guitar. Pianists don't realize how easy they've got it until attempting to duplicate some of their knowledge on guitar. My attitude is it's a journey not a destination, so there's nothing to do but enjoy the ride.
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very true, 2b
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Very true, isn't it? Have you looked at George van Eps "Harmonic Mechanisms for Guitar" books? Mr. van Eps talked about his guitar being his own personal "lap piano", and this book is essential for pianistic methods of playing guitar. Originally Posted by 2bornot2bop
Amazon.com: Mel Bay George Van Eps Harmonic Mechanisms for Guitar, Vol. 1 (9780871669063): George Van Eps: Books
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There's very little in beginner guitar instruction books about combining chords and melody...it's a "guitar culture" thing...just like the words "lead" and "rhythm." Ever met a lead piano player?
I try to teach simple self accompanyment to beginners early on. I hear the piano lessons in the next room and get jealous of the 5 year old who can already back herself up on "itsy bitsy spider."
We must embrace our polyphony!
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Being able to play a complete tune solo. For me it is an alternate approach to traditional finger style solo playing. But I rarely play with other musicians so I want expand my solo instrumental playing any way I can.
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+1 .....same deal here ....I ran out of bands to join by moving to the CA central valley a few years back and discovered the " gold " in playing solo jazz guitar at restaurant gigs and private parties. If one's ego can handle passive listening and folks conversing over you ( a good thing, by the way ) you may have found your nitche...becoming anonymous " sonic wallpaper " and practicing humility all at the same time :^)
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Would that be 64 or 128 note polyphony? Originally Posted by mr. beaumont
There's very little in beginner guitar instruction books about combining chords and melody...it's a "guitar culture" thing...just like the words "lead" and "rhythm." Ever met a lead piano player?
I try to teach simple self accompanyment to beginners early on. I hear the piano lessons in the next room and get jealous of the 5 year old who can already back herself up on "itsy bitsy spider."
We must embrace our polyphony!
Darn those piano players. All kidding aside, having jazz piano experience does give one a slightly unique perspective coming to jazz guitar. Sometimes I wonder if that's a blessing or a drawback. But all in all I'd not change a thing.
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I can play beautiful chords dead easy on a piano. But is it just me, or does it sound better on a guitar? Especially there's something in dissonance that just rings more soulfully on a guitar.
Or is is just the experience of playing that makes me think that? Is it just I'm working so hard to get the chord, I have to justify it somehow, or that I feel the vibrations in my body?
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I could listen to Bill Evans play all day...The man was simply unbelievable.
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