The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #1

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    Hello!, so im fairly new to jazz, i know all my drop voicing's of all my 7th chords, can sight read at a decent level, etc etc but chord melody seems beyond me right now, im trying very hard and i came up with an okay one for my 'my favorite things', but it just doesnt sound as jazzy as i'd like, if anybody can give me some tips that would be wonderful!

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    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #2

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    The best jazz chord melodies ever written were by Joe Pass (imo ofc). So listen to him, copy him. After a while, you will be able to create your own chord melodies using the same techniques he did. It's really that simple, but it will take you years and years. I've been practicing a couple Joe Pass chord melodies for about 6 years now and I'm finally able to create my own that sound like Joe Pass.

    I've also been playing fingerstyle almost exclusively for over 20 years & have spent about the last 13 years working on classical guitar pieces <----and those both have helped my chord melody playing immensely.
    Last edited by Guitarzen; 12-04-2012 at 09:28 PM.

  4. #3

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    Sounding jazzy doesn't have to come from the arrangement; you can sound jazzy playing the corniest arrangement if your time and feel are right. Similarly, someone with the hippest arrangement can ruin it by playing un-jazzy.

    I tend to create chord melody (or solo guitar arrangements) by looking for lines under the melody. Then I use chords that contain the line and the melody note(s), OR just play the line and the melody if it doesn't call for chords (or if I can't find any good ones).

    You're right that using drop-2 or drop-3 voicings will not produce a very interesting arrangement; however, you can use pieces of those voicings, which goes a long way to adding variety to the texture.

  5. #4

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    If you are new to jazz and haven't played chord melodies then it can help to learn some arrangements before you try to invent your own. The problem is that many are quite difficult to play.

    If you insist on creating your own chord melodies than I can provide a few pointers. You're basically taking the melody note and finding a voicing that has that melody note along with the current chord. I often play more than one note using the same chord, letting the chord ring.

    For Cm7 you could play a bar chord at the 3rd fret, giving you the melody note G, or Eb if you just play to the B string. Or at the 8th fret the Cm7 bar chord gives you C in the melody, or G if you just play to the B string.

    I've created some very basic chord melodies that use the typical beginner jazz chords. They aren't the most complicated arrangements out there but they work.

  6. #5

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    I wouldn't start with My Favorite Things. It is challenging because of the groove you want to keep going and the chord progression is a bit harder to work with.

    Certain songs lend themselves to easily playing with chord melody. Tunes with lots of chordal movement are easier to play as a chord melody, imo; especially ones were the chords often move through the cycle of 5ths. They kind of write themselves. Try 'Autumn Leaves' or 'All The Things You Are' or 'Body and Soul'. It seems counter-intuitive but those are the kind of tunes that I have an easier time playing chord melodies too.

    I also don't like to make it too fancy, just simple so I don't have to memorize and I can vary it from chorus to chorus and over time. And, you don't have to have a chord for every melody note, again making it simple.

    An example of a simple chord melody:

    https://www.box.com/shared/in3eu181kv

  7. #6

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    Much easier to start with a ballad, and actually, tunes with lots of chords aren't too hard, because you don't have to be as creative with subs and stuff to keep it interesting.

    Basically, you play the chord and put the melody note on top...you needen't harmonize every note, either. You can learn a lot diving right in and trying this yourself...it's not that hard if you already know all the drop2 and 3 voicings. For the most part, try to keep the melody on the top 2 strings, if possible.

    I'm not really into the idea of learning someone else's arrangement...always feels disjointed from the way the process should really be, which is really knowing the TUNE first...never fall in love with the arrangement...you should always know the song as melody and chords seperately as well...


    CM is kinda my bread and butter so if you have any questions as you go, shoot me a PM. I'm no master, but I've done a lot of it, so I've learned a lot the hard way...

  8. #7

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    Don't over think it. Play through some that are already written to get the general idea. Then, try just playing the melody and putting chords on the long tones. As you get better at it and expand your knowledge, you will get better at subs and turn arounds which will add a more jazzy feel to things.

    Practice, don't get discouraged, and keep learning everything you can.

    ~Danny

  9. #8

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    On the other hand, I like playing others arrangements, I think its good to at least go through that phaze...You begin to see the common elements in a nice arrangement...Step one in my opinion is learn the drop2and 3 cords. Most arrangers use them in one form or another...I try to memorize arrangements then change them around as I go...I find it really hard to memorize, never good at it...

  10. #9

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    good stuff..

    as was said above...learn the melody first....

    the melody is the top note and harmonize below it...you do not need to play every note as a chord...play one or two notes then the next note as a chord...etc..

    play the "A" section all chords and the "B" section one or two notes and then the chord to mix and match so to speak..making "your" arrangement come to life..

    time on the instrument...

    it takes time...you will learn much along the way...

  11. #10

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    Quote Originally Posted by Guitarzen
    I've also been playing fingerstyle almost exclusively for over 20 years & have spent about the last 13 years working on classical guitar pieces <----and those both have helped my chord melody playing immensely.
    I started playing guitar with a pick and developed precision and speed learning from McLaughlin, DiMeola et al. But when I heard Ralph Towner, Leo Kottke, and then the incredible John Williams (to name just a few), I had to learn fingerstyle, and now I only use a pick occasionally.

    At the very least there are two huge benefits from this: first, you have easy access to note combinations and chords that are very difficult to achieve with a pick, and second, the dynamics are much easier to control. It's worth the effort & time invested. Highly recommended!

  12. #11

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    Quote Originally Posted by leonard478
    Hello!, so im fairly new to jazz, i know all my drop voicing's of all my 7th chords, can sight read at a decent level, etc etc but chord melody seems beyond me right now, im trying very hard and i came up with an okay one for my 'my favorite things', but it just doesnt sound as jazzy as i'd like, if anybody can give me some tips that would be wonderful!
    Your story sounds like mine. I can read music, can play a chord chart out of the Real Book with relative ease, and I even learned dozens and dozens of arrangements by other jazz guitarists. Still couldn't get over that mountain of making my own arrangements.

    I recently found this book, Mel Bay Guitar Melody Chord Playing System, which starts off at such a simple level that even I get it.

  13. #12

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    good old mel bay...

    tons of great stuff for guitar there now...his or his sons or by other guitarists...

    have many in my library....

    time on the instrument...

  14. #13

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    Quote Originally Posted by leonard478
    Hello!, so im fairly new to jazz, i know all my drop voicing's of all my 7th chords, can sight read at a decent level, etc etc but chord melody seems beyond me right now, im trying very hard and i came up with an okay one for my 'my favorite things', but it just doesnt sound as jazzy as i'd like, if anybody can give me some tips that would be wonderful!
    As a noob, this is the process that I go through:


    • Write out the melody line.
    • Determine the key of the melody line
    • Write out the chord scale for that key
    • Write out the chord tones for each chord
    • Choose chords that have the melody note in the high strings
    • Decide which notes to harmonize and which to play independently (no formula here, just what sounds good to me at the time).


    Certainly, I'm not coming up with any amazing arrangements doing this, but it is fun and it's a great way to "own" tunes.

    I'm sure there are a million videos on how to do this, but here's the video that introduced me to the process:


  15. #14

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    That seems like more work than necessary. Many songs have a lot of key changes and won't use all of the scale tones but you could do that as a separate exercise. I just look at a lead sheet or fake book and use the given chords, finding a voicing that has the melody note in it. I might have to try a few voicings because I want to be able to let it ring while I play one or more other notes in the melody.

    If you want more chords you could then start to reharmonize the tune by adding lots of chords in between the written ones.

    You might want to check out Robert Conti's Chord Melody assembly line and The Formula, but prior to building your own chord melodies you could learn some of his or other arrangements as you will start to see similarities and patterns you can use in your own arrangements. You start with your own simple arrangement and then add more complexity by using these techniques or observing what others have done.

    Good luck!



    Quote Originally Posted by onetruevibe
    As a noob, this is the process that I go through:


    • Write out the melody line.
    • Determine the key of the melody line
    • Write out the chord scale for that key
    • Write out the chord tones for each chord
    • Choose chords that have the melody note in the high strings
    • Decide which notes to harmonize and which to play independently (no formula here, just what sounds good to me at the time).


    Certainly, I'm not coming up with any amazing arrangements doing this, but it is fun and it's a great way to "own" tunes.

    I'm sure there are a million videos on how to do this, but here's the video that introduced me to the process:


  16. #15

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    I like this approach & use it myself.

  17. #16

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    Quote Originally Posted by wkriski
    That seems like more work than necessary.
    Good luck!
    I guess that depends on your goal. I'm sure there are more efficient ways of pulling together a chord melody for a tune - you offer a great approach using the lead sheets.

    As a noob, I'm fine taking the long road home. I've found my process not only allows me practice playing CM, but also gain more experience analyzing tunes, chords construction, etc.

    Brian

  18. #17

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    first of all stop calling them chord melodies. call them and think of them as arrangements, which is what they are. this isn't just semantics - you don't want to be in the mindset of just adding drop 2 chords to the melody, which too many guitarists are. there is a whole world of possibility out there (counterpoint, intervalic harmonization, pedal tones, ect). think more like a classical composer.

    forget those drop voicings and start out by harmonizing the melody with the root notes of the chords. this will show you the beginnings of where chord tones are located, and give you a simple form of counterpoint. You might say that this is boring or that this doesn't sound jazzy but that is completely up to how you play it.

    After you have that down just start adding in some more harmonic information. Get some inner voices moving and really experiment. Think of the guitar more like a string quartet. Listen to how Bach and other composers arrange things. This is how you build a free and personal style of arranging from the ground up - so that your arrangements don't sound like:

    chord-melody-melody-chord-melody-melody
    Last edited by mfa; 01-08-2013 at 08:07 PM.

  19. #18

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    I'm pretty much new to Jazz and the guitar in general. I've only been playing since July so there might be some misinformation here....

    ....but I've got a basic process that I get somewhat decent results with. I feel like it leads to a sort of mechanical feel sometimes, but can sometimes surprises me.

    First you'd need to know the order the chord tones come in for each "form" that you know, so 1,5,7,3 or 1,7,3,5 etc. etc...

    Suppose you have 2 bars, each with 2 chords (so 4 chords, two beats per chord) and 4 quarter notes. The quarter notes are probably close-ish intervals. We have:

    C1, C2, C3, C4 (chords)
    N1, N2, N3, N4 (notes)

    Find 4 voicings where the root of C and N are an ascending interval less than an octave... This can be tricky, especially since I don't understand voice leading that well, but my teacher suggests for now I think about it as keeping as many common tones as possible, which is simplification I can live with for now. Once you have those, think about all the different tensions you can play by grabbing a fifth note, an octave up. This can take some fiddling, I play around with dropping (in no particular order) the 1 and 5 from the chord. A lot of times this requires a tiny little two string bar or some such thing.

    Different relationships between chords and melody notes also needs some toying with, but this is the basic idea.

  20. #19

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    I also just realized that you can think about this "inversely" too -- think about playing the harmony an octave below the melody note -- to my beginners ear at least, the octave really brings out the melody.

  21. #20

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    Quote Originally Posted by GuitarBytes;297157 I have written a series of free video lessons with quite extensive notes describing these. These can be found here at [URL="http://www.guitarbytes.co.uk"
    GuitarBytes - FREE bite-sized video podcast lessons on effective guitar technique[/URL]. Episodes 1 to 6 focus on many of the main substitutions and these are referenced throughout the series. Podcasts - GuitarBytes
    Welcome. Loved the "Frosty the Snowman" and "Let It Snow". Thanks for you work. Good stuff!

  22. #21

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    Personally, I wouldn't learn other people's arrangements. Maybe cop a few licks. The most I've taken from someone's CM is a nice turnaround I saw Peter Mazza do in one of his. Another thing I kind of took was some of Peter Bernstein's ideas on what to do over a major chord.

    If you have a teacher, I would ask him to help you come up with one. I've had teachers and students who I've done this with. A good teacher will act as a second brain for you, since you'll probably not be seeing the fretboard clearly because you feel like you have a lot of things to put together. But really, all that it is is using one of those inversions you know, the rest is decorative.

    Now that I've studied some more things as well, two things I'll recommend:
    1) Always start with the shell voicing + Melody note. Put it in a few different string sets. I'll usually put the melody note on the top string, but I'll move it down a string if it's too low in the fretboard (usually my string change limit is 3rd-5th fret), or move the melody down an octave if it's too high (usually past the 14th fret). This gives me a few good string set options. You can keep it in adjacent strings, or even skip strings and put another note between the 3rd and 7th. I try to keep the bass register too busy, but sometimes a really muddy, fat chord in the bass strings will make a huge difference in the sound. Peter Bernstein does that a lot.
    2) Do not underestimate triads. In fact, use them. You can think of 7th notes as triads with a bass note in many cases. If you have good knowledge of voice leading principles, then it's easier to move chords thinking of them in triads sometimes. You can also think of this, in any mode, the root, and any given two 3 note structures will produce all the notes for the mode, so for example, in C Major, the root (C), a D minor triad (D F A) and an E minor triad (E G B) spells out the entire C Ionian mode. Thinking in D minor (dorian), you can also think of it as a derivative of C Major, or do the same so in D dorian, the root (D), E minor triad (E G B) and an F Major (lydian) triad (F A C) will produce the entire D dorian mode, and so on. This is actually a method developed by Mick Goodrick and Tim Miller. It's all spoken about in a new book they wrote called Creative Harmony for Guitar. It's really crazy and advanced harmonic concepts, but it's really really interesting as well. I suggest you take a look at it.