Chord Melody for Bebop Tunes (Donna Lee)

**jordanklemons** · 09-10-2015, 03:38 PM

I thought it might be worth starting a discussion on how to play bebop tunes as a solo guitarist... chord melody... ish.

When we talk about chord melody, we're usually referring to ballads and mid tempo tunes. And if they are uptempo, it's usually an uptempo tune with a slow melodic tempo (like Cherokee).

But I think it's worth talking about bebop heads and working on arranging them.

My approach is actually pretty simple, in theory. The application can take some time and requires some muscle memory.

I see it as 3 basic options.

1. Playing melody notes without chords.
2. Playing chords without melody notes.
3. Playing melody notes with the chord harmonizing underneath it.

I basically go through the tune, and wherever I see a rest of more than a beat - or a long held out note (which doesn't happen often) - I plug in some chord movement. I don't like to just sit on whatever chord the real book says. I prefer to create some forward harmonic momentum towards whatever chord is coming up next... just to keep things constantly moving.

If there's constant 8th notes for a while, I generally ignore playing any chords. The melodies are strong enough to carry themselves when played with rhythmic integrity.

That said, if and when it's possible to plug in a chord underneath a melody note - and if it sounds good - I will work that out.

Here's a quick example of what I'm talking about being applied to Donna Lee.

Anyone else ever play bebop tunes solo? Or to play the heads and comp while in a trio with bass a drums? Do you have a particular approach that helps guide you through the process? I'd love to know how you guys work through these types of tunes.

**vintagelove** · 09-10-2015, 06:44 PM

Nice!!!

**mr. beaumont** · 09-10-2015, 09:43 PM

Sounds great!

I've done a few--much easier tunes, tunisa, pent up house, scrapple...take a similar approach...really look for the space for longer chord punches.

Its a cool dynamic, because once i get to the solos, i try to do a whole chorus in chords as a climax. It slows the melodic rhythm down, but brings the dynamics waaaaay up.

I'll try and do a vid of one tomorrow to keep this going. Cool thread.

**jordanklemons** · 09-11-2015, 05:35 PM

So I've had a good number of people ask if I can slow down my arrangement and break it into pieces. I figured it was maybe worth making a video explaining how I approach arranging bebop tunes like this, and then using my arrangement of Donna Lee as an example piece.

I started filming at then realized it was going to be too long for one video, so I broke it down into two separate videos. I still would love to hear everyone else's thoughts and approaches, and videos of their own solo guitar arrangements!

But in the meantime, I figured to keep the conversation moving, I'd share the videos I made. Only the first half is uploaded to youtube so far. I'll post the 2nd half once it's ready to go.

destinytot · 09-11-2015, 05:43 PM

This is fabulous - thank you, Jordan!

**jordanklemons** · 09-11-2015, 06:18 PM

Thanks Destiny!

Here's part 2 of the video lesson.

**edh** · 09-11-2015, 09:42 PM

Appreciate your hard work. thanks.

**Jonah** · 09-15-2015, 07:06 AM

Very cool, Jordan.. creative, lively, inspired playing and approach as usually...

thank you

**jordanklemons** · 09-15-2015, 11:43 AM

Thanks guys.

A friend of mine saw that OP video and commented to me on how smooth and relaxed it felt. I cracked up. My mind is going 1000 miles a second in that video. It's like being on an amusement park ride with no seat belt... ever little bump or turn and I feel like I'm about to spin out of control... so I just grab the cart and hold on for dear life! hahaha

I'd love to see what you're working on if anyone else wants to share what bebop tunes they're working on. And HOW they're working on them if they use a different approach from my 3 option game plan.

They're tough to play solo. But I find it helpful to work on. If nothing else, I think it's a cool way to learn to integrate uptempo lines and chords together for soloing. Just learning to feel and phrase like this has been helpful for me with that.

**rkwestcoast** · 09-15-2015, 01:24 PM

Yardbird Suite really lends itself to chord melody - I'm working on a version with the singer I work with and will post a version once it starts to flow

Night in Tunisa also can work well - the hardest thing I find with these types of songs is maintaining the rythmic flow & velocity of the tune

**pingu** · 09-15-2015, 01:40 PM

incredable !

man i wish i could just
play the head of donna lee !

**jordanklemons** · 09-15-2015, 02:53 PM

@rkwestcoast
Yeah that's a good one for chord melody because, while it's bebop, it doesn't have insane, constant 8th notes the entire time. It makes it a little easier to keep everything together. I find. Would love to hear what you got once you're ready to share it!

@Pingu
Hahaha..
I always remind my students (and myself) that the most powerful (and my most favorite) word in the English language is 'yet'. Every time they tell me they can't play something... or I get frustrated because I can't play something... I always force them (and myself) to repeat what they just said but add the word 'yet' at the end.

Man... I suck at this! I can't play Giant Steps at 250bpm!!!............ yet.

destinytot · 09-15-2015, 04:01 PM

Originally Posted by jordanklemons

I always remind my students (and myself) that the most powerful (and my most favorite) word in the English language is 'yet'. Every time they tell me they can't play something... or I get frustrated because I can't play something... I always force them (and myself) to repeat what they just said but add the word 'yet' at the end.

Growth mindset.

**jordanklemons** · 09-15-2015, 04:25 PM

Originally Posted by destinytot

Growth mindset.

Is there really a name for it? Ha... that's fantastic.

I just always thought it being a human being that cared about something!

**Jonah** · 09-15-2015, 05:15 PM

And my favourite word is 'still' - yeh..

**bako** · 09-15-2015, 07:49 PM

Bebop melodies can be harmonized.

I've heard 5 guitar ensembles do something similar.
At what level could this concept translate to solo guitar perhaps with 3 voices as the default chord density?
Johnny Smith did play some very uptempo double stop passages.

**jordanklemons** · 09-16-2015, 12:04 PM

Any particular Johnny Smith tunes you think are worth checking out to hear what you're talking about?

Supersax! Yes! Love these guys.

I've tried doing more 'conventional' guitar chord melody ideas to bebop heads where I was harmonizing far more of the notes. I think I remember doing this on Confirmation and Joy Spring. But I never really kept those arrangements in my repertoire. They always felt so clunky and heavy. And they required constant, daily practice to maintain the muscle memory. I sort of gave up on playing bebop heads as a solo guitarist at that point.

At some point it dawned on me that even with non-bebop heads, I didn't like the sound of harmonizing every note. I became really intensely focused on the melodic integrity of the tune. Going so far as to just throw the chords away entirely and practicing playing the melody like a horn player would. It's a whole different thing to play the melody that way and focus on the phrasing of the single note line, rather than the finger gymnastics of how I can squeeze the melody notes into the chord shapes I know.

I also simultaneously started getting more creative and inventive with my harmonic approaches... separate from the melody. Creating richer harmony with more depth and more movement became important to me. When I learned a tune, rather than going right into practicing soloing over the form, I spent a good chunk of time practicing comping over it. And always trying to vary up how I moved through the form with each chorus. And also studying different individual chords isolated out to be able to utilize specific tonalities for them.

I think somewhere between those two ideas (focusing only on melody, focusing only on harmony) I realized that I wanted to put them back together again, but without losing the integrity I was developing for each separately. So I first started doing this with just regular tunes. Ballads, medium tempo, latin, etc.

Eventually it dawned on me that this stuff could be applied to bebop tunes also. It just takes a little more planning and muscle memory building.