Seeking simple chord-melody arrangements for purchase & download

[Tricky Fish]

I’d like to buy and download simple chord-melody arrangements of jazz standards and other pop tunes.

A few months ago I found a great website offering this (it had hundreds of arrangements for purchase), but I can’t remember its name or find it again.

Can anyone recommend a site that offers simple chord-melody arrangements for purchase & download?

[grahambop]

Don’t know about that, but there’s a good collection by Barry Galbraith which was made freely available some years back.

https://www.musiccentre.co.uk/eBooks...rangements.pdf

[Victor Saumarez]

These two books 1, 2 offer chord melody arrangements of mostly jazz standards with a couple of pop tunes. All arrangements come with TAB and some are on Youtube.

[diode]

Chris Whiteman has a lot of solo arrangements of standards available to buy on his website. He plays most of them on his YouTube channel.

https://www.chriswhitemanmusic.com/

[alltunes]

I’d like to buy and download simple chord-melody arrangements of jazz standards and other pop tunes.

A few months ago I found a great website offering this (it had hundreds of arrangements for purchase), but I can’t remember its name or find it again.

Can anyone recommend a site that offers simple chord-melody arrangements for purchase & download?

Chris Whiteman
Mick Dennis*
Sandra Sherman
Frank Vignola

all offer doable chord melody arrangements

*Mick Dennis appears to have started a new YT channel under the name Michael Dennis and re uploaded or reshot his chord melody arrangements

[AllanAllen]

These two books 1, 2 offer chord melody arrangements of mostly jazz standards with a couple of pop tunes. All arrangements come with TAB and some are on Youtube.

Since you’re the author, do you have a sample? Even a few bars would do.

[AllanAllen]

Don’t know about that, but there’s a good collection by Barry Galbraith which was made freely available some years back.

https://www.musiccentre.co.uk/eBooks...rangements.pdf

I feel like if one could read well enough to use that book they could probably make their own arrangements.

[grahambop]

I feel like if one could read well enough to use that book they could probably make their own arrangements.

Looks like the OP plays classical guitar, in which case he may be able to at least have a go at some of these.

It’s much more fun to make your own arrangements anyway, it’s not as hard as people think. I used to be intimidated by the very idea of doing it myself, but once you’ve done a couple it suddenly gets easier.

Andy Brown has a simple method for this (he generally uses fingerstyle except for fast tunes). Play the root of the chord, on beats 1 and 3 only. Play the melody on top. Practice getting these 2 voices right, to begin with.

Then try filling in one or two harmony notes in between, typically on beats 1 and 3, whatever will fit under the hand (as dictated by the bass and melody notes). Often these inner notes will fall on the middle 2 strings, often they will be the 3rd and 7th. And all of these voices put together, usually form a pretty standard jazz chord shape.

It’s not that hard really.

[AllanAllen]

I worked one out using Blue Bossa. If I could play it better I’d record it.

[grahambop]

Another tip from Andy is: to begin with, take rhythm/tempo out of the equation, make it easier for yourself, i.e. play it rubato (out of tempo). When you’ve got the various parts working ok, then start practising it in tempo.

Also this is a good way to do an intro, i.e. start rubato then go into tempo at an appropriate point.

[Tricky Fish]

Thanks for everyone’s feedback. There are some great paths to explore here.

Re making my own arrangements. I have done this in the distant past and plan on doing this in future, but at this stage I am looking to build repertoire, hence the preference for simple existing arrangements.

[grahambop]

Loads of arrangements on the Ted Greene site:

TedGreene.com - Teachings - Single Note Soloing

[Danil]

Kurt Rosenwinkel also explained his approach quite thoroughly

[va3ux]

Chris Whiteman
Mick Dennis*
Sandra Sherman
Frank Vignola

all offer doable chord melody arrangements

*Mick Dennis appears to have started a new YT channel under the name Michael Dennis and re uploaded or reshot his chord melody arrangements

Add Rich Severson at Guitarcollege.com to that list.

[jazzalta67]

I have some free arrangements if anyone wants them. They are designed for beginners but can get one started.