(not exactly) These Foolish Things

[guitarvegas]

That's what I thought. Thanks, man! I am feeling good about these new first steps. Will let you know how it goes.

And perhaps this is the greatest way for me to begin 2025.

[Cunamara]

Yes! But I should buckle it down and learn a standard or two. Will be really good for me in the long run.

A standard or 200 would be even more helpful. You have to know the rules before you can break them intelligently.

[Cunamara]

Peter Bernstein told me to set a timer for thirty minutes and play the melody to Like Someone In Love over and over until the timer went off. Take a break and do it again.

Great advice. Pete has a knack for getting to the point. Frank Vignola has a quote attributed to him, which is "learn the songs. It's all in there."

Learning the melodies to 100 standards, Beatles tunes, etc., will take one a long, long way towards great improvising. It's advice I need to remember to take myself- I am fascinated by chords and harmony, and too often neglect to really learn the melody. The melody is what the listener's ear discerns first.

[mr. beaumont]

I'm smelling a "Winter of just the melody " thread.

[wintermoon]

Copying a melody by ear on a tune like TFT is easy but you have to actually know chords before you can "incorporate" them.
Convince the missus it ain't "cheating" and get thee to a teacher or it really will be the winter of 100 melodies.

[guitarvegas]

Very cool, I have been working on the melody all morning, and I am getting it which is great. My question is, is it okay to do some light embellishing (in between the base melody notes)? Because I began to have the tendancey to do that by about the fifth time into learning it.

[wintermoon]

My advice would be no.
Use some discipline and get the melody down correctly
A piece of advice a teacher gave me a hundred years ago...."you have to learn how to crawl before you can walk"

[mr. beaumont]

Yeah, play it straight, and then when you can do that without thinking much at all, start listening to singers do the tune and phrase the melody like a singer. Then when you can do that, you can start thinking about embellishments.

[guitarvegas]

So far, I have played through the melody 20 times. This is my 20th take. This is not exciting stuff for you to hear, trust me! But I wanted show you where I now am at. So I keep doing this for a while.....a week? And see where I am at that point. Is this progress? Sorry, the recording is kind of flat, but I did not go out of my way to over produce this because it is an excersise.

Thanks

Jam Vol 77 mix.wav - Google Drive

Thank you

[wintermoon]

The bridge needs work but the rest was close.

[Mick-7]

So far, I have played through the melody 20 times. This is my 20th take. This is not exciting stuff for you to hear, trust me! But I wanted show you where I now am at. So I keep doing this for a while.....a week? And see where I am at that point. Is this progress? Sorry, the recording is kind of flat, but I did not go out of my way to over produce this because it is an excersise.

Thanks

Jam Vol 77 mix.wav - Google Drive

Thank you

Sounding good.... Are you able to compose chord melodies? We had a study group here on the subject, playing published arrangements, but it fizzled out. You could start by adding a few simple chord voicings.

Stella by Starlight - Jeff Arnold Ballads, Song #5

[guitarvegas]

Sounding good.... Are you able to compose chord melodies? We had a study group here on the subject, playing published arrangements, but it fizzled out. You could start by adding a few simple chord voicings.

Stella by Starlight - Jeff Arnold Ballads, Song #5

I want to, but I was advised by other members here, not too do that just yet. I have to play the plain vanilla for a while. But, I think I can treat myself maybe once or twice a day to embellishing slightly with a few chords here and there....but I don't want to get off track either.

By the way, do you like the tone of my guitar on this? I stripped it down to the very natural sound of the guitar.

[pamosmusic]

You should probably learn chords too.

But also just the melody.

To be able to play chord melody, you have to be able to play the melody and the chords.

Like … if you’d like to be able to do a math problem, you have to be able to perform the individual operations before you try to do the whole thing. If you don’t know how to add and divide, then staring at the problem won’t do you much good.

[mr. beaumont]

If you learn the melody in a few spots on the neck, it'll make adding chords a whole lot easier.

[guitarvegas]

You should probably learn chords too.

But also just the melody.

To be able to play chord melody, you have to be able to play the melody and the chords.

Like … if you’d like to be able to do a math problem, you have to be able to perform the individual operations before you try to do the whole thing. If you don’t know how to add and divide, then staring at the problem won’t do you much good.

Okay right. That makes sense.
Maybe spend part of a day just playing the melody, and the other part of the day working out the chords for the melody notes. Then, later...combine the two into one thing, a mixture of the melody notes and chords. I think the melody will start to resolve some of that chord thinking and wondering (or wandering) for me.

[guitarvegas]

If you learn the melody in a few spots on the neck, it'll make adding chords a whole lot easier.

Jeff, I was also thinking about that today. Maybe tomorrow I tackle that same melody on a different a different area of the neck.
Thanks!

[pamosmusic]

Okay right. That makes sense.
Maybe spend part of a day just playing the melody, and the other part of the day working out the chords for the melody notes. Then, later...combine the two into one thing, a mixture of the melody notes and chords. I think the melody will start to resolve some of that chord thinking and wondering (or wandering) for me.

What you are describing is the very beginning of a practice routine.

[Mick-7]

So, I wasn't thinking of anything all that complicated - adding 3rds, 6ths, simple triads - perhaps just here and there to start.

For example:

[wintermoon]

^
That's asking a lot from a beginner, I'm not sure he even knows the notes in a chord let alone how to read music.

[Mick-7]

^
That's asking a lot from a beginner, I'm not sure he even knows the notes in a chord let alone how to read music.

Don't know how much GV knows but 3rds & 6ths, maybe a triad or two, isn't too hard and a good place to start.

[guitarvegas]

^
That's asking a lot from a beginner, I'm not sure he even knows the notes in a chord let alone how to read music.

Correct, I do not know. That is the part that drives my brain crazy....

[wintermoon]

Correct, I do not know. That is the part that drives my brain crazy....

You need to know the notes on the fingerboard of course. I'm guessing you don't know those either and only play by ear, but correct me if I'm wrong.
You're really going about this backwards.
Copying a simple melody by ear is easy, but again, w out any knowledge of theory/harmony you're going to hit a wall pretty quickly after that.

[pamosmusic]

Don't know how much GV knows but 3rds & 6ths, maybe a triad or two, isn't too hard and a good place to start.

harmonizing a melody in any way isn’t a good place to start.

knowing the melody itself is a good place to start.

knowing the chords themselves is a good place to start.

harmonizing a melody would necessarily be later

[pamosmusic]

Correct, I do not know. That is the part that drives my brain crazy....

This stuff is a Google away …

17 Easy Jazz Guitar Chords (Tabs & Chord Charts)

musictheory.net - Lessons

[Ukena]

You might also try playing the melody without Nat King Cole singing along. You now have an idea how the melody fits in a rhythm; try setting up a beat (metronome, drum machine) with a quarter note = 70, and using only that for accompaniment, play the melody.