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Coming from a jazz piano background, Im used to watching many videos where the players explain how they arranges different standards. How they fit the melody in the chords etc. I havent seen much of this on guitar. Do you guys know of any good videos or channels that does this?
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09-18-2023 11:20 PM
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Bruce Foreman is releasing a book on his Chord Melody arrangements this week. The book apparently will include transcriptions and analysis of his 16 arrangements of jazz standards. He played with and learned from Joe Pass and Barney Kessel. Arguably the two of the most influential players in the development of jazz guitar chord-melody style.
Here is an interview with him about the book, his chord-melody approach and other related topics:
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This guy:
He has many lessons on his channel.
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I really like Chris Whiteman's chord melody arrangements/videos
Chris Whiteman - YouTube
They're relatively simple and playable, and give you tons of building blocks for figuring out your own stuff. One of the ways a lot of people fall flat (to my tastes, anyway) with chord melody is by forcing the melody to lag behind the chords as they lay down complicated voicings or try to achieve counterpoint. Chris's arrangements consistently give you paths to keep the melody in time and are really musical. He's also got a bunch of great lesson videos. And he also sometimes posts/hangs out here.
Obviously, Joe Pass sets the standard, and just watching him play is a lesson unto itself. One of the things he does, which I think is really important, is NOT play chords all the time. A good chunk of the time he actually just plays single lines and punctuates them with chords and/or bass lines. It allows him to improvise more interestingly than most other solo players and keep his melody lines in time. I can't say I'm able to achieve anything near that level of proficiency, but recognizing that in his playing has kind of liberated me from feeling like I have to always harmonize every note. There's a lot to steal from here.
Last edited by John A.; 09-28-2023 at 12:57 PM.
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Depends what you mean by arranging. Normally an arrangement is for several instruments, like a jazz combo, big band, or just a duet. So you have write out all the parts to make a cohesive whole. That's quite a skilful job.
Originally Posted by jazzpazz
Or maybe you mean trying to produce a good chord melody for single solo guitar. That's a lot simpler than a multi-instrument arrangement but still requires a good degree of knowledge.
So it depends what you mean. Of course, being given a pre-composed arrangement is one thing and wanting to know arrangement techniques, leaving you to do it your own way, is another.
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The guitar has two big disadvantages for creating solo arrangements compared to the piano. One of them is that the guitar doesn't sound as big and fat as the piano. The second one is that it's very hard if not impossible to play fast, 8th note bebop type lines on the guitar while harmonizing every note (or while sustaining harmonies in the background).
Sustained harmonization of long lines don't work well as notes don't sustain for very long or evenly on guitar especially when one or two of the fingers of the left hand has to wiggle around to reach different notes while sustaining some of the notes.
Harmonizing every note amounts to playing block chords, but even Wes Montgomery had to limit his rhythm to quarter notes when playing block chords.
Moreover in both cases, the phrasing has to accommodate the limitations imposed by playing the chords at the same time. It's very difficult to just freely play phrases while harmonizing notes on guitar unlike the piano.
The classical guitar solution to these limitations has been to rely on creative composers who can make the guitar shine (or workaround it's limitations) and have the repertoire performed by musicians who are well trained within the style to achieve high technical standards of tone production and articulation.
The players like Joe Pass got around these limitations (sort of) by relying on alternating chords and fast lines (chord punctuations) as John said as well as sprinkling other textures like block chords, sustained backgrounds, bass line etc here and there. Too many an accompanied notes on an already not so big sounding instrument can be fatiguing.
Lorne Lofsky said in the interview his approach is to separate bass, harmony and melody and play them at different times. Of course there is more to his approach as these parts aren't always separated in his playing.
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The best I have is Barry Greene's video. You can buy his videos separately and at $14.95 they are some of the best money you'll spend on jazz guitar instruction out there. His Vimeo platform is very user friendly and you will learn something new every time you watch one of Barry's videos. Originally Posted by jazzpazz
Not a video but in this Berklee Press book author John Stein gives his “thinking” behind some arrangements. Not just technical stuff but some artistic thinking as well.
Amazon.com
Speaking of Bruce Forman he has a on solo guitar arranging which has also has some great ideas.
Other folks arrangements are great for stealing ideas but you gotta cone up with your own which is why the OP asks a great question.Last edited by alltunes; 09-28-2023 at 01:19 PM.
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An arrangement is an adaptation of an existing composition, period. Sometimes you can qualify it by calling it "arrangement for guitar" or "score reduction" or something like that. But as a rule the term does not normally imply several instruments. And it seems pretty obvious in context that the OP is asking for sources for learning how to develop chord melody arrangements. Originally Posted by ragman1
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This is great one on arranging for solo guitar.
The have to be bought on mikes masterclasses, but it is a great video if you want to start arranging for solo jazz guitar.
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