My New Chord Melody eBook

by Greg O'Rourke | Dec 13, 2016 | Chord Melody Guitar

My New Chord Melody eBook

The wait is over…

My new eBook, The Easy Guide To Chord Melody Guitar, is now officially released!

The Easy Guide To Chord Melody Guitar is a complete A-Z guide on creating your own great sounding chord melody arrangements for trio and solo guitar situations, and you’ll also learn how to chord solo (i.e., improvise with chords) like a pro.

Click here to get your copy of The Easy Guide To Chord Melody Guitar at the low price of only $24.99!

This is what you get with The Easy Guide to Chord Melody Guitar eBook:

7 Chapters (356 pages) that break down essential chord melody and chord soloing concepts.
Over 300 musical examples in TAB, diagrams, photos, and notation.
280 audio examples to make learning chord melody and chord soloing easy.
14 Backing tracks, so you can apply each concept to a musical situation.
Chord melody arrangements from beginner to advanced levels.
Chord soloing studies for beginner, intermediate, and advanced players.
Comping studies for duo, trio, and solo jazz guitar.
All for one low price of only $24.99!

I’ve co-authored this brand new eBook with Matt Warnock and it’s been published by his website, Jazz Guitar Online.

Matt and I have been collaborating on this eBook together for over a year, and we’re thrilled to finally have this ready for you guys!

So who is The Easy Guide To Chord Melody Guitar eBook for?

Are you feeling bored and stuck playing only single line melodies and solos?
Do you play jazz guitar as a hobby at home and either don’t have the time to attend jam sessions, or have no jazz musicians to play with in your local area? In this case, solo jazz guitar is a logical choice – but you’ve got no clear ideas on how to get confident with this style?
Have you ever wanted to learn how to play chord melodies or chord solos, but didn’t know where to start, or thought it was too difficult to even try?
Do you listen to players such as Joe Pass, George Benson, and Barney Kessel and wonder how they get that smooth, sophisticated sound with their chord melodies and chord solos?

If you want to learn chord melody and chord soloing, but never had a pathway to get started, then The Easy Guide to Chord Melody Guitar is for you.

Click here to get your copy of The Easy Guide To Chord Melody Guitar now!

What will you learn in this new eBook?

Essential fingerstyle and hybrid picking techniques to set you up for chord melody success.
Fingerstyle and hybrid picking licks in the style of Joe Pass, Lenny Breau, Kurt Rosenwinkel, and many more.
Chord melody arranging concepts and full chord melody arrangements.
Chord soloing phrases in the style of Wes Montgomery, George Benson, and more.
Learn full chord melody and chord soloing arrangements in the style of Joe Pass, Ted Greene, and more.
Everything you need to go from day 1 to chord melody mastery in your playing.

Here’s the thing:

Investing in your own development as a jazz guitarist is one of the greatest gifts you can give to yourself.

And I’m sure your friends and family will enjoy the great music you’ll make as a result of this book too!

Click here to get your copy of the new Chord Melody eBook.

With very best wishes,

Greg O’Rourke

P.S. Have a question about the new eBook? Email me at greg@fretdojo.com and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.

Why I Love Playing Chord Melody

by Greg O'Rourke | Nov 21, 2016 | Chord Melody Guitar

Why I Love Playing Chord Melody

Let’s face it:

It gets boring playing guitar with only single lines all of the time.

Especially if the only other option is to comp in the rhythm section.

But:

What if you could combine single lines and chords together at the same time?

If you learn how to play chord melody, you can!

All of a sudden, your jazz guitar playing can become more rich, more creative, and more fun.

In fact, I think chord melody is the most creative way to play jazz guitar, as you’ll see below.

In this article, I want to share with you the reasons I personally love playing chord melody – as it’s my favourite way of playing jazz guitar.

You’re also going to listen to recordings by some of the finest jazz guitar chord melody players, to give you ideas of the approaches you can take.

Without further ado, let’s get into it!

Interested in arranging your own chord melodies? Get my free eBook: Get a free copy of my how-to guide on creating cool chord melody arrangements on guitar by clicking this link now >>

Cough Excuse Me, What Exactly Is Chord Melody?

Let me explain.

The term chord melody simply refers to incorporating chords along with a melody line, on one guitar.

To be specific, it usually refers to arranging a pre-existing melody of a tune with chords.

Chord soloing, on the other hand, refers to incorporating chords in the context of an improvised solo.

But, for the sake of this article, I’ll just refer to both of these things generally as ‘chord melody’, as they are usually combined together in a performance.

You can play chord melody in a jazz trio, a duo with bass and guitar and also as a solo jazz guitarist.

For example, this video of myself playing Green Dolphin Street is an example of a jazz trio chord melody:

And here’s an example of a solo guitar chord melody performance by the great Joe Pass:

I’m glad we cleared that up.

Now, let’s talk about what chord melody can do to supercharge your jazz guitar playing…

Reason #1: Another Dimension of Creative Possibilities

There’s only so much you can do with single lines.

Guitarists often strive for harmonic complexity and go to extreme technical heights in their single line solos in order to create enough variety in their performance.

But I think there’s an easier way to express yourself creatively on the guitar.

You guessed it:

By combining chords and single lines seamlessly into one.

Single lines can be imagined like two dimensional space, i.e. single pitches and rhythm, intersecting in time.

However, incorporating chords is like bringing in a third dimension to your playing, and hence vastly multiplies the available creative possibilities when you play.

The result:

Your playing will become a lot more interesting – not only for your own sake, but your audience’s too.

There’s lots of options available to create variety when you know some chord melody techniques.

Depending on the approaches you take with your chords, you can get a wide range of harmonic colour.

Chord melody guru Ted Greene once spoke of the ‘rainbow’ of harmony, a spectrum of colours from dark to bright (see video below):

Chord melody techniques also help to create textural variety. One way to achieve this is by alternating between single lines and chord phrases.

A strong example of this is many of Wes Montgomery’s solos.

Wes would often begin a solo by playing single lines, then move into his famous octaves technique, before finally finishing with a chord solo climax.

Comparing a few examples of great players makes it easy to see how creative you can get with chord melody.

For example, first check out this video of Ed Bickert playing Easy To Love:

Now, watch this one of a (young) Lenny Breau playing Georgia on My Mind:

Finally, here’s one of the great Joe Pass playing All The Things You Are, with a solo chord melody introduction before the band kicks in:

As you can hear, each of the above players developed strikingly different chord melody approaches – a testament to how creative you can get with this way of playing jazz guitar.

Reason #2: You Can Play Jazz Guitar without Needing a Band (Either Real Or ‘in-a-Box’)

Let’s get one thing straight:

Chord melody works great in a jazz trio or bass and guitar duo, as it can provide more texture and punch to your lines when you need it.

But:

I think where chord melody really shines is in playing solo jazz guitar.

Why?

Put away those Aebersolds, and uninstall Band in a Box…

You can now play the melody, comping and bass all on your own, on a single guitar. How cool is that!

Solo guitar is an essential skill for any jazz guitarist as it can be very useful for gigs where you need to play on your own – a situation any gigging guitarist would often find himself in.

Speaking as a teacher, I find a lot of my jazz guitar students start to gravitate towards solo jazz guitar as their mainstay.

There’s a reason for this:

If you have a busy job, family or other commitments, it can be hard to find time to attend jam sessions or organise gigs.

Playing solo jazz guitar is a great alternative – you have the whole band on one instrument!

Speaking of which, here’s a great solo guitar video I found from guitarist Chris Whiteman:

Reason #3: Chord Melody Integrates And Improves All The Jazz Guitar Skills You Already Know

Some people don’t attempt to learn chord melody because they think it’s too hard.

It’s easy to see why.

Listening to a track from one of Joe Pass’s Virtuoso albums, like the one in this video, would make anyone lock their guitar up in their basement in terror.

But chord melody is easier than it looks.

In fact, you probably have the majority of the skills you need to play chord melody already.

Chord knowledge, comping styles, and single line soloing: that’s all the ingredients you need, right there.

The challenge lies in being able to integrate all of these at once.

Yes, it can be a challenge.

But here’s the thing:

Through learning chord melody, you’ll (ironically) become a much better single line improviser too.

The reason?

Through learning chord melody techniques, you’ll begin to more clearly see the relationships between licks, scales, arpeggios and chords.

When I solo with single lines, most of the time I’m thinking more about chord shapes on the fretboard rather than scale shapes. Chord shapes are excellent compact packages for outlining the essential chord tones of the harmony.

When you solo with chord shapes in mind and weave single lines ‘through’ these shapes, visualizing them on the fretboard, you can’t help but hit the notes that sound good over the changes.

This is an often overlooked aspect of learning chord melody. By improving your chord knowledge over the fretboard, you’ll become a better improviser overall.

That’s not all:

Due to the variety of chord voicings you need to learn to be an effective chord melody player, you’ll be a more solid member of the rhythm section, too.

Further Resources

I know what you’re thinking:

“I’m not convinced – this chord melody stuff looks too darn hard!”

Don’t sweat it:

With the right resources and tools, chord melody can be a piece of cake.

Here’s some resources to get you up and running with a minimum of fuss:

To help you on your chord melody journey, check out this chord melody post I recently put together for Jazz Guitar Online, in which I go through four simple tricks you can use to start arranging great sounding chord melodies, even if you’ve never tried chord melody before.
Something you might want to consider is brushing up on your fingerstyle techniques. I find fingerstyle a superior technique for chord melody (as opposed to using a pick) due to the wider variety of textures and moving voices that you can get with fingerstyle. Check out this post for a quick start guide.
Finally, in case you haven’t downloaded it already, check out my FREE in-depth beginner’s guide to chord melody arranging, the Chord Melody Guitar Basics eBook, which you can get right now by clicking this link. It’s over 40 pages of step by step instructions on how to start creating your own chord melodies that sound great and are easy to play.

**My New eBook, The Easy Guide To Chord Melody Guitar – Out Now!**

I’m pleased to announce that Matt Warnock of Jazz Guitar Online and myself have spent this year co-writing a comprehensive guide on arranging chord melodies and how to master the art of chord soloing, entitled The Easy Guide To Chord Melody Guitar.

This brand new eBook is a complete A-Z guide on creating your own great sounding chord melody arrangements for trio and solo guitar situations, and you’ll also learn how to chord solo (i.e., improvise with chords) like a pro.

To find out more about the book and to get your copy, click here>>

Conclusion

I hope this article has inspired you to get into chord melody guitar if you haven’t already done so.

When I started focusing on chord melody techniques, not only did my own playing get a whole lot more interesting, but overall it made me a much better jazz guitarist too.

Over to you – what are the best tips that YOU have for learning chord melody? Or, if you’re just starting out – what do you struggle with the most when it comes to learning chord melody techniques?

Let me know your thoughts by leaving a comment below; I would love to hear from you!

Greg O’Rourke, BMus (Hons), ANU

Founder, FretDojo.com

Video: I Fall in Love Too Easily

by Greg O'Rourke | Apr 27, 2016 | Chord Melody Guitar, Performance Videos

Video: I Fall in Love Too Easily

In this post I will give you a behind-the-scenes look at how I put together the jazz guitar solo arrangement you can see in the video above.

I’ve been listening to a lot of Chet Baker recently, in particular his classic album, ‘Chet Baker Sings’. This well-known album has been cherished by lovers and lonely hearts for decades. Chet Baker is more known as a trumpeter, but he surprised fans and critics alike with his vocal prowess on this release.

I thought that the standards on this album make for some great solo jazz guitar chord melody arrangements, and the video above is my first attempt of this. I was particularly drawn to the ballad I Fall in Love Too Easily due to its evocative chord changes and hauntingly beautiful melody.

I found another version of this standard on guitarist Lenny Breau’s fabulous live album, Live at Bourbon Street. I think this is probably Lenny’s best recorded album. Every track showcases not only Lenny’s innovative approach to jazz guitar, but it is also some of the most heartfelt jazz I’ve come across anywhere. If you call yourself a jazz guitarist and you haven’t listened to this album yet, drop everything and check it out now!

I guess this video is kind of like a homage to Lenny Breau. Unfortunately Lenny passed away before his time, but I reckon he was the most innovative and creative jazz guitarist of his generation.

Arranging techniques for Jazz Guitar Solo

While you’re here, I thought I could share with you some of the ideas I had for this arrangement, as well as the challenges I faced turning I Fall In Love Too Easily into a jazz guitar solo version.

Solutions to Comping

Comping yourself on solo jazz guitar poses some interesting challenges.

You’ll notice when I play the head I stick to pretty basic chord voicings in the comping (see below). I find that these work well for a slow ballad arrangement on solo guitar, as they have root notes in the bass and have enough depth to stop the arrangement sounding too empty.

I’ve noticed Joe Pass often uses these kinds of shapes in his jazz guitar solo arrangements as well:

Useful Chord Voicings For Jazz Guitar Solo

Due to the slow tempo it’s important to emphasize the root notes in the bass and these voicings are good for this.

However, as I wanted to play more double time style in the solo (see the video at 2:00), trying to play those sort of voicings became too clunky.

When you want to play faster chord melodies or solos, it’s not necessary to play such thick voicings and they actually start to get in the way of the melodic line, as your fingers get too tied up playing the chords.

A good single line solo should convey most of the harmonic movement anyway, although you do need something in the comping part for a solo guitar version, otherwise it will sound too empty.

Here’s three ways I negotiated this issue:

#1: 3rds and 7ths Voicings – this was a technique favored by Lenny Breau. Simply play 2 note voicings made up of the 3rd and 7th note of each chord.

The reason this can still work as the 3rd and 7ths are the strongest chord tones to define the tonality of a chord. Combined with a harmonically secure solo, they can convey the harmony even without the root note of the chord present.

Listen & Play:

3rd and 7ths voicings are very easy to play and free the fretting hand up to do more interesting things melodically in a jazz guitar solo setting.

#2: Single Bass Notes – I got this idea from the Bach lute suites I use to play on classical guitar. Interspersing the odd bass note of the root of each chord here and there can do wonders to fatten out the sound when playing extended melodic lines. This is even easier than 3rds and 7ths and serves to free up your fretting hand for more elaborate lines.

Listen & Play:

#3: Three Note Voicings – combining single root notes with 3rds and 7ths will give you 3 note voicings. Easy to get the fingers around, these are good for a thicker sound in the arrangement where you need it. They are also useful for the odd chord stab here and there and are essential if you want to break into walking bass comping. I use these all the time when playing jazz guitar solo:

Fast forward the video to around 2:00 to see the above techniques in action.

Tremolo technique

I’ve noticed that Lenny Breau often used classical and flamenco guitar techniques in his fingerstyle jazz guitar solos. As I come from a classical guitar background it occurred to me that I could follow suit and a few interesting fingerstyle techniques could be useful for this arrangement of I Fall in Love Too Easily.

Listening to the Chet Baker version, I was struck at how lyrical the melody is in this standard. It reminded me a little of Recuerdos de Alhambra, a well known classical guitar piece.

Recuerdos de la Alhambra features tremolo technique. This has been used by classical guitarists as a way to imitate a sustained vocal line or an instrument like the violin.

A shortcoming of the guitar is how quickly each note quickly fades away after it’s plucked, so tremolo gives the illusion of a sustained melodic line. Quite clever!

Here’s an example of tremolo technique exercise you can practice (see the video from 2:58 for more):

Listen & Play:

Lenny Breau also used tremolo from time to time in his own arrangements and solos, so this could be something interesting for you to explore in your own jazz guitar solo arrangements.

Thanks for watching! Also, a special thanks to Garry Petrisic, my luthier friend who made the beautiful Bob Benedetto copy that I’m playing in the video that he has kindly loaned to me. This guitar is a jazz guitarist’s dream – thanks again Garry!

Further Resources

Chet Baker Sings: I highly recommend checking out this classic album, these are some great standards on this one you could use for your own solo jazz guitar arranging. (Get on Amazon or iTunes)
Live at Bourbon Street with Lenny Breau and Dave Young: Probably my favorite jazz guitar album at the moment, Lenny Breau’s playing is fresh, vibrant, innovative and…well amazing in every way! (Note: doesn’t seem to be available on iTunes at the time of writing, however you can get the 2 CD set on Amazon here)
To learn more about how to play chord melody style on jazz guitar, check out my in-depth post on Chord Melody Guitar Basics on this site (includes a section on jazz guitar solo chord melody).

Let me know what you think of this jazz guitar solo version of I Fall In Love Too Easily. If you have any suggestions or feedback please leave a comment below, it would be great to hear from you…

Video: Jamming On Green Dolphin Street

by Greg O'Rourke | Feb 9, 2016 | Chord Melody Guitar, Performance Videos

Video: Jamming On Green Dolphin Street

A quick post today – this is a video of yours truly jamming on this classic jazz standard by Bronisław Kaper & Ned Washington, Green Dolphin Street. I thought that you might be interested to check this out.

Following on from the recent post I released on chord melody guitar playing, this video is an example of how you can apply some of the concepts I covered in that lesson.

I’ve been very inspired lately by Lenny’s Breau’s approach to chord melody and chord soloing, so I’m sure you’ll hear some of his ideas coming through in this video ;-)

Lenny used a lot of 3rds and 7ths voicings in his soloing, which are very useful if you need to quickly grab chord voicings if you are doing a fast-moving chord solo or chord melody.

Interested in arranging your own chord melodies? Get my free eBook: Get a free copy of my how-to guide on creating cool chord melody arrangements on guitar by clicking this link now >>

Enjoy! Let me know what you think by leaving a comment below.

Chord Melody Guitar Basics

by Greg O'Rourke | Jan 1, 2016 | Chord Melody Guitar

Chord Melody Guitar Basics

In this post you are going to get a step by step breakdown on how to get started playing chord melody guitar – in both a solo jazz guitar context, as well as in a band.

Check out this video for the end result you will be getting out of working through this article on chord melody guitar playing:

Don’t have time to read this post now? Handy PDF Download: Get access here to download a print-friendly PDF version of this article including all the lead sheets, chord diagrams, backing tracks and instructions.

This is a huge topic of course, and just one article couldn’t possibly cover all the techniques and concepts of chord melody guitar. So, this post will cover the essentials to quickly get you up and running playing jazz guitar, chord melody style. Let’s get started!

So what is Chord Melody Guitar anyway?

Generally, chord melody guitar refers to playing jazz guitar with single line melodies or solos and combining or accompanying with chords. This is opposed to just single line soloing or melody playing, or on the flipside only comping in a band with chords. You actually combine the two at the same time, on one guitar.

Getting into the nitty gritty, the term ‘chord melody’ can actually refer to two similar, but nonetheless distinct styles of jazz guitar playing.

On one hand, chord melody can refer to a guitarist mixing chords and melody on a tune in a band setting, e.g a jazz trio of guitar, bass and drums. In this setting, you need to take care in what chord voicings you apply to the melody and your solos. If you play too many low notes on the 5th and 6th strings it can interfere with the bass player.

On the other hand, chord melody guitar playing can also refer to playing jazz tunes arranged or improvised on solo guitar. This is kind of like playing as a one man band: soloist, comping and bass all in one.

To avoid confusion, let’s refer to the setting in a trio or other lineup as a band chord melody, and playing chord melody on your own as jazz guitar solo chord melody.

Now, let’s work through the 5 steps for an awesome chord melody guitar arrangement. As it is a bit easier on the left hand, let’s start with a band chord melody. Then, I’m going to show you how to adapt this version just a little to make an effective jazz guitar solo chord melody.

Step 1: Pick a suitable tune and learn it inside and out

Although you can turn nearly any tune as a chord melody guitar arrangement, it is helpful to find a chart with a melody that isn’t too fast moving. Bebop tunes in straight eighth notes will be difficult (though not impossible) to arrange. For beginners, ballads or swing/broadway standards should do the trick.

Here is a list of tunes that work well as chord melody guitar arrangements for solo jazz guitar as well as in a band:

All the Things You Are
On Green Dolphin Street
Have You Met Miss Jones
Alone Together
Autumn Leaves
Don’t Get Around Much Anymore
Fly Me To the Moon
Georgia on My Mind
Just Friends
Moon River
My Funny Valentine
Night and Day

Even non-jazz tunes can work well by substituting standard chords for jazzier alternatives – e.g. check out this post by Matt Warnock on chord melody guitar arrangements of well known Christmas tunes.

For this post, I’ll be using a jazz tune called Rochelle I wrote recently for my darling wife (awwww). Here is the lead sheet to use as a starting point:

Audio Example:

Now that we have found a suitable tune, it’s time to learn it just like you would learn any other jazz standard:

Learn the melody both on your guitar and singing
Try comping over the changes
Improvise over the changes
Memorize the melody and the chords

Also, listen to recordings and watch youtube videos of others playing the tune. This is a great way to get an ideas for your own arrangement.

Step 2: Transpose to an appropriate key if necessary

Changing the key may be necessary to suit the setting you are playing the arrangement in (i.e. as a solo or in a band), and also can give the arrangement a particular flavour. Some keys work better than others and it’s helpful to consider open strings in the chord voicings if possible as using them can give some great effects.

As I was playing around with this tune in the original key of Bb Major, I noticed that the melody is getting a little bit low in places:

This causes issues for a chord melody arrangement on guitar, as you may be unable to fit good sounding chord voicings underneath the melody. Voicings that low could start to sound muddy and will get in the way of the band’s bass player.

A way to solve this might be to take the melody up an octave, however in this case the tune will be too high on the guitar neck for it to sound good:

After transposing the lead sheet to F Major, it seems to sit in a much more suitable range for a chord melody guitar arrangement, so let’s work on the tune in this key:

Audio example:

Sometimes transposing the tune can also give the arrangement a distinct sound or colour, so even if a tune already seems to sit well on the guitar it is still worthwhile playing around and experimenting with different keys.

Step 3: Learn the melody on the top 2 strings

Now that you have chosen the key for your arrangement, the next step is to learn the melody on the top 2 strings. This will give you an idea of what chord voicings to apply to the melody that we’ll cover in the next step.

Here is an example of how you could play Rochelle on mainly the top 2 strings. Note that it’s ok to occasionally go to the 3rd string for a passing melody note however make sure you don’t do this too often, as it will start to become difficult to find workable chord voicings.

Video Example:

Backing track:

Step 4: Choose chord voicings

You have come to the most important step in the process – applying chord voicings to the melody line that we have practiced on the top 2 strings, to create your very own chord melody guitar arrangement.

You may have been inspired by the genius of Joe Pass or Wes Montgomery and the creative and virtuosic twists and turns of their chord melody arrangements, but let’s not get carried away here.

For now, keep it simple!

This step is a straightforward process of applying a chord to the first melody note of each bar and/or each chord change in the lead sheet.

Let’s play the melody again now on the top 2 strings, but try to image where you would like the chords placed. Generally, placing them on the start of each bar or at chord change usually works well.

Mark out these points on your lead sheet:

How do I know which chord voicing to use?

Here is the simple trick for easy chord melody arranging:

Choose chord voicings that have the same interval of the melody note as the highest note in the chord shape,

a voicing that can be slightly adapted to have the melody note as the highest note and still sound good.

That sounds great and makes sense, you might be thinking, but do we know the relevant chord shapes. Do we know what variations of the chord to use? How do we remember all the different shapes for the voicings?

The answer is to build your own chord dictionary.

Creating a chord dictionary

A jazz chord melody guitar player is a collector of chords. Whenever you learn an existing chord melody arrangement, or transcribe a chord melody or chord solo, add any voicings you find in a dictionary grouped in main chord types.

I group my dictionary according to major, minor, dominant, altered dominant, half-diminished (i.e. minor 7b5), and diminished.

If you are new to jazz chord theory or unsure how to construct chords, check out this great guide from Jazz Guitar Online (go to the ‘Jazz Guitar Chord Theory’ heading).

Let’s start your chord dictionary with some of my favourite voicings I use for chord melody arranging. Here is a sample of chords from my own dictionary:

Major – e.g. Amaj7

Minor – e.g. Amin7

Dominant – e.g. A7

Altered Dominant – eg A7b9

Here’s a few important rules to keep in mind:

In most cases, you can substitute any chord for another as long as they belong to the same chord type. Eg, if you see Am7 on a lead sheet, you could play an Am7, Am6, Am9, Am11 and it would still sound fine.
Be careful with dominants and altered dominants – an altered dominant includes altered tensions (eg #9, b13, b9, etc), whilst a dominant excludes any altered tensions and has only natural tensions (eg 9, 13, 11, etc).
When you see an altered dominant chord on a lead sheet (eg. A7b9) you should only play an altered dominant chord type.
However – this is where it gets a bit confusing – when you see a dominant chord (e.g. A7) on a lead sheet, often you can play either a dominant chord type OR an altered dominant chord type, depending on the situation.

How many chord voicings do I need to know to make a chord melody guitar arrangement?

A lot of people get stuck at this point, for example, here is a recent comment from one of my email subscribers:

“I’m trying to learn and remember all the chord variations for use in chord melodies. In rock you had 6 to 8 chords in a 12 bar set. Now in jazz there are 30 to 40. I’m freaking out trying to remember them all!”

Don’t fret! The truth is you don’t need to know every possible chord shape to make a great sounding chord melody. As we go through the process below, you’ll see why.

How to apply the chord shapes on the melody

Note that the chords I’ve provided above are mainly on string sets 4 3 2 1 and 5 4 3 2 – hence why we only wanted to keep the melody on the top two strings as the melody note will now become the top note of each chord. The numbers on the dots indicate what interval of the chord each note is.

Now that we have our chord shapes, let’s look at the first 2 bars and see how we could harmonize the melody with the chords.

We’ll start by analysing the melody, relating each melody note to the interval of the chord written above it on the lead sheet:

(By the way, if you are lost at this point and are unsure what the numbers I’ve used mean, check out this great series of articles on chords and intervals – especially lesson two which explains what numbers like ‘9’ mean :)

The first note of the melody is a C, which is a 5th of the chord Fmaj7. As we covered above, the Maj7 chord type belongs to the Major chord family, so…

We need to find a major chord shape with a 5th as the highest note in the chord.

If we look at our chord dictionary, you’ll see that this chord shape has a 5th interval as the highest note:

Perfect! Let’s use that chord, but remember to move the shape to the 8th fret, to make it an Fmaj7 (instead of Emaj7 like what’s in the diagram):

Audio example:

In the second bar, we have an A7b9 written on the lead sheet. This chord belongs to the altered dominant chord type, and it looks like the interval is a #9 on top.

Here we go, this pattern has a #9 as the highest interval, so let’s use that one:

Audio example:

If we add chords to the whole arrangement in this way, using the chord shapes from my dictionary, we’ll get something like this:

Video Example:

Backing Track:

(Note that some of the chord shapes have been slightly adapted or have had notes omitted so that it has the melody note as the top note).

Don’t be fooled by how complicated the music notation looks. If you look at the TAB and the chord charts, it’s easy to see all I’ve done is added chord voicings from our chord dictionary to the melody line.

As you can see, it’s not necessary to learn very many chord shapes to make a great sounding chord melody arrangement.

Several of the voicings have simply been slid up or down to different places on the fretboard:

If you are just getting started with chord melody, I would recommend that you start with just stock standard chord voicings. Don’t try to be too clever with the harmony just yet.

Once you learn the arrangement with standard voicings you can then break out of that and do more interesting chord forms and substitutions.

Having said that though, the standard voicings can still sound great – Joe Pass was a master of using standard voicings in very creative ways. To quote martial artist Bruce Lee:

“I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.” – Bruce Lee

Any new chord voicings you learn from transcriptions or other arrangements, remember to take the time to record them in your own chord dictionary so you won’t forget them.

Arranging for Jazz Guitar Solo

In a jazz guitar solo setting we no longer have the band behind us. We’ll need to work a little more on the accompaniment. Although what we have so far sounds great in a band setting, it will sound a bit too sparse for a solo version.

One way to fix this is by using voicings that includes more strings.

Let’s try extending some of our chord voicings by adding lower notes:

If you now use these ‘thicker’ versions of the chords, and put in a bit of filler comping into the empty bars, you’ll now have a solo guitar version!

Video Example:

(Note: that the recording isn’t exactly the same as the chart – often I play the bass notes before the rest of the chords for playability, and also add some chromatic bass notes throughout)

You could also do this process in reverse. If you are more familiar with the thicker voicings, try cutting out 1 or two notes in the bottom of the chord to make the voicings more suitable for a band setting – so you don’t get in the way of that pesky bass player…

Step 5: Practise and tweak your arrangement

Taking the time to practise your arrangement will internalise the music in your mind and body, and serves as a good foundation for spontaneously varying your arrangement in a performance.

As you practise, look at ways you can tweak your arrangement to make it easier to play. This is an important step as your arrangement can sound clunky if you are trying to do too much with chords. Remember – less is more.

Through small changes to voicings, omitting unnecessary notes or even complete voicings, you can take a nearly unplayable chord melody guitar arrangement to one that flows and sings really well.

You should arrange for your own technical limitations in mind. If something is easier to play, it will be easier for the audience to listen to as well. You want a chord melody, not a chord malady!

Here are some ways that you can make a chord melody easier on your hands:

Try different voicings – If you listen to the great guitarist Lenny Breau’s chord melodies, they sound thick and full in the accompaniment. However, if you listen closely he uses mostly only a 3rd and a 7th out of each chord. Experiment with eliminating unessential notes from the chord, as sometimes not only does this make it easier but can also sound much more effective, especially in a band setting.
Omit difficult notes – even if they are the ‘essential’ notes. Sometimes even if you drop a 3rd or 7th out of a chord, if it’s in a fast moving chord progression the audience will understand the intent of the chord
Avoid over harmonizing the melody, unless you are going for a chord scale type effect in a phrase. Sometimes just some bass notes under the melody sounds effective. Try to play just the melody only occasionally as it not only is easier but also provides contrast.

You’re all done! Now share your chord melody arrangement with the world…

Now that you have your arrangement under your fingers, you need some way to perform it!

I invite you to join my Facebook group and post a video of your arrangement, and get some tips and feedback from myself as well as other community members.

Request to join the Facebook group by clicking here>>

Further Resources

Obviously if I was include every aspect of chord melody playing in this post it would go for many more pages than this, however for more resources check out the following:

Chord Melody Made Easy – video on how to make easy to play chord melody guitar arrangements with 4 simple tricks.
Chord Chemistry – a fantastic go-to resource on chord melody guitar playing by the late great guitarist Ted Greene
Speaking of Ted Greene, check out this tribute site featuring many chord melody arrangements you can download in PDF format.

Enjoyed this post on Chord Melody? Handy PDF Download: Get access here to download a print-friendly PDF version of this article including all the lead sheets, chord diagrams, backing tracks and instructions.

Thanks for reading! I’ll be posting more articles and lessons on this topic in the future, however for now this should be enough to get your teeth stuck into.

Chord melody guitar playing is an excellent way to play jazz on guitar, either in a jazz guitar solo context or in a band, and can open up a whole world of possibilities for you as a guitarist.

Let me know what you think of this article by leaving a comment below. I look forward to hearing your thoughts!

Cheers,

Greg O’Rourke

BMus (Hons), ANU

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