Chord melodies.... HELP !

anthon_74

Hey there ,

Last Django in June, Dennis chang recommended people practice playing the heads of songs through chord voicings, kind of going back and forth between single notes and the chords they belong to. I hope his description makes sense. Like, first note of the head with the first chord, then the next note or 2 by themselves, then the next note of the head with the next chord, and so on.....
Anyhoo, I SUCK something awful at this particular practice, but I NEED it, because I've noticed that, when I'm just completely improvising, I mostly always know what chord is being played, but when I play the heads, or try to improvise around the actual songs melody, I often forget what chord is happening at any given time.
SO, is there any tabs out there of chord melodies, or any such other resources/advice anyone can offer about creating these ??

Anthony

mab

It's not gypsy jazz but there's a lot of cool stuff here:
http://www.starglasses.net/tabs-in-powertab-format/

lacrossehotclub

Here too from Frank V.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=skWxlM-R54U

Craig Denney

I think the best way is just make your own arrangement. That way it will be more natural for your style of playing.

The first one I did was "What A Wonderful World" from 'The Real Book'. It's slow, and has a great, distinctive melody that you already know in your head. And since you already know the melody, it's easier to improvise on. It was a lot of fun, and surprisingly it didn't take long to do.

So I'd say... do a song that you already know the melody to, and something you're very familiar with.

I have some chord melody books, but I didn't think they were very much help because that's an arrangement that someone else would do, and not something that I would do.

It helped me become more comfortable and fluid with chords on the top 4 strings.

pickitjohn

@anthon_74

You may find working with Harmonized Scales for Guitar helpful.
Here is a Great Informative sight

http://www.coniferguitar.com/Scales_for_guitar/page56/page56.html

here is a sample PDF of the C Major Harmonized Scale

kevorkazito

Ever hear of a guy called Robert Conti? He's got lessons on DVD. I learned about chord melody from him. I highly recommend you check him out.

Lango-Django

Hey, Anthony, you're going to have fun with this and it's actually a lot easier than you think.

My other instrument is plectrum banjo, which is basically a chord melody instrument due to its weird CGBD tuning. You'll soon find that your ear and fingers will be good at finding melody notes, even intervals like ninths and thirteenths, when they are on top of chords.

My advice would be to start with chords on your top four strings, and whenever possible choose fingerings that will keep your pinky on the highest note of the chord.

Sometimes this will mean using a chord with an added sixth instead of a straight major or minor chord, like playing an F6 chord with the third on top as XX3535 instead of a straight F fingering XX7565.

Pick a few easy tunes to get started with and you'll soon find it will be second nature.

Once you get going, you can find a real nice free online lesson by Howard Alden showing how he plays "All the things you are" chord melody style, first with the melody on top and then on the bottom... it's a lovely arrangement. Howard tends to use the middle four strings instead of the top four, and uses some very pretty voicings.



Good luck!

Will

Jazzaferri

If the melody line is the top note it will stand out more. this will be emphasized if the second voice is dropped an octave or eliminated if not felt critical to the chord.

adrian

Hey, dozens upon dozens of my YouTube videos are blatant uses of this "play the chord, then the melody notes" technique. A relatively simple one is The Star-Spangled Banner, which I've tabbed out here.

Jon

Lots of good stuff here. I'd just like to +1 the idea of just jumping in and coming up with your own arrangements (even not "finishing" arrangements, but just sitting down each time with the tune and improvising a chord melody fresh - however slowly that needs to happen or however many passes it takes to get something happening). If your intent is to really hear the relationship between harmony and melody, then everything you do that sets something in stone - like coming up with an arrangement or learning someone else's - is time spent not actually practically dealing with the problem itself in your brain. Have a quick look at what some others are doing for inspiration, and then just jump in! And feel free to just screw around and have fun with it - try things in different octaves or keys if you can. It's the best thing to practice, in my opinion.

anthon_74

Thanks a lot Will ! I will try that.

I'm also trying this approach - Practice a chord melody first only using the E bar chord shape position for each chord(lots of jumping round the fret board). Then repeat over the A shape bar chord position, and last over the C shape bar position.
When I'm done with that, I try staying in one zone of the fretboard.

Anthony