Chord melodies.... HELP !

Joli Gadjo

Once a year I practice those over Xmas tunes, and I find it a pretty good exercise. I hope to finally get it by next year...
starglasses website is my favorite for that. Otherwise it's not too hard to find, just google it:
http://www.jazzguitarlessons.net/jazz-guitar-standards.html
http://www.angelfire.com/fl4/moneychords/tolley2011.html
http://chordmelody.org

Al Watsky

If you want to play solo gigs you need chord melody. When I was at school in the 70's that was the main focus for many of us. We all made arrangements of standards and pop tunes. I still have dozens that I can play and they have held me in good stead . Its one thing to make your arrangements in the original key and another to transpose them. What you will find is that by learning the melody and placing chords selectively while maintaining a simple bass line you can play hundreds of songs using very simple chord voicings. Its a good simple approach for solo gigs that need dozens of tunes over a 4 or 5 hour period. If you do as I have done you can make lead sheets for your self in comfortable keys for the guitar and play them all in first position which is to say using the open strings and the most familiar chords to support the melody, adding bass notes to provide a rational framework. If you need to you can write up dozens of charts in C,G,D,E and etc. and those relative minors and play them at sight . It works . All you need to do is sound good. You need to put in the time but if you labor away it comes. I used to cover pop, classic rock and holiday gigs that way. If you want to make something that is on the level of the highest art music you will need to delve a bit deeper. One of the best around in making well formed chord solo's these days is Russell Malone , he plays the melody beautifully , lyrically and supports it with well placed chords that are often very simple , all supported with well structured bass lines. His tone is clear and direct , his approach is un hurried and he's always in tune. Very pleasing. And he plays with a steel strung guitar and often with a pick so there is something to be learned for an aspiring GJ guitarist or any musician.
One thing that helps is to struggle through a few fake books at sight. Just go through the books, play the melodies and form chords as you go. After a few months you will know every voicing that you already know and where every melody note possible is in relation to every chord. Your learning your vocabulary and then applying it to the material rather than struggling to memorize , this way you can progress naturally and simply to the goal of making music. When you come to the realization that you do not know enough harmony and counterpoint you can selectively learn inversions that are necessary , usually the first and second inversions are most useful for bass lines, well, a start at least and you learn as necessary to form your arrangements. When I was studying with Jack Wilkins back in the day I asked him how I was to go about memorizing all the chord voicings in all their inversions on every string set and drop voicing. He told me that you do not memorize them all, you use them as needed and will gradually form a vocabulary that will eventually form your style.

Jim Kaznosky

Thanks for the reminder to work on this stuff, Anthony. I did a little work with Honeysuckle Rose last night and came up with something passable. I've done a few more over the past few months and it really has been a worthwhile effort. Drop 2 grips are useful for this. I haven't gotten quite to the depth of what Al talks about above, but he is absolutely correct that it can help give you a better understanding of harmony and your instrument.
And Dark Eyes is a good place to start.

Lango-Django

It occurred to me that we may be talking at cross purposes here, because different posters seem to mean different things by the term "chord melody".

Both Anthony and Al mentioned staying in one position, and perhaps interspersing single notes and chords.

I was talking about using chords only and moving them to different positions as the melody note moves up and down the top string, a la the plectrum banjo.

Either way is valid, of course, and I'd be curious to hear some of Al's arrangements, since I've never thought to approach it that way.

And Jim has a good point about the "drops" (aka "grips") which are covered in the Givone Methode Manouche p. 58 - 63.

Most of the fingerings Givone suggests are the same ones I use, but as another poster mentioned, you're probably best off to use whatever fingerings come most naturally to you.

A fun and easy tune for "my" kind of chord melody is "What is this thing called love".

Jazzaferri

+1 on Martin's style and site. He uses the guitar like a piano. Bass line, harmony melody all together.

Al Watsky

What I discovered was that the guitar, if approached from the first position and open position ; is very friendly to the Idea of chord melody playing. Much of the repertoire of several folk idioms can be played in first and open position .
Rock guitarists that are approaching jazz styles are often pretty clueless about first position. Apart from some hum and strum campfire chords they know nothing. (I myself became aware of all of this when I began studying classical guitar in the 70's(after years of jazz tuition) , after about 15 years of classical and flamenco and needing to make a living, I was playing "music by the pound" gigs, many of them solo and had a need to cover what ever was necessary to keep the coins trickling in.)
Its a fully chromatic universe down there which allows for all sorts of melody and bass and inner voice movement. Listen to any Latin American or Spanish guitarist who is rooted in their folk idioms and you will have an inkling of what I'm talking about . Our own folk musicians also do a dandy job of playing a melody in first position. How's about Mother Maybelle ? She paid the bills of her clan playing in first position. How about Liz Cotton of Freight Train fame. Don't discount these folk musicians. They are playing guitar.
My method, which I taught for decades is achingly simple and really only requires the player to "want" to give voice to the melodies and support them as required to make the song live.
One need not remain in position.
Start simple, Mary Had Her Wretched Lamb , Twinkle Little Star. A perfect way to start. Find a key , find the melody, add bass notes , know the harmony. Theme and variation . If you can play this way and keep time your good to go.
Also remember it is not necessary to play a chord on every note. Thats one "style". This block chord thing is valid but not necessarily the end all.
You will learn all the possibilities of voicing a melody , just keep at it.

Lango-Django

Ok, now I see what you're talking about, Al. I started out playing folk music myself and spent many hours trying to learn to play in that style, both fingerpicking and flat picking... Doc Watson, Rev. Gary Davis, Dave Van Ronk, Jim Kweskin, Blind Blake, etc.

When I was about 18, I worked out a fancy fingerpicking arrangement of "Ain't Misbehavin" and that was actually the first jazz tune I ever learned.