I often feel that playing chord melodies is one of the most challenging and enriching moments in my students journey of learning guitar. Playing a melody or a chord progression on their own is hard enough. But playing them together? Well, that can sometimes feel impossible. But do not worry! In this post I will try to give you some guidance and ideas for the next time you try to learn, or compose yourself, a chord melody.
Where do I start?
First thing first! Choose the standard you want to play as a chord melody. It’s important to choose a standard that you like and already listened to a few times. After you chose the standard, learn how to play it. Put the time in learning the melody and chords, try to learn it by heart, and you can even practice it in another key to deepen your understanding of the harmony and the relation between the melody and the harmony.
It’s all about the bass
I believe that, in order to make an amazing chord melody, you have to take in consideration the relations between the notes of the melody and the harmony that you play on top or beneath them. The best way to do that is to first play only the bass note of the chord (the root) and the note of the melody, without all the fancy voicings and tensions that we all love, those will come later. By doing this very basic chord melody, you understand how the two connect to each other, and that information will come a long way when you start adding those jazzy tones.
Adding some color
Now it’s time to add some nice colors to your chord melody. You should start by adding the basic 3 and 7 notes of each chord. This will add personality to your chord melody, and these chords will be the foundation which on top you can add the cool sounding jazzy tensions. You should be careful when adding tensions to your chord melody. Therefore, understanding the correlation between the notes of the melody and the harmony will help you decide which tensions to add or subtract from it.
For instance: if your melody is the 5th of a dominant chord, then you should be careful adding an #11 to that chord, for it can create an unwanted tension.
On the other hand, you can use it to your advantage: if the harmony is Dm – Cmaj7 and the melody is the note E (the 9 of Dm7 and the 3 of Cmaj7), you can add between them a G7add13 (the 13 will be the note E) and, by that, expanding the harmony while keeping the melody unchanged.
It ain't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing
So now, after you already know all the chords you are going to use, the tensions and the relations between all the notes and chords, it is time to add the last ingredient to the mix: rhythm. It is easy to just play with no tempo or freely. But, playing a chord melody with a steady tempo will not only improve your technique, but your ability to move freely between the different chords and shapes on the guitar. You should start slowly, without any hard to pull of stunts of rhythm and, once you feel comfortable, you can start adding some complicated sections to keep it interesting.
When trying to play a chord melody for the first time it can look intimidating, sometimes even too hard to even play. But with a bit or practice and patience you will see that not too long from now you’ll be playing every standard you know as a chord melody as well.
For more information on chord melodies and how to play them, contact me today.
Gal Dornay
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