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  #1  
Old 07-23-2022, 03:01 PM
Bain Bain is offline
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Default I don’t want to play jazz

I have little interest in jazz for me it’s too complicated , but I would like to play simple chord melodies , maybe it’s me but when I search for chord melodies I am almost driving down the road of jazz , 9 this and 6 that and twist your fingers around this . Can you guys give me any direction for simple songs in chord melodies without all that jazz
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  #2  
Old 07-23-2022, 04:29 PM
CASD57 CASD57 is offline
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I refuse to play that many wrong notes in a row
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Old 07-23-2022, 04:52 PM
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rick-slo rick-slo is offline
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Chord melody is common and there are different degrees of use of it in any particular piece. It's not jazz flavored necessarily.
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Old 07-23-2022, 06:41 PM
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I've always thought of chord melody as a jazz thing. Can anyone post a link to non jazz chord melody?
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Old 07-23-2022, 06:57 PM
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Originally Posted by stanron View Post
I've always thought of chord melody as a jazz thing. Can anyone post a link to non jazz chord melody?
I think you are being too narrow with your concept of chord melody.

https://www.playguitaracademy.com/bl...lody-on-guitar

I compose things that at least in part are pure chord melody, for example below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRv2Lt0Tq_U

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Old 07-23-2022, 09:34 PM
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Hi Derek. Thanks for the reply. It leaves me with a problem. The first link is to what appears to be a text lesson. I didn't come across any links to music being played before I gave up. The link to your own tune, and very nice it is too, sounds like jazz to me. I'm not criticising your playing but it does seem to contain the kind of chords that the OP wants to avoid.
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Old 07-23-2022, 09:47 PM
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The line between chord melody and "fingerstyle" is pretty blurry. Play the melody on top and put chords underneath, and you have "chord melody". It doesn't have to be jazz. Check out any of thousands of fingerstyle players. There may be more arpeggiation going on, or perhaps a bass pattern, depending on the style, but it's basically all the same idea.

These things, "chord melody", "fingerstye", even "jazz" are just labels someone's put on some music - is there some particular tune you want to play?

It's pretty easy to create your own - learn to play the melody, mostly on the top strings, play the bass notes for each chord along with it, and put as many notes of the chord as you can to fill in the middle, and bam, you have "chord melody". If you need help, there are tons of teachers who could show you how to do this, and I've seen endless magazine articles and books that go thru it. I was just proof-reading a lesson in a new book coming out from Acoustic Guitar that goes thru exactly this. Check out Muriel Anderson's "Building Arrangements from the Ground Up" as one example. The concept will be the same regardless of whether you want to follow Muriel's style.
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Old 07-23-2022, 10:03 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by stanron View Post
Hi Derek. Thanks for the reply. It leaves me with a problem. The first link is to what appears to be a text lesson. I didn't come across any links to music being played before I gave up. The link to your own tune, and very nice it is too, sounds like jazz to me. I'm not criticizing your playing but it does seem to contain the kind of chords that the OP wants to avoid.
The first link is about what chord melody is and what type of music it shows up in. Worth reading if at all interested in that.
All kinds of music employ more than just basic diatonic chords.
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Last edited by rick-slo; 07-23-2022 at 10:25 PM.
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Old 07-23-2022, 10:21 PM
Joe Beamish Joe Beamish is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by stanron View Post
I've always thought of chord melody as a jazz thing. Can anyone post a link to non jazz chord melody?

Agreed. I’ve never heard of “chord melody” except in a jazz context.
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Old 07-23-2022, 11:28 PM
stanron stanron is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Doug Young View Post
The line between chord melody and "fingerstyle" is pretty blurry. Play the melody on top and put chords underneath, and you have "chord melody". It doesn't have to be jazz. Check out any of thousands of fingerstyle players. There may be more arpeggiation going on, or perhaps a bass pattern, depending on the style, but it's basically all the same idea.

These things, "chord melody", "fingerstye", even "jazz" are just labels someone's put on some music - is there some particular tune you want to play?

It's pretty easy to create your own - learn to play the melody, mostly on the top strings, play the bass notes for each chord along with it, and put as many notes of the chord as you can to fill in the middle, and bam, you have "chord melody". If you need help, there are tons of teachers who could show you how to do this, and I've seen endless magazine articles and books that go thru it. I was just proof-reading a lesson in a new book coming out from Acoustic Guitar that goes thru exactly this. Check out Muriel Anderson's "Building Arrangements from the Ground Up" as one example. The concept will be the same regardless of whether you want to follow Muriel's style.
Hi Doug. I'm confused about this subject. I thought that chord melody was a style where every melody note, or almost every melody note, was at thbe top end of a chord. An actual chord and not one implied by previous bass or filler notes. In your post you seem to widen the field to include just about all instrumental guitar playing. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Could you post a link to a track that is chord melody but not jazz?
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Old 07-23-2022, 11:48 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by stanron View Post
Hi Doug. I'm confused about this subject. I thought that chord melody was a style where every melody note, or almost every melody note, was at thbe top end of a chord. An actual chord and not one implied by previous bass or filler notes. In your post you seem to widen the field to include just about all instrumental guitar playing. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Could you post a link to a track that is chord melody but not jazz?
I think this is a “whats in a name?” Situation. But i think you summed it up fine. Id call chord melody an approach in which you play the melody on top of block chords. But it can be a bit fancier than that, and often includes bass lines and moving voices as well. Theres no reason it has to be “jazz”. You could play Mary Had A Little Lamb using that approach, using nothing but triad-based harmony and it wouldnt sound like jazz at all. Im a bit tied up right now or Id record an example. The example i was just proof reading was greensleeves. Quite easy to play the melody over basic block chords, doesnt sound like jazz at all, but the technique is all “chord melody.”

There is a bit of an enigma here in the OPs post. If we buy the idea that chord melody=jazz and the OP hates jazz, then what is it he wants to play? To me, yes many jazz guitarists played what we call chord melody, but that approach of melody over chords is not what makes it jazz. The jazz aspect has to do with the complex harmony choices (which are not required), and the feel.
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  #12  
Old 07-24-2022, 03:52 AM
JonPR JonPR is offline
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Seems to me the issue here (in part anyway) is how much "chord" do you want beneath your "melody"?

If you want fairly meaty chords to harmonize your melody, you're invoking the dread "jazz".
If you're OK with minimal chords - just enough to imply harmony (along with melody and maybe bass line) - then you're back with "fingerstyle guitar".

The other thing that would get it defined as "jazz", of course, would be the choice of material. If you play an old jazz standard in "fingerstyle", is that "chord melody"? You'd be incorporating chords, obviously, along with the melody. If you take a modern rock or pop song and harmonize the melody with block chords, that's obviously "chord melody" too, but does that make it "jazz"? Would you have to make the chords fancier, or add more passing chords?

Rhythm is another element. Swing feel obviously connotes "jazz", but some jazz is latin. And blues and country can swing.

But maybe the main issue is that "chord melody" is defined in the first place from the jazz perspective. Not the guitar perspective. It's jazz guitarists deciding that they are just as capable as pianists of playing jazz standards solo. They are not just chord merchants, they can play melodies at the same time too. That's how the style gets its "jazz" bias. (Another reason would be that it's jazz guitarists who tend to have the skill and knowledge required to master it.)

What about Tommy Emmanuel? He would seem to be a good candidate for a player who is not generally classified as "jazz", but known for playing instrumentals in what could be described broadly as "chord-melody" style.
Example? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Usyjn6JAtiQ. Melody + chords + not a jazz standard.
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Old 07-24-2022, 04:05 AM
Andyrondack Andyrondack is offline
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Instead of typing chord melody into the search engine type something like 'arppegiated melody on guitar'.
Or 'flatpicking tunes with chords' and similar variations .
Your problem with search engines is that they show the results most people click on, so if lots of jazzers click on jazz chord arrangements in the search results then that's what gets bumped to the top.

Last edited by Andyrondack; 07-24-2022 at 04:21 AM.
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  #14  
Old 07-24-2022, 04:27 AM
gerhardp gerhardp is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Doug Young View Post
It's pretty easy to create your own - learn to play the melody, mostly on the top strings, play the bass notes for each chord along with it, and put as many notes of the chord as you can to fill in the middle, and bam, you have "chord melody".
Couldn't have been described any better!
I'd add: Try to play the melody in the lower bars with plenty of empty strings, if possible, that makes it easier for your left hand, and there's a greater chance that the chords you come up with are more familiar, like C, G, D
etc...
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Old 07-24-2022, 07:04 AM
hazmuz hazmuz is offline
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can't we have "like" buttons? i find myself searching for them especially when i read the posts of JonPR and D. Young
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