Use of Chord Melody

[JohnnySmash]

I was wondering, is Chord Melody very popular or usefull in guitar playing? Classical or otherwise?

[mercy]

Very popular in jazz but actually it is how you finger fingerstyle, so very important.

[Mark L]

If one plays solo guitar, it is a highly desirable style. It is also a difficult style, but very rewarding.

[JonPR]

[Pitar]

I wouldn't bother playing guitar if not for chord melody. It's why I took up guitar.

[Bikewer]

I’ve been concentrating on chord-melody for the last several years.
Mostly jazz standards... I’m pretty much following Joe Pass’ advice on one of his videos... “Figure out the melody and find chords that sound nice”.

I don’t get all carried away with theory, but i am now getting to the point where I can finger bass notes working out of the chord-forms.

I do play fingerstyle... I find that to my ears, no matter how smoothly one strokes with a pick, you can hear the individual notes sound.. Whereas when playing fingerstyle, you can play all the notes at the same time... Or arpeggiate if you feel like it.

[rick-slo]

"Chord melody" = melody over chord. You're playing the melody on the guitar strings - not sung, not some
other instrument. Pretty simple. One uses it in solo classical guitar and fingerstyle though jazz has coopted
the term with its typical tighter integration of chord and melody via chord substitutions and chord extensions.

[stanron]

Chord Melody is a jazz style where all or most of the melody notes are played as the top part of chords. It has become a kind of jazz cliché that the harmonies, both vertical and horizontal, are complex. It is this complexity that distinguishes chord melody from other genres of music that combine melody and harmony.

If you like jazz then it is worth learning. If your preference is for other genres you can do the same sort of thing with simpler harmonies.

[simpl man]

For the type of music I enjoy, I think Doc Watson does it best!

A super talented friend of mine can also pick-out a tune from within the rhythm of the chords to a song. He's often adding parts that were either sung, played on keys, fiddles, etc. to his guitar arrangements, and also does it all simultaneously with a flatpick.

Makes for some quite interesting listening, and gives me something to aspire to.

[Davis Webb]

You need a ridiculous knowledge of both chords and melody to do this. Its something piano players can do alot easier. Its a high level skill, mostly in knowing 100s of chords!

[815C]

I love chord solos on guitar. I play solo guitar gigs where I play many of these. Here are some of the ones I do, followed by a lesson on how to play one of the easier ones.

[Bikewer]

Originally Posted by Davis Webb

You need a ridiculous knowledge of both chords and melody to do this. Its something piano players can do alot easier. Its a high level skill, mostly in knowing 100s of chords!

I only routinely use perhaps 10-12 chord shapes or “grips” as Joe Pass said.

Since these are all moveable chords, technically it would be hundreds, since each can be played at every fret.
However, when working out the harmony to a melody, you mostly keep the melody notes on the first two strings. This simplifies finding a chord or inversion to use.
I’ve seen one method on YouTube where the guy only uses about a half-dozen chord shapes....

[mr. beaumont]

Chord Melody (although the term drives me nuts) is kinda my bread and butter...

Yeah, it's not so much about quantity of chord shapes, but rather getting bang for the buck...knowing that those 4 note clusters can function as several different things...

Generally, you learn the common shapes (Google drop 2 and 3 voicings) and then learn the inversions, the goal being where you can put any melody note on top of any chord...which sounds crazy hard, but it's not, really.

[Bob Womack]

You know, it is a funny thing: I love melody. I'm an absolute sucker for good melody and harmony. I love a well-articulated melody that makes a guitar sound like a human voice or another instrument entirely.

So I guess it is no big surprise that this style isn't my favorite. I always feel like the melody is being subordinated to the chord progression. I fully appreciate the complexity of both chordal performance and composition that I hear in this style, but in this practice the melody just seems to be a line to hang all those intermediate chords upon. I seem to work exactly backwards to this - when I blend melody and chording, I always seem to want to naturally subordinate the chordal structure to the melody, and to the articulation of that melody including vibrato, bending, and pre-bending. Whenever I create a combined choral melody style delivery I'm always thinking to myself, "Wow, I could do that melody far more justice if I played it as a separate line."

I hope you'll forgive me for this aside in the thread. I've always wanted to see someone else work things my way but I realize that my approach is incredibly tough to manage - even for me!

Does anyone else hear things backwards like I do?

Bob

[simpl man]

Bob,

Watch the first video in the thread, posted by JonPR.