3 Simple Ways To Create Chord Melody Arrangments (Jazz Beginner)
One of the most fun things about Jazz Guitar is chord melody. I am sure you can imagine what it feels like to play songs like you hear Joe Pass or Ted Greene perform, and we all enjoy exploring the song adding beautiful colors and extensions.
This process is not easy, and it might even seem impossible, but there are a few easy ways to get started. In this video, I’ll demonstrate them using the beautiful song “Georgie On My Mind.” I’ll also discuss many of the useful skills you develop working on chord melody.
Get The Melody Ready
Let’s start with a weird mistake. The name Chord Melody is completely wrong. It is not some chords with a melody—it is a melody with added chords to support it. That doesn’t matter too much, except that for all three methods, you want to start with the melody and then add the chords. The melody is the most important part.
When it comes to getting the melody ready, that is mostly about understanding the basic anatomy of the guitar in terms of chords. A very general guideline is that the 6 strings are split into 3 2-string groups where you have Bass on the lower strings, the basic chord tones on the middle set, and the melody on the top strings.
There are more options for how you do this, but find a way to play the melody on the high string set, B and E. Like this:
This is just practical, playing the melody on the top strings makes it easier to add chords under it. This result is not set in stone. Along the way, you might find it is easier to move the melody note to put a good-sounding chord under it, but that is also just you learning to be more flexible and have a better knowledge of the fretboard.
Now, you can use this way of playing the melody as a foundation to add chords. Let’s get to the first strategy.
#1 The Easy Solution
This is by far the most efficient way to create a chord melody, even if this melody will demonstrate two problems with it. If you have watched any of my videos on beginner jazz chords, then you know that the best place to start is with the 3-note shell-voicings. The shell voicings fit perfectly in the Guitar-anatomy you saw in the previous section, so there is a good chance this will work for the song. Since “Georgia On My Mind” is in F major, you have this set of diatonic chords with the root on the E string:
and another set of chords with the root on the A string:
This should already cover most of what you need, but there is one chord that is a bit strange, B/G, which is a triad inversion.
But there’s an easy solution there as well. Let’s look at the first 4 bars. The first chord is surprisingly tricky.
You can play the Fmaj7 under the A like this:
But then you need to let go of the A to play the next melody note, C. That is ok, it will work but there are more elegant ways to deal with this, I’ll return to it later, this is the first time going through the melody.
Eø A7 is easy like this, but you have to move the A to the 1st string.
And Dm7 that can be played here so that the A is easy to reach. The Dm7/C is just moving the bass note down and baring to get the high D.
The G/B is a first inversion triad. The bass line tells you that it would be nice to have the B here:
and then you can add in the other two chord tones, G and D on the middle string set and also have the melody
Bbm6 is also not that difficult like this:
And then you get to Am like this
The process is simple, and G/B was easy to understand. But what can you do about the first Fmaj7?
One trick that is VERY useful is to realize that you can play a major 6 chord whenever it says maj7, and in this case, that makes it a little easier to sustain the chord:
You can even add in the Fmaj7 later to have a bit of variation like this:
I could also have moved the melody and played the chord in the 13th fret.
This is where it becomes about what you find easier to play and what you think sounds better.
With this approach, you have a complete chord melody arrangement, and there are places where you can add small voice-leading tricks and passing chords like this Bb7 in bar 2:
Or this very simple fill under the melody moving from G/B to Bbm6:
There are many beautiful moves to discover! But you can also start in a different place, even simpler than the shell voicings!
#2 Bass Notes
Another way to start is by not adding a complete chord to the melody but just a bass note. For many Jazz Standards, this is a solid approach, and the song will sound full already with two notes. Scofield uses this fairly often, mixing it with the next strategy I cover in this video.
The first step is to just add bass notes. That could be this, and I am sure you can hear how clear a picture of the harmony you get:
Now, we can start adding more notes. Because you are starting with only two notes, you get some other ideas and different ways of playing the chords. The first and last bars are especially different here.
The Fmaj7 chord is now easy to play and still sounds great because the voicing doesn’t double the 3rd
It also sets us up to play a chromatic line down to Eø.
The G/B is also arpeggiated, a great way to keep the thing moving.
This is similar to how Joe Pass describes it when discussing the illusion in chord melody.
“A lot of people think that you’re playing like, bass notes. At the same time, you’re playing chords at the same time, you’re playing melody. And it’s not like that. It’s an illusion. You’re playing a bass note. Sometimes you’re playing a chord, sometimes you’re playing the melody. Most of the time”
It’s worth noticing how this approach makes some things easier, and others remain the same. Let me know which one of these strategies you prefer using. But we have another approach, and if you like moving voices and some of the finer voice-leading tricks, this might be exactly what you are looking for, and it has a bonus feature for solo guitar.
#3 Chord Tones
The first approach makes some things easy but others difficult. It is easy because it is more visual: You play the melody like this C
Then, you try to see how you can fit a Fmaj7 shell voicing under that where you think of it as one thing, more like a grip.
The problem is that playing both the shell voicing and the melody is often difficult. But you could also be more detailed about this and instead look at what notes you need to complete a rootless voicing of the chord. This requires you to be more familiar with both the chord tones and the fretboard, but it is also a great way to work on that while making chord melody arrangements. I am pretty sure I learned a lot doing that.
For the Fmaj7 under the C you get a few options:
You have the C, and then you place the 7th and the 3rd on the middle string set. You could also place the A on the B string, which would also work to have the A on the D and E on the B strings.
Of course, you could get many more variations than this and explore using an F6 instead of Fmaj7. There is no best option for this. It is more about how you see it fit with where the song is going and what ideas you get.
It is a great way to explore new ways of getting from one chord to the next. First, check out a completely rootless version. I’ll combine it with complete voicings afterward. Notice how much counter melody you can add now:
Most of this is about adding small-scale melodies inside the progression. The Fmaj7 gets a chromatic leading note to help us reach the Eø.
The Eø A7 has the 3rd and 7th on the G and B strings, allowing for the Bb, that is the b5 and b9 to be added to the sound,
And also a small melody going from Eø to A7.
There are no surprises on the Dm7, but the next bar again uses the melody as a chord tone to add a scale melody, with the Bb in the chord on Bbm6.
Of course, these three strategies become powerful when combined. You can make things move and add color. Check this out!
Applying these things to songs and exploring what you can do with the chords and the melody is so much fun. Check out this video for a great first song to start working with on Autumn Leaves. There is a complete arrangement and some beautiful embellishments and passing chords that you can add.
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