This is a huge topic of course, and just one article couldn’t possibly cover all the techniques and concepts of chord melody guitar. So, this post will cover the essentials to quickly get you up and running playing jazz guitar, chord melody style. Let’s get started!

So what is Chord Melody Guitar anyway?

Generally, chord melody guitar refers to playing jazz guitar with single line melodies or solos and combining or accompanying with chords. This is opposed to just single line soloing or melody playing, or on the flipside only comping in a band with chords. You actually combine the two at the same time, on one guitar.

Getting into the nitty gritty, the term ‘chord melody’ can actually refer to two similar, but nonetheless distinct styles of jazz guitar playing.

On one hand, chord melody can refer to a guitarist mixing chords and melody on a tune in a band setting, e.g a jazz trio of guitar, bass and drums. In this setting, you need to take care in what chord voicings you apply to the melody and your solos. If you play too many low notes on the 5th and 6th strings it can interfere with the bass player.

On the other hand, chord melody guitar playing can also refer to playing jazz tunes arranged or improvised on solo guitar. This is kind of like playing as a one man band: soloist, comping and bass all in one.

To avoid confusion, let’s refer to the setting in a trio or other lineup as a band chord melody, and playing chord melody on your own as jazz guitar solo chord melody.

Now, let’s work through the 5 steps for an awesome chord melody guitar arrangement. As it is a bit easier on the left hand, let’s start with a band chord melody. Then, I’m going to show you how to adapt this version just a little to make an effective jazz guitar solo chord melody.

Step 1: Pick a suitable tune and learn it inside and out

Although you can turn nearly any tune as a chord melody guitar arrangement, it is helpful to find a chart with a melody that isn’t too fast moving. Bebop tunes in straight eighth notes will be difficult (though not impossible) to arrange. For beginners, ballads or swing/broadway standards should do the trick.

Here is a list of tunes that work well as chord melody guitar arrangements for solo jazz guitar as well as in a band:

All the Things You Are

On Green Dolphin Street

Have You Met Miss Jones

Alone Together

Autumn Leaves

Don’t Get Around Much Anymore

Fly Me To the Moon

Georgia on My Mind

Just Friends

Moon River

My Funny Valentine

Night and Day

Even non-jazz tunes can work well by substituting standard chords for jazzier alternatives – e.g. check out this post by Matt Warnock on chord melody guitar arrangements of well known Christmas tunes.

For this post, I’ll be using a jazz tune called Rochelle I wrote recently for my darling wife (awwww). Here is the lead sheet to use as a starting point:

Audio Example:

https://www.fretdojo.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/chord-melody-guitar-audio-example-1.mp3

Now that we have found a suitable tune, it’s time to learn it just like you would learn any other jazz standard:

Learn the melody both on your guitar and singing

Try comping over the changes

Improvise over the changes

Memorize the melody and the chords

Also, listen to recordings and watch youtube videos of others playing the tune. This is a great way to get an ideas for your own arrangement.

Step 2: Transpose to an appropriate key if necessary

Changing the key may be necessary to suit the setting you are playing the arrangement in (i.e. as a solo or in a band), and also can give the arrangement a particular flavour. Some keys work better than others and it’s helpful to consider open strings in the chord voicings if possible as using them can give some great effects.

As I was playing around with this tune in the original key of Bb Major, I noticed that the melody is getting a little bit low in places:

This causes issues for a chord melody arrangement on guitar, as you may be unable to fit good sounding chord voicings underneath the melody. Voicings that low could start to sound muddy and will get in the way of the band’s bass player.

A way to solve this might be to take the melody up an octave, however in this case the tune will be too high on the guitar neck for it to sound good:

After transposing the lead sheet to F Major, it seems to sit in a much more suitable range for a chord melody guitar arrangement, so let’s work on the tune in this key:

Audio example:

https://www.fretdojo.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/chord-melody-guitar-audio-example-2.mp3

Sometimes transposing the tune can also give the arrangement a distinct sound or colour, so even if a tune already seems to sit well on the guitar it is still worthwhile playing around and experimenting with different keys.

Step 3: Learn the melody on the top 2 strings

Now that you have chosen the key for your arrangement, the next step is to learn the melody on the top 2 strings. This will give you an idea of what chord voicings to apply to the melody that we’ll cover in the next step.

Here is an example of how you could play Rochelle on mainly the top 2 strings. Note that it’s ok to occasionally go to the 3rd string for a passing melody note however make sure you don’t do this too often, as it will start to become difficult to find workable chord voicings.

Video Example: