How to Play Your Own Jazz Guitar Chord Melodies (this really works and it’s straight forward)

In the world of jazz guitar there’s one thing that we can all agree on: chord melodies are hard! But also, that they sound so freaking cool that it’s worth it.

A “chord melody” on the guitar is when a melody is played with nearly every note being harmonized by its own chord shape, resulting in a very rich sound.

Think of it like a barbershop quartet: there’s a melody singer, then three other voices filling out the sound, giving it that special texture.

The jazz guitarist, Wes Montgomery, was famous for improvising virtuosic chord melodies.

Chord melodies may be physically demanding, but the concept for how to figure out what chord shapes to play over what melody notes doesn’t have to be overwhelming.

In this video I introduce a simple system for how to construct your own chord melodies over two different types of jazz chords.