Chord Melodies - How to play chords and melody together

Chord melodies are when we play chords and melody together. They're a great way to get a full sound on the guitar. Learn the 3 steps to supporting melodies with chord shapes.
➡ Get my FREE chord melody arrangement of Fly Me to the Moon (sheet music & TAB) ➡ bit.ly/2HdU0mV
Weekly Lesson #70
FULL PLAYLIST OF THIS SERIES: bit.ly/37Jenmg
LESSON CONTENT OUTLINE WITH TIMESTAMP LINKS:
0:00 - Let it Be chord melody example
0:15 - About this lesson and channel
0:39 - Definition of chord melodies
1:00 - Chord melody vs solo guitar
2:12 - The 3 steps to making chord melodies
4:45 - Making a chord melody in 3 steps on Happy Birthday
10:11 - Happy Birthday chord melody end result example
11:40 - Let it Be as a non-jazz chord melody example
12:17 - Making a chord melody in 3 steps on Blue Bossa
18:28 - Blue Bossa chord melody end result example
18:58 - Closing thoughts on chord melodies
LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS VIDEO AND RELATED LESSONS:
• The blog post version of this lesson: www.soundguitarlessons.com/bl...
• Full playlist of this series: bit.ly/37Jenmg
• Chord Melody lessons playlist: • TOPIC: Chord Melodies
• Improvising chord melodies: • How to Play Jazz Guita...
• Fly Me to the Moon Jazz Guitar Chord Melody: • Fly Me to the Moon Jaz...
• Fretboard Logic | 2 ESSENTIAL skills for fretboard mapping: • Fretboard Logic | 2 ES...
• Chord voicings guitar lesson - Unlimited Chord Options!: • Chord voicings guitar ...
• Chords Up the Neck of the Guitar: • Chords Up the Neck of ...
• Guitar chord inversions explained: • Inverted Guitar Chords...
• Quartal Harmony lesson: • Quartal Harmony - all ...
Help me help you by taking my Guitar Goals Evaluation (super short, two-question survey that takes less than one minute): bit.ly/3avyPt1
LESSON DESCRIPTION:
This week's lesson is a thorough introduction on how to arrange chord melodies on the guitar using a three step process. Chord melody is one of the coolest yet most elusive guitar techniques out there. To pull it off we have to harmonize nearly every note of a melody with a supporting chord shape. I've broken the process down into three steps, and it works on jazz, folk, or pop songs alike. I walk through those three steps using the Happy Birthday melody, and then again using the jazz standard Blue Bossa. Everything is written out with notation and TABS so you can follow along and try it for yourself. Once you can arrange chord melodies for yourself it will feel like a super power :) I hope you enjoy!
#chordmelodies #chordmelody #guitar #jazzguitar #guitarlesson
My website: www.soundguitarlessons.com/
I hope this chord melody guitar lesson helps to demystify what it takes to make chord melodies from scratch. Obviously knowing inversion shapes is a huge help in working out chord melodies on the fretboard, so I may be doing some videos in the future specifically on mapping out inversions all over the guitar. Let me know if there are any chord melodies that you’re working on after watching this video. :)
➡ Get my FREE chord melody arrangement of Fly Me to the Moon (sheet music & TAB) ➡ bit.ly/2HdU0mV
➡ Enjoying my free weekly guitar lessons and interested in giving back? You can support my channel and help keep it going by donating here: www.soundguitarlessons.com/do...
I hope you enjoyed this lesson and found it beneficial. Let me know what you thought in the comments. Thanks! :)
- Jared
ㅤ
________________________________________________________________________________________________
ㅤ

[@soundguitar]

➡ Get my FREE chord melody arrangement of Fly Me to the Moon (sheet music & TAB) ➡ bit.ly/2HdU0mV

[@jackiedixon5076]

Jared, you are no doubt the best teacher. Your demeanor and approach is like sitting down in front of "live" teacher is superb. I am learning so much. A tremendous amount of practicing. Just fell in love with the 🎸 in last few months. At 91, I am having a ball. Always did love guitar, but I have decided to start performing on stage at 100. At least that is my near goal. Thank you the bottom of my ❤️

[@claudiafrers8923]

Ditto everything you wrote Jackie. At 66, I finally have the time needed to devote myself to learning music theory. The difference it has made in my playing is noticible. Just bought my first electric guitar. At our age, it takes a lot of wrist, hand and arm warm ups and good judgement as what to practice as we can’t put inthe same hours in as when we were in our teens. If you read this, I would be curious to know how much you play. Best to you from a happy Jared subscriber.

[@jackiedixon5076]

@@claudiafrers8923 Hi Claudia, thank you for comments. I try to practice daily. Hours, depends on my schedule, but at least a couple hours. I try to go through a routine to cover fretboard exercises. I use a journal to keep up with the repetitions. Though at times it can seem boring but I know that in itself it will accumulate over time to build "muscle" memory. After the focused work, I tend to work on songs in the genre that I prefer. God bless. Hang in there, one day it will all come together

[@felixchen8295]

This chord harmony lesson is exactly what I have been looking for!

[@16pfrady]

His efficiency of motion is incredible

[@gryprrs1000]

Wow, you have explained chord melody so simply for me, I have tried for years to grasp the concept to. O avail. Thank you Jared👍🏽

[@pianoatthirty]

I'm so grateful for you channel. For anyone who aspires towards that Ted Greene style, your channel helps to fill in all the fundamental knowledge you rarely see so well explained. Thank you!

[@JordanEvansMusic]

This is a great tutorial! I’m a piano player but it’s still really informative video. I play guitar a little bit and stuff like this has always intimidated me. It’s much easier on piano because I can see all my notes and my fingers don’t get mixed up haha

[@soundguitar]

Agreed that visualizing this kind of thing is def easier on piano. It's pretty mysterious on guitar which is why I made this vid. Glad you found it helpful!!

[@fattyz1]

I’ve been waiting for this lesson and I want to keep doing more lessons just like this specifically about chords and playing melody and chords together. Are there more just like this . I feel like there is so much more to understand but I just want to do this .

[@nhchau]

After watching your video I can do my first ever simple chord melodies on guitar. Please make more videos on this subject, thanks a lot!

[@soundguitar]

That's great to hear! Thanks for the request! I'll make more videos on this topic for sure, cheers -Jared

[@nhchau]

@@soundguitar Shall I apply the same strategy if some melody notes are on strings 3 or 4? Thank you.

[@soundguitar]

@@nhchau You definitely can, though I find it never works as well. Instead I'd find that same melody on strings 1 and 2 and maybe sometimes it crosses over the 3. And if it doesn't fit there I change the key, but you should be able to find it on those strings without changing the key also

[@robertomighty4562]

Excellent lesson, excellent musical arranging, and non-threatening presentation. Bravo!

[@dzzy121]

Wow, that was an amazing lesson. I've struggled with how to go about creating chord melodies for many years. This was simple, to the point, and starting with a simple melody is a great way to learn the concepts. Thank you!

[@Claudio.forte.t]

I always wanted to learn how to do that. This tutorial is gold, it opened ne horizons for me. Thank you so much Jared!

[@F4m0uSHD]

Your lessons are the best I've ever seen on KZbin. Easy to follow, very instructive and with a lot of insight !

[@soundguitar]

Cheers, that's very kind, thank you and glad you like them!

[@gdavis34]

This guy is great! I can't believe only 25K subscribers. All the tutorials I've seen are excellent, Great job Jared, and thanks!

[@shuklajayant]

This is extraordinary. Looks simple but difficult. Thanks

[@dirkroesler]

So glad I discovered your channel. Thanks for sharing and great style of teaching

[@eriknorberg6154]

You are a pedagogic genius. It was the first time I felt it was easy to follow what someone teached. Thanks! ❤🙏

[@soundguitar]

Wow, thanks so much, Erik! :) Thanks for watching. Cheers ~~ Jared

[@reineralvarendrachannel907]

Thank yu so much. Very Crystal Clear , systematic, better than 95% out there Explanation. I will play this for my son's birthday.

[@soundguitar]

Awesome, thanks! Glad it was helpful :) -Jared

[@adamrivers4481]

This is so great. Please do more on chord melodies!

[@iemandar]

Wow! What a valuable lesson and tips! Thank you.

[@lukepower1418]

I love watching these videos even tho they’re above my level. Gets me excited to see what’s coming down the road

[@soundguitar]

Thanks for watching! I think you might also like the scale mapping series that's coming up next week :)

[@Kevinschart]

Have you made any progress down that road?

[@StuartwasDrinkell]

So glad i found you channel Jared! I'm always looking for new approaches

[@ByTheSpirit84]

thank you so much for this lesson my dude. you make this concept easy to understand and very practical to out into practice!

[@PoppaChris]

So helpful, thanks!

[@SomeforRisha]

You're amazing oh God

[@25dbz-ot9br]

Exactly as I teach it. Bravo.

[@arunverma6044]

This is gold ,thank you for sharing ❤️

[@soundguitar]

You are so welcome!

[@MrPeter924]

Great video great music song. Sounds great audio. Playing guitar 🎸.

[@caradogas]

Another great lesson, brilliantly presented. That's how such difficult subjects need to be explained for those who are starting on them.

[@soundguitar]

Thanks for the positive feedback! :)

[@mabblers]

Great lesson!

[@aureliobrighton1871]

Thankyou for this fine perspective from Munich. 🌻:)

[@stringbender57]

Very good lesson! Easy to understand and fun to apply right away. Just stumbled across your channel and these lessons are exactly what I am looking for. Now subbed. BTW, nice Tele!

[@charlezpontez1726]

Wow, bro! I just get it. Amazing explanation!

[@hson4434]

Very good ...lesson for life👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

[@soundguitar]

Glad you liked it. Thanks for watching! :)

[@trnhjk]

I'm enjoying these lessons!

[@soundguitar]

Thanks, Paul! Glad to hear that :)

[@brazilgriller6073]

What is determining factor whether to use 1st or 2nd string to find melody??? This video is AMAZING!!!!!??????

[@danobrien3601]

Good lesson thanks

[@SeaCryptWeave]

you're a real class act! thank you!

[@soundguitar]

You're very welcome!

[@RonRegan]

Thank you so much. A great explanation.

[@soundguitar]

Glad you liked it, thanks Ron! :)

[@renzverg119]

Thank you Jared. Now I know how its done. Also, Very good sounding guitar.

[@seanwholey6190]

Perfect timing on this lesson for me. I'm getting better at finding triad inversions but haven't ventured into 7th triads. The way you explain finding the flat 7th helped me to get over my fear. Thanks!

[@soundguitar]

Good to hear, thanks Sean!!

[@gwhitedaking]

Get yousician

[@whitestone951]

What a great lesson thanks

[@soundguitar]

Glad you liked it!

[@fd4553]

Nice video, I like your style of teaching

[@jerrygeist1677]

Thank you bro

[@vincej151]

Outstanding lesson! I find myself stuck in a rut and this is opening things up a bit. Clearly I need to know ALL the inversions! Reference my other post about going from basic to advanced lesson, one idea could be to take your Happy Birthday, and then show how to take that to the next level with substitutions and inversions. Great job!

[@soundguitar]

Excellent suggestions, thank you so much!

[@AndyDion]

Great video and lesson

[@soundguitar]

Thanks!

[@soniatiwari3579]

Thanks..this was the thing i was looking for..

[@soundguitar]

Yay, that's great to hear! :)

[@liontone]

Very nicely done!

[@soundguitar]

Thank you very much! :)

[@arindabrightarnold776]

I have just found you out bro...and you're so awesome, you are teaching what I need, and I wish you to have lots of subscribers coz you have all that aspiring guitarists want to know.

[@soundguitar]

Thanks for the kind words and support! I'm glad you're liking the channel and lessons. Cheers! -Jared

[@grkuntzmd]

Nice explanation. Thanks.

[@soundguitar]

You're welcome! Thank YOU

[@louishauger3057]

You re the best !

[@soundguitar]

YOU ARE

[@QBRX]

I'd love to see a few more tabbed examples of popular tunes.

[@dipakchoudhuri4629]

EXCELLENT TUTORIAL...

[@soundguitar]

Glad you liked it!

[@daluxolotunzi9049]

Beautiful Sir.

[@soundguitar]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@abgonzalez5459]

Man that was really great tutorial... I never seen it so clear... Thanks a lot

[@soundguitar]

My pleasure. Glad it helped! cheers, ~~ Jared

[@abgonzalez5459]

It did... After seen it I went to harmonize Hey Jude... It worked of course could get better altough I see advances here... Thanks

[@soundguitar]

Awesome song choice to do it with! nice :)

[@mahathirmoon5010]

Thanksss mateee

[@soundguitar]

Thank YOU

[@purchasingofficerwkpp685]

I wish i could even play the "CLUNKY" version 😂

[@jazzguitarneophyte-christo7988]

Great channel! Glad I found it! You have a new subscriber!

[@soundguitar]

Thanks so much and welcome aboard! :)

[@andrewm3934]

thank you

[@soundguitar]

Thank YOU :)

[@earlhaywood4372]

A demonstration is worth a thousand words . Taking up half of the tape .

[@thomasmartinscott]

Excellent Lesson! If I wasn't already subscribed I would subscribe again.

[@yuanrao5328]

😂this is amazing tutorial. The gate to chord melody guitar

[@Kaiyan-xo8sz]

great lesson, hope can show clear and bigger chord shapes on the side

[@Kevinschart]

Start working on your triads and intervals. it's ok to be spoon fed this stuff, but it's so much easier to learn from KZbin when you know your fretboard

[@rossmelanson6999]

Jared’s Da man 👨!!!!

[@tocu9808]

Very few clips talking about this topic. Many thanks 👍

[@soundguitar]

My pleasure! This is one of my favorite topics so I'll be doing more of it in the future too. I'm thinking of doing a series of videos just performing a chord melody arrangement then breaking down how it was arranged. Let me know if that sounds interesting. Cheers, -Jared

[@tocu9808]

@@soundguitar - Great. Thanks. BTW, just bought your complete course at ebooks4guitar.com

[@soundguitar]

@@tocu9808 hmmm, that's not my site. looks like you bought someone else's course. I hope you like it! :)

[@tocu9808]

@@soundguitar - Sorry for the mistake. But that site did bring me over to www.guitar-academy.com ☺

[@soundguitar]

@@tocu9808 no worries. My site is www.soundguitarlessons.com, I'm sure the course you got is awesome though. Cheers and happy practicing -Jared

[@nevinliu4302]

I really like the tone of your guitar. Could you please let me know what guitar amplifier you are using?

[@DarqueWud]

THANK YOU JARED! Woke up with a melody this morning and had to put it down. But question, what we are basically doing once we have our melody on the 1/2 strings is creating triads that the melody line stands out in? And if I know the note names but say a line in the melody is sharp the chord doesn’t necessarily have to be a sharp does it all long as the chord fits well?

[@eskwon3028]

Many thanks for your kind and detailed lesson! I have a question. While you are playing guitar, a yellow box is moving on your sheet music. Would you kindly let me know what software program can do it? Regards

[@kylew706]

If you ever check out the band called her’s (RIP), the guitar player is king at jangle melodies within jazzy chords.. been trying to learn how to play like him for a while.. not much out there on the topic I can find

[@soundguitar]

Cool! can you paste a link here? thanks!

[@l.a.covers8400]

@@soundguitar kzbin.info/www/bejne/bHiwl5mjbtmXbq8 Perfect example of Her's songs

[@OtRatsaphong]

Great lesson! Thank you for explaining the 3 steps to creating a chord melody. As a beginner guitar player, being able to play the chord melody to Happy Birthday would really improve ones guitar skills.

[@soundguitar]

It's a good one to have ready to go for sure! :)

[@osekresvibes]

Anywhere we find the chords used for the "let it be" tune?

[@mrtoast244]

Arranging and playing Jazz chord melodies is like bleach for my ears compared to what I used to play before learning this theory lol. Though I still need to learn all the inversions, but it's probably best to learn them on a case by case basis (when they pop up) rather than drilling them in. At least that's how I learnt the Shell Voicings and Extensions. I'll probably try and visualise the notes on the string for different variations of chords and just learn all the triad or 7 chord inversions (no 5's here B)) before learning the extensions, just so it's easier to apply a formula for extensions in a way that translates up the neck.

[@einnaoeilifu2648]

This basically what Johnny Marr does as a guitarist.

[@deltafour1212]

So you play the 5th interval note as the melody on the high strings and 1 and 3 on the lower strings to complete the Triad chord? I can find the melody which is easy to do but is there a way to figure out the chords of the song like you do figuring out the melody without having to use sheet music?

[@soundguitar]

Good question. No, you don't play the 5th interval always as the melody, the melody could be any of the chord tones or non-chord tones as well. Figure out which chord tone the melody is then fill the others in below it. As for figuring out the chords, that's very hard at first, the best thing to do is fine sheet music for it if you're not comfortable figuring the chords out by ear, which is something to work on long term for sure.

[@johngriffon2118]

So is a Pick Up note exactly what it sounds like? Just extra notes at the start of the song for you to "pick up" playing at?

[@soundguitar]

"Pick up notes" are notes that are before the first official measure of music

[@brandonayop5168]

Can you please teach me how to do a fingerstyle?I am really trying to learn it huhuhu

[@instinctualbeasts7494]

I'd love the tab for Let It Be at the beginning.

[@soundguitar]

I don't have tab for that unfortunately. Maybe I'll create it at some point and add it to the solo guitar arrangement pack. Thanks for the request!

[@laurenreinas6612]

@@soundguitar I would love that too! :)

[@Mrbanshi]

Can you make tutorial on how to harmonize melody like piano players do with left hand while right hande plays melody

[@soundguitar]

I'd love to, thanks for the request! Can you describe what you're looking to learn from a video like that in a little more detail? Do you want just the harmony part of the melody and harmony at the same time?

[@Mrbanshi]

@@soundguitar It's been 2-3 years since I have been playing fingerstyle. I have learned many songs some of them are hard but I can play them with some amount of practice. But I can't create my own arrangement so I have been working on making my own arrangement. I know my chords and triads in all positions. I want to create my own arrangement for any song. So suppose I choose a song it's on four chords and somehow I can figure out the lyrics melody now I have to move those melodies along with the chords lets say on one chord there is up to 7 to 8 melody going now what are the ways I can harmonize those each ongoing melodies or putting some arpeggios so that it sounds bright I hope you can get it what I mean. I have posted two links to a cover for reference

[@Mrbanshi]

@@soundguitar kzbin.info/www/bejne/qHOvm36Pgb6LpbM kzbin.info/www/bejne/fZvJeqqKhrKKj5Y if you hear this arrangement they sound brighter they add voicing on almost every melody or what do you call harmonize? I hope you are getting what I am trying to say I am trying to creating my own arrangements but I cannot fill or harmonize those ongoing melody so it will be a great help if you can give some ideas or concepts on these topics

[@rafaeldossantos689]

Menos um seguidor.

[@azmiarman]

What about melody played on open chord

[@azmiarman]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/oJaafKptbt-Eq7c

[@soundguitar]

good idea, thanks for the request :)

[@poison_corpse3140]

What happens if you only know the melody not the chords?

[@soundguitar]

Good question! We always need to figure out the chords first. There isn’t always one right answer for what chords go with a melody but you need something that works before starting the chord melody process.

[@poison_corpse3140]

@@soundguitar Thank you.

[@andytengsram7810]

I still don't know what he's saying, if there it was simple chords maybe i would have known but D7 G7 my brain💣

[@wifi-YT]

Is it just me, or does the G7 chord seem out of place? A regular G major chord sounds more like the original song, doesn’t it?

[@bjornkommedal9364]

I like the dominant seven flavor in the fifth measure but the very last chord that's also noted as "G7" must be a typo. Right, Jared?

[@zolbooenkhjargal2670]

i cant see chord shape you holding too small

[@zaldyabitria3249]

If you know the intervals of the 7th modes of the diatonic scale you know already the modes or chords either minor or major modes,,, in every chords /modes there are a certain intervals... Example 1)lydian=1-2-3-#4-5-6-7...you can get the melodies on the intervals of that lydian mode or chords.. Thank you.

[@BoyTsamba]

How can I block this novarise ad

[@soundguitar]

Don't know what ad that is, but sounds annoying!! If watching on a computer browser you can get an ad blocker for chrome

[@incognito8227]

Jared is that a fucking unicycle

[@soundguitar]

haha, YES! :) 🛞

[@incognito8227]

@@soundguitar no sacarsm, you are so fucking cool

[@SugarTouch]

Thanks for another great video !!! But why is this an issue in any way ? If chords are transposable along the fret it's so obvious that you're playing the melody and finding chords in nearest location to the melody (because you cannot transpose melody of course). Because melody is always in the same scale as harmony ( (almost...hello, jazz) , most of the notes would be _already_ included in chord by itself. Everyone who played "dust in the wind" intro knows exactly how it works. I mean... everybody play "dust in the wind" immediately after C chord discovery... right ? :) BTW walking bass works the same if you'll target bass line as a "melody" you have to play along with the chords. Please keep in mind I'm watching your WONDERFUL lessons in random order so might be this "part" is seamlessly embedded in a course and extends general knowledge. But seems like you've already taught us to draw the shapes and now teaching how to draw an outline around exact same shapes, because contour isn't fill and vice versa :) I feel the same about all "soloing over..." series. Any of your "mapping fretboard"" lesson immediately covers all "soloing over" or "finding chords" or "improvising techniques". It's all on the same fretboard you've mapped precisely. On your fingertips. Superpower of guitar :) If you're trying to provide magic formula for improvisation then with all notes from scale + all extensions + all reharmonisation sweets (upper structures, diminished chords, all voicing and inversions etc) - you'll have _all_ notes _available_ to you at all time. Literally. Every one of them will serve your intensions if you're brave enough :) It makes all "soloing over..." approach completely intuitive and based on experience. No formulae. You might harmonise any random sequence of notes and/or create melody needling any random sequence of chords to make it sound great in particular circumstances. Proved by Stravinsky and Schnitke :))) (and Metheny/Mays definitely). Ok, might be "soloing over" means another miracle pattern (astonishing tool! superpower #2 of guitar). It works. But chords along with melodies, rootless chords, block chords, inversed chords, voicing, extensions etc - It's all about the same. The same freedom (or randomness) of chords as freedom and randomness of melody. We might use music theory to classify existing compositions and find out why they are so pretty, but it's usually very weak in reverse. Music theory can't help to create music _until_ you already dealing with a harmony/melody issues you "hear" in your head but cannot project onto instrument. It means you already found these areas of music intuitively and _now_ you might classify them by theory. Theory as tool for synthesis instead of analysis - it's for gurus when intuition is not strong enough to support imagination. Like in quantum physics when intuition fails and we need a math to boost it! Anyway ! So many thought at once !! Thank you !!!! Please, more !!!

[@tragictheory]

I see a uni-cycle in the back and I can't pay attention...

[@soundguitar]

HAHAHA 🤣

[@alfredocovitto5949]

Troppe scritte non si vede niente👍👋

[@twokool4skool129]

This is insanely complicated. For your first basic example, you really had to use one that uses chords that jump all over the place and go all the way up to the 16th fret?

[@ottoludwiglv702]

Talk much?

[@juliansierra5995]

Uffff too much talk for a happy birthday,,, boring, sorry

[@leobarrios2532]

Too much talk

[@freshlumpia8202]

hi jared do you have a downloadable diagram for chord inversions😅? I’ll buy it thnks