Way To Play: Jazz Guitar: Chord Melody 1

Mark Tonelli and Philip Groeber

Fill a room with the lush chords of a beautiful chord melody! Here is a famous quote from Joe Pass, a famous jazz guitarist known for his chord melody skills, “Guitarists should be able to pick up the guitar and play music on it for an hour, without a rhythm section or anything!” Time to get busy!

The ability to play the chords and the melody of a song at the same time is one of the unique features of the guitar. In jazz guitar, it’s known as “chord melody.” Chord melody transforms the guitar into a one-man band: you play the melody, accompany, provide the bass line, and define the time.

The purpose of this book is twofold:
1. provide specific instruction on how to create your own chord melodies (pages 3-7)
2. show you the inner workings of chord melody through 13 jazz guitar songs in a variety of styles. (pages 8-29)

Not only are there 10 great tunes in this book arranged as very accessible chord melodies for the intermediate guitarist, the authors also carefully explain how to create your own arrangements, with “Seven Steps” to creating a chord melody. Learn how to take traditional chord changes, substitute jazz voicings, and then add the melody to create beautiful music.

Study the Glossary to further understanding the concepts and technicalities of performing the jazz guitar style.

Use the Free Downloadable Recordings to help you fine-tune your performance.

Above all, enjoy the music.