Playing melody with chords?

SquireJapan

So, I've no idea where to start (so it might be a simple one ...)

If I want to do something where I "play a melody with chords", where do I start? I don't even know what to call it to find some useful google results.

I'd like to start doing covers of songs, but with just me playing and singing. Just strumming along with it is a bit boring ...

If I've figured out the chords and melody, that's all nice ... and while I can just hold a chord and pick out the melody on top, that also seems a bit boring. 

How do I do that in a "posh" way, so that the chords are changing underneath? Is that with different voicings? How do I learn that? I don't know where to start ...

mart

If it's just your voice and the guitar, then I would avoid picking out the melody on the guitar, as that's just providing a unison harmony with your voice. It can be made to sound good (Martin Carthy seems to pull it off) but would be a challenge.

I'd be tempted to keep it simple while you're singing, eg just strumming, and then fill in melody bits on the guitar in between, between verses or at the end of each line of vocal, etc.

Choosing fancier chords just means learning lots of different ways of playing different chords, up and down the neck, and choosing ones that feature the melody note you want, and finding a way to play that chord and emphasise that note within it.

You're basically looking to arrange a piece for guitar, so a search on "arranging" and "guitar" should turn up some useful tips.

SquireJapan

Thanks - that's already found me some good resources.

Annoyingly I just found that searching for the thread title "melody with chords". Gets me useful results ...

I've been listening to 80s pop music that's quite heavy on synths etc, along with guitar - so wanted a way to emulate what the theme the synth is playing over the strings/guitar.

It should be an interesting exercise if nothing else

sev112

http://mattwarnockguitar.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b0c6e8c721ba025095597d6b0&id=43d61072e9&e=89f16d5163 Find this free on t'web and found it really simple and good

Gassage

@squirejapan

Re the overall concept of playing chordal melody, can I ask you to listen to this?

I have posted it before- the sublime Adrian Belew playing all those parts. They are amazing- I would kill to play this like he does

BigLicks67

Get the Martin Taylor Guitar Method - it tells you exactly how to do this.

frankus

I'm a big fan of Ted Greene's chord melody stuff ... he was amazing

I seem to recall Danny Gatton saying at one time - play the lead note, play the bass note and pick two notes in between - if you're not improvising that might be a good thing to do for a known song in a known key - think of the two middle notes as your chord and you might find you like different chords to those suggested.

Chalky

Start with songs where all the chords are diatonic to the key - folk songs, hymns, carols and nursery rhymes are all good, and you'll know the melody well. Try transposing them to D major as this key tends to keep the melody notes in the easier lower half of the high E string. Learn to play chords pianistically where your thumb plays the E or A string with each of the other strings assigned to each of your 4 fingers. Learn to play block parts where you pluck all strings at once, then learn to roll or ripple the notes slightly so each note is separated like in a slow strum. Finally learn to play the bass notes independently to the melody and arpeggiate the notes in between.