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<h1>Chord Melody</h1>
<p>Chord melody is the art of playing melody and harmony simultaneously — no accompanist required. A chord melody arrangement carries the tune in the top voice while inner voices and bass provide the harmony. It's the solo guitar tradition: Joe Pass, Ted Greene, Lenny Breau, Johnny Smith. On piano it's the stride tradition extended into modern harmony. The goal is to sound like a complete group: melody, harmony, and bass — all from one instrument.</p>

<h2>The Core Principle</h2>
<p>The melody is always the highest note. Everything beneath it — the chord voicing — supports and colours that melody. The starting challenge is finding voicings where the melody note sits on top, which means working backwards from the melody note rather than forwards from the chord shape. Each melody note tells you where the top of the voicing must be; you build down from there.</p>
<pre>
Melody note = E (major 3rd of Cmaj7 chord)
Required: a Cmaj7 voicing with E on top

Options:
  E G B C  (3rd, 5th, 7th, root — close position, E on top)
  E G C B  (3rd, 5th, root, 7th — re-ordered)
  E C G B  (drop voicing variant)

Any voicing where E is the highest pitch works.
Avoid voicings where another note ends up higher than E.
</pre>

<h2>Building a Chord Melody Arrangement</h2>
<ol>
  <li>Get the melody solidly in your ear. Sing it. Know where every melody note falls in the bar.</li>
  <li>Identify the chord for each melody note (from the lead sheet or chord chart).</li>
  <li>Find a voicing of that chord with the melody note on top — work backwards from the melody.</li>
  <li>Add a bass note on the lowest available string.</li>
  <li>Fill in inner voices between bass and melody — 2 to 4 total notes is typical.</li>
  <li>Not every melody note needs a full chord. Let some notes ring; walk the bass between chord changes.</li>
</ol>

<h2>Common Voicing Strategies</h2>

<table>
  <thead><tr><th>Strategy</th><th>Description</th><th>Best for</th></tr></thead>
  <tbody>
    <tr><td>Drop 2</td><td>Take a 4-note close position chord and drop the 2nd-highest note down an octave</td><td>Spreads voicing into playable range; keeps melody on top</td></tr>
    <tr><td>Shell voicings</td><td>Root + 3rd (or 7th) + melody note only — 3 notes total</td><td>Fast-moving melodies; clarity over density</td></tr>
    <tr><td>Rootless voicings</td><td>Omit root; use 3rd, 7th, and extensions + melody on top</td><td>Ensemble context with bassist; richer colour</td></tr>
    <tr><td>Inversions</td><td>Put 3rd or 5th in bass (slash chord) instead of root</td><td>Smooth bass lines; melodies that aren't on the root</td></tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

<h2>Voice Leading</h2>
<p>Voice leading — how individual voices move from chord to chord — is what makes a chord melody arrangement sound musical rather than mechanical. The principle: each voice should move to the nearest available note in the next chord:</p>
<pre>
Moving from Dm7 to G7 (inner voices):
  Dm7: D  F  A  C   (root, 3rd, 5th, 7th)
  G7:  G  B  D  F   (root, 3rd, 5th, 7th)

Inner voice mapping:
  F → F   (common tone — stays on F, which is G7's minor 7th)
  A → B   (up a whole step — smooth)
  C → B   (down a half step — even smoother)

Bass: D → G  (down a fifth — standard root motion)
</pre>

<h2>Reharmonisation</h2>
<p>Chord melody gives enormous freedom to reharmonise — to substitute different chords under a melody as long as the melody note works over the new harmony. The only constraint: the melody note must be a chord tone or usable extension of the substitute chord:</p>
<pre>
Original: Cm7 in bar 1, melody note = E♭ (♭3 of C minor)

Substitutes where E♭ works:
  E♭maj7     (E♭ = root — major sound)
  A♭maj7     (E♭ = 5th — subdominant feel)
  Fm7        (E♭ = ♭7 — minor colour)
  D♭7        (E♭ = 9th — tritone sub dominant colour)
  G♭maj7     (E♭ = #11 / enharmonic D# — Lydian sound)

Each gives a completely different harmonic colour under the same melody note.
</pre>

<h2>Where to Start</h2>
<p>Start with tunes that have long sustained melody notes — "Misty," "Round Midnight," "Autumn Leaves," "Summertime." Sustained melody notes give you time to place full voicings. Fast bebop heads are much harder because the melody moves too fast to harmonise every note. Beginners should also consider starting with simple folk melodies before moving to jazz standards.</p>

<h2>Essential Listening</h2>

<table>
  <thead><tr><th>Artist</th><th>Recording</th><th>What to study</th></tr></thead>
  <tbody>
    <tr><td>Joe Pass</td><td><em>Virtuoso</em> (1973)</td><td>Walking bass under sustained melody; harmonic freedom</td></tr>
    <tr><td>Ted Greene</td><td>YouTube recordings</td><td>Inner voice movement; dense extended voicings</td></tr>
    <tr><td>Lenny Breau</td><td><em>Five O'Clock Bells</em></td><td>Impressionistic reharmonisation; harmonics with chord melody</td></tr>
    <tr><td>Johnny Smith</td><td><em>Moonlight in Vermont</em></td><td>Clean, lyrical melody on top; bebop-era vocabulary</td></tr>
    <tr><td>Bill Evans (piano)</td><td><em>Waltz for Debby</em></td><td>Melody as top voice; rootless left-hand voicings</td></tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

<h2>References</h2>
<ul>
  <li>Pass — <em>Joe Pass Guitar Style</em></li>
  <li>Greene — <em>Chord Chemistry</em></li>
  <li><a href="https://www.jazzguitar.be/blog/chord-melody/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">jazzguitar.be — Chord Melody ↗</a></li>
</ul>
