Writing chord melody

padlin

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Does anyone know of a book or website that teaches one to write chord melody? A song book like The Daily Ukulele has the melody in musical notation and the chords marked, would like to be able to learn to convert them to chord melody. I've tried playing the called for chords at the correct time while playing the melody notes, sometimes it works, sometimes doesn't.
 
Great resources. I don't sing worth a darn, so chord melodies have become my best friends.
 
I also think there is value in finding chord melody arrangements, which can really differ in quality, and playing those songs. It’s a short jump from chord melody to actual finger style. I continue to be troubled by the lack of material between chord melody (let’s call that level 2 and 3) to full fingerstyle (leaves 4, 5, and 6). Things seem to quickly jump to an almost unplayable level for most players (look at the arrangements of Jake’s Bohemian Rhapsody or many of the arrangements on the The Ukulele Site).

Anyway, playing the chord melodies from others helps you learn what chords they are using (even if you don’t understand music theory) and what keys they are using so that you can start writing your own arrangements. I find myself often using someone else’s arrangement and then improving it (at least in my mind) by adding things or correcting what I think are errors. I do have a PhD in music, so I’m probably right a good percentage of the time. :)

I continue to work on the play along video indexes (see my blog if you want to know more), but a future task will be my scoring chord melodies and fingerstyle on a difficulty index. I still need to work out the particulars. As an educator, you want to aspire to Level 6 material, but you don’t start there. One of the problems with the ukulele is that it IS easy to start playing, and Jake (and Corey, and Brittany, and Taimane, and...) make it look easy to play. There’s a let down when you realize that you aren’t playing “When My Guitar Gently Weeps” in your first year of playing (or longer).
 
James Hill's "ukulele way" is super place to learn chord melody construction. Small monthly fee (<$10) gives you access to Mr. Hill's excellent videos and corresponding written text, standard notation and tab. He is not just a great player, but also a great educator. There is an excellent flow to how the lessons are laid out and you really get a good understanding of how different types of chord melodies are formed. I believe there were some sample free lessons.
 
This is really cool. SO far, I can play two tunes in chord melody, but I didn't create them. Still, they are a lot of fun.
Chord melody seems the ultimate in finger picking, to me.
 
Seems to me one’s gotta learn (and remember) an awful lot of chords—certainly not my forte. The videos were great though.

I guess I’ll hafta just stick with straight fingerpicking with a few chords—ahhh, well . . . :eek:ld:
 
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