chord melodies

douglas englund · #1 November 13th, 2007

does anyone know of any chord Melodie songs, that are not to difficult. i like to play songs but just single string songs are getting boring. any help would be appreciated.

starsailor · #2 November 13th, 2007

I'm probably not a lot of help but I found this site which may be of interest to you Douglas, also check out the lessons here on the forum, hope you get on ok.

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__tsidewinder__ · #3 November 13th, 2007

I'd recommend you try out some of Kirks beginner lessons, and move on from there.

If you have only been playing single string songs, then it seems to me you aren't familiar with your basic chords yet.

You can start learning chords here: http://www.guitarforbeginners.com/openchords.html

And some simple chord melody lessons are here:

Silent Night - easy version
Yankee Doodle Dandy

and you can find others here:

http://www.guitarforbeginners.com/fo...style-lessons/

I hope that answers your question.

douglas englund · #4 November 13th, 2007

i know all the major and minor chords and most of the 7s (all open chords). i haven't found many easy songs with chords and some single notes.

allthumbs · #5 November 13th, 2007

You need to learn barre chords too so you can play chord fragments and add in other notes and runs with them.

__tsidewinder__ · #6 November 13th, 2007

i haven't found many easy songs with chords and some single notes.

how about "wish you were here" by pink floyd?

http://geetarjohnny.com/songs/wish-you-were-here.gif

I can't really think of any others... I'll tell you when they come to mind.

douglas englund · #7 November 13th, 2007

who said this was going to be easy?

Fretsource · #8 November 13th, 2007

Doug, if you can play single note melodies and you can play chords to a song, then you can combine both of them into a complete guitar arrangement.

Here's one way to do it:
You play the melody and strum each chord one time underneath the appropriate melody note. That means you strum the chord - not always every string, but only up to the string that contains the melody note. Then you continue playing the melody until it's time for the next chord and you strum that chord one time but as always the highest note of the chord will be the melody note.
If that doesn't make sense, here's an example - Auld Lang Syne with tab and a midi file. The melody is always at the top. The chords are just
A--- E--- A---- D---
A--- E--- D--- A ---
(each chord last 4 beats, i.e., one measure)

This example is for playing with a pick. If I had wanted to make it fingerstyle, I would keep the E & A chords to just 4 notes max (one for each finger). This is just a simple and imperfect arrangement but it gives you an idea of what can be done with this method. If you don't understand anything, please ask. This arrangement took 2 minutes to make but lining up the tab properly seemed to take forever.

-----------------------------------------0--2---2--0-----------------------------------
--------------2--0------0--2----------2-----3------2---2--2-----0----0-2---------------
-----2--2--2-----1---2--------2----2--------2------2--------2---1--2------2---------2--
---2-2-----------2------------2-------------0------2------------2---------0--4-4-2--2--
-----0-----------2------------0--------------------0------------2-------------------0--
-----------------0----------------------------------------------0----------------------

carol m · #9 November 13th, 2007

Ha ha Fretsource, I could almost smell the bagpipes....Och Aye

Where's the haggis, laddie?

douglas englund · #10 November 14th, 2007

fretsource that was an easy one but that is what i like. thanks again. are there any more out there?

tomg123 · #11 November 14th, 2007

Great example by fretsource, and is also the kind of thing i need to
do more often also

Fretsource · #12 November 14th, 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by carol m

Ha ha Fretsource, I could almost smell the bagpipes....Och Aye

Where's the haggis, laddie?

Haha Glad to transport you up north for a few seconds Carol

Douglas - there are plenty more where that came from - but my point is that you can make them yourself by using that method.

Start with the basics, - Simple tune, simple chords and put them together as I showed you, for a simple and easily played arrangement.
You can always guarantee to be able to play it because, as you made it, it's not going to contain anything you can't play (a huge bonus). You can gradually become more adventurous using passing notes, hammer ons, etc - anything you like in fact. You're the boss - it's a great feeling, as I know Kirk and others will agree.