Chord Melody Style Series 1

Description

In this lesson we'll start learning chord melody technique by playing a major 7th chord rooted on the A string. We'll use a few different voicings combined with a walking bass line that moves up and down the first 3 degrees of the major scale. This makes it possible to play a moving bass line along with higher register voices of chord inversions to suggest a melody.

Notice in the notationb we have two distinct, separate parts: a walking bass line & two higher pitched notes that complete the chord voicing on the G & B strings. Start by simply playing the bass line. Once you get a handle on it then slowly add the other notes on the G & B strings that complete the chord voicing.

The idea is that even though we are only playing one chord we give the music some motion by playing inversions of the chord & playing a walking bass line along with the chord voicings.