Jazz Chord Melody Hacks for Guitarists

Play Better on Jazz Standards and Save Time

As guitar players, one thing we have over other non-harmonic instruments is that we can do things like play chord melody.

This is really a skill that any jazz guitarist or aspiring jazz guitarist should constantly be developing.

In this quick intro video, I will discuss one of my favorite methods for mastering chord melody style playing on jazz standards. The "hack" itself is pretty straight-forward: learn and master pre-written chord melody arrangements on standards.

In this video, I share how I came to this realization, both in my personal playing and through teaching hundreds of guitar students.

The Hack: 80/20

The "hack" in question here is simple: I recommend you use Galbraith's book called "Guitar Solos."

You can access it here.

And if you follow us on YouTube, you know about my series on his comping studies. 

Can you tell I'm a Galbraith nut?

Conclusion

This is a really good way of developing your own language for chord melody playing and even comping and single-note phrasing.

Of course, this doesn't mean you will be playing pre-written arrangements verbatim. It just means that you have more tricks in your bag that you can access at any given time to create really interesting arrangements. Enjoy!