I’m a musician, writer, and comic artist. Welcome to my website.
All tagged Chord Melody
Way back in July of 2104 I started working on a chord melody arrangement of the jazz standard A Day In The Life Of A Fool. The title was prophetic. It was a major challenge. I did eventually work out an arrangement I thought sounded good. And I began practicing it. It took a long time to memorize and even longer to be able to play it well. Then I tried to make a video of myself playing it. Ha!
I have completed the first part of creating a chord melody arrangement. For me that involves the actual arranging of the music. I use Sibelius notation software to notate the arrangement. I used to use paper and pencil, but I have gotten fast enough at Sibelius, and notating rhythm accurately, that it makes no sense to do it twice. I can make edits easier in Sibelius than on paper. And I burn through less erasers that way.
I have just returned to my long neglected attempts at arranging jazz chord melodies for guitar. This time I chose the standard “A Day In The Life Of A Fool.” I wasn’t sure I would be able to come up with anything interesting for this song but it seems to be going pretty well. Amazing guitarists like George Benson, Johnny Smith, and Ted Greene could crank these things out in a heartbeat and throw in mind-blowing technique and runs, but for me they are a lot of work. I love doing them, but it doesn’t come easy. Which is why I tend to keep my arrangements fairly simple.
