Although I talked earlier about the necessity of playing the melody on the treble strings, you can come up with some interesting variations by keeping the melody in the lower octave. Bars 9–12 illustrate one way to deal with a low-voiced melody by omitting some chord tones.

Motion

Another important consideration to take into account is the motion of the chord voices. If the melody stops, you’ll probably want to create some movement in another voice; otherwise the music will seem to halt abruptly. For example, you can add a bass line (bar 8), create a counter line (bars 4, 12, 20, and 28), or arpeggiate the chord tones voiced below the melody (the second half of bar 24).

There are four types of musical motion: oblique, where something stays the same and something else moves; parallel, where two or more parts the same interval apart move uniformly in the same direction; similar, where two or more parts spaced at different intervals move in the same direction; and contrary, where parts move in opposite directions. Measure 6 is an example of oblique motion. Notice that the Eb note in the bass stays the same while the rest of the voices move upward. The Amaj7 chord at the end of measure 2 uses parallel motion to reach the Bbmaj7 at the beginning of measure 3. The first half of measure 2 is an example of similar motion: the top three voices move downward together at different intervals. And measure 30 uses contrary motion: the bass moves down while the upper three voices move up. Of course, you can always combine two or more types of motion within a phrase.

Melodic Anticipation

Rhythm is another way to create interest in an arrangement. One way rhythm can be related to harmony is through melodic anticipation, which, as the name implies, happens when a melody note sounds before the chord that harmonizes it. Look at the ends of bars 3, 6, and 7 for examples. There’s also quite a bit of melodic anticipation throughout the B section. The chord-melody style uses four different types of melodic anticipation. In the first, only the melody anticipates, while the chord and bass change at the usual time (the end of measure 3 into measure 4). In the second, both the melody and chord anticipate, and the bass line holds firm (the end of measure 7 into measure 8). In the third, the melody and bass anticipate, while the chord answers on the beat (leading into the second half of measure 24). And finally, everything anticipates (the end of measure 16 into measure 17).

So there you have it. All the techniques you’ll need to start playing chord melody—style solo jazz guitar. I recommend trying these out on some jazz standards or tunes you already know. As Andrés Segovia said, "The guitar is a miniature orchestra." Artfully employing these techniques to maintain a balance between continuity and contrast eloquently demonstrates his point.

Sho' Nuf Liz