Hello. When adding melody lines to chords are there any general rules of thumb? I am trying to play Mr Tambourine Man combining elements of the melody to the chords which I am playing as G - A - D - G etc. I’m not asking for an entire melody line but ideas as to how, in general, a melody line might be woven into the chord structure. TIA
2 Likes
Hi Norman, what Justin shows in his song lesson is to lift or add fingers to the chord shape to create a little bit of melodic embellishments.
In Grade 3 you will find the Chord Shape Explorer lessons that will be useful for your purpose. Here’s the first one…
D Chord Shape Explorer | JustinGuitar.com https://share.google/EoqZ6By6YDL49dHDN
4 Likes
Thank you Silvia
1 Like
@normski133 Norman,
The 1st melody note on a chord change is usually a note from that chord’s triad I.e. the 1st, 3rd or 5th. If it is a 7th chord the melody note on the chord change will sometimes be the 7th.
I’m not one for making up stats on the spot, but my guess is that this is the case on 90pct plus of chord changes.
For those with good ears, the 3 triad notes are pitched far enough apart that you are probably going to get it right. For those who’s ears aren’t as good, this is a game of educated guesswork where the odds are heavily stacked in our favour. And to further stack the odds in our favour, even if it’s the wrong note, it will sound OK because it’s one of the chord tones.
IMO this knowledge is one of the musical superpowers - or at least it is for a pianist / keyboard player. On keyboard instruments it is the most important contributor to being able to play a song from just a chord sheet on 1st sight provided you have heard the song before (again in my IMO). Whether it’s as superpowery / useful for a guitar player (who could just play the chords in the correct rhythm) I don’t know - I’ll leave that for others to opine.
In a few cases this doesn’t work, and the melody note is probably one of the remaining notes from the parent major scale of the key centre. In my experience this doesn’t happen often, but is often enough that it’s worth knowing.
1 Like
Thank you Simon.
Hey @normski133. I found this useful…
1 Like