The Secret To Playing Chords And Melody On One Guitar - Pianists Do It And So Can You!

by Simon Candy

In this video, you learn the secret to playing the chords and melody of a song at the same time on guitar.

Often, this style of playing is perceived as being really difficult to do, however, this is not necessarily so. As is often the case, it comes down to how you go about playing and creating chord/melody arrangements on guitar.

In this lesson, you learn what I call chord/melody mechanics.

These are very effective chord/melody exercises and drills designed to build the technique required to play guitar this way. 

First, you learn several exercises built around the skill of holding chord shapes and playing melodies at the same time. After this, you will then actually play melodies and chords seamlessly together across chord vamps in the key of C.

Watch the video below to learn more:

Chord Melody Mechanics: Exercises And Drills

Consider the following C Major scale in the open position.

We will include all the notes that are in C Major in this position, beginning on the low E string and finishing on the G note 1st string/3rd fret:

Also, consider the following diatonic chords of C Major in the open position:

For chord/melody playing, that is playing both the chords and melody at the same time on one guitar, we need to be able to play both the notes and chords of C major at the same time.

Chord Melody Mechanics: Chords And Scale Together

The following has you combining the C major scale with the C Major chord:

The following has you combining the C major scale with the D minor chord:

The following has you combining the C major scale with the E minor chord:

The following has you combining the C major scale with the F Major chord:

The following has you combining the C major scale with the G Major chord:

The following has you combining the C major scale with the A minor chord:

Chord Melody Mechanics: Melody And Chords Together

Consider the following melody:

Here is this melody played with the C chord:

Here is the same melody played with the Am chord:

Here is the same melody played with the Em chord:

Here is another melody:

And here it is played with the C chord:

And with the G chord:

Chord Melody Mechanics: Vamps

Next, we can extend this idea over 2 chords.

• Chord/Melody Vamp 1

Here is a simple vamp in C major complete with melody:

• Chord/Melody Vamp 2

Here is another vamp in C major complete with melody:

Learn these 5 simple steps for creating your own chord melody pieces on guitar