Chord Melody
A chord melody is a way of arranging a song so that a single guitar does all the work providing melody and harmony, and usually a bass part as well.
Not everybody sings and even those who do sometimes prefer to have their guitars do the singing for them. These chord melody lessons are for all levels, from demonstrating the technique simple terms to guiding you through crafting your own personal chord melody arrangements.
A chord melody is a way of arranging a song so that a single guitar does all the work providing melody and harmony, and usually a bass part as well.
Besides being a beautiful Christmas hymn, I Heard The Bells on Christmas Day is also a great exercise for working on finger dexterity while shifting chords.
Some Christmas carols are best described as lullabies. “El Noi de la Mare,” or “The Child of the Mother,” is one such traditional Catalonian Christmas song.
This chord melody version of Hark! The Herald Angels Sing might be slightly challenging for most beginners, but not completely beyond your capabilities.
For this lesson on “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” we show how using two notes of a chord can create a beautiful chord melody arrangement.
Here is another interesting and beautiful sounding chord melody arrangement. This time we are working with the old Christmas carol Away in a Manger.
This is our fingerstyle / chord melody take on I’ll Be Home for Christmas, a song from the 1940’s that’s been sung by almost everyone.
Creating chord melody arrangements can be addictive! And you can start out as easy or as complicated as you’d like. Brandon Carrasco takes us step by step through his first time out, turning this timeless lullaby into a wonderful single guitar piece.