Scales and Modes with Joshua Barnhart – Chord Melody

Hello everyone, welcome back from the holidays. Hope life is treating you well.

This month we’re going to wrap up our talk about chords and chord theory. This time we’re going to explore the construction of chords from the melody note; a great tool for learning to play solo arrangements of songs on your bass.

My favorite song to demonstrate this one is an arrangement of “Knives Out” by Radiohead. Now I personally play 6 strings, but my good friend Steve Rosati plays it on a 4 string just fine. So no complaining!

So here are the chords and melody we’re going to work with.

So our first actual chord is a C min 7. Our melody note is Eb, which happens to be the 3^rd of the chord. So below this third we have to place the root, C, 5^th, G, and b7^th, Bb. Your voicing’s here can vary to your imaginations desires. I personally under value the 5^th if the root is already going to be voiced, which is a popular view on the subject. So omitting the 5^th we’re left with the root and 7^th. I personally would voice the 7^th first one 4^th down from the minor 3^rd instead of voicing the root then trying to voice the 7^th. So now that the minor 7^th and minor 3^rd are voiced time for the root. I voice the root down from the b7th putting all the notes in one fret on 3 different strings.

The next chord is a Bb maj 6 chord. I’d also have a tendency to view this as a G min 7 chord also. G min 7 being a G Bb D and F. Bb maj 6 being Bb D F and G. So you can see why this two chords are so interchangeable. If we look at this as a G min 7 then the 5^th is in the melody. And if the 5^th is in the melody we need to voice the root, 3^rd, and min 7^th. Ok we’ve got that D, I find grabbing the G next the easiest, then the Bb to round out the chord type, which also sounds out the chord tones for the Bb using the 6^th and 3^rd of the chord.

The lone anticipation C I would just play as an individual note, and move on to the Ab maj 7.

The Ab maj 7 chord we’re going to build the same way we have in the past.

1: Identify the chord

2: Identify the melody note

3: Giving priority to the root, 3^rd then 7^th, fill in the chord tones not used.

Following those basic rules you should be able to tackle any chord melody you run into. I also suggest Todd Johnson and Jim Stinnett’s “Fishing for Grips” book and DVD.