Mistakes To Avoid When Playing The Melody And Chords Of A Song On One Guitar - Part 2

by Simon Candy Musician And Guitar Instructor

Chord/melody is when you play the chords and melody to a song at the same time, on one guitar. As great and impressive as this style of playing can sound, it can also be one of the more challenging ways to play a guitar.

However, this is more due to guitarist’s not knowing how to approach arranging and playing chord/melody pieces on guitar, or having any real strategy in place to do so.

In part 1 of this article I covered 3 critical mistakes made when trying to play chords and melody at the same time, on one guitar.

These mistakes included failing to really know the melody and the chords of the song you are wishing to create the chord/melody arrangement from. Sounds kind of obvious that you would want know these, but many players don’t, not well enough at least anyway.

We also looked at trying to cover everything, at all times throughout the tune, the bass, chords, melody etc, and how this is not what you want to be doing. I referred to this as the “can’t see the forest for the trees” syndrome.

Finally, we discovered a lacking chord vocabulary was an issue and made playing and creating chord/melody arrangements on guitar much harder to do, severely limiting your options.

Be sure to check out part 1 of this article first so you can learn all the details of the first 3 mistakes, and what you can do to stop making them, or avoid them altogether.

Having done that, let’s now continue by looking at mistakes 4 through to 7 that guitar players make when trying to play the chords and melody on one guitar, at the same time.

4. Not Considering What The Best Key Would Be For Your Chord/Melody Arrangement

If you go with whatever key for your chord/melody piece, without considering and testing what might be the best key, you will most likely end up with a problematic arrangement.

Choosing a key because it is familiar to you, is not a good enough reason to go with it. There is always going to be a select group of keys that will work better for your arrangement than others.

For example, the melody of your arrangement needs to fall on the top 2 to 3 strings of your guitar. This is so you have room to include the bass and harmony parts on the lower strings.

You need to be sure that the key you choose, will allow the melody to fall on these higher strings for the position that you intend to play/create the piece on your guitar.

Another thing to consider is that if you are using open chords in your arrangement, which you often will, different keys will throw up different open chord shapes. Different open chord shapes will, in turn, throw up different possibilities regarding extensions and embellishments.

These are all things to consider when choosing the key to create your arrangement in.

Do The Following To Avoid This Mistake:

• Investing just a little time into working out the best key for your arrangement, will save you a lot of unnecessary frustration and wasted time.

• Make sure the melody of your piece, for the key you choose to arrange it in, falls on the top 2 to 3 strings of your guitar.

Find the lowest and highest note of the melody of the piece you are arranging, and see if this is the case. If there is a note or two on the 4th string, that’s ok, but the vast majority of the melody needs to fall on the higher strings.

• Check what open chords are available from the key you choose, and make sure these are compatible with what you want to be able to do with your arrangement.

Does another key throw up more suitable/comfortable chords for you to use compared to another?

5. Being Very Limited In How You Can Express The Melody

You may have the chords and melody working together on a mechanical level, however with such a focus on getting to this point, the melody can otherwise be overlooked, sounding lifeless and much like an afterthought as a result.

You need to have a variety of ways to express the melody in your arrangements. It’s not enough just to have it technically in place.

Imagine a singer, singing the melody of a tune technically correct but with no feeling. This is the same thing I am talking about here, only with your guitar.

To be clear, the first step is to get the chords and melody working on a mechanical level, however this is not the end. Next you need to decide how you want to express the melody.

Do The Following To Avoid This Mistake:

• To get more of a syncopated melody, try adding an alternate bass/travis picking element to your arrangement. This will not only get your melody singing, but will also bring a very cool, forward momentum groove to your chord/melody piece (think Chet Atkins, Tommy Emmanuel). Discover the guitar technique of the great Chet Atkins to bring this awesome fingerpicking style to your playing.

• Harp harmonics will bring a very unique sound to your chord/melody arrangements to say the least. Even better, you can arrange your melody using harp harmonics and totally blow away all who hear you play!

You can get started with the harp harmonic technique for guitar right now. If you don’t know what these are, check them out, you won’t be disappointed!

• In addition to harp harmonics, the droning of open strings in your melody and solo lines is also a very unique sound well worth exploring. I love this sound and have used it in my own guitar playing extensively.

• Instead of playing the chords and melody at the exact same time, try playing the melody and punctuating the space in-between with chords. This is a great way to allow more space for expressing your melody with things like bends and legato etc.

• Finally, you can always vary your melody. You may do this by changing the value of some notes in the melody (ie. time spent on the note), or you may add a note or two to decorate the melody. Be careful here though as you don’t want to stray too far from the original melody. It still needs to be very much recognisable within your arrangement.

6. Not Taking The Time To Learn Other Guitar Players Chord/Melody Arrangements

One of the very best things you can do to generate ideas and approaches within your own chord/melody arrangements, is to see what others have done before you. Not only this, but it will also serve as a huge source of inspiration, especially during times when you may be feeling a little down and discouraged with your own guitar playing.

Would you believe some people purposely avoid doing this because they think they will kill their own creativity!

I know, ridiculous but true.

Every great guitarist you hear play, whatever style, has been heavily influenced by other players. Not only is learning other chord/melody arrangements a lot of fun, you will also gain great insights on how to go about doing this yourself.

And no, you most certainly won’t kill your own creativity and originality. In fact, you will enhance it :)

Do The Following To Avoid This Mistake:

• Regularly learn and analyse the chord/melody arrangements of other guitar players. Look at a variety of guitarist’s, and other musicians for that matter, so you can gain all sorts of different approaches and techniques. Take the ones you like and inject them into your own arrangements.

7. Trying To Do Everything At Once, Rather Than Breaking Things Down And Starting At The Beginning

When you see the music to a chord/melody arrangement of a song for guitar, it can look very complicated. If you try to work your way through the song from bar 1 until the end, you will fail every time, unless you have a lot of experience playing this style.

However, this is how many approach trying to play chord/melody arrangements. No wonder it is perceived to be a very difficult way to play guitar.

You must break an arrangement down. This is what I refer to as starting at the beginning. It is not just simply starting at bar 1, but more knowing how to break a chord/melody piece down into small pieces to then digest.

Do The Following To Avoid This Mistake:

• Learn the layers of a chord/melody arrangement by knowing the role of each and every note in a piece. Is the note part of the bass, the harmony, or the melody?

I’ll show you exactly how to do this by creating your own instrumental arrangements of songs on your acoustic guitar.

Really take the time to internalise the mistakes I have revealed to you over the course of these 2 articles, and take the action steps I have laid out for you.

By doing so, not only will you avoid unnecessary and painful frustration, but you will also find creating your own chord/melody arrangements of songs much easier to do, and a lot of fun!

Discover how to play all the parts of a song, including the chords and melody, on one guitar

About the author: Living in Melbourne, Australia and in regular high demand, Simon Candy has over 20 years of teaching experience. He runs both his own guitar school, teaching a number of styles including rock, blues, jazz, and fingerpicking, and offers online acoustic guitar lessons