Chord Melody Guitar 1
Master the art of solo guitar improvisation. Learn how to control melody lines, chords and bass notes simultaneously in your music so that you can play totally unaccompanied solo guitar and create a complete musical experience for your listeners.
Master the Art of Solo Guitar Improvisation!
Imagine being able to pick up your guitar and improvise an entire performance by yourself, taking your listeners on a musical journey through beautiful harmonic environments and chord progressions, and telling musical stories through your improvising.
Think about how great it would feel to perform in this way for others. As guitarists we are always being asked to “just play something” off the top of our heads. Imagine if you could feel totally at home in this setting, and truly look forward to sharing your unique musical style with your listeners.
If you could control both melody and chords together in your improvising, you could create this beautiful experience for your listeners without needing backing tracks or other musicians.
I played chord melody guitar professionally for many years as both a soloist and in duo format accompanying singers. It’s one of the most beautiful and fascinating ways to play the guitar, and I’m very excited to help you discover this world for yourself.
But there is a whole new methodology that we need to learn if we want to play totally unaccompanied solo guitar. I will show you how to master this ability in a way that is simple, enjoyable and very creative right from the start.
This course will teach you:
- How to weave chords and melodies together with the same freedom that piano players enjoy
- How to combine bass, chords and melody so you can play totally unaccompanied solo guitar
- How to improvise with complete freedom in chord melody style
- How to practice chord melody playing in a way that is free and creative right from the start
- How to create beautiful accompaniment patterns using your new chord melody skills
- How to use chord melody as a complete system for composing your own music
- How to keep growing even after this course, adding new chord progressions to your chord melody repertoire
No complicated acrobatics
I will teach you a complete method that allows you to improvise with melody, chords and bass in a way that is relaxed and natural right from the start. Chord melody playing should never feel like trying to juggle multiple parts simultaneously. Chord melody just means being able to add chord notes and bass notes to your melodies whenever YOU want to, without any pressure or difficulty at all. And through the step-by-step method that I’m going to teach you in my video course, you’ll learn to improvise with melody, chords and bass in a way that is easy and relaxed, and that gives you complete creative freedom to take the music wherever you want to.
Unlock the full potential of the guitar
- Do you wish you could play totally unaccompanied solo guitar and really play something beautiful for your listeners?
- Would you love to improvise both melody and chords together like jazz piano players do?
- When you see guitarists adding chords effortlessly to their improvised solos, do you wish you could do the same?
- Would you love to create your own arrangements of your favorite songs for solo guitar?
"This course could change your whole way of thinking about harmony on guitar. It is an exploration of basic harmony through a functional exploration of the sounds, with improvisation at the core. The pace of the course is slow enough for beginners but if you are a more advanced player this course is open to your creativity. Thanks, David!"
– review by Jean-Marc Sabourin — Montreal, Canada
18 video lessons - Work at your own pace
This course is divided into 18 video lessons. Each lesson will teach you the next level of our chord melody practice. You’ll start by learning to control the bass note while you are improvising melodically, and later we will add chords to this framework. By the end of the course you’ll be improvising in full chord melody style over the four most important chords in popular music.
With these chords you can already play hundreds of songs in full chord melody style. But more importantly you will learn the process for adding new chords on your own. So by the end of this course, you will be able to learn any new song or chord progression and add it to your chord melody repertoire. The practice itself is relaxing, fun and totally creative, and you’ll be improvising your own music right from the very first day.
Learn from a professional musician and experienced teacher
Learn from a professional musician and experienced teacher
David Reed is the author of “Improvise for Real” and the creator of the IFR method. He is a professional guitarist based in New York City, and he has personally taught hundreds of IFR students in private lessons and workshops. He teaches a revolutionary approach to the fretboard that enables guitarists to more easily combine notes into melodies, scales and chord voicings, allowing them to develop a true mastery of harmony and express their own musical ideas anywhere on the fretboard.
What students say about this course
What students say about this course
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