Chord Melody Enrichment

Earlier, I briefly mentioned that I'm doing some chord-melody with one of my students who is more advanced. He's in band, reads well and knows some chords. He's far enough ahead that he can sight-read what I've got planned for everyone else for at least 2 months.

So, what do you do? Well, one thing I'm doing with him is having him play the same pieces chord-melody style. If you're unfamiliar with the term, it's where you play the chords under the melody, making the melody note the highest note of the chord.

The guidelines I've given him are:

1. Strum the chord with the melody note being the highest note of the chord. For now, it's just once per measure.

2. Don't pick any note higher than the melody note.

3. Use the fourth finger to play the notes D and G on the first and second strings.

I don't usually write them out but here's a notated example:















Of course, you don't actually play the chords as quarter notes. I just notated it incorrectly. You hold the chord tones as long as you can or at least until the next chord if possible.

You eliminate unwanted chord tones and change fingering to have the melody 'on top' like so: