Jazzers: I need recommendations

[KRZ4TELE]

I am getting into solo chord-melody stuff for solo gigs at restaurants/coffee house etc.
Any recommendations for good records/tab books/instructional cds to cop some tunes?
Most of what I run across has all the piano,horns,bass in the mix.
Any help is appreciated!

[Disastercaster]

This is your man.

[jazztele]

good call disastercaster.

chord chemistry is a must.

the barry galbraith books on this topic are good too...

best thing you can do for yourself is make one up. take an easy standard, and play the chords to the song, keeping the melody on top. this of course is an extreme oversimplification, but this is one of those cases where learning by doing will teach you SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much. it'll teach you fretboard knowledge, chord inversions, and a lot of other stuff crucial to this style...

and for your perusal, the first few bars of "misty" from my arrangement...


-6----------------8--8--8--8--6---3-----------
-7--8-------------6--------9--5---2---4-------
-7--7---7----5-6--6--------9--6---3---3--5----
-6--6---5--8------6--------8--5---2---3--5----
--------6------------------------------3-------
----6-------------------------------------4----

[Jeffscreamedcorn]

Transcribe some Joe Pass solos, or go back to Eddie Lang or Carl Cress....

[klasaine]

There's a lot of jazz guitar in general here, probably plenty of CM's if you dig ...

http://www.angelfire.com/fl4/moneych...criptions.html

[Chris S.]

+1 to all the suggestion above. And the Internet being what it is, there's even a site called (surprise!... ) "Chord Melody dot com:" http://chordmelody.com/

Hope it helps, CS :-)

[KRZ4TELE]

Thank-you for all the help guys!!!
I have learned some Johnny A tunes and hopefully that will be a springboard into more of this chord melody material you have suggested.

[maestrovert]

Guitar Player Magazine's website has a streaming video clips thing, and Thom Bresh (son of Merle Travis) is featured in some of 'em.....he shares a couple of technique things you're likely to be interested in.....
http://www.guitarplayertv.com/
Jes' click on "Artist Features" (under "channels" on the lefthand side) and scroll down aways.....check out the clips Gambling Man, Rolls & Atkins Diet....


here's a couple more sites too:
http://www.jazzguitar.be/

http://www.playjazzguitar.com/forum/index.php

[Jake Blues]

No chord melody jazz guy should be without Barry Galbraith Guitar Solos written in standard notation and TAB with performance CD included.

Most songs are intermediate level a couple are advanced but you can play these for anyone, anywhere and you will not disappoint. Really teaches the principle of bass, rhythm, lead, all working together to a achieve a very complex arrangement of the most popular jazz standards.

Available from Mel Bay. Vol 1 and Vol 2