Jazz Guitar Lessons • God Bless The Child Chord Melody

For more chord melody arrangements see:

• Misty
• Moon River
• When Sunny Gets Blue
• Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams

This is one of the hardest songs I have ever attempted to arrange. Recording the transcription was no walk in the park either. I voiced the melody in a lower octave for the majority of the tune, in order to blend in with the chords, many of which are open shapes. In measure twelve, I took the melody up an octave and voiced it on top of more traditional jazz chords. This change only lasts for four bars. This arrangement is more of a folk-jazz cover. Fingerpicking is essential to the sound, although it could be played with 'hybrid picking' (a combination of pick and fingers). Once again, this is played in free time. The two bar turnaround (beginning at measure ten) involves quite a big stretch for the D11 chord. The bridge (beginning at measure twenty two), employing the minor, minor/Major7th, minor 7th, minor 6th, is a very common progression found in many songs from all genres. Tunes that come to mind: Summer Rain (Johnny Rivers), Something (The Beatles), and Into The Great Wide Open (Tom Petty). The GMaj9 (actually a GMaj6/9; for some reason the program would not let me name this chord correctly) at the end has a very pleasant resolution sound. Try playing this at the tenth fret. Voice the G on the tenth fret, fifth string as the lowest note. This chord has the same intervals and achieves the same sound. When approaching learning and memorizing any song or solo, try to break it down into smaller phrases. Make sure the phrases make sense, that is, they have a beginning and an end. I have found this to be much easier than bar to bar.