# Octaves, Zouks, Citterns, Tenors and Electrics > Tenor Guitars >  Chord-Melody on Tenor Guitar

## crisscross

I kind of admire Eddie Davis and his way of playing chord melody style on the tenor banjo but also on the electric tenor guitar.


Or this guy 



Not to forget David Cavage



In order to play a bit in this style, I ordered the book "Riveboat Banjo" by Mel Bay.
http://www.melbay.com/Products/93312...rum-banjo.aspx

It has 20 tunes, mostly Dixieland, some Folk tunes arranged in chord melody style for plectrum and tenor banjo.
The tenor banjo arrangements also work on tenor guitar.
Such as "My Gal Sal"  https://soundcloud.com/tele1310/38-mygalsag
Or "Wait till thes Sun shines Nelly"  https://soundcloud.com/tele1310/wait...n-shines-nelly

To learn how to come up my own arrangements, I bought Mel Bay's "Tenor Banjo Chord Melody System"  . 
http://www.melbay.com/Products/93629...ystem.aspxwith 

I'm still at the very start, where a simple melody is filled out with the I, IV and V7 chords of a scale but to me it's fun to be able to harmonize a simple melody.
I still got to learn to change those closed chord shapes up the neck more fluently but it's nice to at last know how to play them.

If you want to know about the toils I committed myself on my own free will you can listen here: https://soundcloud.com/tele1310/old-black-joe

----------

bigbendhiker, 

CHASAX, 

Cornfield, 

derbex, 

fox, 

Harley Marty

----------


## Charles E.

Yea, Eddie is really fun to watch. I like this guy too......

----------

crisscross

----------


## mandroid

Adopt  Liberally from the  decades of Tenor Banjo techniques , of the Trad Jazz era.

 those solos were  Great.  :Cool:

----------

crisscross, 

DavidKOS, 

thecelloronin

----------


## billhay4

Nice version of "St. Louis Blues" on a nice sounding instrument.

----------


## fox

Chord melody is something I aspire too, top of the game from my perspective!

----------


## bigbendhiker

> In order to play a bit in this style, I ordered the book "Riveboat Banjo" by Mel Bay.
> http://www.melbay.com/Products/93312...rum-banjo.aspx
> 
> It has 20 tunes, mostly Dixieland, some Folk tunes arranged in chord melody style for plectrum and tenor banjo.
> The tenor banjo arrangements also work on tenor guitar.
> Such as "My Gal Sal"  https://soundcloud.com/tele1310/38-mygalsag
> Or "Wait till thes Sun shines Nelly"  https://soundcloud.com/tele1310/wait...n-shines-nelly
> 
> To learn how to come up my own arrangements, I bought Mel Bay's "Tenor Banjo Chord Melody System"  . 
> http://www.melbay.com/Products/93629...ystem.aspxwith


Thanks for the heads up on the books! I just ordered both of them.

----------


## pheffernan

> Thanks for the heads up on the books! I just ordered both of them.


Hey Scott, I noticed in your signature that you have tuned your Fletcher tenor CGDA. As someone who was considering a Fletcher before buying a 23" scale Newton tuned GDAE, I was wondering why you moved off of the Irish or octave tuning and if it had anything to do with the 21" scale (which was one of my reservations about the instrument).

----------

bigbendhiker

----------


## bigbendhiker

> Hey Scott, I noticed in your signature that you have tuned your Fletcher tenor CGDA. As someone who was considering a Fletcher before buying a 23" scale Newton tuned GDAE, I was wondering why you moved off of the Irish or octave tuning and if it had anything to do with the 21" scale (which was one of my reservations about the instrument).


Well, I had been eyeing a new Martin tenor guitar along with the Fletcher at Elderly Instruments. My wife surprised me with the Fletcher around Valentines Day. The Fletcher was already tuned CGDA from Elderly's and as that's the same tuning as my Blueridge I left it that way. I've thought about restringing it GDAE, but haven't done it yet.
I'm still tempted by the Martin BTW. Either it or one of the older models.

----------

pheffernan

----------


## pheffernan

> Well, I had been eyeing a new Martin tenor guitar along with the Fletcher at Elderly Instruments. My wife surprised me with the Fletcher around Valentines Day. The Fletcher was already tuned CGDA from Elderly's and as that's the same tuning as my Blueridge I left it that way. I've thought about restringing it GDAE, but haven't done it yet. I'm still tempted by the Martin BTW. Either it or one of the older models.


That Martin was on my short list, especially when it was on special for $1395 a few months back. I tend to like modern instruments with vintage vibe (but not the headaches that sometimes come with owning vintage instruments). The only thing that prevented me from buying it was the opportunity to acquire a used David Newton tenor modeled on the old Martin Size 2 and built with Carpathian Spruce over Indian Rosewood.

----------

bigbendhiker, 

fox, 

Verne Andru

----------


## crisscross

I progress slowly, but I won't give up!
After one year of folk songs, I finally reachrd swing territory.
"Ida, sweet as Apple Cider", in my version for tenor guitar chord-melody.
https://soundcloud.com/tele1310/ida 
OK,OK there's still a uke playing some back-up chords.
But on the tenor banjo, it felt good enough to leave it alone.
https://soundcloud.com/tele1310/ida-...as-apple-cider
I WON'T GIVE UP! no, no...

----------

des, 

Explorer, 

fox

----------


## dcav

Excellent crisscross. Perfect.

dc

----------


## crisscross

Thanks a lot! 
Chord-Melody on tenor instruments isn't my main thing musically, but it's a lot of fun!
I'll never be as good as you or some of the guys at the Banjo Hangout, but as long as I keep remembering just a few of those chords I learned, I will continue...

----------


## crisscross

I'm very slowly progressing in my Mel Bay book, but now, I work out arrangements for songs in Ab.
The last one was called "How can I leave thee?".
It turned out to be a German Volkslied: "Ach wie ist's möglich, dann?"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ctx5CWTqsRs
Or a little more modern version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCBKDgsGEGs
And here's what I worked out according to the advice given in the book.
I tried to give the ukulele backup some swing feeling:

----------

derbex, 

fox

----------


## dcav

Sounds great criss. I love the song, and I love your playing. Did you play it on an SG?

dc

----------


## djweiss



----------

DougC, 

MdJ, 

MsRutaRutabaga, 

Verne Andru

----------


## crisscross

> Sounds great criss. I love the song, and I love your playing. Did you play it on an SG?


Thanks, David. The guitar is an Eastwood Astrojet, kind of a copy of a Gibson SG.
One of these days, I'm gonna get a hollowbody like the one John Lawler plays, but for my modest abillities, a solidbody is OK, so no one hears me practice. :Wink:

----------


## crisscross

Trying to learn, how to come up with your own chord melody arrangements is hard work, so I was glad to be able to offer me some relaxation for the holidays in buying a book with written out Chord-Melody arrangements for 10 songs. It was written by Jack Ray of the Jazz Banjo Academy. It's originally for tenor banjo but works on the tenor guitar as well.
You just have to be able to read tabs to use it, there's a line with tabs under the standard notation.
http://jazzbanjoacademy.com/new-prod...lo-tenor-banjo
The first song I tried to play was _Just a closer Walk with thee_


Thank god I have my electric tenor guitar, so I can practice without bothering anyone...

----------

dadsaster, 

derbex, 

fox

----------


## crisscross

Here's a little chord melody arrangement of_ Aura Lee_ with a sheet music/tab file.

----------

40bpm, 

Cornfield, 

fox, 

Jess L., 

John Kelly

----------


## fox

Great stuff Criss, if I were to be critical I would say I miss your little story pictures on the you tube vids.

----------


## 40bpm

Nicely done and a great intro to chord melody playing for any 5ths tuned instrument.

----------


## crisscross

> Great stuff Criss, if I were to be critical I would say I miss your little story pictures on the you tube vids.





> Nicely done and a great intro to chord melody playing for any 5ths tuned instrument.


Thanks fox and 40bpm!
I reserve my little story pictures for my favourite 5ths tuned instrument, the tenor banjo. :Wink: 
But you can play this arrangement of _Hello my Baby_ from 1899 on a tenor guitar as well.
(You'll probably will sound better than me on the bxxxxo.)

----------

derbex, 

fox, 

Freddyfingers, 

Harley Marty, 

John Kelly

----------


## cunparis

I know this is an old thread but I hope the OP is still around..

I'm impressed with the progress the OP (crisscross) made with the chord melody arrangements.  I'm interested in getting this book and I don't have a banjo (yet!).  Would this book be useful for someone who plays mainly GDAE instruments?  I'm a fiddle player and I have my baritone ukulele tuned GDAE.  I also have a concert uke tuned CGDA but I don't play it as much because I'm more used to GDAE.

If this book teaches how to do my own arrangements I would like to give it a try.

----------


## CHASAX

Excellent old thread.
Found tips for playing the tenor banjo Fedex is supposed to bring tomorrow.

----------


## mreidsma

> I'm interested in getting this book and I don't have a banjo (yet!).  Would this book be useful for someone who plays mainly GDAE instruments? 
> 
> If this book teaches how to do my own arrangements I would like to give it a try.


Hello! The OP hasn't logged in for over a year, but I can give you my experience with these books (also bought because of this thread!) I play GDAE tenor instruments and these books were both helpful and not helpful. They don't teach you to do any of your own arranging, but the method book does teach closed chord shapes. You'll have to transpose those chords to the GDAE tuning so it will take some homework. Most of the music presented is in standard notation, but you said you play fiddle so maybe you can read standard notation. I've been playing fiddle for 35 years and mandolin for 10, and I felt like this book was presented a little bit like the "How to draw an owl" tutorial: easing you in with something simple and then the complexity goes off the charts.



I had better luck with Aaron Weinstein's book and chord melody course for mandolin over at Peghead Nation. I had to still do some work, since some voicings were simply not possible on tenor, but I felt it was easier to modify for voicing than to constantly be running calculations for transposing in my head.

-Matthew

----------

40bpm

----------

