Chord Melody Masterclass
Developing a Personal Approach to Chords
“Even though I was only able to spend a very limited time learning personally from Dan Arcamone before COVID hit, I still consider him my teacher and myself a student of his. I know…”
About this masterclass
Guitarist and composer Dan Arcamone teaches a way of building chords from the scales you already use for improvising, using Freddie Hubbard's Little Sunflower as the working example. Rather than memorizing stock voicings, you'll learn to pick the intervals and sounds you actually like and assemble your own chords from them.
What's covered
- Learning a scale (D Dorian for the A sections) up and down each individual string as the foundation
- Building two-note voicings from intervals you choose — seconds, fourths, sixths — on adjacent and skipped string sets
- Combining interval groups into three-note shapes and mixing them for variety
- Giving your comping a melodic shape — a more pianistic approach to moving chords up and down
- Voice leading between changing chords and keys, including moving against the bass (the E♭maj7–Dmaj7 bridge of Little Sunflower)
- Keeping common tones between chords, and using the Lydian sound for major chords
- Strengthening fingerboard knowledge along the way
Aimed at intermediate to advanced players, this class will get you thinking about the specific sounds you prefer and give you a practical method for turning them into new, interesting chords for comping and beyond. A 3-page PDF is included.
Lessons in this masterclass
Lessons
- 1Developing a Personal Approach to Chords Full Course16m 38s
Reviews & Ratings
"personal Approach to Chords"
What a fine class! I have both of his published books, and the info her is completely different than the books; that is, he is a limitless source of good musical ideas. The class is short, but full of good ideas.
"Developing a Personal Approach to Chords | by Dan Arcamone"
Even though I was only able to spend a very limited time learning personally from Dan Arcamone before COVID hit, I still consider him my teacher and myself a student of his. I know I am therefore sounding biased when I talk about his playing, but don't take anyone's word for it, just listen to his CDs (he has many of them) of his original music. And I know this will sound like blasphemy to some but I'll take his original compositions over Metheny, Scofield or Martino any day. He sounds like no other and in my humble opinion is probably top 5 in jazz fusion, (or whatever you want to call it) on the planet. This particular lesson is only the tip of the iceberg of what he knows and is capable of playing. I hope you guys at Mike's Masterclasses can get him to do many more lessons. I've seen him rip up and down the fretboard from about a yard away and went home just shaking my head in disbelief.
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