Improvise for Real – Chord Melody Guitar 2

Take your chord melody ability to the next level!

Building on the skills you learned in Chord Melody Guitar 1, this advanced course is a deep exploration of the 2-5-1 chord progression in both major and minor. You’ll learn to improvise in chord melody style over this important chord progression, and we will explore special topics including outside notes, tension and release, and musical storytelling.

In this second level of our course, we will also build our tonal map in a new location on the fretboard. This new scale configuration combines with your experience from Chord Melody Guitar 1 to unlock the entire fretboard. As a result, after completing Chord Melody Guitar 2 you will be able to improvise with complete freedom in chord melody style in any key, anywhere on the fretboard.

Here’s what you’ll learn:

• How to improvise in chord melody style over the 2-5-1 chord progression, the most important progression in all jazz music
• How to use the three big moments in the 2-5-1 chord progression as a roadmap for your compositions
• How to weave outside notes into your musical storytelling, using them for a truly melodic purpose
• The three different palettes of color that allow us to soften or heighten the tension in our melodies
• How to combine the major and minor 2-5-1, giving you the complete chord progression to ‘Autumn Leaves’
• How to compose melodies using form and dynamics that take your listeners on a musical journey

Building on your skills from Chord Melody Guitar 1

To understand this course you will first need to take Chord Melody Guitar 1. That’s where you will learn the core technique of combining bass, chords and melody in a way that allows you to improvise easily and naturally. Once you have that engine built, in this second level we will take our chord melody ability in many new and exciting directions.

18 video lessons – Work at your own pace

This course is divided into 18 video lessons in which we will explore new harmonic content, discover new melodic possibilities and practice many new creative techniques and strategies. All of these concepts will be integrated into a single cohesive method that allows you to develop yourself creatively while you are exploring each new chord that we build together.

By the end of the course you’ll be improvising in full chord melody style over all seven chords of the major scale, including the 3D (“three dominant”) chord that allows us to create the minor 2-5-1 chord progression. This gives you a very complete repertoire of chords to use in both your composing and your improvising, allowing you to play hundreds of songs in full chord melody style.

Testimonials from past students

“This course was a “before and after” for me. I feel for the first time in my guitar practice that there is a systematic method to command the relationship between the music, the melody, the harmonic structures and the fretboard to improvise. Your way of teaching is a gift that fosters motivation and real pleasure.” – José Martinez (Valladolid, Spain)

“Thank you so much, David. Taking your courses has been a deprogramming of beliefs, and a trust of the knowledge and creativity inside me. I appreciate how you demystify music and make it more magical. My confidence has grown exponentially and I am really playing and exploring with awareness.” – Clint Parsons (Amsterdam, Netherlands)

“Thank you very much for this course. Added to Chord Melody Guitar 1, I have now a totally innovative way of looking at my fretboard. Now I can make my own arrangements of songs that I love. And now I grab my guitar almost every day and play just for the pleasure of it, sometimes for many hours. So thank you for this!” – Claude Galaise (Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada)