When making a chord melody on guitar (arranging for solo guitar), this is the order I like to use:

1. Learn the melody
2. Learn the basic chord progression
3. Create a bass line
4. Add the harmony 

Chord Melody on Guitar

This video below is the completed arrangement of “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” This is the song we’ll be using to construct our solo arrangement.

The Melody

The melody is the 1st step. Find the melody on the guitar by ear or get it from sheet music.

Then pick a key that is going to have some open strings if you want to keep it easy to play.

I picked out the key of D for this arrangement.

The Chords

The 2nd step is the chords. Same as the melody, if you can’t pick the chords out by ear at the moment, get them from a piece of sheet music.

Our two chords are D Major and A Major.

The Bass Line

Now it’s time to create a bass line. Just the basic root notes of the chord for now. The root note of the D chord is D, and the root note of the A chord is A.

The Harmony

We are almost finished with our chord melody for the guitar. The final step is to add some harmony. Let’s keep it simple by only adding chord tones (the notes of the chord).

The tablature below is the completed chord melody arrangement of “Mary Had a Little Lamb.”

Chord Melody Arrangements

“Mary Had a Little Lamb” is available for download as a PDF in a bundle with 8 other songs.

Happy Birthday – Twinkle Twinkle Little Star – Mary Had a Little Lamb – Frère Jacques – Hush, Little Baby – London Bridge is Falling Down – Row, Row, Row Your Boat – Three Blind Mice – This Old Man

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