Anne Ku

One of the burning questions I get asked is how to get from the melody to chord melody. In other words, how do you create a solo instrumental version from a lead sheet that provides only the melody notes, lyrics, and chord names. With practice, you will be able to play the melody and the harmony together by fingerpicking and strumming with only the bare skeleton of melodic notes and chords. Let’s take the well-known two-chord nursery rhyme “Skip to My Lou” and see the steps required to go from lead sheet to chord melody.