How to play a tune like a professional?

[Themusician]

Hello Guys! I play guitar and I like to know who to play a tune like a professional? If you pick the real book, you can pick a song and play the melody or the chords, this is good way to learn but to play like a professional you have to go the next level, where you can combine chords and melody and this make you feel like a jazz musician!
When you think in guitar players like Kurt Rosenwinkel, Joe Pass, Pat Metheny, John Scofield, piano players and many other musician they make that combination between chords and melody that make the tune really beautifull!
How to do this? Do you just play the chord in first beat and play the melody? The chords that are on the sheet are sufficient to do this or you have to get other chords?
Is there any book that helps with that?
Maybe it's a difficult question but any lesson is welcome[/B][/B]

[Acci]

On guitar what you are talking about is often referred to as "chord-melody."

There are many books and instructional DVDs on the subject.

Kurt Rosenwinkel talks here about his approach to solo guitar playing for jazz standards:

https://www.youtube.com/results?sear....1.4mnZ3kKiBts

[Themusician]

Thanks for the reply! Yes I know it is called chord melody, chord soloing and when he improvises with the chords! I love the music of Kurt Rosenwinkel and had already seen this video but he knows so many chords and I just know the Drop 2! He is a scientist of music as Joe Pass, is hard to understand what they are thinking!

[dorono]

Aside from harmonizing the melody using colorful chords (with extensions such as 9th, 11th, 13ths, etc), I think that the way you express the melody is of utmost importance.

I would first learn to play the melody straight, little to no embellishments. Once you know the basic melody, you can embellish from there, but you have to know the song in its most basic form.

I'd also recommend learning the lyrics and trying to relate to them, taking into consideration the meaning and mood of the lyrics, and possibly even learning what point in history the song was written and studying what music sounded like in that era, and even what was going on culturally at that time.

I know that this might sound a bit over the top, but since you asked about how to sound like a professional, that's a tall order, and this is what, in my experience, the pros do, or at least have done, at one time or another.

I hope that helps!