Frank Sinatra recorded "My Way" like a man reading his own eulogy and savouring every syllable of it. Regrets? A few. But too few to mention — which is exactly the energy you need when you sit down to cram an entire orchestra onto six strings and pretend that was the plan all along.
This one-minute clip is a MelodyChords arrangement of the Sinatra standard, where a single guitar carries both the timeless melody and its chords at the same time. No singer, no band, no excuses — just you, the tune, and a chord living under every melody note. Tabs are provided, so you can do it your way too.
How this MelodyChords arrangement works
The whole trick of chord melody is brutally simple to say and mildly humbling to play: the melody note is always the highest note you're fretting, and everything underneath it is harmony. Voice the tune on your top strings so it sings out clearly, then stack the chord tones below it on the lower strings. Your ear locks onto the highest pitch, so as long as the melody stays on top, the listener hears the song — and quietly assumes there's a whole band behind you.
What makes "My Way" so satisfying to arrange is the bassline. Under that famous, almost-static melody, the low notes creep downward in half-steps, and that descending motion is what gives the verses their "regrets, I've had a few" ache. The concrete takeaway: keep your thumb (or lowest strings) walking that bass line down while the melody holds steady up top. That tension between a still melody and a sinking bass is the entire emotional engine of the song — nail it, and the big final key change practically plays itself.
Do it your way, sure, but if your way currently sounds like three cats fighting over a footstool, I have Guitar Pro files and slowed-down versions waiting on Patreon. And if you liked this, Can't Help Falling In Love runs on the exact same melody-on-top trick.