integration of melody and chords

Chords, scales, harmony, melody, etc.
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i.e how to use a lead sheet

particularly for jazz or standards with 4 note+ chords
I've been poking around for a few days to see what I could find on how to get started on this as I 've always concentrated on chords and tried to imply the melody in various ways from there
anyway I found a rather formulaic approach using open chords that seems worth trying out.
basically you construct the chord on the beat indicated
R 7 / 3 7 M
where R - is the chord root and M is the melody note and 7 and 3 are the numbered note of the chord type
If the root gets below say E or so, it's sugested to change the left hand from R 7 to R 5, to prevent muddiness. Apparently there's a notation for this L5.
On a 6 chord you would replace the 7 with the 6
Adding 9 or 11s are simply fit in below the Melody note -- that must always be on top. I have to work thriugh a few more to see exactly how that occurs. If there's no room because of the placement of teh melody note, teh chord formed can be dropped to a 3 note chord.

It's a nice rich open sound. Somehow I must have been influenced by some teaching somewhere not to repeat notes in a chord, so this layout never occurred to me, but this can really emphasize the 3 and 7 important notes of a chord esp if the 3 is the melody note.
It is a step up from what I've been doing -- which is playing the root with my left hand and with the right hand usually constucting a closed chord starting with the 3,5,7 (9) but using inversions to keep voice leading smooth on transitions and trying to keep the highest note 'near' the melody note so the pinky could reach it.
I assume eventually this formula will reveal its flaws. I'm wondering a bit already about the resolution of 3 to 7 and 7 to 3 in typical chord progressions and how this formula addresses or ignores that, but we'll see.

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