Comping with the piano player

[ArchieTop]

Ouch.

I've found myself in a dance orchestra again after decades of small group and club work. And I'm running into the keyboardist and what he's doing. Not good at all. Really frustrating and I have to alter my playing 'cause, well, his is the bigger instrument. Should I stick with four-to-the-bar whenever I can? I've honestly forgotten those pointers and "rules" a guitarist should use in this setting. It's been 35 years and I don't remember this problem from long ago. For what it's worth, I'm an OK player with a good knowledge of guitar and theory. Any suggestions for this big band adjustment are really appreciated. Thanx.

[FatJeff]

Well, I think fundamentally there are two ways to stay out of the way of the piano: either don't play when he's playing (that's the time-specific way), or don't play in the same register as him (frequency-specific way). That translates into either laying out during piano sections (at least while he's comping for himself, which in my experience with pianists is pretty much all the time); or maybe not playing the bass note of drop-3 and drop-2 chords while you are comping.

There was a thread in these forums not very long ago about this very subject. I'm sure you could find it pretty easily.

[VersatileJazzGuitarist]

You could have a chat with the keyboardist and decide to take turns comping. But if he's not open to this ....

You can comp sparsely -- playing just single notes or octaves, or occasional punchy, staccato chords.

A lot depends on the style of the music. Four-to-the bar may or may not sound OK. Sounds great in a swing band, not so great in a Gil Evans arrangement.