Blue in Green

[MagnusTorfi]

I need some advices on how to comp blue in green in a duo with a trumpet player. Any suggestions?

[m78w]

Try picking or finger picking some of the chords to give them a Bill Evans piano vibe. I would listen to how Bill comps behind the soloists on the album, that might give you an idea about texture and rhythms to use.

MW

[MagnusTorfi]

Thanks for the advice

I have studied Bills comping style a bit but my main problem is implementing "juicy" bass with it. Something to give it a richer sound

[JohnW400]

I assume your doing it as a ballad. This tune is hard to get a "juicy" bass going. It's slow and light.

The way I might try is looking for open string voicings that ring rather than a busy bass line. (Unless you do the solo part in double time).

Bass on one (&3) and fingerpicked voicings would probabaly be the best. The open E (1st string as a Drone works good until the Cmi)

ex.

Bb F A D E (54321)
A G Bb C# E (same)
D F C B E (same) open b/e
Db F B B E (same)

The F pedal on the Cmi7

F C Eb Bb Eb
F Cb Eb A D

On the Sections with E7 Ami and Dmi, Open 6,5, and 4 strings with some 3 note chords (triads, 4ths , whatever) and agian you can get some open B and E on those as well.

That might help fill up the sound a bit especially the open notes ringing while you change fingering for the next chord. just some ideas though.

[buddha12]

Gread ideas here. In a duo setting, big voicings are your friend. Another thing I like to do on this tune is arrpegiate the changes - gives it a nice Evans sound; try it with this Bbmaj7#11 voicing, then come up with your own. [x10230]

[JohnW400]

I took the liberty of writting out some ideas. To conserve space (and time) I started sparse and the got busier just to show the ideas. Snce it's such a short tune, I would probably explore each idea for a full time around. Also, hold the notes in place and follow the slurs. New slur, new chord

Actually I was looking for an excuse to work on my sibelius skills.

[MagnusTorfi]

Thank you JohnW

Its sounds so much nicer when I use open strings to fill up the space.
Going through the ideas you wrote down really got me going and those are in my comfort zone since my background is classical.

If you like I can either write down or record what I will eventually come up with, just to bounce some ideas back.

[JohnW400]

What a coincidence, that's what I played it on. A Yamamha C171 classical. When I do chord melodies for this site I do them on a Classical guitar. I have a big span and can play some really close voiced chords. Doing them on a wider neck classical helps me keep my chord choices reasonable.

I would like to see, or hear, what you come up with. I wish more people would post written stuff. Just to see and share ideas.

[funnyval]

Very nice, JohnW.

[MagnusTorfi]

If been going through Johns ideas a bit more and some of those are just beautiful.

I will record something based on this and my own ideas in few days.