Fareed Haque's jazz comping survival guide?

**mastodonovan** · 03-28-2011, 03:47 PM

has anybody checked this out? Review would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Donovan.

**donojazz62220** · 03-28-2011, 08:17 PM

He has some samples on youtube. 13 short videos. After watching them I'm thinking of buying the entire DVD.

jd

**Subfeeder** · 03-29-2011, 06:44 AM

Originally Posted by mastodonovan

has anybody checked this out? Review would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Donovan.

Yes, I have it.
Empahsises the importance of chord construction with guide tones and then adds extensions and bass notes to these. Gives practical examples in ii Vs, blues, I VI ii Vs etc.
It's quite cheap to download and I would say worth it. You need to do the work to get this integrated into your playing and it doesn't really give you a plan or exercises to do that. However, most people will be able to put together a study plan for themselves.
Good teaching style and some interesting and motivating comments.
Don't like the navigation system for the videos though. The older Truefire stuff was better in that regard.
I would have spent much more time on this but have some other things I need to get sorted - namely drop 2 chords. In a way, I wish I had got this first as it makes more sense to start with guide tones and then build.
I'd like to see his other video on Jazz-Rock pentatonics, but I've got lots of work before I tackle that.

**oneworld** · 03-29-2011, 11:14 AM

Originally Posted by donojazz62220

He has some samples on youtube. 13 short videos.
After watching them I'm thinking of buying the entire DVD.

jd

i'll buy his dvd's too...

his comments on 'stripped down' comping, leaving space for bass
and locking in with drums are invaluable...

**lkmuller** · 03-29-2011, 01:20 PM

I'm sold.

**NSJ** · 03-29-2011, 04:18 PM

for those that have the download, what's the file format??? Can it be played in iTunes ?

**Subfeeder** · 03-29-2011, 04:22 PM

Originally Posted by NSJ

for those that have the download, what's the file format??? Can it be played in iTunes ?

Flash .flv files, but has its own executable which has navigation, text, links to pdf charts, links to powertab charts (setup included) and the videos.

**guitarplayer007** · 03-29-2011, 04:27 PM

I have it, its so so

**gersdal** · 03-29-2011, 05:07 PM

For every 1001 dvd on modes, and every 2002 dvd's on improvisation, there is one on comping. The few on comping should be in every serious learning guitarists library.

I have it and I'm very pleased with it.

**lkmuller** · 03-29-2011, 06:39 PM

Originally Posted by NSJ

for those that have the download, what's the file format??? Can it be played in iTunes ?

There's a free program called the Youtube Downloader. It converts flash files to an iMovie file.

**NSJ** · 03-29-2011, 07:58 PM

Originally Posted by lkmuller

There's a free program called the Youtube Downloader. It converts flash files to an iMovie file.

Thanks for the suggestion! I'll look it up now.

**M-ster** · 03-29-2011, 09:39 PM

Is that a D'Angelico EX-SS he's playing?

**bob32069** · 03-30-2011, 12:45 AM

Fareed's video series on comping is one of the most practical and useful I've encountered. His techniques are immediately applicable. For 20 dollars per month you can become a truefire member and have unlimited online access to all the videos in their library, including video series by Mimi fox, frank vignola, Andreas oberg, and many others, as well as all genres including jazz, rock, blues, folk, country etc... It is a gold mine and well worth the price.

**Subfeeder** · 03-30-2011, 05:05 AM

I looked at the 2nd disk last night which deals with I VI ii V progressions - it quickly becomes very complex. If you haven't absorbed the stuff in the first disk on extensions on ii V guide tones you will be lost, as I was. That's were the work is - the guide tones and root notes are easy if you are familiar with basic jazz harmony but when he starts adding extensions to the guide tones then it increases in complexity exponentially. Still, lots of good stuff to get started on.
Have to say that the audio quality is pretty poor in places with the guitar distorting - and not in any intended or musical way.

**djangoles** · 03-30-2011, 10:31 AM

If you sign up for free a 30 day Truefire membership.....you can watch the entire series or so it it appears.

**bob32069** · 03-30-2011, 06:23 PM

@subfeeder: I have not had any trouble with distortion or poor sound quality when watching online. It may be an issue with your sound card.

**wizard3739** · 03-30-2011, 06:42 PM

His videos are great for teaching comping techniques.

wiz

**djangoles** · 03-30-2011, 07:15 PM

Originally Posted by wizard3739

His videos are great for teaching comping techniques.

wiz

I agree.....I had never heard of him till the other day, but after poking around his website and then finding the truefire stuff, I really like his no bs approach....

**lkmuller** · 03-31-2011, 01:03 PM

I bought the course yesterday and have went through Pt 1 last night. Anyway, able to put his "Who needs a piano player" video on my iPad and added it to the treadmill library. If I gotta do the treadmill, I might as well be watching Fareed.

**NSJ** · 03-31-2011, 02:23 PM

yah, I bought it and am now watching PART 1, the Blues stuff, right now.

I think he does an excellent job so far of taking stuff we already know (tritone subs, V of V, ii-Vs, dominants, etc) and putting it together in a logical stepwise process.

Fareed is an excellent player--I've seen him in many different contexts (classical guitar duets, jam band, AACM groups); not sure if I dig "Guraj Mahal" but the rest I'm down with.

Funny thing is, he used to live in my neighborhood many years ago (Rogers Park) and when people would see me walking around with a guitar case, they'd mistake me for him----even though he's a tiny little guy about a foot shorter or something.

A couple of years ago, I was actually back in Rogers Park, hanging out on the beach, talking to this guy who teaches flamenco, when, all of a sudden, this woman wants to take part of in our conversation--we were talking about music and jazz, and she and her little kid were walking by, and she heard me mention someone whom she knew. Turned out it was Fareed's soon-to-be ex wife (who also is a musician and singer). I wound up learning a bit too much about Fareed than I bargained for.

**oneworld** · 04-01-2011, 06:19 AM

Originally Posted by lkmuller

I bought the course yesterday and have went through Pt 1 last night. Anyway, able to put his "Who needs a piano player" video on my iPad and added it to the treadmill library. If I gotta do the treadmill, I might as well be watching Fareed.

hey lkmuller, you gotta watch this classic & add it to your ipad videos !

shut up piano players for once...

**wizard3739** · 04-01-2011, 10:37 AM

Thank you for this video, it reflects a lot of my own experience with piano players. No offense intended to piano players, but Sonny is right on the money with this one.

wiz

**M-ster** · 04-02-2011, 10:27 PM

There's some nice stuff in the Fareed vid' (thanks, donojazz!). I transcribed it.

Here's the vid':

Here's the Transcription PDF

**lkmuller** · 04-03-2011, 12:17 AM

Thank you!

**FatJeff** · 04-03-2011, 02:23 AM

Based on the recommendations of this thread and watching a little intro material on TrueFire, I purchased the data DVD (to be played on PC). It was shipped to my house in about 2-3 days...pretty fast. So far I am really enjoying it. None of the material so far is new to me, but I'm only about 20% of the way through.

What I will say is that the presentation is very professional, and the navigable DVD is really well laid out...with a built in video player, tuner, and metronome, a slow-down capability, & links to PDFs of whatever it is he's talking about at the moment built right in to the lessons. There is also a copy of Power Tab that comes with the DVD (not that I use tab much, but still).

If the other TrueFire stuff is like this, I'll definitely have a go with other titles.