Expanding chord vocabulary for comping.

[Gmo]

Ok, so I was wondering if you guys could recommend any songs or lessons or any material really to help me develop my comping skills. I seem to be lacking enough chords/application/knowledge to really comp the way I want to. You know with all the quick changes and the nice passing chords here and there. I feel too many of my chords are static and I wanna break out of that.

[AmundLauritzen]

Expanding your vocabulary is always good, but always make sure you can get the most out of what you already know as well. You can use diminished chords as passing chords. You can chromatically approach chords by sliding in a half step above or below. Or encircle the chord chromatically - above, below, target. Or Below, above, target. These are simple and easy tricks that can make your comping sound more alive.
If you have two bars of say Bbmaj7, you can play Bbmaj7, Cm7, C#dim, Dm7 to get a line going on those bars and avoid it sounding static by just running voicings of Bbmaj7. Try this on Stella on the Bbmaj7 that follows the Ab7.

[brwnhornet59]

Great advice Amund.. I would also add that having a solid grasp of all of the different voices (maj7, Dom, Minor 7, -7b5, dim7, aug) and their inversions down is key to being able to do what you are asking. It is not hard once you get into the swing of it.. Since the chords are built from R, 3rd, 5th 7th, you can keep the different forms that fit together in nice block groups. Start with ii V I. Play the ii with the root in the bass, then notice the V I that lines up in that same block. Next play the ii with the 3rd in the bass and adjust the V I accordingly etc... You will see that this gives you 4 block from root to octave going up the neck. After awhile it becomes very easy to segue from one group to the next. This allows smooth voice leading and also cuts down on large intervallic jumps around the neck.. Make sense?

Good luck..

[fep]

Ok, so I was wondering if you guys could recommend any songs or lessons or any material really to help me develop my comping skills. I seem to be lacking enough chords/application/knowledge to really comp the way I want to. You know with all the quick changes and the nice passing chords here and there. I feel too many of my chords are static and I wanna break out of that.

I think this may be just what you need:

Amazon.com: Maiden Voyage Guitar Voicings: Mike Di Liddo: Books

[bligon]

I recommend thinking melodic lines first and then applying some simple substitutions to connect the melodic notes. It's easier to explain with notes than in a text message.

There are two articles in Just Jazz Guitar magazine (I believe August 2011 & May 2012) that deals with this.

Here is another short post that might give you some things to think about:

LINEAR MELODIC VOICINGS, JULY, 2012

[MarkRhodes]

I think this may be just what you need:

Amazon.com: Maiden Voyage Guitar Voicings: Mike Di Liddo: Books

That's an excellent book. There's another by the same guy called "Easy Jazz Guitar Voicings & Comping." It too gives compings for the tunes on the "Maiden Voyage" play-along by Aebersold, but it also has many "demo" tracks with just guitar voicings, and some simpler voicings to start with and then build on. I have the book Frank recommended but just ordered the "Easy" version (-which is the more recent publication) and hope to find a few other people here who are working in it so that we can compare notes on progress, trouble spots, etc. I started a thread on it in the "Comps" forum.

[Moonray]

I really like the Barry Galbraith book Guitar Comping.
It's often mentioned on this forum when the subject of comping
arises.

I realize that the Galbraith book may be a bit ahead of where many
players are.
But here are a couple of ways to approach dense written chord material often found in books such as this one,or Joe Pass' chord solo book and
even the older books by Bucky Pizzarelli [They are great too] such as
Power Guitar ....no metal licks there I'm afraid. ha ha

What I did/do is look at the chord symbols written on the page...
...You know theses are the hip ones we all can't wait to get to...
Then, look at what these chords [usually with plenty of extensions and
alterations]...Now try to deduce/guess what these slick chords are
being played instead of.
Examples: Bb13 = Bb7 Fmi11=Fmi7 D7b9#5=D7 Ebma9==Eb ma7 etc etc
Hint: you will often find that the etudes given are based off the changes
of some well known form [blues or rhythm] and in the case of standards
the name is often a give away.
eg: "Wind" = Gone With the Wind, "Like Someone"= Like Someone in Love.

Use a Real book or any other fakebook to identify the original changes.
These are sometimes called the Vanilla changes [See Ralph Patt's wonderful website for a loooong list of standard changes]
I usually write in the basic changes above the new-improved ones so
I can see what the player/arranger has done with the harmony.

This often explains why you get say F9-Gb9#5-F9, when the basic chord
is plain old F7. To quote Joe Pass here, "no big deal, it's just a movement"

Another thing that is very helpful is to simplify the rhythm of the chords
written....they are usually syncopated big time and can look very
intimidating .....[Often harder to read than much advanced classical guitar works]

Here, I just look to the song sheet or knowledge of say the blues form,
and simplify the chords to fit the harmonic rhythm of the tune's
basic changes.
So, for example Blues in F...F7/// Bb7/// is given in Galbraith as
F13/Gb13/ Bb9/Bb13 F13/Gb13// all very syncopated.....
simplify down to straight 1/4, 1/2 or whole notes.

I'll leave out discussing substitutions and voice-leading the top voice
for now.

All of the above should serve you well when working through the 1st [more
advanced] DiLiddo book where the sheer density of information on the page
can seem quite forbidding.
With this book, "Maiden Voyage Guitar Voicings" you have some given
advantages in that the chord shapes are given below each chord symbol
and the songs are titled .
So ...to sum up: look up the original [vanilla] chords...play those through:
...then play a simplified rhythm version of the hipper written chords...
study the devices the writer has used..[now you can use these same devices in your own playing]
Listen to the cd with the book and learn [by ear] what each bar or phrase
sounds like [the feel] Small chunks only! Avoid overload at all costs!

I hope I've been able to explain what I've found to be a way forward
with this important part of what we do as jazz guitarists...comping and
chord-melody.

[Franklin52]

I recommend thinking melodic lines first and then applying some simple substitutions to connect the melodic notes. It's easier to explain with notes than in a text message.

There are two articles in Just Jazz Guitar magazine (I believe August 2011 & May 2012) that deals with this.

Here is another short post that might give you some things to think about:

LINEAR MELODIC VOICINGS, JULY, 2012

Great, thanks for the link.

[Gmo]

Thanks for all the advice guys!!! I was recently taking a break from the site and reading/studying anything and just playing. Like someone mentioned, it was really helpful for me to take a step back on all the theory and instructional material and just try to do what I could with what I already had. I was trying way to hard to read all this theory and apply it immediately and it was getting overwhelming. Anyhow, I think I might actually order a comping book like you all have suggested. School's starting in like a month and it'll be a lot easier to have a little more structure to my practice sections. Thanks!!

[Gmo]

Oh, and I'm also striving to get my comping to groove something like this

I really like the feel of that guy's playing, I just don't have any idea how to fill my playing out with so many chords. But, I'll get there eventually.

[S_R_S5]

I just wrote a post about expanding jazz chord vocabulary.
Shell Chords the Power Chords for jazz guitar | gitguitar.com

Basically, you learn those chord shapes you then you can add any notes on top of them to get the extensions of any chord you would need.

Good luck

[MarkRhodes]

Much excellent advice above. Another thing to think about (work on) is comping rhythms. Spicing those ups will get you a lot of extra mileage out of what you already know. (Not that I'm against learning more!)

One thing that is helping me is that I'm working through Joe Elliott's "Introduction to Jazz Guitar Soloing." It's not a comping book at all, but he does make students learn the seven arpeggios of major and minor keys in position. (There are five positions--similar to the CAGED system.) In learning arpeggios that way---all within a 4-5 fret range--it gives me lots of ideas for chord voicings, and not only that, it is easy to relate them to one another.

[jtizzle]

The way I got my voicings, without need for any books really, was the Kurt Rosenwinkel way, I guess you would call it.

Arrange your own chord melodies for some old school tunes, as these tunes tend to be transformed into common licks we use now (For example, Honeysuckle Rose, A Train) and any bunch of voicings you like try to "thin them up" a bit, such as leave the more important intervals (aka the ones you like the most) in there. I've come up with a bunch of voicings for dominant chords that include my all time favorite minor 2nd interval, not in the top, so it's more subtle. Sounds pretty cool.
The old school tunes tend to have pretty simple melodies and you want your compings first priority to be the melody inside it, therefore you can take a melody from these tunes. You can also go a bit more modern, a lot of accompanists like using the Giant Steps phrase in ii-V-I, reharmonized to be a simple ii-V-I without the coltrane changes.

Another exercise is a sort of chord-scale I kind of came up with myself (as in, I haven't seen or heard of anyone do this sort of exercise).
I take a chord, maybe a Major 7 for starters. Instead of taking the major scale and ascending it diatonically (such as Cmaj > Dmin > Emin) I keep the same chord (or the shell of the chord, 3rd and 7th) and put any other scale tones in the chord wherever I can put it. This exercise will give you tons of interesting voicings with some pretty cool, unorthodox intervals hanging inside of the chord. I try to keep it so two voices ascend diatonically while the other two move freely with my range of grip.

Then there's the classic pedal tone comping, steady melody note comping, ascending scale wise, ascending in whole steps, moving the melody in arpeggio, diatonic chord movement (works well with triads) and upper structure triads.

[randalljazz]

Oh, and I'm also striving to get my comping to groove something like this

I really like the feel of that guy's playing, I just don't have any idea how to fill my playing out with so many chords. But, I'll get there eventually.

jamie is a great player! played on tierney's early recordings (still performs with her...we all have a mutual connection, rachael too)...anyway, i see on his website he gives online lessons:

Online Jazz Guitar Lessons, Books and DVDs | Jamie Findlay

[jmstritt]

jamie is a great player! played on tierney's early recordings (still performs with her...we all have a mutual connection, rachael too)...anyway, i see on his website he gives online lessons:

Online Jazz Guitar Lessons, Books and DVDs | Jamie Findlay

Jamie was one of my teacher's at GIT, he is a great teacher. I feel that is worth mentioning, because there are a lot of great players, but not all are gifted teachers as well.

[RexMin7b5]

I used this book in college, still use it to this day in fact: Amazon.com: The Best Chord Changes for the Most Requested Standards (0073999591255): Frank Mantooth: Books

[Bloomworks]

I wrote a cool book called "21st Century Chords For Guitar". You can download 4 free pages at my website: bloomworks.com (click on "21st Century Chords" at the top of the web page). In addition you can buy a PDF copy or a hard copy as well. Check it out! There's a lot of ideas in there.

[edh]

@Boomworks, thanks for the link.