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Hi, can anyone recommend a book on how to augment my knowledge of chords when comping? I'm thinking of guys like Barney Kessell, Tal Farlow, Rodney Jones, and Bill Evans. Whether they are playing standards, blues, or modal tunes, they seem to have an endless array of chords that they play. I have a very hard time transcribing these types of things. I can really only transcribe single note lines accurately. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Kevin
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03-31-2015 07:28 PM
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Kevin,
Before you spend money on a bunch of books, go get yourself a free Scribd account. There are thousands of jazz books you will like. I happen to like Mccoy Tyner, Bill Evans and Chick Corea books, but you can find the " Barney Kessell, Tal Farlow, Rodney Jones..." books and lessons.
Eric
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And you can steal them all for free!
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Stealing? Taking some old books that are probably out of print, in order to keep old music alive... Sure, dont steal it, and that is IF you are illegally downloading, which you probably arent in MOST cases.
Dont judge people
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I'll judge all I want. I know people personally who've had their hard work stolen and put up for free on that piece of shit website.
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As long as you do not listen to YouTube music illegally, I respect your opinion.
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I don't. I use Spotify premium, and if i like it, I buy it. Costs me a bundle. Worth it.
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Or covering music
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Mr. B is 100% right, Scribd is a blatant book theft site. The fact that they may have some out of print material on there is beside the point. And just because something is out of print doesn't mean it isn't copyrighted. They even charge $$ if you want to print anything so they are not just letting people host files on their site, they are directly profiting from that copyright infringement.
And to the original question: Kevin there are tons of books out there, but the only one I've seen that I can recommend is Jim Ferguson's "All Blues For Jazz Guitar: Comping Styles, Chords & Grooves. It's probably more of an entry level jazz comping book, it may not have exactly what you are looking. I like Jim's books because they are well organized and have good examples which are all notated, tabbed & recorded on CD. When you say "they seem to have an endless array of chords..." you're right, they do! The way you get this is simply by learning all the stock voicings in all positions on the neck (no small feat). Then learn all the different extensions for each stock voicing. Then learn how to break chords up into fragments to get even more voicings. Then learn to make your own custom voicings by simply building them where you need them (i.e. know your chord formulas and fretboard). And that's just the start!Last edited by Guitarzen; 03-31-2015 at 10:15 PM.
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Keep rationalizing bro, you'll sleep better.
Originally Posted by eh6794
That site's the wild west of copyright infringement.
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Hit a nerve?
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Yep.
I've been working on a book for a few years. Hundreds of hours of work. If I saw it on scribd I'd be beside myself.
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Hit a nerve with the covers comment. Dont judge.
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Have a look at this site for any number of threads involving Barry Harris' method--the harmonized major or minor 6th diminished scale, which is great for going from inversion to inversion of the same chord via diminsned chords a minor third apart--I.e, on the 2nd, 4th, flat 6th and M7 of the scale. It's a great way to comp, creating movement and interest even when the harmonic rhytm is slow.
Barry is known to really favor the guitar - and a number of excellent guitarists have been associated with him -Pasquale Grasso, Roni Ben Hurr, and Andrew Kingstone (who posts here).
and you are free to do what you want, but I hope that as someone who loves jazz and aspires to play it, you won't be stealing from the very hard and dedicated work of musicians who have devoted their lives to this great music and written various teaching books. Cheers !
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Venues pay licensing fees now for "covers" to be played in their establishment. And if i recorded a CD of tunes i didn't write, i'd pay for the use.
Seems like what you don't know about copyright could fill a book.
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I think I'll wait to get that one on scribd. Originally Posted by mr. beaumont
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I just checked out of curiosity, and the book I wrote is on it: Originally Posted by mr. beaumont
Paul Kirk James F. Davis Lecture Notes in Algebraic Topology 2001 (1)
I put thousands of hours of work in it, but I no longer care if anybody downloads it, as I don't make my living from it. I do understand my point of view is unusual, and agree in general with Jeff that this site rips off authors.
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Yeah, but to be fair, most of the stuff in that book is just common sense, right? Originally Posted by pkirk
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Go to ted greenes website
There are some good exercises with chord diagram s free
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Hey here's some cool books for chords :
Chord Chemistry - Ted Greene (lots of chords)
3-Note Voicings and Beyond - Randy Vincent (really cool stuff here)
I would say ultimately if you want to sound like X, you've got to transcribe X or otherwise figure out what they do.
Identifying voicings is hard but by and large feasible. Start with the top note, then the bass note. Then try to make out the chord quality and you should have an educated guess from there. But if it is too hard(which it is in most cases) you should try to watch a video of the guys you like playing to pick up specific voicings.
Generally you can make you where the hands are and you should be able to take it from there.
In Bill Evan's case you might want to try a transcription book or something.
The best videos are duos. Here's a couple of videos where I picked up lots of cool stuff recently. Sound quality is clear so you should be ok in most cases, but if you are stuck, you can just take a look at their hands and get a hint.
Aside from picking out specific voicings from tunes, I also recommend working on standard shapes like drop2 drop3 triads etc.
These shapes and their inversions are available in lessons on this website I think.
Once you have nailed the shapes, try to put them in tunes.
All the best!
PushkarLast edited by pushkar000; 04-01-2015 at 05:47 AM.
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it really is. I just followed my gut feelings as I wrote it. Originally Posted by Jehu
Yeah, but to be fair, most of the stuff in that book is just common sense, right?
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There's lots of good information on the parent site of this forum,
starting here, for example, with five lessons on jazz chord theory.
and 17 essential jazz chords for beginners and a listing of chord-related lessons.
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I've gotten a lot by working through the Barry Galbraith book on comping. It's a little slow going at first if, like me, you're not a great reader (no tab), but it shows cool and practical comping over classic progressions and tunes. You can memorize whole choruses, or just take out one or two ideas and make them your own.
http://amzn.com/1562240404
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Cool. Thanks so much. I will definitely look into getting that book
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Actually, I cancelled my Spotify account. It's a drop in the ocean, but if no-one does it, musos will continue to get screwed. But yes, the youtube thing is a double standard. Originally Posted by mr. beaumont
But in general, I'm into paying for things now. If I have too much music I'll never listen to it anyway.
Chords wise: try working out drop 2 and drop 3 voicings of all the common four note jazz chords (close voiced is very hard/impossible). Start maybe with just major 7th, and then go from there. I started with string group 1 2 3 4 and went from there.
I tend to buy books and then not look at the diagrams. I think this is good, but really the logic of a page of Vic Juris's Modern Chords, say, can be boiled down to a sentence. You have to put it onto the guitar one way or another.
It will be slow at first, but you will remember it, and it is aboslutely FREE without any bad karma :-)Last edited by christianm77; 04-01-2015 at 08:33 PM.
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