Comping for yourself

[Tal_175]

In the jazz style, I think it boils down to three techniques. These are the technique's that I use and I've heard used very commonly by other jazz guitarists.
- Stabs chords between lines.
- Put chords below some of the notes or phrases like a chord-solo. Note this technique is subtly different from the first one as chords now harmonize some of the lines as oppose to alternate with them.
- Hold and sustain some of the notes of a grip and use the free fingers to play phrases while the chord tones are ringing.

Of course another technique is to play two or three voices contrapuntally, usually a bass-line and a melody line. But this technique is used more in chord-melody arrangements or in the classical fingerstyle, not so much in trio's and duos or inside solos. At least, I haven't heard anyone do it in any regularity in this context.

Please discuss if you have encountered or discovered other techniques/devices.

I'm also curious about one thing regarding the chord stab technique. In some bars, you just have lines. In some bars you just have moving chord voices. But in the bars where both lines and chords occur, I find that I like putting the chord before the line. If I put a chord after a line then I'd like that to be the anticipation of the next chord. If I put the chord-in-the-moment after a line, say on beat 3 or 4, the harmony starts to feel more ambiguous or stagnated. Have you given much thought to this? What are your thoughts?

[AllanAllen]

Stab chords between lines is emulating a swing bands horn section comping. It's either on the 1 establishing the key center of the phrase or around the 4 moving the key center to the next place.

That's generally how I think of it anyway.

[AaronMColeman]

To your last point about putting the "stab" before the line. In general I think you're right...I'm not a great comper but I listen to a lot of piano comping that is lovely. However, I've been working on Stompin at the Savoy and really like letting the stab come after the main melody line and I like it better that way.

Conceptually I can see both ways working. A stab before the line lays down a nice bed for the line to sit in, a stab after the line pulls the tune forward. Guitarists are sorta in no man's land, we aren't the piano and we aren't the horn section. But we can definitely comp either style.

[Tal_175]

To your last point about putting the "stab" before the line. In general I think you're right...I'm not a great comper but I listen to a lot of piano comping that is lovely. However, I've been working on Stompin at the Savoy and really like letting the stab come after the main melody line and I like it better that way.

Conceptually I can see both ways working. A stab before the line lays down a nice bed for the line to sit in, a stab after the line pulls the tune forward. Guitarists are sorta in no man's land, we aren't the piano and we aren't the horn section. But we can definitely comp either style.

The typical way Stomping at the Savoy played with stabs is: V-I stabbed (Ab7-DbMaj) then the Db melody in the next bar. So the Db stab is not after the line but anticipates the melody bar. This is also one of the ways I like using chord stabs.

This type of anticipated stabs pull the line forward, IMO. As opposed to putting the stab after the line. Is that what you mean?

[AaronMColeman]

Probably...when people explain to me what I was trying to say musically, 90% of the time they say it better than I do. Thank you, much better analysis.

[Tal_175]

This style of playing suits duo and trio format really well I think. I was rehearsing with a bass player a few years ago before the pandemic hit towards potentially doing some cafe/small restaurant gigs. I noticed without integrating some chordal textures to my solos, strict contrapuntal bass and guitar combo starts to sound a bit thin.
Self comping is also a great way to work on tunes.

[nakim55]

Lenny Breau could comp chords while soloing at the same time, Tory Slusher takes it to the extreme.

[michaelbartlett]

Lenny Breau could comp chords while soloing at the same time, Tory Slusher takes it to the extreme.

Lenny was such a beautiful player. Ed Bickert was also a master at this. His approach always sounded more pianoistic to me than most guitarists. If Bill Evans played guitar, I could imagine him sounding like Ed.

[pamosmusic]

Stab chords between lines is emulating a swing bands horn section comping. It's either on the 1 establishing the key center of the phrase or around the 4 moving the key center to the next place.

That's generally how I think of it anyway.

Not necessarily sure about this. Ed Bickert is kind of my Ur Example of this thing. He’s all over the place with it. As would be horn pads. Having a kind of set place for the pads kind of puts artificial limits on the phrases too.

[mr. beaumont]

Not necessarily sure about this. Ed Bickert is kind of my Ur Example of this thing. He’s all over the place with it. As would be horn pads. Having a kind of set place for the pads kind of puts artificial limits on the phrases too.

Interesting of course, because Ed taught himself comping by lifting stuff from big band arrangements.

[pamosmusic]

Ah! Didn’t know that. Makes sense though. He’s incredible.

[Tal_175]

Chord punctuations are great in trio contexts. But I don't like a lot of it in actual solo guitar (chord-melody) contexts.

I'm gonna get into trouble for saying this but I'm one of the few jazz guitarists who don't like Joe Pass Virtuoso albums for that reason. Too many unaccompanied, fast single lines which makes the texture a bit too thin for me. I can enjoy listening to single line, unaccompanied flute or horns because their timbre is fat and rich. But the richness of solo guitar comes from the use of harmonic or contrapuntal textures IMO. Guitar going dingly-dingly for eight bars at a time gets fatiguing fast.

That's just my opinion as a listener. As a player, I enjoy playing unaccompanied solo single lines for several choruses, no problem

[pamosmusic]

Interesting of course, because Ed taught himself comping by lifting stuff from big band arrangements.

I may or may not have just started copying down horn background rhythms from a big band record … will report back.

Listening and also thinking about Ed Bickert … this makes so much sense because I think the thing that sticks out most about his playing is the variation between long and short. His chords sound so lush because he lets the ring so comfortably. I find that when I’m playing cool rhythms, I tend to play the super short. It’s way harder than it should be to leave those chords long and still play interesting rhythms.

incidentally like horn backgrounds do in a big band.

it all makes sense now