comping

Lesson by David Kennedy

This facebook post provides a YouTube video that details how to perform and compose on guitar with any polyrhythm. You will find a link to free resources, including the guitar score and tab in the video description.

Why exploring polyrhythm?

• It can deepen your understanding of rhythm and time signature.
• It’s a very useful tool for generating new rhythm ideas.
• It sounds really cool.

Don't hesitate go watch David's YouTube channel.

Here is a transcription (tabs, and standard notation) of the guitar comping played by Howard Roberts in the jazz standard Blue Moon with Julie London. You will find in the following:

• The original version.
• The YouTube video with the transcription and the tabs / notation overlayed.
• Four free png files.

Here is a serie of guitar walking bass lines and chords cheat sheets for jazz comping.

Shell voicings are better known as 3-note chords. They are made up of the most essential notes (root, third and seventh) that define a chord (the fifth is omitted) .They are very useful for beginner guitarists who want to explore basic guitar comping rhythms.

They also help understanding harmony, how chords are built, what are the intervals that compose them. You will understand that shell voicings are a good introduction to more complex chords.

This lesson with tabs and audio provides the essential chord shapes and exercises for practicing guide tone chords (aka 3-note chords) on guitar.

This concept highly prized by solo guitar players consists in mixing chords and bass lines. It can be very useful for guitarists who want to accompany a singer or a soloist in a duo situation for example.

Guitar walking bass lines involve playing one note on each beat in order to make the link between the chords of a progression as a bass player would do. 

They are usually played fingerstyle, basses are played with the thumb whereas the other  chord tones are played with the fingers.

This free lesson with tabs and guitar shapes provides some easy examples.

A new printable PDF eBook is available. It's about 11 blues progressions for jazz guitar with tabs, analysis (with roman numerals), explanations and audio files, divided into four chapters :

1- Blues progressions and variations
2- Chord studies
3- Guitar walking-bass studies
4 -Rhythm patterns

Download

The origin of the "so what chord" name would be due to its use by the jazz pianist Bill Evans in the modal tune "So what" by Miles Davis.

This is a cool and modern sounding chord voicing often used as an alternative to quartal voicings. It is built with a fourth chord on the bottom (3 perfect fourths stacked) and a major third added on the top. 

This particular chord was originally played on a piano, but it is quite interesting to play it on the guitar to support rhythmically and harmonically a soloist over a modal tune.

This jazz guitar rhythm lesson with tabs and diagrams provides you some interesting ideas of comping inspired by McCoy Tyner's playing on "impressions" by John Coltrane.