Description
In this tutorial I'm going to show you some basic elements of jazz rhythm guitar comping. Comping is playing the chord progression of a tune to accompany or support the melody instrument, which is usually either a vocalist or instrumental soloist.
In the following lessons I’ll start with a typical jazz chord progression using full chord voicings rooted on the E and A strings. Then we'll learn an essential jazz guitar approach called shell voicings. A shell voicing is only playing a few notes of any given chord. Just enough to suggest or imply the chord without cluttering up the arrangement with full voicings.
After we learn two different shell voicing options for each chord of the progression, then we'll learn some specific rhythm patterns to use while playing all those different chord voicings.
Finally we'll put the whole thing together and play those different chords and rhythms along with a backing track to get a lot of practice at using these new ideas and skills.
I'm using a (fill in electric guitar model) with a clean tone. But you don't have to use this exact gear. Any electric guitar with a clean tone will work. You can also use an acoustic steel string or classical nylon string guitar. As long as you can tune it up and play it, it's fine to use for jazz comping.
Lesson Info
