Creative Comping Concepts for Jazz Guitar

Pianists are the main sources of inspiration for new developments in jazz guitar comping. Yet guitarists have been slow to develop a comping vocabulary with harmonic sophistication, subtle voiceleading, and rhythmic flexibility on the level of the best contemporary pianists. This book seeks to remedy the situation by articulating a comping vocabulary in the context of six of the most often played tunes in jazz: 12-bar blues, rhythm changes, minor blues, a modal tune, and a couple of standards. The comps are written out in notation and tablature and include rhythms with forward motion, chords built in fourth intervals, parallel constant structure voicings, polychords, slash chords, etc. The focus is on developing a contemporary approach to rhythm, phrasing, chord voicings, voiceleading, chord substitution, and reharmonization. A play-along CD recording of the guitar comps with bass and drums helps get the sounds and rhythms in your ear. The theory of how the comping concepts are applied to the music is explained, with ideas on how to use them creatively.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Acknowledgements
RHYTHM
PHRASING
TEXTURE
CHORD VOICINGS
Voicings in Thirds
Drop-2 and Drop-3 voicings
Guide Tone Voicings
Voicings in Fourths
Voicings in Fourths and Pentatonic Scales
Voicings Derived from the Minor 6 Pentatonic Scale
Voicings Using Combinations of Intervals
Slash Chords
Polychords
VOICELEADING
Common Tones
Direction of Top Voice
Parallel Motion with Constant Structure Voicings
Intervallic Voiceleading
CHORD SUBSTITUTION AND REHARMONIZATION
Diatonic Substitution from the Third
Diatonic Passing Chords
Add a Related Ilmi7 Before Any Dominant 7
Alter Dominant 7 Chords That Resolve Down a Perfect 5th
Chromatic Approach
Dominant Approach
Cycle of Dominants as a Reharmonization Technique
Cycle of II-Vs as a Reharmonization Technique
Chromatically Ascending 4th
Monet
C Minor Blues
Blues in F
Rhythmystic
Soul Three
Whole Nother Standard