Jazz Piano Comping - How to Comp
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- Опубликовано: 8 сен 2024
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This Jazz Piano Tutorial is about Comping. 'Comping' means 'accompanying or complementing' a soloist.
While comping, you have 2 objectives:
- Complement the soloist rhythmically AND harmonically
- Stay out of the soloist’s way
Rhythm Rules
Your goal while comping is to create variety in your rhythm (unlike ‘Vamping’). This is done by:
- Play with OR between the melody
- Play on AND off the beat
- Play short AND long notes
Harmony Rules
- Alter and Substitute Chords
- Add Ornamentals
Voicings Rules
- Pick appropriate register for voicing (generally middle register) & get out of soloist’s way
- Use intervals of 4ths or greater
- You CAN play the root in the bass
- Minimise movement between chords
- Soprano Voice Leading
How to stay our of the soloist's way
- Play in a different register to soloist
- Use voicings with intervals of 4ths & wider
- Use short notes with pauses - leaving open spaces for soloist
- Don’t use overly complex harmonies/substitutions (at first)
- Listen to the soloist - complement
In the video I use the song 'Gee Baby, Ain't I Good to You' as an example of how to comp.
If you follow the rules and ideas laid out in this video, your comping will sound smooth and professional and tidy.
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I have a jazz band audition coming up in like 2 weeks and I know literally nothing about improv and comping, so this really helped! Great video!
Happy to hear. Thanks for the comment.
Great Video clip! Apologies for chiming in, I would love your thoughts. Have you heard about - Riddleagan Smart Hands Remedy (do a search on google)? It is a great exclusive guide for learning piano fast minus the headache. Ive heard some incredible things about it and my mate at last got astronomical results with it.
Did you make it into the jazz band?
Same 😭
Bruh i have to do this in an hour why am i learning now
I thought I was bad learning it in a weekend
So how did it go? What happened?
Optimusbrand lol I was trying to learn it for my friend’s jazz audition for music schools but he eventually didn’t get in 😭😭😭 oops!
I thought i was bad going 6 weeks i advance
I gotta master this in a week for Auditions
I'm a classically trained pianist who loves Jazz. I've taken a few lessons but have read loads of books. I have NEVER found any instruction on comping that is as good as this. Thank you! You share one platinum nugget after the other. I'm so excited! Thanks.
This is practically a masterclass in 15 minutes! I love how simple and straightforward you put everything. Thanks for this!
I got into a jazz ensemble (i don't know how), and at rehearsal today I got some raised eyebrows from the instructor. Yeah...too used to jam bands! Thanks for making this video
I love the clarity of explanation in this video, exactly the kind of lesson I've been looking for! I especially like how you include the notes in text form in your video, with clear break-down of your comp example, and link to the tutorial on chord voicing. Instant subscribe!
Thanks, mate. Hope you like the other vids too :)
My God! The first Aussie tutorial video that I came across..............so happy. :)
It was very helpful. Thank you so much!
Haha, no worries. Yeah, it's not just Americans who play jazz :)
Very Very useful I am doing a project on writing jazz and got a good three paragraphs of notes of this one video. Thank you!
This is amazing! Concise yet comprehensive.
Thank you for the explanation. Greetings from Argentina 🎼🎶🎵
Man, you are both an excellent teacher and an excellent pianist! I'm very happy I've found your channel! Please keep the good stuff coming!
Will done, Rone. Glad it helps.
I watched this video to learn how to comp. Instead I learned how much I really don't know.
That's the first time I've heard Take 5 in E, I've always known it to be Eb
I may be using a lead sheet transposed for a guitar...
this lesson is very well done! Exactly what I was searching for!
Thanks, Andrei. Glad to hear it :)
Thanks for that.. so much useful information in your comping tutorial.
lol 4:17 begins to demonstrate on piano then remembers the tip was "silence is ok". thanks for the tipperinos!
You're fantastic!
Will check out those blues riffs . Thanks again
Thank you very much. This helps a lot.
This is quite a lot of information succinctly put in a short time.Very well done but some follow up, more detailed practical exercises will be ideal.Thanks anyhow for giving so quickly so much food for thought or should I say food for practice?
Clear & Concise. Thnx!!
+Kid Gorgeous No problem, Kid.
Very useful tips! Thank you!!!
Excelent video!
thanks a lot!
great lesson as always!
+tomerzx Thanks, tomerzx.
thanks. perfect video
Thanks so much!
I'm curious: What are your thoughts on the Sudnow Method and transitioning to comping/overall performance?
Amazing! Thks teacher for the lesson.
Thank You Very MUCH!
Brilliant
thankyou，you do a great thing
very usefull！But Im confused that when comping， sometimes the top note of the voicing is melody note。 But if the top note of the voicing is always melody note，its not comping，its melodic harmoniziation，and if all the chord voicing like that，no soprano voice leading？so ，how to keep the balance of comping and fill in and top note is the melody？ 3q
Thanks for this great video.
+Neon Dazzle No worries, Neon Dazzle.
What voicing did you use in this video? At 5:56, I can tell the first chord is Eb. Is the second chord Ab?
Thanks you so much ! But what is voicing please ?
Nicely done. Treat yourself to a tuning though ;)
great vid, although a bit above my level on some parts. I've been piano comping for a singer in a duo using just simple bass + RH 379 harmonies in closed pos. Now iv been told a bass player is going to play with us in a month at a concert and that I should make the song richer. I know some rootless voicings..would this suffice? or should I learn something with the 4ths open voicings? I've only got a month. thanks.
+Ryan D Hi, Ryan. I would say ideally you should learn some open voicings with 4ths. These are generally considered 'richer' because they are open and more jazzy because the 4ths are more harmonically interesting than just plain old block chords. But you also want to mix the voicings around - i.e. not play exclusively rootless chords or exclusively quartal chords.
Given you only have a month, just learn some basic quartal chords.
Like, play the So What chord over any minor7 chords. And play a quartal voicing on the last chord of a song that ends in a Major7. Maybe learn a quartal dominant7 voicing or a simple upper structure dominant7 voicing and throw it in when you can. And then use rootless voicings for the rest of the song. This will at least give your comping some variety.
+Walk That Bass Ok thanks man! I'll do my best, keep up the good work on the channel.
I know it’s 5 years later but, can we get an update as to how it went?
Could I request a video on the principles of composing a solo? At the moment I am trying to write a 12 bar blues solo in c. I am going to solo for 12 bars. Help! Should I steal a few riffs to get started?
+Sfhgss Ohgf Hey. I'll have a think about this and get back to you. But Blues solos are much more riff based than Jazz solos, so I would definitely start with that. At it's simplest I would say that a blues solo is: riffs + blues scale + passing notes. I've got a video playlist on blues piano where I go over some widely used blues riffs; scales you can use other than the blues scale and how to extend the blues scale (mixing it with Mixolydian mode) which is used a lot in boogie-woogie.
walk that bass thankyou！when I comping without rhythm section，i use wakling bass and RH comping，but its a little boring，how to comping more complicate when I only comping without rhythm section？3q!
You need to find ways to play both the bass part (like a walking bass) and some chords. Some ideas are:
1. Stride piano (bass note on 1 & 3, rootless chord on 2 & 4)
2. Walking 10ths (if your hand can reach)
3. Combining walking basslines with chords intermittently (so like 2 bars of walking bass, then 1 bar of chords in the middle register, than some more walking bass, then some stride - mixing a whole bunch of techniques)
4. A technique called the 'Three hand effect' which is very similar to the walking bassline can also sound good. You play a long note with your left hand thumb in the middle register (you can use the pedal a bit) and then a walking bassline or arpeggio an octave or more lower with your little and ring finger.
thanks a lot！！！！！！！！！！
Hi, is the open handed voicing rootless? Thanks!
Can you do a video on composing?
I'll have a think about it and see what I can do. But quickly, I would start with the melody. Writing a catchy and memorable melody is the most important part. Harmonising the melody is then actually relatively easy. I've got a video on 'reharmonisation' which explain exactly how you would do that, so you can check that out if you like: ruclips.net/video/bkOu4K95DcQ/видео.html
When I comp w respect to the melody.... should the melody note always be the highest note? Or in other words, do I need to make sure my voicings are below the melody?
Nice question, I don't think it's such a big deal but if you care a lot you can try to check the intervals. It's preferred to have consonances, obviously
Your top note can be the melody when it needs your reinforcement for emotional power ( which should be rare and chosen carefully), or a descant, an "angelic" and usually quieter use of an upper harmonic tone to add richness to the melody, or as a ornamentation to the basic theme. It will always depend on what your goal is in the passage at hand
Amazing! What a channel! You just simply need to improve the quality of video recording and sound . So that you would go right to TOP 1 in RUclips ! 👋🏻
Somebody tune that piano quick!
0:35 oh.. that's what happened 😬
m
I'm watching this as a guitar player because all the online instruction for this stuff on guitar sucks.
just talk and no demo????
Example comp at around 12:00
the audio recording is so bad