It is very important that you stop thinking in separate grips and start seeing how patterns are actually variations of the same chord.
You might wonder why that is important, but if you think about how you want to sound when you are playing chords.
Then you can hear that there is a lot happening, but the song only has one chord symbol.
And when you play like that you should NOT be thinking: C7 C7(13), C7, C7(9), C7(13)
Because that is way too complicated, you should just think C7!
So how do you do this?
Start Simple
You probably already know a lot of chords, but let’s start really simple and build it up.
Here is a C7 Shell voicing:
You probably also know this and also this C7 and this C7(13)
For this video, I will focus on comping in a band with a bass player so there is no need to play the root note, and then we have these 3 voicings:
This might seem like magic, but really I am just taking 3 chords that you already know, removing the bass note, and putting them next to each other.
The Great Thing About Using Only A Few Notes
Now we have 3 different ways to play C7 and we can use those 3 chords to make melodies:
And you want to think about these 3-note melodies as short blues phrases, that make it easier to come up with something. You can also think of it as a conversation, so using call-response:
To me, thinking of it as a blues helps make it easier to come up with rhythms which is, of course, pretty important for Jazz comping.
There are a few other things that really levels up your playing going from just playing chords to actually playing Jazz. I will show you but you first want to add some more of the voicings you already know to get a complete overview of everything that is available in this area of the neck. In the end, you can actually play melodies harmonized entirely with a C7.
Completing The Overview
I started with some basic shell and drop3 voicings and then reduced that to 2 and 3-note voicings, but you may also know some basic Drop2 voicings, and you want to connect those to the mix as well.
The basic candidate that you can get the rest from is this one:
And you can easily make variations of that either from what you already know about Drop2 voicings or just by adding notes that are close by on the neck.
That can give you a lot of options, but here is a set of practical ones:
So the basic C7, adding a 13th, adding a 9th as a melody note, and both 9 and 13 and finally a 13 voicing with the 3rd in the melody.
If you add this to the material that you already saw then there is an octave of material available from E to E:
This is way more notes that you need when you are comping unless it is never-ending C7 chord, but it is great to have an overview and to be able to play whatever you want.
Notice that I am skipping the F as a melody note. You can use it, but it would change the chord to a C7sus4 so I am just leaving it out for now.
Using all of this material then you can play something like this:
And these are all just a part of C7, you can take one of the chords out and look at it and say that’s a C7(13) or a C7(9), but they are all usable when the song says C7. You can create your own sound and tell your own story with the harmony.
Now we can add some tricks to the chords and get some Blues and some chromatic dissonance in there!
You Don’t Usually Do This With Chords
Legato is actually great for playing chords as well, even if it isn’t the first technique you think about with that. This goes for hammer on pull off and slide:
The thing you want to keep in mind is that you can often pick the notes, but you should take advantage of the different sound.
If I use legato then it just sounds different
There are a lot of nice things to be discovered with that!
The Blues Slur and the Chromatic Slide
The dominant chord, like the C7 you are working with here, is probably the one with the most options since you can easily add Blues to the sound, but you want to explore this for other chords as well.
If you combine it with some chromatic leading notes then you get something like this:
Here I am adding a complete passing chord by sliding into the C7 and also using legato to add a chromatic melody on top of the chord moving from the 13th down to the 5th.
It is also nice how the first part states the basic chord sound in a bluesy way and then the chromatic phrase follows that up.
Another bluesy example that you can also get to work on something that isn’t really a blues would be this legato move:
Here you have a hammer-on to approach the 3rd and that is a very typical blues melody which sounds great! The chromatic phrase that takes the 9th down to the root is also turned into a melody on top of the sustained chord which is another way of creating movement with the chords.
You can create so many beautiful things with this, let’s get that sus4 sound in there as well because of course that can work too:
Level Up Your Comping
As you can see, it is not only voicings and notes you have to learn.
There are other things that you want to focus on that are a little less obvious. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t improve them. If you want to dig deeper into this then you can check out this video that covers a lot of important topics. And you want to fix this because otherwise, you are going to get fired….
Get the PDF and GuitarPro on Patreon:
You can get the PDF and GuitarPro files on Patreon here:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/jazz-chords-and-62279763
Get the PDF!
You can also download the PDF of my examples here:
Get a free E-book
If you want to download a Free E-book of 15 II Valt I licks then subscribe to my newsletter:
Jazz Guitar Insiders Facebook Group
Join 7500+ Other Jazz Guitarists 🎸Join us in the Facebook Jazz Guitar Group Community: http://bit.ly/InsidersFBGroup
If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for topics then, please let me know. Leave a comment on the video or send me an e-mail. That is the best way for me to improve my lessons and make them fit what you are searching for.
Please subscribe to my YouTube channel and feel free to connect with me via Instagram, Twitter Google+, or Facebook to keep up to date with new lessons, concerts, and releases.