Master Jazz Blues Comping With This Proven System

Most people think jazz comping is all about learning tons of chords, but memorizing endless inversions won’t get you far. What you really need is a method that makes your chords flexible, so you can easily add rhythm, groove, and riffs without memorizing hundreds of grips. This simpler, more musical approach is exactly how legends like Joe Pass played their chord solos and comping. In this video, I’ll show you how to turn just a few chords into great-sounding music.

The goal is to start with simple chords like these

Add rhythm, melody, and even passing chords get something that sounds like this:

3-Note Harmony Always Wins

Let’s start with the chords. You probably already know these 3-note shell voicings—but they’re way more powerful than you think. For a simple jazz blues in Bb, you only need six chords:

This isn’t about learning tons of inversions and voicings. Instead, we’ll use a few flexible shapes and focus on rhythm and flow—so you’re not stuck solving some weird chord puzzle every time you’re comping a song.

The first simple step is to add a bit of rhythm, and also help you get used to the rootless versions. That makes things easier down the line, and it also shows just how powerful these 3-note shell voicings are.

Basic Groove & Rhythm

This is easy do, but much more powerful than you think. A basic shell voicing has two parts: the bass note and the chord.

Play This is the Bb7 and it splits like this:

For the Eb7 it is the same thing, this chord has this bass note and this chord.

Now, when you want to start building rhythm, you’ve got two parts to play with: low and high. That lets you do this:

With just this, you’re already checking all the important boxes for comping: The harmony is clear, there’s a groove, and you can react rhythmically to what is happening in the melody or solo. You could basically stop the video here and start gigging comping horn players and singers, But—I’ll also show you how to add fills and passing chords to really take it further.

A Few More Rhythms

To build your rhythm vocabulary, here’s a simple exercise using the split shell voicing on just one chord—I am using e Bb7:

First both together

Then you move the chord to the next upbeat

and then on the beat in between

And finally, just before the next down beat.

This helps you become accustomed to hearing and feeling different placements. You want this to feel easy to play because that way you’ll start coming up with more interesting rhythms naturally—and you’ll get more comfortable with rootless shell voicings as well. But rhythm is only part of the sound. To make your comping really flow, you also want to add melody to your chords. That’s a huge part of what makes it sound musical, so let’s explore that before we dig into a Joe Pass example.

The Top-Note Melody Magic

Thinking like this makes everything easier. Instead of jumping between complicated grips, you just change or add a new top note to the chord you’re already playing.

That’s it—and suddenly your comping has melody. On a Bb7, you have these options:

When you play these, still think of them as that Bb7 shell voicing with one note added. That makes it easier to just focus on the top-note melody.

For Eb7, you can keep it just as practical, only adding two top notes, again using from the rootless versions:

With just that, you can play the first 4 bars of the blues like this:

Edim can stay super simple—even if you’re not that familiar with the chord, just add these 2 notes:

And you can treat G7 the same way.
What matters is that it’s easy to play and helps you create melodies:

Now, combine that with Bb7 and Eb7, and you’ve got the next 4 bars of the jazz blues form:

In the II V — Cm7 to F7 — you can see why Barry Harris’ trick of just thinking about the V chord makes sense: both chords share the same options for top-notes.

And that gives you the final four bars of the jazz blues:

Now you can cover the entire chorus, so let’s look at how Joe Pass does this—and he adds a few new tricks to the mix as well!

Joe Pass Takes It To The Next Level

The examples I’ll show you here go a bit further than what we’ve covered so far—but the principle is exactly the same. As I mentioned earlier, this way of thinking wasn’t something I was taught. I developed it by digging into Joe Pass’s chord solos, especially from his solo guitar albums. One I really love is Blues For Basie—a blues in G from the Virtuoso #2 album.

Hot take: I actually prefer this one to the first Virtuoso album—mostly because of the sound.

Here’s what Joe plays on the A7 chord in the third chorus:

You can clearly see how it’s built around the same shell voicing concept we used in the Bb blues. But he takes it further—adding melody notes on the E string as well, which is of course also possible. This becomes much easier using rootless voicings, just like he does here. That’s something you’ll want to explore.

You also get a great example of this approach on the IV chord:

And this one is almost exactly what I showed you earlier on Bb7—

Remember that passing chord I used at the beginning of the video?

Let’s take a closer look at how you can use that in your comping too.

The Neighbour Chords

A few “wrong” notes can sound amazing—if you use them the right way. Passing chords are a great tool for adding energy and movement to your comping. In the blues, they can also bring out that bluesy edge in the sound. Now, this might sound like it involves some complicated theory—but it’s actually A LOT easier than you think. Check this out:

Here’s how simple it is: just think about where the chord is going, and move a fret up or down from there.

On Bb7, I do this: I don’t think about the passing chord as a chord, just where it is going. Here it also helps bring out that classic blues sound—mixing the major and minor 3rd.

And on Eb7, I use a neighbour chord to pull in the blue note—E natural

I also use a full chord as a passing chord that leads us right back to Bb7.

It’s not about which chord you use as a passing chord—it’s about how you slide back into the main chord. That movement is what makes it work.

The Greatest Jazz Blues Solo

Having this kind of freedom with your chords—especially to bring out that blues sound—is a lot of fun. If you want to go deeper into that sound, check out this video where I break down my favorite Joe Pass jazz blues solo. He demonstrates this both in soloing and with chords. It’s a very unique sound and well worth adding to your playing. Check it out!

Learn Jazz, Make Music

This Jazz Blues Solo is Perfect And Nobody Is Talking About It

Get the PDF!

You can also download the PDF of my examples here:

Get the PDF and GuitarPro on Patreon:

You can get the PDF and GuitarPro files on Patreon here:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/133080892

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:

Sign up for my newsletter – Get the II V I Ebook

Jazz Guitar Insiders Facebook Group

Join 15000+ 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 send me an email or leave a comment here or on the video. That ias the best way for me to improve my lessons and make them fit what you are searching for.