I made this lesson to give you some other ways to embellish and create variations in your chords. The way I approach that in this lesson is to add some chromatic and scale movement on each chord. Especially in the inner voices of the chords.

This way to add some movement and color is very useful for comping, chord solos, and chord melody arrangement.

These 4 etudes are a study of 3-note Jazz Chord Voicings and how to comp on a Jazz Waltz.

This lesson will show you how to expand your chord vocabulary and use these voicings when comping a song. The etude is also helping you internalize some of the basic rhythms you need to accompany well in a jazz waltz.

The etudes are in a medium tempo and progress from just focusing on the voicings and the voice-leading to add more melody and more variation in the rhythm.

This lesson consists of 3 choruses of comping on the Jazz standard All Of Me. I recorded the examples and transcribed what I played. Each chorus is of a different complexity where the 3rd is almost a chord solo. The voicings are mostly drop2 but there are also some triad voicings and interval stuff. I was trying to demonstrate some good melodic and rhythmical ideas that you can use in other songs as well.

This lesson consists of 3 choruses or comping on the chords of How High The Moon.

The voicings are mostly triad based and drop2 and the lesson demonstrates very well how I mix the two. I was trying to demonstrate some good melodic and rhythmical ideas that you can use in other songs as well, both approaching it with more riff like motifs and more focus on the melodic content.

The most difficult thing about comping is probably not learning the song or finding the voicings. It is to play something that serves as a solid backing and at the same time really works as a strong musical statement.

The transcription and analysis or commentary included in this lesson should help you get some new insight and ideas to improve that in your own playing.

In this lesson the focus is on associating different types of voicings and get to the point that you don’t really think about what voicings you are playing. In a playing situation you should worry about the melody and the rhythm that you want to play.

The main goal here is to group together a lot of chords and then be able to use them without thinking about what chord or what voicing it is. Thereforthe e exercises are easy and progressive, so you should be able to go through them one after the other and in the process expand your vocabulary and ability to comp on a Bb Blues.