| LearnJazzPiano.com archives: Counterpoint comping | |
| mooondancer -- 08/09/2004, 17:49:00 -- #6405 | |
| When I listen to great players like Herbie Hancock, I hear great comping skills in addition to solo chops. He's never in the soloist's way, but he projects, and his comp always perfectly supplements the soloist. In bass playing I've heard this is called counterpoint and Ron Carter was a pioneer. Playing lines or rhythms to complement the soloist in a register that doesn't interfere with the solo. Maybe it's all just hearing and playing, which would be fine, but does anyone know of guidelines, ideas or technique relating to good accompaniment playing? What do you do when you're playing with a soloist. | |
| 7 -- 08/09/2004, 21:26:19 -- #6408 | |
| Here's an article that originally was a post on this site, it's a bit fuzzy on specifics, but maybe you'll find it useful. "Comping - The 'Dues and Don'ts' of accompaniment" http://www.JeffreeBrent.com/Lessons/comping.html | |
| mooondancer -- 08/09/2004, 21:30:59 -- #6410 | |
| Thanks for the link | |
| Jazz+ -- 08/09/2004, 23:06:34 -- #6411 | |
| Abersold has published at least three books of transciptions of Mark Levine's comping on certain volumes of the play-along CDs. Levine does a good job of using his same favorite five chord "systems" time and time again with variety. There are also a couple of books of transcriptions of Hal Galper and two of Abersold himself comping on some of the other play-along volumes. | |
| hepcatmonk -- 08/10/2004, 01:43:46 -- #6414 | |
| Jazz+, I've read Mark Levine's jazz piano book, but i'm not sure i know what exactly you're talking about when you mention his "five chord 'systems'." I think I may have forgotten; can you please give me an example to help refresh my memory about what that is? | |
| hepcatmonk -- 08/13/2004, 03:16:40 -- #6475 | |
| oh, is that in the Jazz Theory book and not the Jazz Piano book? | |
| Scot -- 08/13/2004, 09:59:24 -- #6484 | |
| Whenever you are comping, just keep it melodic. All the great compers do that. Listen to Wynton Kelly on Freddie Freeloader. It's amazing. Counterpoint, etc etc, these are good terms, but what you are hearing is simply the pianist creating a subtle melody with the top notes of his chords. Better yet to use notes that work within what the soloist is doing, right? Easy to practice, too, just put on any jazz record and start comping :) | |
| mooondancer -- 08/20/2004, 19:23:19 -- #6624 | |
| thank you everyone for the help. Scot -- what you said about a melodic comp worked perfectly for me. When I started making a subtle melody from the top notes of my chords I began hearing the sounds of Bill Evans, Wyn Kelly... great sounds that I couldn't hear before. This opened up a lot of possibilities for me. Thanks very much. | |
| harveyebrink -- 08/28/2004, 15:37:00 -- #6801 | |
| You can take it too far. I've been told on a number of occasions by the soloist that I've been comping too melodically, even (and sometimes especially) when it's just block chords at medium-up. I was recently on a program with Chip Jackson (bassist with Elvin Jones for a while and now with Billy Taylor) and he said that comping for bass solos should never be melodic (although I can think of many examplesof great pianists ignoring this "rule"). | |
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