Customer Reviews

Jazz Guitar Comping

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1 star:		(2)

 

 

Jazz Guitar Comping by Andrew Green is the newest volume in what is now a trilogy of great worth on the art of playing jazz guitar. This is an approach to help one learn how to comp musically in a small group setting. Andrew Green organizes the material in ways that are easy to understand and visualize. Every concept he puts forth is illustrated by a track on the accompanying CD and the quality of the recording and the content (great playing) are first rate. The four studies with analysis that finish the book are amazing not only because they are played by some really great players who work their art every day in New York and all over the world, but also because Andrew can write about what's going on in the group measure by measure and give us real insight into the spontaneous creation that is essential to jazz. This book is very much about playing jazz today, a time in which guitar is often the only chord instrument in the ensemble. It also is not an academic approach but rather a look at how a practicing professional musician with spirit and imagination approaches his role in the band. There's lots of good material here - highly reccomend!

This is the third book I've purchased by Andrew Green. I'm a big fan of how he presents information. 'Jazz Guitar Comping', like his other books makes learning simple. What I find so attractive about all of these books is that instead of getting an overwhelming amount of information, I get a simple and concise explanation. This simple explanation can then be applied to my own explorations of comping, soloing, technique, etc.. I like this format much better than books I've acquired in the past that immediately give me, let's say, 300 chords to learn and leave it at that without much of a learning system.

'Jazz Guitar Comping' not only presents information I've seen before in much simpler terms, but also has some great ideas that are new to me. The multi-use voicings chapter, much like the multiple uses of structures in 'Jazz Guitar Structures', is wonderfully informative.

I'm a teacher so I'm familiar with a number of learnign styles. This book seems to work well for those with a self-driven, concept-based learning style. It's very good about explaning concepts and principles rather than relying on memorization. These concepts allow for experimentation and trial by the student. This is a learning method that yields great results because of all of the application.

Thank you Andrew Green for another good guitar book.

This is the third book in Andrew Green's spectacular series, and it is becoming increasingly evident that Mr. Green is one of the most lucid and effective instructors of jazz guitar in print. As with "Technique" and "Structures," Mr. Green offers multiple chapters that can be used chronologically or as independent resources.

Unlike "Structures," which focused the reader more on the learning process than on the content of the book, "Comping" offers an enormous amount of content on every single line, but leaves it to the reader to figure out how to best internalize the ideas. As such, I find that I will study a page for an hour or more at a sitting, moving back and forth between the concept in the book (e.g. voice leading using chromatic motion on the top voice of the chord) and my Real Book.

As with the other books in this series, the reader should have some music reading ability. While many of the chords are diagrammed, most are not. Moreover, thinking in terms of fingering without a concept of the larger harmonic picture probably doesn't work when it comes to much of the book's subject matter. That said, my music reading was just terrible when I started using these books, and I have been able to get to the concepts with less frustration than I would have felt studying the writing of a lesser teacher who used tablature.

If you truly want to expand your musical horizons and see immediate rewards for your efforts, I advise you to buy every book in this series.

This is the most comprehensive jazz guitar comping book I've come across. It's loaded with information and better yet, Andrew Green has a great way of presenting things that make it easier to apply than other methods. I also own Andrews 'Structures' book and am finding these two books to be favorites. It's easy to follow and apply, and there's a lot of meat to the books.

I compared this to Jim Fergusons's Comping book and it's a no contest for me. Andrew's better in presenting things and provides much more. The only thing it doesn't touch is chord melody playing, which is understandable. The best book to me on chord melody is Robert Conti's Chord Melody Assembly Line book.

Like the 'Structures' book, there is a decent amount of reading (as in notational reading and no tab) so I wouldn't say his series is made for the beginner. But if you can read a little and have some experience but are just getting into jazz, then I highly recommend Andrew's series.

This book is one of the best I have seen on the subject of the use of "jazz" chords,or harmony as it relates to a modern or contemporary sound.this book is not a good book for beginners though the book is very clear in that he points out that in modern jazz there is not a lot of different chords or harmonies used therefore a good handle on
theory and chord substitution is very important or the book may be over ones head.Still it is a Excellent book and
is worth having a copy.

As a professor of music at a university in New York, I consider Jazz
Guitar Comping to be a must have for all my guitar students. This
book excels at detailing how to use chord voicings in a musical way
(rather than page after page of chord grids that never address how to
connect the chords when actually making music). Starting with simple
voice leading illustrations using basic jazz voicings all the way to
complex chord construction using both traditional and modern
approaches, this book covers a lot of ground. The section on Rhythms is
great at outlining many possibilities. I also like the fact
that Green doesn't bog you down with too much text. Everything is
explained concisely and then you start playing. Simply the best book
on comping available.

Great book but you better know how to read music. No tab and very few chord diagrams.

As structured and clear as the other books from Andrew Green (cf. Jazz Guitar Structures, excellent one too). The examples are all very musical and the ideas extremely interesting. For example multi-use voicings is nice. If you buy it you won't regret it, for sure !

As a jazz guitarist, comping is one of the most important things you will do, and yet many people can't comp creatively. I got stuck using the same old chord voicings, but this book has opened up the creative aspect of comping, making it fun again.

Perfect book for me, it trains me at sight reading + it has good exercices. Andrew Green has a clear and simple way of explaining how and when to use voicings. The examples that he gives have a modern and hype sound which I appreciate. Great book :)