Jazz Guitar Comping (Paperback)

~ Andrew Green (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Jazz Guitar Comping helps players get a handle on the most important job a guitarist has when playing in a small group: comping. This book will show guitarists ways to create chord voicings and comping rhythms that will make them an asset to any jazz group.

From the Publisher

"Comping" is an abbreviation of the word "accompanying". Within a Jazz group, it is the art of improvising a chordal accompaniment for a soloist or singer. When you are the only chordal instrument in the group, you will likely spend 75% of the time comping--which means that it is the most important thing you do.

Jazz Guitar Comping gives the guitarist the tools needed to be an effective comper, and an asset to any small jazz group. There is a wealth of information about building chords, voice leading and the rhythm. The CD contains mny examples from the book and includes recorings of a jazz quartet with analysis of the soloist and the comping.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 136 pages
• Publisher: Microphonic Press (July 28, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0970057644
• ISBN-13: 978-0970057648
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #203,908 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book about comping, February 24, 2006

By	Christopher Meng "Meng" (San Diego, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

35 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Way more than hip and juicy chords!, September 1, 2005

By	Louis W. Arnold "life long guitarist" (Lunenburg, MA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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!

35 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Andrew Green has done it again, October 14, 2005

By	"Unnecessary" Quotes "handstand artist" - See all my reviews

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.