Comping

🎵 Play A Great Standard In One Month – Someday My Prince Will Come – Week 2

Welcome to Week 2 of our study of "Someday My Prince Will Come"!

Last week, we began exploring this classic jazz waltz in the traditional key of B♭ major, focusing on practical four-mallet voicings that loosely followed the melody.

We kept the rhythms extremely simple, using dotted half notes to establish the harmony while getting comfortable with the three-beat pulse.

🎵 Play A Great Standard In One Month – Someday My Prince Will Come – Week 1

Welcome to the next installment of Play A Great Standard In One Month!

After spending two full series exploring blues and rhythm changes, we've been applying those concepts to some of the most important standards in the jazz repertoire.

🎵 Play A Great Standard In One Month – Body & Soul – Week 4

We've reached Week 4, the final lesson in our study of "Body and Soul"!

Over the past three weeks, we've developed two different sets of voicings and begun combining those ideas into a complete chord-melody arrangement.

Last week, we introduced what I called a "simple" chord melody, although there was certainly plenty of challenging material to work through!

🎵 Play A Great Standard In One Month – Body & Soul – Week 3

Over the past two weeks, we've been developing our approach to "Body and Soul" by exploring different four-mallet voicings throughout the entire form.

Week 1 focused on voicings that loosely followed the melody, while Week 2 introduced another set of options emphasizing closed voicings and practical comping underneath a soloist.

This week, we're taking those ideas and putting them together into something a little more involved:

🎵 Play A Great Standard In One Month – Body & Soul – Week 2

Last week, we began our study of "Body and Soul" by developing a practical set of voicings through the entire form in the traditional key of D♭ major.

Our focus was on finding good voicings that loosely followed the melody, while becoming comfortable with the tune's rich harmony and challenging modulations.

This week, we're continuing our work on voicings, but with a slightly different approach.

🎵 Play A Great Standard In One Month – Body & Soul – Week 1

Welcome to the next installment of Play A Great Standard In One Month!

After spending two full series exploring blues and rhythm changes, we've moved into a new phase of our studies: applying those concepts to some of the most important standards in the jazz repertoire.

A solo that Tony played that I comped under (or over, I guess)

🎵 Play A Great Standard In One Month – Stella – Week 2

Last week, we began our study of "Stella By Starlight" by developing a practical set of voicings through the entire form.

This week, we're taking those voicings and putting them into a more musical context:

👉 A basic chord melody.

🎵 New Series Alert – Play A Great Standard In One Month!

We've spent the last two series taking a deep dive into two of the most important forms in jazz:

• Play A Great Blues In 3 Months
• Play A Great Rhythm Changes In 3 Months

Those 14-week series gave us plenty of time to develop comping, voicings, melodic vocabulary, substitutions, and improvisational concepts over forms that show up everywhere in jazz.

Now we're ready to move a little faster.

👉 Play A Great Standard In One Month

🎵 Play A Great Rhythm Changes In 3 Months – Week 14

We've made it to Week 14 and the final lesson in our Play A Great Rhythm Changes In 3 Months series!

Over the course of this series, we've worked through rhythm changes from a number of different angles:

• Common four-mallet voicings
• Comping rhythms
• Guide tones and 3rds & 7ths
• Bebop, diminished, and chromatic vocabulary
• Chord and scale outlinings
• Substitute harmony
• Longer melodic phrases
• Transposition and register considerations