Comping

🚨 Play a Great Blues in 3 Months – Week 12

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been working with blues melodies and combining them with chord voicings—moving toward a more complete, chord melody approach.

This week, we introduce a new tune:

👉 “Sonnymoon for Two”

This melody has a slightly different character than Bag’s Groove—it’s more rhythmically active and sits differently against the harmony.

In this version, you’ll notice:

🚨 Play a Great Blues in 3 Months – Week 11

Last week, we started working with a real tune—“Bag’s Groove”—combining the melody with chord voicings in the spaces.

This week, we take that idea a step further.

👉 We move toward a more chord melody approach.

In this version, you’ll notice:

• Some melody notes are now harmonized with chords
• Additional voicings fill out the texture
• Certain harmonies are slightly modified for a fuller sound
• The line and harmony are more integrated

🚨 Play a Great Blues in 3 Months – Week 10

Up to this point, we’ve been building a blues vocabulary through:

• Guide tones
• Chromaticism
• Augmented, diminished, and whole tone sounds
• Full chorus line studies

This week, we shift into something more practical:

👉 Applying these ideas to a real tune

We’re using the melody to “Bag’s Groove” as our starting point, and combining it with chord voicings in the spaces.

This is an important step.

Instead of thinking separately about:

🚨 Play a Great Blues in 3 Months – Week 4

Up to this point, we’ve stayed in F and focused on building a strong foundation:

• Clear guide tone movement
• Controlled upper voice motion
• Consistent Charleston rhythm

This week, we take a big step forward.

👉 We move to the key of B♭, one of the most common blues keys.

🚨 Play a Great Blues in 3 Months – Week 3

Over the first two weeks, we focused on building a solid foundation:

• Clear guide tone movement in the left hand
• A stable and controlled upper voice
• Consistent Charleston rhythm

This week, we start introducing more functional harmonic movement into the blues.

You’ll notice a few important additions:

🚨 Play a Great Blues in 3 Months – Week 2

Last week we built the foundation of our blues comping using guide tones and the Charleston rhythm. The goal was simple: clear harmony and solid time.

This week we’ll start adding a little more movement to the voicings.

Instead of keeping the upper voice mostly static, we’ll move the top note of the chord to create two different sounds for the same harmony. Even a small change in the top note can dramatically change how the voicing feels.

🚨 New Series Alert – Play a Great Blues in 3 Months

Back in January at the World Vibes Congress, I shared materials from my Working on Time series — focusing on pulse, clarity, and guide tone awareness on the vibraphone 

A lot of that material centered around one idea:

If your time and your guide tones are clear, the music makes sense.

This new 15-week track builds directly on that foundation — but now we apply it to something practical:

🎵 Playing a great blues.

🚨 Playing in 3/4 – Pt. 10: Tune Study – “Little B’s Poem” (Advanced Comping)

Part 10 builds on the previous comping chorus by introducing more syncopated rhythms, tighter voice-leading, and additional chord-tone alterations throughout the form. This chorus is designed to feel more conversational and interactive, giving you tools to comp with texture, color, and forward motion while staying grounded in the 3/4 feel of “Little B’s Poem.”

🚨 Playing in 3/4 – Pt. 9: Tune Study – “Little B’s Poem” (Comping Chorus)

Part 9 shifts from melodic ideas to full-chorus comping, applying everything from earlier lessons to the harmonic and rhythmic language of “Little B’s Poem.” This etude explores how to support the tune’s flowing 3/4 feel using clear voicings, smooth voice-leading, and rhythmic patterns that create a relaxed yet forward-moving pulse.

Here is the answer: Find the shape you like and come up with different sticking, then go through different scale!!! 

If you don't know what is the rootless voicing, no worries! we'll talk more later!!

come up with your own sticking ideas and some interesting shapes!! BTW, check out Tony's video:https://www.vibesworkshop.com/video-embed/chords/tonymiceli/070225