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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #87149 in Books
• Published on: 2005-07-28
• Released on: 2005-07-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 136 pages

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.

About the Author
Andrew Green is a guitarist residing in New York City. A professional musician since the age of 15, he has played with such jazz notables as Donald Byrd, Billy Hart, Joanne Brackeen, Winard Harper, Mat Maneri, John McNeil, Chip Jackson, Matt Wilson, Ralph LaLama,and Dave Berkman,among others. In addition to performing, conducts clinics throughout the US and Canada.

Customer Reviews

Too many errors for my taste
I ordered all three books (currently) by Andrew Green on Amazon due to the bundle pricing. All the reviews said wonderful things about the books. And I really enjoy reading the lastest techniques and teachings. I'm an intermediate player, having done 4 years at a major university for Jazz. That was 15+ years ago but still I consider myself fairly decent.

I received the book and noticed right away the section on chord voicings was quite poor. Some had unforgivable stretches on page 10, the first page of chord voicings, entitled "basic chord voicings". As Joe Pass said if you having to stretch that far your doing it all wrong. The example I can give is the C major 6 chord found on the first group of chords. There are four other ways, that come to the top of my head, to play that chord in the third position better then shown. If this is a teaching book, the author is teaching some really wacky chord fingerings right off the bat.

So, it took me a day to get over this, I start thinking it's just a style of teaching - the author wants to push you further etc. Then I came across something that makes me wish I could simply return the books. On the same page he displays a C Major 7. The chord is shown with the A,F,D,Bb from the high E to the D string, the Bb being on the 8th fret. Last time I checked those series of notes are a Bb major 7. There is no excuse for these type of mistakes on the first 10 pages of a teaching book.

Anyway - if I find this many errors on first ten pages - I have to give the review 1 star. And I have to say - I don't write alot of reviews - I just think if I can save some poor fellow 20-30 dollars then I will feel better.

Don't buy if you can't read music
Great book but you better know how to read music. No tab and very few chord diagrams.

the most comprehensive jazz guitar comping book
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.