Start "Comping" Over a 12 Bar Jazz Blues!

To me, "comping" means accompanying or complementing a melody with the use of chords.

If you're learning to improvise, you'll likely start with a 12 Bar Blues for its simplicity and common usage for the many styles of music in which it's found. We often get excited by the idea of ripping through scales and licks over a tune, but before doing that, start by learning the chords and how to play them. After all, you'll be improvising over the chords. So, how does one do this, especially when coming from a rock/pop background?

Here's some ideas to help you get started:

1. Listen to jazz players and how they use different colors and rhythms.

2. Start by playing "four to the floor" (quarter notes with a north to south strum) over a "straightjacket" blues (I IV V). Note: the rhythm slashes are not quarter notes, rather an indefinite rhythm to be used that represent the number of beats per measure.

3. Use a Charleston rhythm (dotted quarter note followed by an eighth note)

4. Add a few substitute chords that are easy to play: F9 for F7, C9 for C7.

5. Add transitional chords ("slips and slides") that give more interest, tension, and forward motion: B7, F#9

Click on the page to hear it.

6. Add more chords to the "Straitjacket" I IV V Blues, like Gm7.

RULE: In jazz, you can precede a V7 (C7) chord with it's ii7 chord (Gm7).

Precede the Gm7 with D7, it's V7 chord and secondary dominant: V7/ii7 = D7/Gm7.

NOTE: With these added chords, you're moving through the cycle of 4ths (same as 5ths back cycling): D7, Gm7, C7, F7.

7. Now create a backing track of the chords, and also get with an actual human to jam!