comp comp comp

so in the time that has elapsed since last post, the club band has dissolved, and i have joined a combo group from school made up of music scholarship recipients

and i have discovered the beautiful realm of comping...o what a great musical tool! for those of you who dont know what comping is, let me elaborate: comping is when a jazz pianist or guitarist plays chord changes including melodic lines and more frequent chord changes with chord substitutions, creating a really nice feel and texture in music many times comps are played underneath a soloist to give more depth.

since i've mentioned substitutions, here are some fun substitutions if you're feeling quirky:
for a I chord (maj7) you can substitute a iii, or a vi chord i usually switch from I to vi if i stay on the chord for a while like this:

instead of Cmaj7 Cmaj7 Cmaj7 Cmaj7 , you can play

Cmaj7 Amin7 Cmaj7 Amin7 which adds more flavor and is less boring.

or you can substitute a V7 for a V7 based on the flatted 5th of the original chord. confused yet? example:

C7 = C D E F G A Bb

sub a Gb7 chord for the C7 chord - just dont overuse it, because your audience will start to hate you ;)

obviously, you can use chord expansions like this (non-exhaustive list):
I chord can be Maj7, 6, Maj9, 6/9
ii chord can be min6, min7, min11
iii can be min7, min11
IV can be Maj7, Maj9
V can be 7, 9, 7b9, 7#9 (hendrix!), 7#9#11
vi can be min7, min11

bored/confused yet? paha...o the joys off jazz! more to come later...mwahahahah

new gear, new band

this week in review...

i've decided to bring back this blog from the dead, and breathe some new life into it...

since my last post, i've joined an additional jazz band, bought a hollowbody jazz box, and a tube amp! My jazz rig now is a Guitar Research JX17s Eddie Durham Signature model in tobacco sunburst:

And I've bought a Peavey Valveking 112 tube amp with 2 x 6l6GC and 3 x 12AX7 tubes (those goofy circular lines in the picture aren't actually there):

And the band I've joined is called Tuxedo Junction - it will be the house band for a club opening in October in Wake Forest.

I've also decided to review a different artist every week from either jazz or blues history:

this week - Stevie Ray Vaughan
CLICK HERE FOR BIO
and here's a farewell article:
CLICK HERE

band week

I apologize to those few of you who read my blog for not posting last week, but I had to go down to SC for my great-uncle's funeral.

anyway: this week in jazz...


we played pretty much the same songs as last post, but there are a few changes...

Heavy Duty - still about the same tempo, but we added 4 measure fillers (electric guitar) and an electric guitar solo that most of the band forgets...oh well...

Kissing Cousins - no changes

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas - we figured out who takes the melody in which places: alto sax first time around and bridge, tenor and bari second, and trombone and bass third time around

A Jazzy Merry Christmas - fun times: easy chording, but upbeat tempo. All the instruments basically have easy parts.

Catch Me Up - Only the alto sax likes this one...weird chording, spazzy rhythms, and just not a very good jazz song.

its been a while...

So we played some good stuff in jazz band this week, Kissing Cousins, Heavy Duty, and Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas by ear

Kissing Cousins - despite its name, it has nothing to do with incest, but refers to the 'two against one' rhythm, or a triplet against a quarter note. Very jazzy feel, a swing/shuffle beat and I think it's somewhere around quarter = 156. It's got a very simple progression which is a I - IV - V progression (for those that know music) in G. We're gonna play the solo section 4 times, first a trumpet solo, then a tenor sax solo (my sister), an alto sax solo, then an electric guitar solo (that's me). Very simple, but still a goodie.

Heavy Duty - this one's a whole 'nother pancake to put on our stack. This one's funk, set at quarter = 100. It's also a I - IV - V progression (as many songs are) for part of the song, based in Bb. Def. a good song, and this solo section we're taking three times, trombone, trumpet, alto sax, and i get to do little filler stuff on the electric guitar. It's got a crazy bridge section where the bass, electric, and piano have a soli. It took me about 2 weeks to figure that part out - it's a booger.

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas - this one's a classic. I won't explain it here, as most people know it. If you don't know it (and there are 2 people in our jazz band who have either never heard it or only heard it once...they're British) you should look it up on itunes. Playing by ear is something as guitarists we have to do frequently, especially because we don't have the same book as everyone else, but most linear instruments (by linear, I mean can only play one note at a time) can't play by ear. So to break us out of our respective comfort zones, our director told us to pick out the melody, and he wrote the chords on the whiteboard. then he told the other instruments to find their note in the chord. Very boring for me, because I just play the whole chord, but I think it was good for the band as a whole.

week 2

This week we played Public Domain, El Gato Gordo, and Pots and Pans. They're all duplicates from last week because we have a concert coming up on Thursday - hopefully we'll be ready. I did learn one of the weirdest chords this week: an F7 (#11 #9 b9)...try twisting your brain around that one, those of you who understand chord theory. :-)

Maybe I should talk about the band...we've got 3 alto saxes, 2 tenor saxes, 1 bari sax, 3 trumpets, 1 trombone, 2 drummers (not at the same time of course - they switch off songs), 1 piano player, 1 bass, and 2 guitars. as far as musicianship, we're halfway decent, and our ages range from like 10 or 11 to 17.

lch jazz band

I'm a guest musician for the Lighthouse Christian Homeschool band in Wake Forest, and I play electric guitar. My sister plays Tenor sax. Throughout these posts, I'll be discussing the songs we play that week.

This week in jazz, we played some good songs: Pots and Pans, The Pink Panther, Public Domain, El Gato Gordo, Big Bad Bill, along with others.

Pots and Pans - good in the saxes (especially tenor) but a bit repetitive in the guitars. The 'bones (trombones for those who aren't hip to music lingo) and trumpets parts are difficult, but satisfying once played

Pink Panther - an all-around good song, fun to play, and interesting in most instruments, but incredibly repetitive in the guitars and piano

Public Domain - classic jazz progression, and good solo in the tenor sax
El Gato Gordo - good Spanish feel, odd chording in the guitars (like G+7(b5), Gmin13, Bb7(b9) for those of you who understand music), but overall good tune. Crazy good piano bit throughout.

Big Bad Bill - classic tune with great bass line, along with baritone, tenor and alto sax. simple chording, but good nonetheless

Check these songs out on Itunes if you like jazz...