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