These piano comping practice tips are meant to give you specific exercises to practices that will improve your harmonic understanding and help you learn the chords to a bunch of jazz tunes. Popular piano accompaniment styles hdpiano youtube. We serve students in newton, waltham, cambridge, and the surrounding areas. Description bebop jazz piano this bebop jazz piano method includes chords and voicings, harmony and chord progressions, scales and tonality, common melodic figures and patterns, comping, characteristics tune, styles of bud powe. Great lefthand accompaniment patterns for the piano or. Jim hall chords and comping techniques jazz guitar comping is an art form in its own right.
Jazz keyboard voicings and bass line writing nafme. The first comping rhythm well explore is probably the most popular and wellknown jazz guitar rhythm, the freddie green fourtothebar quarter note pulse. As pianists we need to be ready to accept 2 different roles. One of the most userfriendly lefthand patterns is the arpeggio.
Take a one or two bar phrase and transpose it to all 12 keys. Very basic left hand comping handout for piano learn jazz. Piano comping practice tips cocktail piano lessons. That is a pretty simple definition of comping chords, but it works. Before we can get into piano comping, we need to learn the chord voicings for the song. Stylegroove usesf e e l main patte rn s imp le v ariat io n s single notes, blocked chords the simples t lh pat ter n is just sing le not es or chords. Any time youre faced with playing straight chords or even playing melodies from a fake book which pretty much just gives the chord names, youre left to your own resources to supply an. The iv and v chords are extended to include the 9th e. Try to play the phrase on as many sets of strings as possible. I will give a more detailed description of left hand comp at a later date.
Any time youre faced with playing straight chords or even playing melodies from a fake book which pretty much just gives the chord names, youre left to your own resources to supply an interestingsounding. If there is no bass player in the band, then the piano is in charge of playing both the montuno in the right hand and the tumbao in the left hand. We provide free sheet music download files and sheet music pdf files to the public without restrictions and you can listen to full free sheet music download playback of any track. Boogie bass patterns are very useful for keyboard comping. You can comp sparsely and delicately listen to count basie or aggressively and busily listen to mccoy tyner. Youre job here is to support the soloist by providing a rich harmonic background for. Any time youre faced with playing straight chords or even. Worth, tx to show how to use different accompaniment patterns for the same three chords. The outcome is an exploration of different approaches to developing confidence and aptitude in solo jazz piano performance. Comping guides, rhythms, and progressions derived from the transcriptions. How to comp on piano like a pro making music magazine. Chord voicings to get started with chord voicings for. These progressions feature various voicings and techniques, including tritone substitution, the. She is also a piano and voice instructor and performs.
You should transpose these two voicings into all 12 keys after you learn them. One of the most important tools for your piano playing bag of tricks is a good supply of lefthand accompaniment patterns. Check out the article, how to comp on piano like a pro, by scott. Buy jazz piano comping piano book with online audio at. Write the letter name and chord quality above each chord in the left hand. Download all rhythms, patterns, and lesson notation in the pdf file below.
In this video i show you 5 jazz piano comping patterns which will work over a c minor 7 chord. Stylegroove usesf e e l main patte rn s imp le v ariat io n s single notes, blocked chords the simples t lh pat ter n is just sing le not es. A horn section pattern lets pick a rhythm that imitates a big band born section. Six months to jazz piano international association for jazz education conference january 12, 2008. Comping pattern 8 is a typical style used by fats domino. Chord voicings to get started with chord voicings for any jazz standard at the piano, you must first learn how to form rootless chord voicings. No comping just holding down chords once per symbol. This book is very well structured and helped me make the transition from simple. In comping patterns 10 to the i chord is played with chord tones 1 and 7 in the left hand, and chord tones 3 and 5 in the right hand. Very basic left hand comping handout for piano learn. Comping on the off beats is an effective tool which works well with the underlying bassline by accenting the up beat. Comping rhythms for jazz piano now that you can walk a bass line, and know which notes to play for a nice 4note voicing sound with your right hand, lets talk about rhythm and give you something to practice. Check out the article, how to comp on piano like a pro, by scott houston.
Once you have learned a few of these patterns you will be able to combine them in a number of ways to create a solid jazz feel. When you become an accomplished pattern player and you would like to play solo piano, no singing or other instruments, you will be able to insert the melody back into your patterns and maintain full, rich arrangements. Comping is an art, and there is no right or wrong way to do it. See what you can come up with and take your piano playing to. The i iv v chords are all related through the circle of 5ths which creates a natural sense of tension and release in the blues progression.
The main scales of western music are major and minor scales. But broadly, there are three different comping styles or approaches you can employ. Berklee pressjazz piano comping free sheet music download pdf. This pdf will be a big help to many jazz pianists and other instrumentalists who want to get better at voicing chords in their left hand. It refers to the chords and rhythms an instrumentalist plays while the vocalist is singing or other musicians are soloing. Studypractice notes never throw your hands at the keys. Download all rhythms, patterns, and lesson notation in the pdf. The comping rhythms, melodies, and voicings of the greatest jazz guitarists are delightful to listen to, with or without a. As well as the creation of accompaniment patterns for solo jazz piano performance, outcomes of this project include a greater descriptive understanding of the process of.
Playing a steady rhythm lets play each chord in a steady pattern of quarter notes. This provides smooth transitions from chord to chord. Encourage them to listen to rhythms found in the pianist. Jazz, blues, and boogiewoogie left hand patterns, 3. How to comp chords comping chords on the piano this is definitely one of the more complicated aspects of playing the piano. By holly day, jerry kovarksy, blake neely, david pearl, michael pilhofer. Introduce the snare and bass drum as having comping voices, which can help support a rhythmic idea either in the piano, soloist, or big band. The first comping rhythm well explore is probably the most popular and wellknown jazz guitar rhythm, the freddie green fourtothebar.
Write out this exercise on manuscript paper in all twelve keys. Evidence of the cuban rhythm called clave is widespread in all swing and latin related styles. Berklee pressjazz piano comping free sheet music download. Note that scale degrees 10 is the same as 3, 12 the same as 5, 14 the same as 7, and 15 the same as and root. All of these are chord tones ct, and therefore, these are not tensions.
Apr 06, 2016 these piano comping practice tips are meant to give you specific exercises to practices that will improve your harmonic understanding and help you learn the chords to a bunch of jazz tunes. She is also a piano and voice instructor and performs at many restaurants and parties in the boston area. It is relatively easy to play a chord in the left hand, hold it down, and improvise with the right hand. Afrocuban latin jazz explained the jazz piano site. Simply combine a boogie pattern in the left hand with a rhythm pattern of chords in the right hand. Steve also demonstrates the use of more randomlyplaced horn punches to create rhythmic interest and variety. For example, a short pattern that is played on two strings could be played on strings 12, 23, 34, 45, and 56. Play the scale and the chords of the seventh in all twelve keys. Jazz piano comping how to comp the jazz piano site. Devices such as text painting and thoughtprovoking preludes and postludes in the lieder of schubert and schumann, for example, occur in jazz, though perhaps not often enough. Every scale determines a key,that is an harmonic combunation of tones. I only included 100 left hand patterns, but there are so many more patterns you can create. Youre job here is to support the soloist by providing a rich harmonic background for them to play or to sing over. So again, you can think of all these patterns as a kind of rhythmic vamp thats played through the entire song.
Playing nonrepeating stabs this is more like comping as played by pros. Jazz piano basics dan davey tensions are non chord tones that are added to a chord to change the colortexture of the chord. Comping is the practice of using chords to accompany a melody j. Jim hall chords and comping techniques terence wright. Mar 21, 2017 in this video i show you 5 jazz piano comping patterns which will work over a c minor 7 chord. See what you can come up with and take your piano playing to the next level. Chord tones 1 and 3 are played in the left hand, and chord tones 7 and 9 in the right hand. Harmonies, voicings, and grooves paperback january 1, 2012. Lets dive in and learn 10 classic and essential jazz guitar rhythm patterns. Scales and melodies are fine material for the left hand, but they arent leftys main gig on the paino or keyboard. Rather, your left hand begs to be playing accompaniment patterns while your right hand noodles around with a melody or some chords. Debbie was a lecturer in jazz appreciation at western michigan university.
Sep 12, 2017 we provide free sheet music download files and sheet music pdf files to the public without restrictions and you can listen to full free sheet music download playback of any track. Piano comping is primarily about grooving, and yes, it is also about interaction, but there can be no interaction without a groove. Contemporary chord patterns for piano accompaniment 26 patterns for accompaniment using same the 3 chords this is a pdf i used in a workshop in ft. One of the most important things to remember is that comping is shorthand for accompanying. How to play accompaniment patterns on the piano or. Visit our blog for free piano lessons, sheet music and video tutorials. Here are the basic patterns well start with example ia example 1b notice that in example 1b the rhythms are the same as in ia except that the last note note of the. Most jazz comping rhythms are simple and straightforward. Before using this guide, pleas e r ef er to my not es a t ti mtopham. Boogie bass patterns click on any pattern to hear its audio audio demos. I came up with a comping handout for the students to help them learn about lefthanded voicings.