Easy Comping Over Hard Changes - Taking It From the Top Copyright 2003, Larry P. Schrof Let's say I asked you, as a rhythm guitarist, to comp through the following chord changes: C7#11 , B7(#5, b9) , Gmin6/Bb , A6(9). If you're like most players, you'll be thinking about two primary things as you play each chord. First, you'll decide where you want to play the chord on the fretboard, and what note you want to build the chord off of. (Many players choose to build from the root.) Next, you'll decide which voicing you'd like to use for the current chord. While this is a very prevalent approach to guitar comping, it has some drawbacks. First, it hampers your creativity. This is because you are mentally focusing on the root of the chord. If you are comping and see a chord symbol such as 'DbMaj7b5', your brain immediately kicks into "Db mode". The intervals that your brain and fingers seek out will all be in reference to that Db. Another drawback is that we often don't know many voicings for certain chords. (How many voicings do you know offhand for a B13#11 ?) I'd like to show you a different approach that can greatly simplify things for you. The best part is that it will help you sound FRESH. It opens up both your physical mobility and creativity. Once you invest some initial effort, you'll be able to tear through some insane chord changes and sound fantastic. I call my approach "top-down chord reduction". (I"m sure many others have used this approach before I discovered it, and called it by another name. I just like to pretend I'm special.) Normally, our ears think from the root up, and as guitar players, we tend to voice chords from the root up. With top-down chord reduction, however, we mentally reverse things. We only look at the upper 3 (sometimes 4) notes of a chord. Let's take an example chord - DbMaj9(#11). Whew - that's quite a chord! Let's break it down from the top. The top three notes are C (the major 7th), Eb (the major 9th), and G (the #11). Hmm... C, Eb, and G. Hah - nothing more than a C minor triad! While you may not know a lot of voicings for a Maj9(#11) chord, I bet you can whip out a lot of C minor triads! For example, to start sounding slick right away, simply pick a set of 3 strings and start comping up and down the inversions of a C minor triad. (Guitar Proficiency Level 2 anyone?) Of course, you'll need some sort of accompaniment to hear the context and effects of your triadic comping. It gets even better. Take a look at an Amin(maj7) chord. The top three notes are C, E, and G# - a C augmented triad. Why is this great for rhythm guitarists? Since augmented triads are very symmetrical (can be moved up and down the fretboard without changing finger shapes), they are easy to lay down some mean comps with. Similarly, if we look at the top four notes of a G7b9 chord, we see a Bdim7 chord. Like augmented triads, dim7 chords are symmetrical, and easy to move up and down (IE, comp creatively) with. In some cases, you may want to move notes from the lower part of the chord toward the top. This can help you form triads you already recognize and know how to play. In the case of a C6(9, #11) chord, I'd mentally move the A (the 6th) to the top of the chord. Then, I can think about D major triads when comping over this chord. All that remains, once you know the process, is to map out the triads for each chord and get creative. Try wide-spread voicings. Walk up and down the neck with inversions. Try double-stops. Throw in some open strings where possible for a different sound. Experiment. Finally, here's a chart which I hope will be of use to you. The left column is a list of chord types. (I used C as the tonic.) The middle column is the triad or chord you can use to comp over them. The right column is perhaps the most useful. It is what you can memorize to determine what triad to play over a given chord type. Chord Upper triad Relation to chord root ----- ----------- ---------------------- Cmin7b5 Eb minor Minor triad, up minor 3rd C7b9 dim7 chord Dim7 chord, up major 3rd C7#9 Eb major Major triad, up minor 3rd C7(#5,b9) C# minor Minor triad, up 1 half step C7(b5,b9) Gb major Major triad, up a tritone C7(#5, #9) Absus2 Sus2 triad, down 2 whole steps C7(b5, #9) Eb minor Minor triad, up minor 3rd Cmaj7b5 Esus2 Sus2 triad, up major 3rd Cmaj7#5 E major Major triad, up major 3rd Cmin(maj 7) Eb augmented Augmented triad, up minor 3rd Cdim(maj 7) B major Major triad, down 1 half step C9 G minor Minor triad, up perfect 5th Cmaj9 G major Major triad, up perfect 5th Cmin9 G minor Minor triad, up perfect 5th C11(b13) Bb7 Dom7 chord, down 1 whole step C13 Bbmaj7 Maj7 chord, down 1 whole step C13#11 D major Major triad, up 1 whole step Overall, the goal of this approach is to simplify the mental process of rhythm comping so that you can be more creative. Your overall success depends on two main things - your knowledge of triadic voicings, and your musical taste. I hope this concept freshens up your sound and helps take your comping to the next level. Good luck, and practice hard.