Jazz Piano Comping EXPLAINED!

In this lesson, I give a FULL BREAKDOWN of my comping over the Duke Ellington tune "Do Nothing Til' You Hear From Me" as performed with the Rodney Whitaker Group at the Dirty Dog Jazz Cafe in Grosse Pointe, MI 4/17/22. In this analysis we examine comping voicings, comping rhythms, comping textures and how the melody informs your comping.
To DOWNLOAD THE LESSON PDF (transcription): www.bijantaghavi.com/lesson-vi...
Personnel in the Clip:
Rockelle Fortin (vocals)
Maestro Chris Glassman (trombone)
Hugh Downs (guitar)
Bijan Taghavi (piano)
Maestro Rodney Whitaker (bass)
Sarah Whitaker (drums)
I have more jazz piano comping videos and practice exercises in my lesson library for my private correspondence students. To come on board email me at [e-mail] we could set up a free zoom meeting/lesson assessment and I can tell you about my unique personal video correspondence lessons.
Read more about my personalized video lessons at: www.bijantaghavi.com/personali...
Chapters:
Intro 0:00-0:48
Comping Concepts 0:49-2:24
Do Nothing Til’ You Hear From Me Excerpt w/ Transcription 2:25-3:52
Intro Analysis 3:53-6:16
TIP (Comping Rhythms) 6:17-6:49
TIP (Comping Movement) 6:50-7:50
TIP (Chord Substitutions) 7:51-8:40
TIP (Seamless Orchestration Transitions) 8:41-9:05
TIP (Melodic Comping Orch 1) 9:06-9:35
TIP (Arrangement Figure) 9:36-10:36
Head In (First A Analysis) 10:37-11:34
TIP (2-5-1 Comping Movement) 11:35-11:49
TIP (Melodic Comping Orch 2) 11:50-12:23
TIP (Comping for Vocalists) 12:24-13:34
TIP (Offbeat Comping) 13:35-14:25
TIP (Chord Substitutions) 14:26-15:40
Head In (Second A Analaysis) 15:41-15:55
TIP (Glissandos) 15:56-17:21
TIP (Voicing Approach) 17:22-18:51
TIP (Sidestep Comping Texture) 18:52-20:45
TIP (Voicing Syncopation) 20:46-22:49
TIP (Voicings Bar 24) 22:50-23:42
TIP (KNOW THE MELODY) 23:43-24:40
Head In (Bridge Analysis) 24:41-26:50
Head In (Last A Analysis) 26:51-27:32
TIP (Visual Stacking Analysis) 27:33-28:58
TIP (Double Down Voicings) 28:59-29:48
TIP (Rodney Whitaker’s Reharmonization) 29:49-31:04
Outro 31:05-31:55
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#jazzpianocomping #jazzpianovoicings #compingrhythms #jazzcomping #compingvoicings #jazzpianolesson #jazzlessons #dukeellington #jazzpianotranscription

[@humblemai2211]

😅😅great teacher always

[@TheTopcat1441]

This is gold.

[@BijanTaghavi]

Thank you for the comment, so glad you enjoyed the video! Be sure to subscribe for more here - every Monday we will be releasing a 60second short lesson and on Thursdays we will be releasing long form lesson videos like this. So much more to come!

[@danle2884]

Hi you are young, but this stuff is what I have been looking for. Congrats.

[@Domstraight]

It's been a while that i was looking for a video just like that ! Thank you very much for your work Bijan ! Really informative !

[@BijanTaghavi]

Thank you for the comment, Dominic. So glad to hear that you found this informative. 🙏

[@alecaird2966]

Really nice analysis and chord voicing! Thx 🎼🎶🎹

[@BijanTaghavi]

Thanks Alec! Glad you found it helpful! Comping was always a mystery to me when it came to learning jazz piano. The focus is oftentimes so much on soloing, but we forget that the primary role of a pianist and why a pianist gets hired is to COMP and to make OTHERS sound better. So this is just a little introduction to my philosophy on group comping voicings (although there is more to comping than just Voicings too, rhythm and the attack are also important).

[@pablo80955]

Awesome tips thanks ! At 12:10 your Bb voicing doesn't have a third at all is it normal ?

[@BijanTaghavi]

If you notice the melodic movement I play in the RH uses the 3rd. (FBbF - D - FBbF) But you are right in that the main voicing doesn’t use a 3rd and it could stand alone without that melodic movement. In my related short on Orchestration 1 4-note group comping voicings I similarly played a 2-5-1 in F where I played D+G C+F for the 1 chord which interestingly doesn’t have a 3rd in it either. Generally you always want 3rds and 7ths in your LH at the core of the voicing. So how can this be? A 4th voicing is structurally strong enough to still bring across the sound of the chord without necessarily having the 3rd or 7th in it - we refer to this as a 6/9 voicing. Thanks for the observation and hope this helps!

[@pablo80955]

@@BijanTaghavi Thank you for your answer ! Yes I guess as long as you play notes from the scale it doesn't go aigainst the nature of the chord, which is pretty clear with the context of a tune , but that's interesting it makes a more open sound !

[@humblemai2211]

😅😅😅bebop please