Locked hands comping

[solomon23.st]

I recently completed the minor blues progression course and really enjoyed the comping tutorial titled “enhancing the minor blues progression”

I have some follow up questions:
Is there any material that supports Two handed comping that have a authentic feel such as the course mentioned above. I find practicing 251 drills eventually become a mindless exercise and don’t always improve musically whereas the minor blues tutorial feels and sounds very musical even though it is treated like an exercise.

I also want to confirm if there are ways to voice Two handed chords for comping that are not as sophisticated as red garland voicings.

[Hayden]

Hi Solomon,

Glad to hear you enjoyed the minor blues course.

@solomon23.st

Is there any material that supports Two handed comping that have a authentic feel such as the course mentioned above.

We have a comping masterclass course where you will find demonstrations for all types of comping voicings including: drop 2 voicings, Barry Harris voicings, Red Garland voicings, and quartal voicings.

I also created a course “How To Play in A Jazz Band” which covers comping voicings for the tune “There Will Never Be Another You”. This course is more accessible than the comping demonstrations above, but still requires a good knowledge of rootless voicings and rootless harmony.

@solomon23.st

I find practicing 251 drills eventually become a mindless exercise and don’t always improve musically whereas the minor blues tutorial feels and sounds very musical even though it is treated like an exercise.

In my welcome emails I recommend students to spend roughly 50% of their practice time on theory drills and exercises (taking theory around all 12 keys, circle of 5ths, whole step 251 drills etc…) and 50% of their practice time on jazz standards where we apply the theory in a more musical context.

That’s broadly what I suggest but feel free to tweak this to your preference.

@solomon23.st

I also want to confirm if there are ways to voice Two handed chords for comping that are not as sophisticated as red garland voicings.

I think it really depends on what you mean by ‘not as sophisticated’.

If you mean ‘less notes’ then try rootless drop 2 voicings.

You will see in the comping demonstration course that Tuomo starts with these voicings to demonstrate a clean, simple, and effective way to comp with 2 hands.

Check out the course references and let me know if I can help further.