Sir, I have no words to say how valuable your channel is. This particular video is probably the most concise presentation of what makes good swing-style comping. Love your content. You're ahead of the competition in many respects. The other YT jazz instructors either try to pack too much into a single lesson or lack the gift of explaining things both clearly and thoroughly. The best advice I could give to an aspiring guitar guy would be: stick to Jazz guitar with Andy and you'll go far. Study his videos from the earliest ones and things will start to make sense in no time! All the best from a fellow player from Poland!
Dziękuję Ci! Thanks so much for the comment Marcin. That's very kind of you to say. I don't watch too much of the competition as I just like doing things my way. I spent a summer in Poland once, near Lublin. Such a beautiful country you live in. Andy
Andy, your lessons are filling in a lot of gaps in my knowledge, some quite basic, like this lesson on solid rhythm playing. I'm a retired guy that has managed to restart my musical education at conservatory. Your lessons are becoming "go-to" supplemental information for me. Clear, concise and on topic. Thanks.
Hi Andy, excellent Lesson as always. Can you do a lesson about the strategy of Chord-Voicings and Chord-Inversions to get a forward Motion within a Chord Progression??
Comping is one of my favorite ways of playing and the damping of the strings was always a problem. The close up of the chord and fingering has given me a better insight so thanks Andy, and happy your feeling well again.
Hey Andy! So nice to see how confident you have become. I have followed you from the days of your first videos. You are speaking with real authority now, and so comfortable doing it. And I appreciate the fact that you don’t seem to be using a teleprompter. (Keeping it real!). I’m currently in a trad band. Sort of in the same vein as Tuba Skinny, though nowhere near as masterful as they are. I had no training or experience when I landed in this role, I came out of straight ahead. Had to kind of figure trad out on the fly. Your breakdown of the the strumming technique here is great! This helps me so much. It’s so granular. Just hearing you elucidate this is going to improve my performance starting tomorrow! For example, I had completely forgotten about paying attention to whether I’m strumming closer to the neck or the bridge. I think that’s something that I do naturally, but I’m not even sure. Next time I play it’s going to make a real difference that I’m aware of it! Two questions: We perform two or three times a week but we can only get a good upright player about 1/2 the time we play (they are in short supply, even in Brooklyn). So it’s often just me (and sometimes the washboard) keeping the form together. So I have developed a bastardized way of comping in this style, strumming my chords with a root-5th, root-5th baseline (single notes on beats 1 & 3) to keep things moving on the bottom. After watching your video, I guess that what I’m doing isn’t really a thing? Do you have any thoughts or suggestions about that? It’s working, but I don’t want to ge laughed out of town. Does anyone comp this style on guitar with a bass line in the strumming pattern? And secondly, your example of swinging too hard on the two and four. When I heard you demonstrate that, it actually reminded me of myself a little bit. I suddenly realized I need to be careful with it. But to be honest, I do it on purpose sometimes. I like to push the 2 & 4 really hard on occasion. Especially when that final chorus of the (wildly embellished) melody is happening and I’ve got the clarinet, trumpet and trombone wailing their heads off. I find it really effective to push the strong beats a little harder than I would during the rest of the song. Also, sometimes when one section of a song switches to another and it feels like the appropriate thing to do, I can light a small fire under the horn players’ butts to start swinging harder when I strum that way. (Even though it is a bit of a New York New York!… now the showgirls start kicking their legs kind of schtick. What do you think? I don’t want to be a cornball, but I find that there is actually lots of room for how pushy you can be with the forced swing feel before it starts to be too much. Thanks for a great lesson. It really got me thinking.
Cheers James. I really should watch an earlier video to compare! 2 great questions there. Can't believe you can't get an upright player in Brooklyn! 1) Yes this is a thing- I did at my gig on one tune on Saturday. Sometimes a tune calls for it, often the older tunes and simpler tunes. It makes lots of sense if you don't have a bass player. I do just as you say, root on A and 5th on the E. It's just one variation. I usually keep things pretty short on each beat when I do that rhythm.My video really is just a general guide and that rhythm should do most situations. There are many variations over the development of the genre and nuances to certain eras. 2) Re too hard on 2 and 4 - rules are to be broken! Again, if the song calls for it then do it. I do sometimes, often at the climax of a tune or as you say to highlight the form. In terms of my video, I wouldn't want someone doing it all of the time. Ps. have you ever been to the River Cafe in Brooklyn. Had one of favourite meals of my life there watching sunset over Manhattan. Now that's a day I'd happily relive.
Wow. The River Cafe! Pretty fancy, but yes I’ve eaten there once. It was lovely. As a matter of fact, I was busking there with the trad players this summer at Fulton Landing in Dumbo right in front of the entrance to the River Cafe. We had a trumpet player visiting from New Orleans who is a professional busker in the French Quarter. He was amazing, and schooling all of us. We had a small crowd going. But the Brooklyn Bridge Park rangers came by and ran us off because of my battery powered amp. So we took our earnings and ate lunch. Not at the River Cafe though. We didn’t make THAT much! Thanks for the answers to my questions. Wise words. You know, a funny thing about this swing comping is that it seems simple, until you try it. But when you do play in an ensemble that makes this kind of music you wind up strumming quarter notes for hours at a time, and all those little technical things like muting and accenting start to become automatic, and suddenly it feels really natural. Another cool thing, you get to use all those 5 and 6 string voicings that you quit using when you first got serious about jazz! I love that. Re: upright players in Brooklyn. Yes, there are some, but they are in demand. (Maybe it’s bc who wants to lug such a big instrument up and down the subway stairs?). I guess if my band made more money we’d know a few more! ;) We do have two we call on, but at least one of them will usually have another gig lined up. Wanna work constantly? Be a solid upright player in a big city full of other musicians. But the REAL unicorn: trombone. For every 10,000 guitar and sax players, there is one trombone player. (I’m making that up, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it were true). Later Andy, keep on strumming.
It is interesting you use your both middle finger and index finger to hold the pick. Most of people use only index finger. Do you feel more secure holding it that way?
@@jazzguitarwithandy People use those three fingers for larger objects such as a pen, chopsticks, knife and fork and even tiny surgical instruments but not needles. But I can tell current size of the conventional picks are meant to be used with only two fingers. Japanese Shamisen requires huge size pick with entire hand where Joe Pass's favorite tiny pick only allows you to use two fingers. Interesting!
For me it works just fine. Feel like I get fatter tone and I love it for rhythm. I‘m sure there’s merits to 2 digits, I don’t think I’d want to change things now 😝
You are right about a longer period if time, but years are might a bit too much, I personally (who didn't take guitar as seriously as now, picked serious training only up 7 months ago to get into uni) needed just about a few months of consistent training (30 mins/day) and I got it down pretty decently. It's far from perfect, but I am able to execute the technique properly.
Sorry I’ve missed the last two normal
uploads on Wednesdays. Illness set me back with my schedule, but feeling 100% now and back at it 🎸
Happy to hear you're doing better now. Also great lesson btw!
After listening hundreds of swing songs, couldn't have thought , swing muting is that hard ! Thank you very much for teaching this
It sure is. Stick with it and it will become habit
Thank you for your great content. @@jazzguitarwithandy
Ah ha! Just what I need! Thanks Andy (Alan, one of your online students)
Cheers Alan. Hope the practice is going well 😎
Sir, I have no words to say how valuable your channel is. This particular video is probably the most concise presentation of what makes good swing-style comping.
Love your content. You're ahead of the competition in many respects. The other YT jazz instructors either try to pack too much into a single lesson or lack the gift of explaining things both clearly and thoroughly.
The best advice I could give to an aspiring guitar guy would be: stick to Jazz guitar with Andy and you'll go far. Study his videos from the earliest ones and things will start to make sense in no time!
All the best from a fellow player from Poland!
Dziękuję Ci!
Thanks so much for the comment Marcin. That's very kind of you to say. I don't watch too much of the competition as I just like doing things my way.
I spent a summer in Poland once, near Lublin. Such a beautiful country you live in.
Andy
Andy, your lessons are filling in a lot of gaps in my knowledge, some quite basic, like this lesson on solid rhythm playing. I'm a retired guy that has managed to restart my musical education at conservatory. Your lessons are becoming "go-to" supplemental information for me. Clear, concise and on topic. Thanks.
Happy to be of help Jeffery.
Very useful lesson. Clear and easy to follow. No nonsense and, above all, highly useful! Thank you for your help.
Thanks for taking the time to comment. You're very welcome.
Hi Andy, excellent Lesson as always. Can you do a lesson about the strategy of Chord-Voicings and Chord-Inversions to get a forward Motion within a Chord Progression??
This is great, thanks so much. Glad you’re feeling better.
You're welcome Mike - thank you.
Thanks for so much valuable content
You are very welcome - thanks for commenting.
This will be really helpful as I was working on the Comping Study of the song All of Me from your PATREON page, THANKS !
I can't believe I hadn't made a video about this topic so far!
That was just the lesson i was looking for since a while! Thank you so much. Greetings from Barcelona!
You are welcome!
Comping is one of my favorite ways of playing and the damping of the strings was always a problem. The close up of the chord and fingering has given me a better insight so thanks Andy, and happy your feeling well again.
Thanks Stuart. It's not easy, especially getting it to a point where it happens without thinking!
Hey Andy! So nice to see how confident you have become. I have followed you from the days of your first videos. You are speaking with real authority now, and so comfortable doing it. And I appreciate the fact that you don’t seem to be using a teleprompter. (Keeping it real!).
I’m currently in a trad band. Sort of in the same vein as Tuba Skinny, though nowhere near as masterful as they are. I had no training or experience when I landed in this role, I came out of straight ahead. Had to kind of figure trad out on the fly. Your breakdown of the the strumming technique here is great! This helps me so much. It’s so granular. Just hearing you elucidate this is going to improve my performance starting tomorrow! For example, I had completely forgotten about paying attention to whether I’m strumming closer to the neck or the bridge. I think that’s something that I do naturally, but I’m not even sure. Next time I play it’s going to make a real difference that I’m aware of it!
Two questions:
We perform two or three times a week but we can only get a good upright player about 1/2 the time we play (they are in short supply, even in Brooklyn). So it’s often just me (and sometimes the washboard) keeping the form together. So I have developed a bastardized way of comping in this style, strumming my chords with a root-5th, root-5th baseline (single notes on beats 1 & 3) to keep things moving on the bottom. After watching your video, I guess that what I’m doing isn’t really a thing? Do you have any thoughts or suggestions about that? It’s working, but I don’t want to ge laughed out of town. Does anyone comp this style on guitar with a bass line in the strumming pattern?
And secondly, your example of swinging too hard on the two and four. When I heard you demonstrate that, it actually reminded me of myself a little bit. I suddenly realized I need to be careful with it. But to be honest, I do it on purpose sometimes. I like to push the 2 & 4 really hard on occasion. Especially when that final chorus of the (wildly embellished) melody is happening and I’ve got the clarinet, trumpet and trombone wailing their heads off. I find it really effective to push the strong beats a little harder than I would during the rest of the song. Also, sometimes when one section of a song switches to another and it feels like the appropriate thing to do, I can light a small fire under the horn players’ butts to start swinging harder when I strum that way. (Even though it is a bit of a New York New York!… now the showgirls start kicking their legs kind of schtick. What do you think? I don’t want to be a cornball, but I find that there is actually lots of room for how pushy you can be with the forced swing feel before it starts to be too much.
Thanks for a great lesson. It really got me thinking.
Cheers James. I really should watch an earlier video to compare!
2 great questions there. Can't believe you can't get an upright player in Brooklyn!
1) Yes this is a thing- I did at my gig on one tune on Saturday. Sometimes a tune calls for it, often the older tunes and simpler tunes. It makes lots of sense if you don't have a bass player.
I do just as you say, root on A and 5th on the E. It's just one variation. I usually keep things pretty short on each beat when I do that rhythm.My video really is just a general guide and that rhythm should do most situations. There are many variations over the development of the genre and nuances to certain eras.
2) Re too hard on 2 and 4 - rules are to be broken! Again, if the song calls for it then do it. I do sometimes, often at the climax of a tune or as you say to highlight the form. In terms of my video, I wouldn't want someone doing it all of the time.
Ps. have you ever been to the River Cafe in Brooklyn. Had one of favourite meals of my life there watching sunset over Manhattan. Now that's a day I'd happily relive.
Wow. The River Cafe! Pretty fancy, but yes I’ve eaten there once. It was lovely.
As a matter of fact, I was busking there with the trad players this summer at Fulton Landing in Dumbo right in front of the entrance to the River Cafe. We had a trumpet player visiting from New Orleans who is a professional busker in the French Quarter. He was amazing, and schooling all of us. We had a small crowd going. But the Brooklyn Bridge Park rangers came by and ran us off because of my battery powered amp. So we took our earnings and ate lunch. Not at the River Cafe though. We didn’t make THAT much!
Thanks for the answers to my questions. Wise words. You know, a funny thing about this swing comping is that it seems simple, until you try it. But when you do play in an ensemble that makes this kind of music you wind up strumming quarter notes for hours at a time, and all those little technical things like muting and accenting start to become automatic, and suddenly it feels really natural. Another cool thing, you get to use all those 5 and 6 string voicings that you quit using when you first got serious about jazz! I love that.
Re: upright players in Brooklyn. Yes, there are some, but they are in demand. (Maybe it’s bc who wants to lug such a big instrument up and down the subway stairs?). I guess if my band made more money we’d know a few more! ;) We do have two we call on, but at least one of them will usually have another gig lined up. Wanna work constantly? Be a solid upright player in a big city full of other musicians. But the REAL unicorn: trombone. For every 10,000 guitar and sax players, there is one trombone player. (I’m making that up, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it were true). Later Andy, keep on strumming.
terrific lesson. thank you
You’re welcome 😎
thank you
You're welcome
Cool lesson
Thanks man!
Great video! But I wish you would show the chords for the second rhythm shown in the intro as well as the first.
Thank you
Could you recomend any picks for playing thoses swing rhythm guitar ?
I use the dunlop jazz iii - some people do find these a little small. I also like the the Jim Dunlop prime tone jazz picks.
@@jazzguitarwithandy Thank you for the answer . I will try them.
Great Lesson...what Shape would a Swing guitarist play, in case of a standard Major shape, without 6 or b7??
Good question Hilmar. Say for C, I find myself using
8 X 5 9 X X (C). 12 X 10 12 X X (C/E). 3 X 2 5 X X (C/G)
@@jazzguitarwithandy Hi Andy, thank you very much!!
It is interesting you use your both middle finger and index finger to hold the pick. Most of people use only index finger. Do you feel more secure holding it that way?
I guess so, just what I’m used to. Feel in more control that way.
@@jazzguitarwithandy People use those three fingers for larger objects such as a pen, chopsticks, knife and fork and even tiny surgical instruments but not needles. But I can tell current size of the conventional picks are meant to be used with only two fingers. Japanese Shamisen requires huge size pick with entire hand where Joe Pass's favorite tiny pick only allows you to use two fingers. Interesting!
For me it works just fine. Feel like I get fatter tone and I love it for rhythm. I‘m sure there’s merits to 2 digits, I don’t think I’d want to change things now 😝
Hi Andy, what strings would you recommend for swing rhythm I have flat wounds but I’m thinking of switching to rounds.
I like Thomastik bebop 12s. Not cheap, but good tone and last for a long time.
I play in a big band and find that i need to strum pretty hard to be heard.. should i focus on softer strum and turn up the amp?
I would just turn up a bit , you don't want to be over working/playing with tension just because you can't be heard.
What is your view on those string mutes which wrap around the neck at the nut and mute open strings?
I think they are more the preserve of shredders with high distortion.
Takes years to mute the strings you don't want to play ....
It does take a while for it to become a natural part of someone's playing
You are right about a longer period if time, but years are might a bit too much, I personally (who didn't take guitar as seriously as now, picked serious training only up 7 months ago to get into uni) needed just about a few months of consistent training (30 mins/day) and I got it down pretty decently. It's far from perfect, but I am able to execute the technique properly.