Ohio5665
Verified buyer
06/14/26
On Location: Jump Start Jazz Comping
Really enjoyed this course and am learning alot from it.
On Location: Jump Start Jazz Comping
Shape-Centric Approach for Fretboard Navigation and Jazz Comping
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Sean McGowan
Educator
Genres
About this course
Great jazz rhythm guitar players have command navigating all over the fretboard, have a solid understanding of the harmonic material for the underlying changes, and possess a wide range of tasteful rhythmic approaches -- all of which require a never-ending process of learning, practice and perennial growth.
Filmed in Sean McGowan’s home studio, this Jump-Start Jazz Comping edition of the On Location series focuses on providing students with a “jump-start” vocabulary and approach for jazz guitar comping.
”I’ve designed this course as a jump-start guide for jazz players looking to take their comping skills to the next level. We’ll skip the theory, and focus instead on only the concepts and approaches you need right now -- employing a shape-centric approach for navigating the fretboard and the harmony for many popular jazz-blues tunes and standards, whether you’re playing solo, as a duo, or even with a full band.”
Sean organized this course into six lesson sets. Each set begins with a “Learn and Practice” lesson where he’ll explain key concepts and you’ll work on technical exercises to maximize your jazz comping development. Then, you’ll put your new skills to work over a full-length étude and playalong.
”Throughout the course we’ll focus on creative jazz comping approaches like utilizing “Ladders & T-Shapes”, three and four note voicings, stacked fourths, horizontal block chords, “chord synonyms”, triangle shapes, pianistic approaches, and a ton more. I’ll break everything down for you in detail and you’ll have all of TrueFires learning tools to work with.
I’ve crafted each of the etudes to help you develop your jazz comping approaches over a wide variety of grooves and feels. There’s a rhythm track and etude based on Miles Davis’ So What?, a samba based on the standard “I’ll remember April”, a straight eighth latin style groove based on “Stella by Starlight”, jazz blues grooves, and even a classical sounding jazz etude with lots of counterpoint.”
Sean will explain and demonstrate all of the key concepts and approaches along the way. You’ll get standard notation and tabs for all of the performance studies. Plus, you’ll be able to use TrueFire’s learning tools to sync the tab and notation to the video lesson.
You can also loop or slow down the videos so that you can work with the lessons at your own pace. All of the backing tracks are also included to work with on your own.
Grab your guitar, and let’s “comp” with Sean McGowan!
Filmed in Sean McGowan’s home studio, this Jump-Start Jazz Comping edition of the On Location series focuses on providing students with a “jump-start” vocabulary and approach for jazz guitar comping.
”I’ve designed this course as a jump-start guide for jazz players looking to take their comping skills to the next level. We’ll skip the theory, and focus instead on only the concepts and approaches you need right now -- employing a shape-centric approach for navigating the fretboard and the harmony for many popular jazz-blues tunes and standards, whether you’re playing solo, as a duo, or even with a full band.”
Sean organized this course into six lesson sets. Each set begins with a “Learn and Practice” lesson where he’ll explain key concepts and you’ll work on technical exercises to maximize your jazz comping development. Then, you’ll put your new skills to work over a full-length étude and playalong.
”Throughout the course we’ll focus on creative jazz comping approaches like utilizing “Ladders & T-Shapes”, three and four note voicings, stacked fourths, horizontal block chords, “chord synonyms”, triangle shapes, pianistic approaches, and a ton more. I’ll break everything down for you in detail and you’ll have all of TrueFires learning tools to work with.
I’ve crafted each of the etudes to help you develop your jazz comping approaches over a wide variety of grooves and feels. There’s a rhythm track and etude based on Miles Davis’ So What?, a samba based on the standard “I’ll remember April”, a straight eighth latin style groove based on “Stella by Starlight”, jazz blues grooves, and even a classical sounding jazz etude with lots of counterpoint.”
Sean will explain and demonstrate all of the key concepts and approaches along the way. You’ll get standard notation and tabs for all of the performance studies. Plus, you’ll be able to use TrueFire’s learning tools to sync the tab and notation to the video lesson.
You can also loop or slow down the videos so that you can work with the lessons at your own pace. All of the backing tracks are also included to work with on your own.
Grab your guitar, and let’s “comp” with Sean McGowan!
What you'll learn
- Navigate the fretboard using shape-centric voicing strategies
- Execute chromatic turnarounds with common tone technique
- Apply rhythmic repetition to create excitement in comping
- Comp effectively in solo, duo, and full band contexts
- Develop creative jazz comping approaches beyond basic theory
Release date: 08/16/2021 • 1h 49m runtime
Sample lessons
Ladders & "T" Shapes
Learn & Practice
What If?
Performance
Workhorse Shapes & Rhythms
Learn & Practice
Blue Collar Blues
Performance
What's included
26 lessons • 12 charts • 6 Jam Tracks
On Location: Jump Start Jazz Comping
Hi I’m Sean McGowan. Welcome to this Jump-Start Jazz Comping edition of On Location
In order to become a great jazz rhythm player you have to develop command over the fretboard, harmonic material for the underlying changes, and tasteful rhythmic approaches, which for many of us is a process of continuous long-term growth.
I’ve designed this course as a jump-start guide for jazz players looking to take their comping skills to the next level. We’ll skip the theory, and focus instead on only the concepts and approaches you need right now employing a shape-centric approach for navigating the fretboard and the harmony for many popular jazz-blues tunes and standards, whether you’re playing solo, as a duo, or even with a full band.
I’ve organized this course into six lesson sets. Each set begins with a “Learn and Practice” lesson where I’ll explain key concepts and we’ll work on technical exercises to maximize your jazz comping development. Then, we’ll put our new skills to work for us in a full-length étude to play.
Throughout the course we’ll focus on creative jazz comping approaches like utilizing “Ladders & T-Shapes”, three and four note voicings, stacked fourths, horizontal block chords, “chord synonyms”, triangle shapes, pianistic approaches, and a ton more. I’ll break everything down for you in detail and you’ll have all of TrueFires learning tools to work with.
I’ve crafted each of the etudes to help you develop your jazz comping approaches over a wide variety of grooves and feels. There’s a rhythm track and etude based on Miles Davis’ So What?, a samba based on the standard “I’ll remember April”, a straight eighth latin style groove based on “Stella by Starlight”, jazz blues grooves, and even a classical sounding jazz etude with lots of counterpoint.
Are you ready to get started? Grab your guitar, join me right here in my home studio, and let’s jump start your jazz comping.
In order to become a great jazz rhythm player you have to develop command over the fretboard, harmonic material for the underlying changes, and tasteful rhythmic approaches, which for many of us is a process of continuous long-term growth.
I’ve designed this course as a jump-start guide for jazz players looking to take their comping skills to the next level. We’ll skip the theory, and focus instead on only the concepts and approaches you need right now employing a shape-centric approach for navigating the fretboard and the harmony for many popular jazz-blues tunes and standards, whether you’re playing solo, as a duo, or even with a full band.
I’ve organized this course into six lesson sets. Each set begins with a “Learn and Practice” lesson where I’ll explain key concepts and we’ll work on technical exercises to maximize your jazz comping development. Then, we’ll put our new skills to work for us in a full-length étude to play.
Throughout the course we’ll focus on creative jazz comping approaches like utilizing “Ladders & T-Shapes”, three and four note voicings, stacked fourths, horizontal block chords, “chord synonyms”, triangle shapes, pianistic approaches, and a ton more. I’ll break everything down for you in detail and you’ll have all of TrueFires learning tools to work with.
I’ve crafted each of the etudes to help you develop your jazz comping approaches over a wide variety of grooves and feels. There’s a rhythm track and etude based on Miles Davis’ So What?, a samba based on the standard “I’ll remember April”, a straight eighth latin style groove based on “Stella by Starlight”, jazz blues grooves, and even a classical sounding jazz etude with lots of counterpoint.
Are you ready to get started? Grab your guitar, join me right here in my home studio, and let’s jump start your jazz comping.
Ladders & "T" Shapes
One of the best ways for guitarists to visualize chords voicing is to use the concept of seeing shapes on the fretboard. In this next series of videos we're not going to worry about analyzing every note or worry about theory, we're going to focus on latters and "T" shapes.
What If?
Our first etude is going to be based on the classic modal song "So What" by Miles Davis. This is a great piece to study comping and improvising on because there are only two chords.
What If?
Here is the performance of "What If?" a tune based on the classic "So What" by Miles Davis.
What If?
Now we'll break it all down in detail.
Horizontal Block Shapes
In this next concept we’re going to explore horizontal block chord shapes. We’ll be staying on the top four strings and move horizontally back and forth.
Back in April
In our next etude we’re going to explore horizontal block chords over the standard “I’ll Remember April”.
+ 19 more lessons
Reviews
6 results
farkasadammail
Verified buyer
01/11/25
Great groundwork for comping
Ted is an excellent instructor. I like the course so far, haven't been through the whole thing yet.
Craig
08/01/23
Highly recommended
This course is a sleeper. The first 10 minute lesson alone taught me more about jazz chords than months of studying other sources. Sean is a fantastic jazz guitar tutor. My aim is to slowly work through all of his Truefire courses. I think the end result would be a fairly accomplished jazz player.
PSchwander
Verified buyer
08/07/22
Extremely useful
Sean McGowan's practical shape-centric approach gave me valuable insight into jazz harmony and camping.
BenjaminJung
Verified buyer
01/12/22
Great ideas for comping
Several very helpful approaches are discussed here. There is a lot of material in the course, there is something for beginners and pros.
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