AUGUST 1999 GUITAR PLAYER

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first hearing, most listeners concentrate on

Jim Hall’s improvised lines. His lyrical phras-

es—and the spaces he leaves between

them—are something special. Hall’s under-

stated

comping is less immediately obvious, but when you listen

closely, his chordal work is at least as focused and musical as his

single-note playing. Hall comps sparsely enough to avoid distracting

soloists, yet he’ll spur them on by subtly spicing up a tune’s harmony

and rhythm. ■ “Comping is really about listening,” says Hall.

“So is improvising, of course, but then you’re listening to

yourself—hearing the phrase you’ve just played and reacting to

it to create a melodic narrative. When comping, your job is to

B

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“In the long

run, it’s more

important to

look at paintings than

listen

to the way

someone plays

bebop lines.”

—Jim Hall

LESS IS MORE

A Comping Master Class with Jim Hall

listen to the soloist and react.”

Small Is Beautiful

With that in mind, Hall relies on two- and

three-note voicings for accompaniment. “They
keep the music clear and uncluttered,” he ex-
plains. “Big, full-voiced chords are hard to move
gracefully, and they tend to get in the soloist’s
way. With smaller shapes, you can easily alter
one or two of the notes in your chord to better
compliment what the soloist is playing.”

To illustrate his point, Hall plays E

Ex

x.. 1

1—the

harmony for the first eight measures of “All the
Things You Are.” As you can see, he regularly
omits chord roots. Many of his voicings consist
only of the chord’s 3 and 7. The

G and C at the

beginning of measure 4, for instance, form an
abbreviated

Abmaj7. Compare Hall’s chord

choices to the original chords above them.

Quartal Magic

This example shows how quartal harmony

(chords built in fourths) figures prominently
in Hall’s palette. Quartal chords are cool not
only because they sound hip, but because they
are harmonic chameleons. For example, the
three-note quartal voicing in measure 1 could
stand in for many different chords:

Fm7(11),

Bbm7(11), Ab6/9, Ab13, Db6/9, Db13, and

G7#9#5. The quartal E7sus4 in the second mea-
sure is an odd substitute for the song’s original
harmony (

Bbm7), but voice-leads perfectly to

Hall’s

Eb7sus4 chord in measure 3.

E

Ex

x.. 2

2 shows how Hall comps through in the

next eight bars of “All the Things You Are.” Again,
artful voice-leading makes his harmonic sub-
stitutions sound as natural as the song’s original
changes. Notice the open-voiced triads in the
last two measures. These wide, simple sounds
are a clear departure from the compact extended
and altered voicings Hall played to this point.

Bass-Chord Dialog

One reason Examples 1 and 2 sound unclut-

tered is that Hall leaves out virtually all the bass
notes. However, he regularly employs another

2

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Ex. 1

Ex. 2

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Ex

x.. 3

3 shows how Hall applies

this technique to a blues in

G. Notice how the

bass and chords play off each other, creating a
musical dialog. “I think of bass notes and chords
as the left- and right-hand parts a pianist might
play,” says Hall.

He attacks the bass notes (in this example,

the notes below the staff and the lowest voice
in each four-note chord) with his pick, grabbing
the rest with a hybrid pick-and-fingers grip.

Green Rhythms

“Of course, you can always just play straight

4/4 rhythm,” says Hall playing E

Ex

x.. 4

4. “I think of

this as a drummer playing time on the hi-hat.
I keep my right hand moving up and down in

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Ex. 3

Ex. 4

John Scofield has played with Hall on many occasions, and recorded a duet with

him on Hall’s ’91 release, Live at Town Hall, Vol. 2. Last summer, Scofield again
played a duo concert with Hall. Based on first-hand experience, Scofield contends that
Hall is the King of Comp.

—AL

“Actually, it’s hard to say anything about Jim’s comping without getting into his

whole conception,” says Scofield. “His musicality is the key: Jim understands music
very, very thoroughly, so when he accompanies you—especially in a duo situation—
he hears

everything you’re doing and reacts to it with a deep-swinging groove. It

makes you want to really play.

“One of the things I admire about Jim’s comping is his sound. It’s one thing to hear

him on a record, but when you’re playing with him, you appreciate what a beautiful
sound he gets out of the instrument. Then there’s his harmonic awareness—his voicings
and voice-leading are perfect. Every time I play with him, it’s like a guitar lesson.”

O P E N L E T T E R F R O M A FA N

eighth-notes, and just play accents where they’re
needed. Sometimes I’m hardly hitting the strings
at all.” Jazzers often call this “comping Freddie
Green style” in homage to the great rhythm gui-
tarist in Count Basie’s big band.

Harmonized Bass Lines

Another technique is what Hall calls a “har-

monized bass line.” The idea is this: Walk a
quarter-note bass line on the sixth string and
drag simple chord voicings (usually just the 3
and 7) along the third and fourth strings to
shadow the bass line.

This type of comping is particularly effective

if you’re playing without a bassist. When making
up your own harmonized bass lines, be sure to
treat the

line as the most important element.

This isn’t about hip chord voicings; it’s about

making a strong bass line and creating momen-
tum with a steady rhythm.

E

Ex

x.. 5

5a

a shows a walking bass line for the first

four bars of a blues in

G. E

Ex

x.. 5

5b

b shows Hall’s har-

monization, and E

Ex

x.. 5

5c

c shows a variation.

Work It Out

Practice these comping techniques until you

can make them swing with any kind of chord
progression at any tempo. Apply them to your
favorite standards. “For practice, record yourself
playing a melody, and then comp along with
the tape,” Hall suggests, though he adds that
this is no substitute for playing with living,
breathing musicians.

Hall finishes our comping lesson with a bit

of Zen guitar philosophy: “One of the most im-
portant lessons I’ve learned is you don’t have
to play all the time. When you’re not sure what
to play, lay out. In other words, don’t just do
something—sit there.” g

4

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