Comping Drills & Exercises

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Chromatic Voicing Drill

• By moving voicings up and down the keyboard we learn how they feel in all of the
key centres so that we can use them on-demand during performance.

• Practice your favourite comping voicings moving chromatically up and down the
keyboard with your right hand.

Chromatic Voicings Example

• When comping the F blues we can sideslip voicings up and down chromatically to
add interest to our comping through the chord changes.

• As in the example above, it is particularly effective to utilse chromatic motion

between chords that are a 5th apart.

Chromatic 25 Drills - 3rds & 7ths

Chromatic 25 Drills - 3rds & 7ths With Walking Bass Line

Chromatic 25 Drills - 9th & 13th Voicings

Chromatic 25 Drills - 9ths & 13ths With Walking Bass Line

Chromatic 25 Drills With Right Hand Charleston Rhythm

• Practice 25 progressions around the circle of 5ths with half steps in between. Start
with just the 3rds and 7ths and then extend the voicings to include 9ths and 13ths.

• Once you are comfortable with the voicings shapes and bass line contours you can
apply a Charleston Rhythm to the right hand voicings by anticipating the V7 chords.