Comping Behind a Soloist

You spend far more of a blues accompanying than soloing, and comping is where most guitarists are weakest, because nobody practises it.

The rules are mostly about restraint. Stay out of the soloist's register — if they are up at the twelfth fret, you belong in the middle of the neck. Leave the low end to the bass. And play less than feels natural: the space you leave is what the soloist fills.

Harmonically, this is where dominant extensions earn their keep. A blues will take a ninth or a thirteenth anywhere it takes a plain seventh, and those voicings are richer without being busier. Four notes is enough, and you can drop the root because the bass player has it.

The three voicings below sit in the same area of the neck, so moving between them is a small motion rather than a jump.

G13

G13 for the I chord. Four fingers, no root needed.

C9

C9 for the IV, on four strings and close by.

D9

D9 for the V, in the same hand position as the other two.

This track is a groove blues in G.

Comp through a full chorus using only these three voicings, with two hits per bar at most. Then do a chorus where you deliberately play less: one hit per bar, sometimes none.

Record both if you can. Almost everybody prefers the second one when they hear it back, and almost nobody plays that way without being told to.

A groove blues in G. Two hits a bar, then fewer.