Below is an entry from Nick Longo's blog followed by my comments to his entry. I think it's worthy of the reprint and hopefully some musicians will read it too.
Friday, June 23, 2006
COMPING: Listen to what the soloist is saying.Comping is one of the finest art forms in music. If you are not good at it, you make the band sound bad and you aggravate the other musicians. Not many people can do it well. Some of the great compers that come to mind immediately are Bobby Enriquez, Jimmy Smith, Mike Stern, Jack Mcduff, Jimmy McGriff. They know how to work around a soloist... listening and complimenting their ideas. I remember being in college for Jazz Studies and not once did we have a master-class on comping. I feel this would do a musician a world of good.
Comping is like having a meeting and the president (soloist) of the company (band) is throwing out ideas. There are people in the meeting (band/compers) that only think about the next thing they will say. They don't listen to any of the ideas the president is throwing out on the table, so when they talk, they just say whatever idea is in their head at the moment and it really has nothing to do with the president's thoughts.
The job of the comper (associate) is to listen to the ideas of the soloist (president) and try to make a good impression on the president.... You want that president to come away from that meeting thinking, "wow, he really got what I meant;" The job of the associate (comper) is adding in ideas when you are confident in knowing what the soloist is talking about. If you are not sure what the soloist is saying, you shouldn't say anything. Stay quiet until you know for sure. Silence is way under-rated. There is nothing worse than talking out of turn and messing up a thought the president (soloist) has. There is only one president of a company at any given time. There is only one soloist soloing at any given time (well, Dixieland is a gray area, but).
The more time you spend listening to the soloist, the more you become in tune with their mannerisms and in time you'll know when you can throw in little comments without taking away from their ideas.
Comping really requires little work. Listen, pay attention to the ideas, only say something when you are confident of what is going on, and layout when you are even slightly unsure. Silence always works when you are comping. Always.
------ my posted comments ------
Yes, that's a decent analogy of the 'comp'-ing process ('comp' is jazz slang for accompany). A master class would be helpful or even a decent book. However developing the pedagogy would ultimately be limited because just like soloing, much of 'comping' is instinctive and personal. A good accompanist has to listen to and focus on the great recorded examples of comping, most people get absorbed by the soloist and never realize that a large part of what made that solo great was the accompaniment!
Common mistakes by the beginner accompanist include; mimicking the soloist - either by trying to play the same notes or "he played something weird so I'll play something weird". Many accompanist (drummers included) over-play on the turnarounds, or simply do not listen at all and plow through the song with a continuous pattern/groove eliminating any possibility for dynamics.
Sometimes the root of the problem is ego - as in compensating for some personal deficiency. Just like in normal everyday interactions among people, some never listen and simply wait (or not) to say what they want, often in an attempt to be the center of attention. Other times poor accompaniment is simply the result of the accompanist having not developed the ears and skills to spontaneously interact.
Unfortunately for the soloist the average listener has no idea what's really going on and will likely think something like, "Wow, that guitar player is really great, but the piano player is a bit weak." When in fact the piano player is providing inspirational accompaniment for the guitarist while the guitar player reeks havoc on the piano player's solos (or vise-versa).
Opps! that got a little long-winded. I'll shut up now.
Posted by dancoy at July 20, 2006 11:38 AM