Rhythmic Based Improvisation (Comping)

Okay, so what I'd like to talk to you about now is rhythmic based improvisation, or comping as it's known. This is probably something you'll do more often than even lead based improvisation. It's an absolutely essential skill, being able to keep solid time and come up with interesting and stylistic rhythm parts to accompany a band, a song, or another soloist potentially.

Getting Started

We're going to start at the very beginning, look at the basics, and just discuss some strum pattern ideas.

Basic Chord: G Major

Let's take a static chord here, a G major chord. Hopefully, you're all familiar with that great chord. We're just going to look at some ways of coming up with strum patterns.

Rhythmic Subdivisions

What we need to be aware of are different rhythmic subdivisions. I'm going to demonstrate the most common ones for you. The three most common are:

• Crotchet (Quarter Note):

  • Count: 1, 2, 3, 4
  • Play on every beat of the bar with a downstroke.

• Eighth Notes (Quavers):

  • Count: 1, 2, 3, 4
  • Play: 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and.

• Semiquavers (16th Notes):

  • Count: 1 E and A, 2 E and A, 3 E and a, 4 E and A.

Let's play these subdivisions:

Crotchets:

1, 2, 3, 4

Eighth Notes:

1 and 2 and 3 and 4.

Semiquavers:

1 E and A, 2 E and A, 3 E and a, 4 E and A.

Practicing Subdivisions

These are the three really common subdivisions that you want to be really confident playing. It's a great exercise to just stick a metronome on and do exactly what I just did:

1. Start off playing Crotchets.
2. Whenever you feel in the zone, switch to Semiquavers (double or quadruple the speed of Crotchets).
3. You might go into Eighths, then back to Crotchets, then to Semiquavers.

Doing it on a scratchy kind of sound can be helpful, as it allows you to really hear how you're nailing the rhythm.

Combining Rhythms: Strum Patterns

Let's take a look at combining some of those rhythms to come up with some strum patterns. We're going to use a really simple chord progression:

• C Major
• A Minor
• F Major (can be played as a half bar if you haven't done a full barre chord before)
• G Major

Eighth Note Based Strum Ideas

Let's start with some eighth note based strum ideas.

1, 2, 3, 4.

A common eighth note based strum pattern involves maintaining consistent right hand movement, even if you're not playing every single eighth note.

• It's important to maintain the motion:

  1 and 2 and 3 and 4.
  

Ghosting Technique

Although I might miss a strum in the middle, I'm still ghosting over the strings, ensuring my right hand stays in a consistent motion:

2, 3, 4. Miss, miss.

There are many places within the bar where you could miss strums. For example, you could try this variation on a G chord:

Dynamics in Strumming

It's crucial to always think about dynamics with your right hand. For effective strumming:

• Avoid hitting all the strings evenly.
• Variation in dynamics makes it sound more musical.

Let me demonstrate hitting all the strings at the same dynamic:

2, 3, 4.

Sounds very flat and uninteresting.

Now, listen to what happens when I add a little dynamic:

3, 4.

Advanced Ghosting Techniques

Let's take that one step further and look at ghosting with 16th note rhythms.

On a G chord, a 16th note based pattern might sound like this:

2, 3.

When you have passages of eighth notes, they can be played as downstrokes. So instead of:

Down, up, down.

You'll see me playing:

Down, down, down.

This keeps a consistent motion.

Conclusion: Experiment and Record

Feel free to experiment with these techniques. Take note of your dynamics and remember, don't worry about hitting all the strings at all times. It's much more musical to have some variation.

Try it out with all the examples on the PDF. If you'd like to record yourself coming up with your own strum patterns, please do send them in. We'd love to hear them and can provide feedback!