Jazz Guitar Comping & Looper Pedal Basics

Randy Johnston teaches the fundamentals of swinging jazz comping and shows how to use a looper pedal — recording tasteful comps live, no pre-recorded backing tracks — to add energy to solo guitar gigs. Working over an F blues, he reduces comping to its simplest, most usable elements so your rhythm playing locks into the pocket.

What's covered

• Practical looper tips for solo sets, including the exact pedal Randy uses (the TC Electronic Ditto) and why — and how to hit the loop right on one
• What good time and swing feel actually mean, and how they differ
• How to really practice with a metronome: on all four beats, then feeling it on 2 and 4 like a drummer's hi-hat
• Comping with the thumb vs. the pick, and when to use each
• What to play: chords on the beat, then adding anticipations and delays, varying long and short articulations
• The Charleston rhythm and its variations
• Comping vs. generating the rhythm — why most comping is too much

An info-packed, immediately usable class. Even if you never use a looper, it will tune up your rhythmic comping chops.

• 2 pages of PDF materials in standard notation (rhythmic notation, chord chart and chord block diagrams)
• Full video is 33 minutes