Welcome to MeyouMusic’s comping in E♭ Major lesson 🙂
Just like our other comping lessons we will begin by showing the diatonic chords for E♭ Major, see below:
Example 1:
Our first example will demonstrate how to play the common jazz 2-5-1 turnaround using 7th chords in this key as a quick warm up before we go into any harder extensions/progressions.
Example 2:
This short and sweet progression is a nice easy practice for the beginning of this lesson. It’s got quite an upbeat, happy vibe to it so feel free to give it some extra groove. The ending has a bit of tension with the F min 6 and the F Diminished 7 which is resolved with our E♭ Major 7.
Example 3:
This one mixes things up a little by following a 2-6-1 progression instead of a more typical 2-5-1 progression.
Example 4:
This is a simple progression which helps to build the strength of your index finger. Play it through until you can get smooth, timely transitions between each chord.
Example 5:
Now we have a harder progression, using some pretty challenging chord shapes.
Example 6:
Keeping to 6th and 7th extensions here, following a cool progression and substituting our 2-51 for a 2-7-1 in bars 9-11.
Example 7:
I love this example as it is simple; with a warm soothing sound, that also helps practice swift chord changes without making you move your hand up and down the neck. I put a lot of sustain on each chord and play the progression quite slow.
Example 8:
This one produces a really calming effect and should be played delicately. On the 7th bar I decided to hold the f minor 7 for two bars before moving on to a G7 which adds a slight amount of tension. In a sense, adding the extra sustain to my f minor 7 allowed me to modulate a little bit smoother, thus making the C Major 9 fit into the progression. To modulate back I use a G Diminished 7 (a process called en-harmonic modulation) and resolved the tension with the B♭7.
Example 9:
With the last example showing us how to use a Diminished 7th to modulate, I decided to show a cool diminished run on the 9th and 10th bars of this progression. You will need to move up and down the neck a bit more for this one, but it is relatively simple and achievable with a little bit of practice.
Example 10:
Okay, starting with our 2-5-1-6 again, this one will likely be more challenging then the previous examples due to some harder changes which will need practicing. It’s a great exercise to learn however with a good variety of different chord extensions. Also take note of the last two bars as its a simple yet effective transition from a dominant 7th chord.
