Groove Charts and Comping

[irocku]

If you want to learn to play songs without reading notes then learning how to comp with groove charts or chord tabs are the way to go!

Topic

I can play from a groove chart pretty well now, but I don’t always know what to do when I just go out and find a chord and lyric chart. In a nutshell, what I’m hoping to be able to do after working through your course for a while is to take the skills I learn and apply them to songs that you don’t have on your website. I can find the chord and lyric chart for any song I want to play, but I don’t know what to do with it. Is this something you have to figure out just by listening and playing along, or are there tips that can be taught to make this process easier?

There is no right or wrong way of creating the rhythms in the groove charts. The true test is if it sounds good when you play along with the song. But there are techniques that will help you develop the groove. Listen to the original recording and for the left hand rhythm try to tap on your knees what the kick drum or the bass guitar is playing. If it is a song with a strong piano groove( i.e. Tipitina, What’d I Say, Hey Now) then try tapping that out. One of these should help give you the left hand rhythm. For the right hand, try to tap out either what the rhythm guitar is playing or the right hand of the keyboard is playing. These should be your starting points. If you are creating a groove chart to play along with a band then simplify the rhythm as much as possible without losing the feel of the song. When playing with a band you don’t want your groove to be too complicated or it might interfere with the bass and rhythm section. If you are creating a groove chart to accompany a singer then you might want to use a more rhythmic pattern.

At irocku, we try to give our students a variety of different rhythm/comping styles through the groove charts. A good thing to do might be to try some of those rhythms under different songs and see what works. The more you try and explore, the better idea you’ll have on what to do. You’ll begin to develop an “intuition”.

Take it section by section. Most common tunes have at least some 8th note subdivisions, and some have 16th note subdivisions. Using IROCKU from Level 4-7 gradually schools you on how to play 8th, and then gradually 16th note subdivisions in any combination.

So, tap or foot-tap the “beat” of the song. For example the “beat” of the intro for Stairway To Heaven 4/4. Every chord gets two “stomps”. Every chord is also plucked in 8th notes, which is “one-and-two-and”, each syllable landing on one guitar pluck. If you can stomp 1-2-3-4 and count 8th notes as described above, you’re well on your way. Try it and let us know how it goes!

I can read music but have no idea what a Groove Chart is, or how to read it….

The groove chart is the fastest way to learn the essence of the song without getting bogged down reading notes. The groove charts are also great for comping with a band. The different notation used in the groove charts suggests that you play the duration of the note written on the page but you can choose to play any note from the chord or scale that sounds good to you. For example, if the note is a half note (an open diamond with a stem) you could play any note from the chord, or the chord itself, for two counts.

Approach learning the groove chart by first learning all of the chords. It’s best to learn to play all the inversions of the chords with each hand. Once you’ve mastered the chords, begin playing the left hand rhythm. Begin with the root note of the chord, then octaves, then the root-fifth( ie for C chord play C and G), and then add more notes as you like. Once you are comfortable with the left hand, play the chords in the right hand using the rhythm as written. You can play the chord in any inversion or just one note of the chord and add the melody of the song if you like.

(Note: If the chord is written C/E you would play the C chord with the right hand over an E in the left hand).

Matthew ( rocker2) provided a really useful comment on the “Such a Night” piano lesson that provides some good ideas on what you can do with the left hand. You might want to check that out.

You might want to go to the Tools & Resources section of the site to try out a variety of the piano rhythms and grooves.

Please help me interpret the symbols on the groove chart. I know they represent chords, but as they do not correlate to traditional musical annotations that I learned decades ago, it is like trying to decipher hieroglyphics without a Rosetta Stone.

Most rock musicians don’t read notes. Chuck says many of the bands he’s played with use the ‘Nashville Numbering System’. This system uses numbers to represent the chords to be played. The numbers represent the note of the scale and it’s corresponding chord in the particular key that you are playing. So if the song is in the key or C, a 1 would represent the C major chord, a 2 would represent D minor, 3 would be E minor, 4 would be F major, 5 would be G major, 6 would be A minor, 7 would be B diminished. Using this system rockers can notate a song using numbers and then play in any key they chose.

For the IROCKU groove charts we choose to simplify the process of mentally converting from the chord number to the chord letter by providing just the chord letters. We also provide the rhythm through the use of ‘slash notes’. The durations of slash notes are read similar to regular musical notation. So a slash quarter note gets 1 beat, a slash half note gets 2 beats, a slash whole notes gets 4 beats, etc. The slash notes look a little odd because they are elongated or diamond shaped instead of round but that is so the reader knows it’s a slash notation and not standard notation. The difference between slash notation and standard notation is that the position of the slash note on the musical staff has no relevance whatsoever. You can play whatever note you choose based on the chord letter represented above the staff. For classically trained musicians this might sound like musical chaos, but this allows the musician to create their own musical interpretation while staying within the rhythmic and tonal guidelines of the song.

Let’s use our sample lesson “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” intermediate level groove chart as an example. We’ll begin with the left hand. The left hand of each measure has a dotted quarter note followed by an eighth-note tied to a half-note. So this would be counted 1-1/2 beats for the fist note of the left hand and 2-1/2beats for the second note. For the actual note to be played in the left hand you would choose any note from the C chord that sounds good to you! As a starter play the root of the chord which is a C or maybe the root and fifth ( C and G) or maybe the C octave. For the second measure you would play the exact same rhythm pattern as the first measure but this time you are playing the F chord. So now try playing the root of the chord which is an F or maybe the root and fifth ( F and C) or maybe the F octave. Continue this for each measure until you have the left hand mastered.

Now for the right hand. The right hand of each measure has two quarter-notes followed by an eighth-note rest followed by a dotted quarter note. So this is counted 1 beat for the first note, 1 beat for the second note, followed by a 1/2 beat rest followed by 1-1/2 beats for the third note. This rhythmic pattern follows throughout the groove chart. For the actual note to be played in the right hand you would choose any note from the C chord that sounds good to you! As a starter play the root of the chord which is a C or maybe the root and fifth ( C and G) or maybe the C octave. Or you can play any inversion of the C chord ( C-E-G or E-G-C or G-C-E). For the second measure you would play the exact same rhythm pattern as the first measure but this time you are playing notes from the F chord.

The groove charts will provide you with the essence of the song to sing along with or accompany someone with or as launch pads for improvising. Once you’ve mastered the left and right hand groove with some simple notes or chords continue to experiment within the guidelines of the rhythm patterns and chord changes.

Thanks for the question. Yes, we are planning on rolling out video series to teach various techniques, fundamentals, grooves etc. Please hang tight, we are currently making some improvements to the website which should be done shortly. Then we’ll work on the video series. Please let us know if you have any specific techniques, rhythms, progressions that you are interested in.
Keep rockin!

Thanks for the question. Yes, we are planning on rolling out video series to teach various techniques, fundamentals, grooves etc. Please hang tight, we are currently making some improvements to the website which should be done shortly. Then we’ll work on the video series. Please let us know if you have any specific techniques, rhythms, progressions that you are interested in.
Keep rockin!

Thanks for rapid response. I have only been aware of the site for a couple of weeks and haven’t, as yet had sufficient tine to explore more than a fraction of it’s content. The groove chart concept is new to me but the more time I spend on the site I can see that it, allied with chord progressions are fundamental to your whole approach.

I am, however, still unclear as to how ‘strictly’ the groove charts should be interpreted, particularly when improvising around the melody (which is one of my specific interests). So far, in trying to stick very closely to the groove chart form I have found it a little restrictive.

I do not have any other requests than to follow your approach to determining the key, analysing the chord progression and devising the groove chart. If you could make available videos which are as easy to follow as the other lessons this would be ideal.

Thanks in anticipation.

The groove charts provide you with the overall roadmap of the song and a foundation to comp with a band. Once you have the rhythm and the chord progression down you can start experimenting by changing things up in either, or both, hand but try not to loose the feel of the song. If you feel you are straying away from the song’s groove bring it back to chart and try experimenting again.

Many thanks for the advice, I have now spent more time on the site and am beginning to more fully understand how it works. Unfortunately there is no possibility of my playing with a band, as appears to be suggested in a number of places, but was wondering whether playing along with backing tracks might be an alternative. I have no previous experience of this therefore if it is thought worthwhile would appreciate any starting tips.

Playing with backing tracks is a good approach. It forces you to keep the groove going and you can experiment while playing along with the recording. If you take any of our lessons and learn the different aspects of them ( groove, exercise, lesson, improv) then you will have lots of tools to work with when playing along with backing tracks. Start off by keeping your playing simple to ensure you can play along with the tracks and then gradually add more techniques as you get more familiar with the song. Keep rockin!

Thanks again for all your help, I will be quiet now for a while and concentrate on lessons and try to apply what you have suggested