Concepts for Comping: Lesson 16
- Jay EuDaly
- 4 days ago
- 5 min read
May 2025 Newsletter From Master Guitar School
Concepts For Comping:
Lesson 16
Song: In Your Own Sweet Way
In this Concepts for Comping lesson we're continuing to apply the open and close-voiced 7th chords, AKA “Shell Voicings," that we've learned so far in this lesson series by playing some songs. This month's song, the Dave Brubeck tune, “In Your Own Sweet Way” is notable in a couple of respects:
It has the longest continuous cyclical chord progression of any song I know: A-7 D7 G-7 C7 C-7 F7 Bbmaj7 Ebmaj7 Ab-7 Db7 Gbmaj7 Cbmaj7. Only one root is missing; E.
The first section is made up of a repeating pattern of II-V-I-IV in 3 different keys.
Check it out:
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Video Lesson: Cowboy Chords - Unique Voicings
G-Stuff / C-Stuff / D-Stuff
This is Lesson 2 in the series Unique Chord Voicings. The first lesson is public on Master Guitar School's YouTube channel.
Standard 1st Position chords usually have a root somewhere in the middle of the chord. Double-sharping the root will give us the added 9th.
The 2 and the 9 are octaves - they have the same letter name. In other cases the added 9th is the result of eliminating the 3rd. Flatting a minor 3rd or double-flatting a major 3rd gives you a 2nd, which is the octave of the 9th. When the chord has "(no 3rd)" in its name that is what has happened:
Where's the Feedback Loop?
THE main thing that's missing from guitar lessons in the internet environment is what I call a “feedback loop.”
THE best way to learn guitar is one-on-one, in person, with the right teacher, on a regular basis (weekly is best for most folks), for several years. That's not possible in the internet environment.
With personal, one-on-one lessons, over the course of time, after multiple corrections, the student starts to “get” my approach (thus requiring less feedback), and I figure out the students' personality and learning style and can refine and adapt my presentation conducive to each individual student. That's the feedback loop.
With my PDF downloads, I explain the same material with text, fretboard diagrams, music notation and videos. Most of the videos have fretboard diagrams embedded. When relevant there will be music notation, chord charts &/or fake sheets embedded.
I'm trying to accommodate different learning styles.
Many people (especially younger people) think that looking at a video or downloading a PDF is a real guitar lesson. It isn't. There is no feedback loop.
How can I incorporate a feedback loop into the paradigm of video lessons and PDF downloads? I have spent much time pondering on that.
Live remote lessons (a la FaceTime, Zoom etc.) can provide a feedback loop and so are better than watching a video or downloading a PDF - but they are sub-optimal because the student and teacher can't play together. There's too much lag-time. And playing together is an important aspect of the feedback loop.
Nevertheless, I offer live “consults” to Site Members. This consult is an on-demand deal for Site Members. It can be used for whatever you want - anything related to guitar or lessons that you've viewed, purchased &/or downloaded from Master Guitar School; it can be used as a feedback loop to make sure you understand the lesson and are drilling it correctly.
Again; not just anybody - Site Members! The Personal Consult page is a members-only page; you must be a Site Member and logged in to access it. The page says $40 per 30-minute consult.
Dude! I'll give you one for free - just go to the Personal Consult page and contact me.
Blogs Published Since Last Newsletter
Data From 680K Songs: A Gigantic Step Backwards: Chris Dalla Riva is an author I follow on Substack. He goes about parsing the data from 680K songs in different ways…The one I was most interested in was, “Chords Used in 680k Songs released between 1930 and 2025.”
List Growth: Recently I ran a promotion that relaunched the very first lesson series (Triads) that I released over ten years ago. I made the comment that, when I started, my email list was about 300, now it’s over 5,000. One of my Site Members contacted me and asked, “What’s the secret to the list growth?”
2015 G&L Telecaster: My motivation for the purchase was to have a guitar with which I was comfortable and could leave in my teaching studio so I wouldn’t have to schlep a guitar from home everyday. Turns out this guitar was higher quality than I expected.
Triads! I’ve been running a promotion; an 8-lesson series on triads for the original launch price from 10 years ago! I'll reopen this special price for the next week…
Concepts for Comping: Lesson 15: Concepts for Comping, bonus for site members, blog links and more…
Tune of the Month
Here's something out of left field: I have done many sessions with Rap/Hip Hop and other electronica-genre producers/artists who want real guitar sounds. It's been kind of surreal for me; an old white guitarist like me hired by young, usually black Hip Hop producers who want what I can do. It's a beautiful thing. Many of these "studios" are in basements and garages, and they pay in cash - which is also a beautiful thing.
It all started when I did several sessions with a Cumulus Radio DJ and Dubstep producer who goes by “Steve O.” When one of my 15-year-old female guitar students found out I was working with Steve O she and her bestie just about creamed their jeans. "OMG! We listen to him all the time!" For an old guy, my hip-quotient went way up! I should have raised my lesson prices.
I wrote about this in detail back in 2018 in Hip Hop Guitar God. Check it out for the backstory.
This is one of Steve O's remixes using my guitar parts:
How About 5 Lessons?
The 5-Lesson Foundational Series teaches the Circle of Keys as an organizational mechanism by which you ensure that whatever you learn is drilled in every key in all possible positions. It also gives you a method to find any note, anywhere, without memorizing note names on every string. That is a beautiful thing!
Almost every lesson I teach presupposes these 5 lessons.
You can download the 5-Lesson Foundational Series right here with no further obligation or commitment:
Click the pic to access the download page
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