Concepts for Comping: Lesson 26
- Jay EuDaly
- 4 hours ago
- 4 min read
March 2026 Newsletter
Concepts for Comping: Lesson 26
Continuing the placement of II-V-I's into various key schemes; this lesson will be concerned with 2 schemes:
Minor Thirds (ascending)
Cyclical (cycle of fourths)
Here's the text part of the Minor Thirds scheme:
Group the keys into 3 groups with 4 keys in each group:
Group 1: C Eb Gb A
Group 2: Db E G Bb
Group 3: D F Ab B
So 3 groups with 4 chords in each group equals all 12 keys, arranged in minor 3rds.
To keep from splitting the register, we'll start each group from the 3rd chord in the group. Drill II-V-I-I6's in ascending minor 3rds – here are the 3 groups:
Do you find all this somewhat confusing? I can see how that could be so. Well, there's a demonstration video on just how to do it, as well as the lesson on the Cyclical Key Scheme - just click the button to go to the lesson at Master Guitar School:
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For an example of how all this (knowledge of chord progressions, key schemes and what not) plays out in real life - how it saves my ass on the gig - check out this blog:
VIDEO LESSON: WHAT'S WRONG WITH MY HAND? ANGULAR DYSFUNCTION.
The “What's Wrong With My Hand?” is a series of short lessons on common technique problems that I see all the time with students. This one concerns fret-hand positioning.
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BLOGS PUBLISHED SINCE LAST NEWSLETTER
AI Guitar Lessons? I've been thinking lately about AI - Artificial Intelligence - and how it may affect my activities. Especially writing, publishing and selling guitar lesson blogs and downloads. So I asked AI to write a guitar lesson on Jimi Hendrix’s use of triads. Read about what happened…
Interesting People I Know: I’m not the most interesting man in the world, but I guess I’m interesting to a few people. So for those folks, some backstory on my guitar journey takes up a large portion of this interview.
Comping Concepts: Lesson 25: Lesson: Concepts for Comping, Video: Cowboy Chords, Blog: How I Play Songs I Don’t Know & more…
TUNE OF THE MONTH
Take the A Train
This performance of Duke Ellington's “Take the A Train” is from a live TV spot in 2013.
Mama Ray, Don Glaza (drums), Allen Monroe (keys) and myself.
This is bittersweet for me; Allen and I are the ones left. I still work with Allen on at least a gig a week, occasionally more.
Don died in 2014. My tribute is here: Don Glaza
Mama Ray passed away in August of last year. See, Remembering Mama Ray.
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