Concepts for Comping: Lesson 30
- Jay EuDaly
- 4 days ago
- 4 min read
July 2026 Newsletter
Concepts for Comping: Lesson 30
Alterations: Dominant (4-Voice)
Here are the unaltered dominant chord types (4-voice) from Lesson 20:
As with the Majors, so with the Dominants; we will alter the 5ths and 9ths to create altered chords. We do this to accommodate the melody (whatever it may be), or to create smooth voice-leading, or to take advantage of a chord shape that's easier to grab.
This lesson includes explanatory text, fretboard diagrams and a video:
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Video Lesson:
Minor, Diminished, and Augmented Triads in Root Position
Let's talk about triads.
Way back in June of 2025, the free video lesson in this newsletter was called Quick & Dirty Major Triads + Jimi-isms. Go through that one if you want to.
However, this lesson will include Major Triads because the other three types are derived from the majors. This lesson includes all positions; the “Quick & Dirty” covered only half the possibilities.
You don't need to be a member. You can view the video below with no obligation or commitment.
For a complete lesson series on triads, see Unit 3: Triads.
I Have Not Yet Begun to Leverage YouTube!
But I'm thinking about it!
As of now, there are 485 videos on Master Guitar School's YouTube channel. Most of them are set to "unlisted" and can only be accessed through Master Guitar School's online and downloadable guitar lessons.
In the beginning, I conceived of the videos as being merely short demonstrations of the more involved lessons that consisted of text, fretboard diagrams, music notation, pictures and so on.
But pretty early on, especially after I learned to embed fretboard diagrams into the videos, I decided to make the videos as self-contained as possible.
Personally, I would much rather look at the lesson in a book or a PDF; that way you can spend as long as you want studying a fretboard diagram or looking at music notation rather than go to the trouble of pausing the video and enlarging the image - but I'm an old guy.
Anyway, in the meantime, I would direct your attention to a lesson series that's already public. It's called, “Modal Distinctives.”
The concept of this series is that you can learn to easily access the distinctive sound of any mode from the most commonly known scale, the Minor Pentatonic.
Now, you could purchase ($39) and download the whole series in PDF form, which would include links to the videos but consist of a LOT more than just the videos (36 pages, 6 lessons, 65 fretboard diagrams and other graphics, 6 video links, 28 links to additional lessons, song examples, and more!).
Or you could look at only the videos on the YouTube channel. Here's the link to the “Modal Distinctives” playlist:
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:
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Blogs Published Since Last Newsletter
Learn Chords: Instructing someone to “learn these chords” and then putting 132 chord diagrams in front of them is an example of what I call “random acquisition.” It’s all by rote with no underlying logic or methodology. No thinking, no context, no understanding, just rote memorization. There is a better way.
Is a Capo Cheating? Is a capo cheating? I'm not going to talk about "cheating," but about how I use a capo, and why. A capo is a tool. As such, it has its uses…
Concepts for Comping: Lesson 29: June Newsletter: Concepts for Comping: II-V-I’s in Minor Keys. Video: 9th Chords in the Blues and more…
Tune of the Month
We'll Never Say Goodbye
This song is very wordy, it's hard to sing. You have to sing very staccato, and concentrate on enunciation. The other side of that coin is that the lyrics are very syncopated, and that's cool. But - I hate it when I write songs that are hard!
This song is just an expression of the security I feel in my relationship with Andrea, my wife (see How I Sabotage My Music Career - And Why). I know she's with me for life. Good times and bad, joy and sorrow, sickness and health. I know it can be done. I know that some day one of us will most likely die first. And maybe, though we can't see it from where we stand, there IS a happy ending. But if not, and until then, we'll never really say goodbye.
Personal Consult for Site Members:
I offer live “consults” to Site Members. This consult is an on-demand deal for Site Members only. 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.
If your question can be adequately dealt with by email, I will respond and there's no charge.
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I have several open weekly slots for personal students - either in-person or remote:
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