Green Dolphin Street Comping & Improv
In this lesson we explore a selection of comping voicings and improvised solo ideas for the famous tune ‘On Green Dolphin Street’.
This tutorial features 3 comping choruses, 2 choruses of improvised solo, and a head-in and head-out. The scrolling score contains annotations of the theory areas for additional explanation on the styles of voicings being used.
Comping Voicing Styles
We incorporate a wide range of comping voicings and styles to achieve different textures and colours in our accompaniment. In particular we apply the following theory areas:
- Simple left hand voicings and melody
- Dominant chain turnarounds (G7 – C7 – F7 – Bb7)
- Basic drop 2 voicings
- 4th voicings & ‘So What’ voicings
- Red Garland voicings
- Upper structure triad voicings
See the related lesson section below for in-depth tutorials on these theory areas.
Lesson Downloads
-
Green Dolphin Street – Supporting Material File Type: pdf
Related Lessons
The So What chord voicing contains all 5 notes of the pentatonic scale. That’s why it works so well in so many different harmonic situations.
The Red Garland voicing has a distinctive ‘block chord’ sound, but compared to previous styles of block chords, it has a much brighter quality.
In this lesson I explain what drop 2 voicings are, how to construct them and how to practice drop 2 so that you are familiar with them in all 12 keys.
Practice Tips
-
First learn the left hand voicings that are used to accompany the head-in and head-out.
-
Once you are familiar with the harmony of the tune you can spread the voicings over 2 hands in drop-2 configuration.
-
The final step is introduce the bigger 2 handed voicings such as the Red Garland voicings and the upper structure harmony.
-
See the related lessons above for theory lessons on these voicing concepts.
