Hi everyone, hi Barry,
I’m a new subscriber and a guitarist from Montpellier, France — happy to be here and learning a lot from the community and Barry’s videos!
I’m getting ready to start going to jam sessions, but I’m realizing my comping isn’t where it needs to be yet.
I’ve learned all my inversions (drop 2, drop 3, across the strings), and I can move through them — but it still sounds mechanical. Like I’m just cycling through shapes rather than actually playing. There’s no real interaction, just chord shapes and a metronome.
For example, I’ve been working on Sandu using inversions. I can make it through the form, but it just loops — no variation, nothing musical, no sense of "improvising" happening. I feel like I’m going in circles.
I’m a bit discouraged, to be honest. I really want to get this part of my playing together so I can contribute in a jam — not just follow the changes, but bring something to the table.
I’ve been watching a lot of Barry’s content (super helpful!), but I’m still unsure how to structure my practice to make my comping sound more alive — more more varied, more fun.
Basically: how do you add some spice to your comping so you’re not just running the same voicings over and over?
Any advice, exercises, or routines that helped you get past this would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance!