Learn to Comp Like Jazz Legend Freddie Green

One of my favorite rhythm guitar approaches is the one that the late jazz master Freddie Green pioneered in his work with the Count Basie Orchestra. Throughout his 50 years on the gig, Green played an acoustic archtop, unamplified. Though his strumming was sometimes more felt than heard, it contributed so much to Basie’s signature sound and swing. 

Green’s style—quarter-note strums in 4/4 time (aka “four to the floor”)—seems simple enough. But it’s rarely mastered. When trying to play in the manner of Green, guitarists tend to use too many notes in their chords and to strum them too loudly. So, as you play through this primer on Green’s style, strive for a less forceful, swinging feel. And be sure to use a metronome, set to beats 2 and 4, to keep things tight. 

Week One

This week you’ll review the most common diatonic (within the same key) seventh chords, with roots on the fifth and sixth strings. Example 1 depicts fifth-string-rooted chords within the C major scale. (If you happen to be on a 12-fret guitar, don’t worry about playing the chords that fall way up on the neck.) Also based on the C major scale, Example 2 uses sixth-string-rooted chords. 

Example 3 is identical to Ex. 1, except it omits the fifth of each chord—a note that Green generally avoided. The fifth is considered inessential, as it doesn’t define the sound of the chord like the third or seventh do. Similarly, Example 4 shows fifth-string-rooted voicings on the adjacent strings 5–3 that also contain just roots, thirds, and sevenths. Then you’re back to sixth-string-rooted chords, this time without fifths, in Example 5. 

Beginners’ Tip #1
Learn all of these examples up and down the guitar neck by heart, as you’ll find the chords all over the place in jazz and other styles.

Week Two

Example 6 uses the same chord shapes from Exs. 1 and 2, but in common chord progressions. The first two bars are based on the I–vi–ii–V in C major; the next two bars are on the iii–VI–ii–V. The fifths in these chords are omitted in Example 7, for a more Green-like sound. In the third and fourth measures, note the use of common tones—the Em7 and A7 chords share the fifth-fret G, and the Dm7 and G7 chords share the third-fret F. This makes for smooth transitions between chords. 

Examples 8 and 9 take the same approach as Exs. 6 and 7, but the first chord in each bar is rooted on the sixth string and the second one on the fifth string. In Ex. 9 you’ll see another common tone in action; the highest note of both the Dm7 chord and the G7 is the tenth-fret F. See if you can extend the pattern to the Em7 and A7 chords. 

Beginners’ Tip #2
Always look for the third and seventh of each chord in these examples.

Week Three

Now that you’ve woodshedded on the chords from Weeks 1 and 2, it’s time to get into Green’s comping style. In the previous examples you discarded the fifths of chords. Years ago, when I studied with Bucky Pizzarelli, he told me that Green often distilled things down even further—ghosting all but one of the notes in a three-note chord, for example. Essentially Green played one-note chords!

Example 10 demonstrates this approach with the progression from Exs. 7 and 8. As you can see, all of the notes are muted, save for those on the fourth string. This week you only have one short figure, since it might take some practice and focus on your fretting fingers to get the music up to speed. The trick is to strum all six strings while fingering the three-note chords—fretting the outer notes lightly and letting only the fourth string ring—all while completely deadening the remaining strings with the undersides of your fretting fingers. 

Beginners’ Tip #3
When playing in the Freddie Green style—or jazz in general—be sure to accent beats 2 and 4. 

Week Four

In Example 11 you’ll find the first four bars (eight, if you count the repeat) of rhythm changes—the harmonic progression from the Gershwin tune “I Got Rhythm,” one of the commonest forms in jazz, on which innumerable other compositions are based. 

The example starts off with a fifth-string-rooted Cmaj7 chord, with only its third (E) sounding. Immediately following that chord, you’ll also see the introduction of a new chord type, the fully diminished seventh, which is used to neatly connect diatonic chords. A C#dim7 chord (the underlying shape is, by fret number, X423XX) bridges the Cmaj7 and Dm7 chords, just as a D#dim7 then connects Dm7 and E7. 

Example 12 shows the entire bridge of rhythm changes, with its series of dominant seventh chords moving counterclockwise along the circle of fifths. Note how the fourth-string notes descend in neat half steps between the chords. 

After you’ve worked through all four weeks of this lesson—and you think you’ve got a feel for the Freddie Green style—try playing through some standards using the same approach. Play chords with just roots, thirds, and sevenths; chords with only thirds and sevenths; and of course, those containing only one note. Be sure to maintain a swinging feel, with an emphasis on beats 2 and 4. 

Also, the Freddie Green style needn’t be limited to jazz. Whatever style you play, especially in ensemble settings, this minimalistic approach can declutter and breathe fresh life into your music.

Beginners’ Tip #4
Play through the chords in a fake book using voicings that contain only roots, thirds, and sevenths.

This article, from the November/December 2024 of Acoustic Guitar magazine, originally appeared in the October 2015 issue.