Giant ii-V-I Comping Exercise
I've been working on comping with 3 5 7 9 chords over ii-V-I progressions. I'm trying to master all possible inversions on the top four and middle four strings before I tackle less common voicings.
It's usually desirable to use smooth voice-leading, occasionally jumping around to break continuity. There are groups of voicings that facilitate this voice-leading. One for the ii, one for the V, and one for the I will all work together and minimize voice movement. Each chord has four inversions, and each inversion can be played on the top four or middle four strings. (They can be played all over, on any group of strings you like, but I'm limiting my scope to learn this first.) That's eight ways to play each chord, or eight groups for ii-V-I.
Low to high, here are the voicings I'm using, each played on the top four or middle four strings.
ii: b3 5 b7 9 (revoiced from 9 5 b7 b3 to avoid the 9-b3 m9 interval)
V: 5 9 3 b7
I: 9 5 7 3
ii: b3 b7 9 5
V: b7 3 5 9
I: 3 7 9 5
ii: 5 9 b3 b7
V: 9 5 b7 3
I: 5 9 3 7
ii: b7 3 5 9
V: 3 b7 9 5
I: 7 3 5 9
Here are all the groups in C. Frets are indicated on strings 6 through 1.
Dm9: x-x-3-2-1-0
G9: x-x-0-2-0-1
Cmaj9: x-x-0-0-0-0
Dm9: x-3-3-2-5-x
G9: x-2-3-2-3-x
Cmaj9: x-2-2-0-3-x
Dm9: x-x-3-5-5-5
G9: x-x-3-4-3-5
Cmaj9: x-x-2-4-3-3
Dm9: x-8-7-5-5-x
G9: x-5-7-4-6-x
Cmaj9: x-5-5-4-5-x
Dm9: x-x-7-9-6-8
G9: x-x-7-7-6-7
Cmaj9: x-x-5-7-5-7
Dm9: x-8-10-9-10-x
G9: x-8-9-7-10-x
Cmaj9: x-7-9-7-8-x
Dm9: x-x-10-10-10-12
G9: x-x-9-10-10-10
Cmaj9: x-x-9-9-8-10
Dm9: x-12-14-10-13-x
G9: x-12-12-10-12-x
Cmaj9: x-10-12-9-12-x
So far, I'm feeling pretty comfortable finding the V and I in the same group when I start with any ii chord. However, I want to be able to jump around and play chords in new positions at any point in the progression. This means knowing where all these chords are independent of how I reference them within each group.
I developed a massive chord exercise to help me in this. I just play ii-V-I over and over, shifting between groups with every new chord. I'm not quick enough to do this at any tempo yet, so I just plug away at it until I've completed the cycle. A complete cycle, using the chords above in C, starts with Dm9 from the lowest group at x-x-3-2-1-0, takes G9 from the next group, Cmaj9 from the next group, Dm9 from the next group, etc. I turn around when I reach the group an octave above where I started. That makes me go up and down the neck through these groups three times before I complete a cycle, and it ensures that I hit every voicing at least once.