Rhythmic Lessons in Shiny · Marc's Jazz Guitar Academy

Rhythmic Lessons in Shiny

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and any other potential Galbriath comping travelers. Part of the difficulty beyond the complex chord structures is counting the rhythms. It gets easier once you recognize the recurring Charleston rhythms. The other key lesson in Shiny is anticipation of the chord change by playing on the 4th beat or the & of 4. I marked up the first 3 pages of Shiny with the reoccurring rhythms (see attached). Things to note:

Charleston's on the first beat (marked in blue) - Just in case you didn't realize that Charleston's were important, Barry starts with 4 basic Charleston's in a row - and 8 on the first 3 pages!
Chord anticipation - playing the next chord on the 4 or 4& (marked in red). Just to clue you in that it is important, Barry follows his 4 Charleston's with 5 (!) consecutive chord anticipations. He gives us 3 different approaches - play the next chord on the & of 4, play a single note on the downbeat of 4 leading to the anticipation, or play chromatically a half step above before the anticipation chord.
Charleston's on the 3 (marked in yellow) - Barry gives us another way of approaching anticipation chords - playing a Charleston on the 3 with the anticipation chord on the & of 4. Other than the standard Charleston's on the 1 - playing Charleston's on the 3 is a favorite of Barry's - there are 11 (!!) of them on the first 3 pages alone.
Charleston on the 3 with chromatic move to the anticipation chord - Barry introduces this in measure 27 and then again in measure 35 & 39
Charleston's on the 1 & (marked in purple). This is sometimes used as a rhythmic variant to Charleston's on the first beat (see measure 19). It will emphasize the downbeat of 3 - which is helpful for the next idea
Combining Charleston's on the 1& with Charleston's on the 3 - (purple and yellow together). Yet another way to set up anticipation of the next chord. Start a Charleston on the 1 & , land on the 3, and play another Charleston that ends with a chord anticipation. This is introduced in measure 11, and then repeated 5 other times in the first 3 pages.

If you can nail these 4 rhythms (Charleston's on the 1, 1& and 3, plus anticipation on the 4/4&) the counting gets much easier (it took me a long time to realize this!). I did a practice video of just these key rhythms using Autumn Leaves and guide tones so that I could concentrate on the rhythms (https://www.skool.com/jazz-guitar/comping-practice-using-16-bars-of-autumn-leaves)

For anyone who doesn't know this etude, I've attached a version of Shiny (based on the tune Shiny Stockings).

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Rhythmic Lessons in Shiny