Empathy is a little-taught skill that's critical to, among other things, teaching, storytelling, and music. When you're comping, you want to be sure the listener (and the soloist) know where they are in the song, without getting in the way. Doing it right requires listening closely, because you want your dynamics (generally) to mirror the soloist's, you want to anticipate when he'll go slow or take a breath because those are the best times to say something. As an accompanist your rhythm should be simpler than the drummer's or the soloist's, but should also (or rather, it often sounds good if you do) reflect any temporary motifs they introduce. If the bass is playing a pedal tone rather than the root, you might consider including the root more important than it would be otherwise (it's common otherwise to play the third and seventh, since the audience can typically infer the fifth even if it's not in the bassline).<p>These skills, which are often called "taste", are quite temperament-agnostic. They would apply equally to music with 13 notes per octave.
Not much to add, apart from to say that the discussion in this here comments section has been the best thing I've read on HN for a long time. And I generally like the discussions on here, a lot.
Can’t there be a game that plays like Mario bros where it goes super easy, but still have an incentive/fun system to let you progress slowly to high levels? Is there such thing even close to this?
If you are interested in jazz piano comping on a deep level, the best books are the Jeb Patton books, "An approach to comping" Vol 1 and 2. Nothing else comes close in its thoroughness.<p>Also, the online course site openstudiojazz.com has first rate courses.
> Sometimes this would include a vibraphone (Gary Burton could really comp), or even a jazz harp.<p>Citation needed for the jazz harpist comping chords.<p>(No points for solo jazz harping-- only for jazz harping from inside the rhythm section.)