Listen carefully to how a piano or guitar accompanies a soloist (sax, trumpet...) in medium to up tempo tunes. Most of the time the chords played are very short in duration. We call this way of accompniment or comping, "hits" or "stabs" and what's most important about this is not the harmony itself because it's so short that at times you barely perceive it, IT'S THE RHYTHM. Notice that these harmonic "hits" rarely are played on strong beats but are played on weaker upbeats. If you play to much harmony on strong beats then the tune gets sluggish like a car trying to get out of deep mud. But if upeats are the focus of where you place your chords then the tune is a Ferrari.
So with that in mind here's walking bass, harmonic "stabs" and melody. (Note: In jazz all upbeat quarter notes are always played short unless noted otherwise)
This is pretty tricky fingerwise. Practice two notes at a time and go slowly. I recommend Tuck Andress' DVD "Fingerstyle Mastery".
