3 Reasons Wes Montgomery Is Amazing And Worth Checking Out

[Music] there are not that many recordings that made such a huge impact on me that i remember where i was and what i was doing when i heard them the first time but it is amazing when you have that experience in a classical guitar lesson my teacher at the time morton scott suggested that if i wanted to learn jazz then i should listen to wes montgomery so i went from that lesson down to the record store and bought a verve compilation on my way home the first tracks didn't really resonate with me and especially the string orchestra and the big band were not what i expected i was used to parker playing with small groups or scofield playing in a trio i guess it was the blues that really made the difference for me when i got to the last track on that album the thumb my way into jazz was really always coming through the blues i had the same thing with parker where i completely got casey blues and now's the time you know but a piece like donna lee that i knew was famous just sounded random and chaotic to me the thumb is worse playing in a small group quartet with ron carter grady tate and i think ray beretto on congress the track is a master class in phrasing and jazz tradition wes makes the small band sound like a big band and really relies as much on swing and blues tradition as he does on bebop harmony again not that unlike charlie parker to me the essential lessons that you learn from wes are not about playing with your thumb using octaves or playing chord solos those are really great techniques but they're just techniques i think there are much more important things to learn at getting into your own playing than focusing on those now if that offends you then feel free to relieve your anger in the comments these discussions with only playing west lines with your thumb and janko only using two fingers to me it doesn't really make sense but i guess for a hardcore django fan there's only one way to go at the same time if you listen to people like robin christian or mikko then i think that having all fingers works as well for the rest you'll probably agree with everything else i say in this video and i have one influence on west that i think is seriously overlooked but i'll get back to that later one of the things that wes does really well is to make every note count and he doesn't rely on using many notes very often you can see exams of this and how wes is often using quarter note melodies with just a repeating note like this phrase from four and six [Music] and this is also very common when he's playing octaves like this example from the song that i talked about in the beginning the thumb [Music] in this example he's actually ignoring the changes and just repeating the root for almost four bars which is not that common in jazz especially in this place which you saw the 2-5 at the end of the blues chorus you also want to notice that he might be playing one note and only play quarter notes but he's still playing with dynamics and accenting the 204 to log in with the groove compared to a lot of other great improvisers then wes plays a lot of short phrases especially if you compare him to a lot of the other bebop and hop up guitarists but that's also the one thing that he uses to make his solo so incredibly melodic and often also incredibly groovy wes will play short melodic ideas and he's a master at tying them together in creative ways [Music] in this example he starts out with a core response between a higher and a lower melody [Music] repeats this [Music] and then turns this into a descending arpeggio motif that he's just taking down through the shifting two fives [Music] and you can easily hear how the shorter phrases are connected to each other and developing tying the entire segment together as a complete piece of music again not playing more notes than needed a side note here is that if you know your west solos then you'll probably notice that i'm using fragments from both the 4 and 6 on incredible jazz guitar and also the one smoking at the half note [Music] here you have a very clear call with the octaves and then a response with the arpeggio melody again the idea is that we recognize one part and then a part that's developing which is then the arpeggio i think the most important aspect of this is that it ties together the whole solo he's not just playing from one chord to the next he's playing phrases that are related to each other creating a story and often this ties together longer periods like eight or sixteen bars i think this is a huge part of what pat metheny describes as melodic clarity when he's talking about how wes influenced him in the interview he did with alex kolnig on the podcast moods and modes if you haven't heard the interview then go check it out it's certainly worth listening to both for pat being an amazing musician but also for alex's really useful perspective and explanations that tie the whole thing together and give you a lot of useful information and maybe there's also something to be said for pat metheny being the west montgomery of his generation surely you can't be serious i am serious and don't call me shirley another thing that's closely related to the short phrases is that west very often uses them as rifts [Music] essentially he plays the same melody with the same rhythm and only change the things to fit the chord progression the use of quarter note rhythms and drop two voicings also really helped to bring the big band vibe i think there's one influence on west that is rarely mentioned but is clearly very important let me explain what i mean this example is almost a direct quote of the shout chorus riff and count basis splanky and usually we talk about wes being inspired by charlie christian and you can hear parker licks in his solos quite often but you have to remember that he also was growing up in a period where popular music was big band swing and those types of melodies and that type of phrasing is not getting the credit it deserves for being a part of his playing splanky is off the legendary count basie album atomic basie and if you want to improve your phrasing and learn to think in shorter phrases and really get that type of feel into your playing learning a few of those melodies and playing them along with this amazing big band is probably not the worst idea in the world another example of a similar big band inspired riff is found in his solo on nika stream again using rhythm and drop two voicings to make it really stand out and give it that big bend feel [Music] it is maybe ironic that you can sit and watch a video analyzing how wes played when he said himself that he did not know theory at all whether that's really true is of course open to discussion but i think it's clear that you can learn a lot from analyzing and thinking about how the artists that you like play describing music is the real power of music theory and if you want to dig deeper into that then you mostly just need a strong foundation of some very basic knowledge if you check out this video then you can see what that foundation is what you need to know and probably also how much of it you already know and how far you can get with it

Channel: Jens Larsen

Views: 23,568

Keywords: guitar, how to play jazz guitar, jazz guitar, jazz guitar chords, jazz guitar lesson, jens larsen, wes montgomery, wes montgomery four on six guitar lesson, wes montgomery guitar, wes montgomery guitar lesson, wes montgomery guitar solo, wes montgomery guitar style, wes montgomery guitar tutorial, wes montgomery lesson, wes montgomery live

Id: eTOTO4CGrzs

Length: 7min 38sec (458 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 15 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/pcbeard]

Always loved Wes’ phrasing.

Listening to Moods and Modes interview now. Thanks for the recommendation!

[u/jenslarsenjazz]

Content:

00:00 Intro

00:09 Hearing Wes For The First Time

01:20 An Unpopular Opinion on Wes?

02:09 #1 Not Afraid To Keep It Simple

03:02 #2 The Power Of Short Phrases

04:07 Are You a "Real" Wes Fan?

04:53 Metheny Is The New Wes?

05:28 #3 Repetition Legitimizes

05:59 The Secret to Wes' Phrasing

07:04 Did Wes Know Music Theory?

07:20 How Powerful Music Theory Really is

07:29 Like the video? Check out my Patreon page!