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B Y J I M CBROUSON

Wes Montgomery leamed his art on the street,

not in a classroom or from a book. Largely selfdeveloped, his pragmatic approach was designed for playing jazz, period. According to
his brother Buddy, He didnt read any music
that I know of, unless he was quiet and didnt
tell me anything. Yet an inability to read music has never prevented improvisors from
achieving great things. Wes had plenty of natural talent, but he also worked extremely hard.

In the early 60s he told Ralph J. Gleason, It

takes so much time to develop your technique.
Even non-musicians who saw Wes play
were astounded by how he used his right-hand
thumb to sound the strings. This was a primary
reason for his particularly lush tone and undoubtedly a contributing factor to the way he
phrased. (Monk Montgomery also used his
thumb.) Wes supposedly began using his
thumb because it kept his playing relatively
quiet and less likely to disturb his neighbors:

EX. 2
G7

J= 108

EX. 3
J=w

Eb7

6 6 GUITAR PLAYER Arclast 1 9 9 3

c7

however, he did consider using a pick Bt one

point. I just didnt like the sound, he explained to Ralph J. Gleason. I tried it for about
two months-didnt use the thumb at all. But I
still couldnt use the pick, so I said Id go ahead
and use the thumb. I liked the tone better with
the thumb, but the technique better with the
pick.. . . I couldnt have them both.
Viewing 1965s /uzz 625 reveals volumes
about Wes overall technique. In terms of his
right-hand thumb, he used downward rest
strokes the majority of the time. (Normally, his
fingers spread out over the pickguard and onto
the guitars top, serving as an anchor.) He occasionally used upstrokes for fast passages, offthe-beat kicks, and tremolos. Less frequently
he brushed up with his right-hand index finger
or executed a rasgueado-like flourish with several fingers.
Most of Wes thumb movement emanated
from the joint nearest the hand, the knuckle of
which protrudes upward. The rest of his thumb
was rigid and arched down toward the strings.
Many fingerstylists find this position very difficult, if not impossible, to adopt. Recording engineer Wally Heider observed that Wes thumb
was the fastest thing hed ever seen.
Although Montgomery complained about
the shortcomings of his right-hand technique,
it didnt prevent him from developing his
patented approach to improvisation, in which
he began with single notes, moved to his trademark octaves, and climaxed with chords. This
additive method organically built tension
and excitement and made many of his solos
miniature primers in his overall skills.
Single nokr. Wes bluesy feel and vocabulary are primary reasons why players of so
many styles gravitate toward his music. Bx 1
through Ex. 4 show a variety of blues-based
single-note ideas. Ex. 1 is based on F minor
pentatonic. Ex. 2 is basically the same phrase,
but in the key of G. Although Montgomery had
a collection of stock licks, the many ways in
which he led into and exited from them never
signaled that he was falling back on memorized clich8s. Ex. 3 has a double-time feel,
while Rx. 4 integrates the b7, which generates
its own bluesy quality in the context of a 12-bar
progression.
@ LESSONS ON LINE I-900-370-00201160

In addition to the downhome aspects of

Wes playing, he negotiated chord changes in a
seamless, sophisticated manner. Ex 5 shows a
short idea based on E7. Whether he thought in
terms of E7 (in which case the notes generated
are9, 11, 13, root, b7,9), Bm7(5, b7,9, 11,3,5),
or sound alone, his use of extensions is hip to
say the least. He also had effective approaches
to playing over altered chords. In Bx. 6 the first
two beats are Mixolydian-based, while the second two feature a superimposed Bbmaj7
arpeggio that generates the root, #5,11, and b9.
Octovos. Youre going to come across octaves if you play the guitar long enough, John
Scofield observes, but no one conceived of
doing it like Wes did. I still dont know how he
did it. Wes wasnt the Brst jazz guitarist to incorporate octaves, but he took them to unprecedented heights. Bx. 7 shows two of the
most common octave fingerings. Damp the
skipped string by pivoting your 1st finger
against it.
To develop fluency, practice Bx. 6s Cmajor
scale. This simple exercise points out the most
difficult aspect of octave execution: left-hand
shifts. To cultivate the necessary speed and accuracy, your left arm should move your hand
from position to position, a common classical
guitar concept. This prevents you from leading
with only your hand, dragging your thumb behind. Wes occasionally reached out of position,
keeping his thumb flxed behind the neck, but
for substantial fingerboard shifts, his left-hand
thumb moved along with his hand.
Octaves are difiicult, but they can be mastered. In the early 60s Montgomery said, I
used to have headaches every time I played octaves, because it was an extra strain, but the
minute Id quit, Id be all right. I dont know
why, but it was my way, and my way just backfired on me. But now I dont have headaches
when I play octaves. Im just showing you how
a strain can capture a cat and almost choke
him, but after a while it starts to ease up because you get used to it. Steve Khan adds,
The octave passages were often things hed also play as single notes. In a way, octaves make
you play more melodic@. Ex. 9 shows an F
minor pentatonic octave idea that demands
precise left-hand shifts.

EX.4
,

J=ioe

EX. 5

F7

EX. 6

E7

A7ft5

EX. 7
xxx

xx

EX. 8

EX.9
Gm7

Chords. Probably the most overlooked, innovative, and monstrously difficult aspect of
Montgomerys playing was his chord improvisations. He was one of the pioneers of block
chords, a pianistic approach to the guitar,

tl

Kenny Burrell states. I dont know of anyone

who played chords in their solos to that extent,
so well, and so musically.
To begin to appreciate Wes chordal fluency, learn Ex. 10s E7-based fingerings. Then
Aryrst 1993 GUITAR CLAYER 67

EX. 10
E7

E7sus4

E7b5b9

E9

E7#5#9

El3

E7b9

E9

EX. 11
Bm7

E7

EX. 12

>

>

>

record an E7 vamp with a swing feel and improvise with Ex. 10s chords. Remember that
Wes employed a variety of voicings, inversions, and substitutions, and often connected
chords chromatically. Ex. 11 shows a phrase
over Bm7-E7. For an example of his chordmelody approach, check out While Were
Young, originally on Riversides So Much
Guitar!
Montgomery also had a very flexible sense
of rhythm, although his intense drive aligned
him stylistically with the hard-bop school
more than any other. In the Sept. 92 GP, Pat
Metheny said, He had an incredibly good
rhythmic feel when he played straight up and
down, but he would also play against things.
Rx. 12s accents show how he might displace a
four-note grouping by one eighth-note, while

J J I J > J J A.
Ex. 13 illustrates a four-note grouping in a
triplet context. Ry these ideas with your own
lines.
For more on Wes and his style and music,
see Steve Khans The Wes Montgomery Guitar
Foliollmprovisations
And Interpretations
[Gopan Enterprises], Jimmy Stewarts Wes
MontgomerylJazz
Guitar Method [Robbins
Music], Adrian Ingrams Wes Montgomery
[Ashley Mark], and Wes Montgomery/Jazz Guitar Solos [Alma] .
In the final analysis, how Wes did something is secondary to what he did. You can
have multiple degrees in harmony and theory,
be a tremendous reader, and have all kinds of
technical skills, says Steve Khan, but in the
end you have to hear something-especially
in jazz. Wes heard something.
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