Wes Montgomery solo as playing in Hamburg

One thing I found challenging on this one is the rhythm Wes applies on the notes he chooses

Good practice could be tapping your foot on the 2 and 4 while trying to phrase the way he did.you 'll find yourself in trouble as soon as you start trying.First four bars of his solo are so rhythmically rich!

He uses a detailed collection of notes out of the minor key he is soloing on and jams on the rhythm starting his phrases off the beat having a triplets feels ,a great characteristic of Wes' playing.

Apart from that what I found quite interesting on this solo is the use of the Root the 2nd the 3rd and the 5th of the minor key he is playing on.Try to apply that on a Gminor.What you'll get is a kind of pentatonic scale that has the notes listed below.

G ,A,Bb and D .

A good practice could be to play this shape through out all positions on your freatboard and in different minor keys.You could also use the Gm to Dbm chord change on this tune to practice along with.

Strong Afro feel if you play this pattern starting on the 5th going up to the Root then the 2nd etc...
Is a sound that you can hear it a lot on gospel keys players and afro music.

Another good element on his playing is the "behind the rhythm" feel that he has.Strong related to his triplet feel way of playing eighth notes off the beat or groupings of eighth notes. Not sure if this is related to his "behind the rhythm feel " phylosophy but you can also hear on this solo that Wes opposite to other bebop players he never anticipates the chord-changes.He always start his phrases on the new chord coming after the chord change happens. Sometimes you can even hear a two bars gap before he will start playing on the new key.A good example is the chord change at 1:00 where you can here a two bar gap. He finally comes in on the 1and of the beat.

Something else that comes to contrast with other bebop players,is his diatonic choise of notes.There's no chromatic passes between the guide tones.
Is also interesting the way he treats the Dalt chord ( chord V to Gm) .We have a good example on 1:14 where he repeats a shape starting from C ascending using diatonic notes up to the root which is G. He emphasizes that by repeating it twice and then he moves the whole shape a minor third up so he simply plays the related melodic minor to the Dalt which is a Ebmelodic minor. Try that on your practice.Record a vamp on a Gmin9 chord and start improvising simple ideas over it using the Gminor or Gminor pentatonic scale( y not the 1st,2nd,b3rd and the 5th pentatonic mentioned above?) .On the fourth bar play a strong line on a Bbminor scale ( not melodic minor scale because that will sound terrible ,since what you are looking for is common notes with Gb melodic minor) and resolve it chromaticly on your Gmpentatonic or melodic minor or whatever minor shape you are using for a floor while improvising over your vamp.

Listening to his playing for years and transcribing him quite a lot I personally think that Wes was never thinking of what he was doing neither had on his mind a collection of notes or triplet groupings or any other "theory crap" I 'm mentioned here.that's a way of understanding and taking his playing underneath my fingers(if possible= (im) possible : ) ). He was a man that was living on his ears ....
He had a great instinct of what the best choice would be while improvising and many times you can hear him playing outside the tune but still sounding so natural and so Wes.!

for a free transcription please email me @ otiousslim@hotmail.com

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• Wes
• Montgomery
• Jazz
• Guitar
• Bebop
• be
• bop
• solo guitar

[urlovedbeetle]

Wow! Great playing!

[TheBarkskin]

Great job man!

[Bomberomusician]

Very nice playing man. I see yet another musician that has taken the time to understand the Genius Of Wes and his unique talent. Great playing and great narration.

[Aperitotheband]

Nice playing, Alex !!! I have to say that this guy really rocks.