How to Play Guitar Like Wes Montgomery - C7(alt) Lick 1 - Jazz Guitar Lessons

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To create tension over C7, the V-chord, the first bar in C7(alt) Lick 1 blends chord tones with a single alteration, G# (the #5). (Tip: The four altered V-chord tension tones are b5, #5, b9, and #9.)

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[vecernicek2]

@GeorgiaBoy1961 Yes! Well said, agreed.

[GeorgiaBoy1961]

@tkanis90: A bit of false advertising, since no one can be someone else. It would have been better to say "... in the style of Wes Montgomery"...

[GeorgiaBoy1961]

@vecernicek2: Transcribing tunes, i.e. copying from recordings, is how all of the greats learned the art as neophytes. Everyone did it. Bird copped Lester Young, Wes Copped Charlies Christian, and so on. The key, though, is that they learned the licks and solos in the context of the record, often by playing along with it. Doing that forces you to learn all of the little things that make the music come alive, in addition to the big things, like keeping time and playing in tune.

[GeorgiaBoy1961]

@vecernicek2: There's a good bit of validity to your criticism; I sense something missing in many of today's jazz players. I sense that they have learned to play in a classroom, and not by doing hundreds (or even thousands) of gigs as the masters did. Oftentimes, I don't hear a story being told in their solos. However, to be fair, it is very tough to learn jazz - a music which is learned in the company of other players and on the bandstand - in today's environment. The gigs aren't there.

[twangbarfly]

Hey - I don't disagree with everything you say - what you're saying makes a lot of sense to me. And you're 100% right - discussions are about having different opinions. That's the point - we're all different. We all learn in different ways. I learned to read music on the guitar by studying Segovia's arrangement of the Chaconne Some people would say that's completely mad, but I was 14 at the time, had no money and was self-taught - I didn't know any different. It worked for me:-)

[vecernicek2]

@twangbarfly Ok :-) I hope nobody feels offended by me freely expressing my opinions, no matter how firm they are :) I think that's what discussions are for.

[twangbarfly]

@vecernicek2

Kids learn to put together small groups of words before they can utter more complex sentences. Musicians put together licks before they can construct meaningful solos. Some people rarely manage to string together interesting sentences and some players never manage meaningful solos. That's life. In the meantime, I say if you want to learn licks and improve your playing, then why not? Live and let live, vercernicek!

[vecernicek2]

@vecernicek2 The point is, the lick presented above does not make any musical sense unless it is in context of what has been played before and what will be played next. You can see many players today who play solos composed of licks they learnt from books and DVDs, but the solo does not really make sense, musically. It's just a compilation of unrelated musical phrases. Good example is Robert Conti, IMHO. I dont see any storytelling quality in his solos.

[vecernicek2]

@twangbarfly All jazz musicians learn by transcribing solos. Lick is a phrase, part of a solo, learned out of context. My belief is, that a great improvised solo can be divided into licks, but can't be composed of licks. Context is crucial - there is more to great solos than licks that fit the harmony. There is a story in the solo, or if you want, musical development, motivic playing, tension and release. You can instantly recognize players who worship the lick-school by lack of any development

[twangbarfly]

@vecernicek2 Wes started out playing Charlie Christian solos note for note - including his licks. CC started out copying Lester Young's licks. Pat Metheny transcribed and memorised many Wes tunes, thus incorporating his licks. Seems to me that if that's how you want to do it then it's a great approach. The crucial point is once you have the licks under your fingers to try and understand how they work, pull them apart and build variations on them, making them yours. No one way is right or wrong