Wes Montgomery – The Most Amazing Jazz Music Guitarist Ever – Part 3
From the very beginning, Wes Montgomery appeared to hear things in a different way on the guitar! Rather than going after the regular “plectrum” or “pickstyle” approach, he opted for a thicker, warmer tone made by striking the strings with the meat of his right hand thumb. He developed an uniquely personal sound in his single note guitar soloing with this unorthodox, seemingly not possible physical guitar playing approach. His tone and methodology confounded and enthralled the guitarists and audiences of his day. One glance at any video clip concert of Wes Montgomery is more than telling and always continues to astonish guitarists today. Fortunately, for aspiring jazz guitar players there are collection books still available of jazz guitar tabs and jazz guitar tablature for many of Wes’s guitar solos.
Wes Montgomery rested his right hand with the fingers unfolded on the top of the guitar and the pickguard edge right behind the neck pickup. The thumb played the strings with a relaxed stroke originating from the second joint. The right hand thumb tip was cocked at the first joint at a reverse angle, that has led quite a few to believe that Wes was double jointed. Wes utilized downstrokes predominantly but could also perform prolonged complex lines with alternating down-up strokes when desired.
Wes Montgomery’s melodic conception has been referred to as “horn like” – little wonder as he drew great inspiration from musicians like Charlie Parker who performed on alto sax, John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins who played tenor sax and Miles Davis who played trumpet in addition to conventional guitar influences like Charlie Christian and Django Reinhardt. The fingering of his single note guitar phrases from uncomplicated melodious statements to earthy blues phrases and blazing bebop passages has always been a source of consternation amongst jazz guitar purists!
Like quite a few blues and rock guitarists, Wes seldom used his “pinky” or fourth finger of his left hand for single note guitar phrases, irrespective of their intricacy or physical demands. Additionally, his methodology was very linear. He often hooked up a number of positions laterally up and down the guitar fingerboard in one phrase and often shifted on a single string. As a consequence, he appeared to steer clear of the normal position confines of guitaristic “box playing”. Instead, most of his phrases overlapped and dovetailed each other in the manner of chord inversions organized horizontally on the guitar fingerboard.
Wes Montgomery was a remarkable guitar playing innovator and a jazz pioneer! In his search for sonic expansion, he originated a signature parallel octave approach, which is arguably his most identifiable guitar trait – especially to the general public. An octave in this situation is an interval 8 steps apart, fingered as a dyad and articulated like a two note chord. His specialized facility with octaves on the guitar remains unsurpassed to this day, as even a superficial listen to pretty much any of his recordings will definitely reveal.
His articulation for octaves was a variation of Montgomery’s above mentioned “thumb attack”. When playing octaves he did not plant his fingers on the top of his guitar, but lightly touched the pick guard and the body. The stroke was a mixture of thumb and wrist motion, much like a downstroke for strumming chords. Wes was famous for his improvised octave solos in tunes like “West Coast Blues”, “4 On Six”, “Besame Mucho” and “Fried Pies”.
About the Author
Peabody Conservatory trained guitarist Steven Herron helps guitar players become better guitarists. His company ChordMelody.com features an enormous selection of
jazz guitar tabs
as well as instructional DVDs by Wes Montgomery himself. Find out more and claim Steven’s popular free monthly guitar lesson e-course available at: =>
http://www.chordmelody.com/Wes-Montgomery.htm
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