So You Want To Play Like Wes Montgomery, Part 1

This post originally started out recapping my history trying to learn jazz guitar (starting with early  Wes Montgomery recordings), only because I think I made some mistakes that I would encourage students not to make as they learn the guitar. But things have changed as explained in my last post (here). There is now a Wes Montgomery International Jazz Guitar Competition. This is only the first year for the competition. How long it will last I do not know but my hope is that it lasts for a very long time. In any event, if you enter the competition, you have to confront the Wes Montgomery jazz guitar legacy (certainly, this is one of the purposes of the competition). So, whether or not you want to play like Wes Montgomery, you will have to decide before the competition how much like Wes Montgomery (if at all) you intend to play for the submission. To do that, you have to learn something about how Wes Montgomery played. If you are an instructor teaching jazz guitar, you might have to deal with more student interest in Wes Montgomery.

Suppose a guitar student shows up (as I did forty years ago) and says "I want to play like Wes Montgomery" or "I want to enter the Wes Montgomery International Jazz Guitar Competition". What do you say to them? Is there a book you can give them? Is there an educational program you can put them on that they can complete? Is there someone you could point to who has actually done this?

First off, it might be a poorly stated goal. Did I mean I wanted to follow the steps Wes Montgomery did to learn Jazz Guitar? If so, don't read this blog, don't look for a teacher or for an instructional book, since Wes did none of these things. He started with a four string tenor guitar given to him by his older brother Monk Montgomery. He switched to a six string when he heard his first Charlie Christian record. He worked out and memorized all the Charlie Christian solos he found on records. He went out in Indianapolis clubs and played these solos note for note. He played so well he got a job with the Lionel Hampton band (Hampton worked with Christian in the Benny Goodman band and was looking for the Christian sound in his band). Wes never had a formal teacher (the best teacher in Indianapolis was all booked with students). He evidently never read instructional books (this is a little hard to believe but what the books of that era contained was pretty poor in any event). He worked everything out by brute-force saying that every guitarist has "the same six strings I do". He stumbled onto octave playing and playing with his thumb by chance. He never used his fourth finger when playing single-note lines. He played sophisticated chord voicings but struggled with the names for the chords and could not read music.

It's safe to say that today (1) no one knows exactly how Wes Montgomery learned to play jazz guitar since he did it by himself and never wrote an instructional book and (2) no one would or could ever duplicate exactly the steps Wes went though learning the instrument. However, in the words of drummer Jimmy Cobb, "He left a whole lot of stuff there for you to work on, if you're a guitar player" (Fitzgerald, 2009: 1). Unencumbered by instruction and surrounded by great musicians (Monk Montgomery, Buddy Montgomery, Mel Rhyne, the Lionel Hampton Band and more) and great music, Wes discovered new territory for the jazz guitar. In the post-Montgomery era, this new territory has been well studied (see references below).

The bigger challenge for jazz guitarists today is to understand what was discovered by Wes Montgomery and build on it. The person that succeeds at this will stand a good chance of winning the Wes Montgomery International Jazz Guitar Competition and will, at least, be a very competent jazz guitarist.

A place to start would be to see what has been written about playing in the style of Wes Montgomery. Here's a summary of topics, some of which I have already covered or will cover in future posts (references and interesting quotes below):

1. Play With Your Thumb (tornado in classical guitar technique). If you don't think you can play fast enough or are just coping Wes Montgomery lines, listen to Jim Mullen or Emily Remler. 
2. Play Octaves using jazz guitar technique or classical guitar technique (parallel octaves). See my prior post here. Also, learn to play double octaves (for example, Bumpin' on Sunset transcribed in Sokolow, 1988: 28-33).
3. Use a fat body arch-top jazz guitar (Wes used a Gibson L-5 CES, way too expensive now--there are many other excellent reasonably priced jazz guitars, for example the Epiphone Joe Pass, the Aria Pro guitars and others).
4. Play along with recordings. Wes memorized Charlie Christian solos from records but he also slowed down the turntable to study Giant Steps and communicated with Creed Taylor using tape recorded songs. In Wes' era, turntable or tape speeds could be slowed down to learn songs. Since we can no longer do that with digital media, consider using a free audio-editor and recorder such as Audacity and use the "Change Speed Effect" which does not change pitch while slowing the recording down. 
5. Watch Wes Montgomery play the guitar in every video you can find (for example, Wes Montgomery Live in '65 Full Concert). Notice that Wes never gets locked into a box, he is always moving fluidly up and down the neck in response to the flow of his improvisation. Most of the improvisation is done on the top four strings, especially in the higher registers (possibly a holdover from Wes' start on the four-string tenor guitar). Compare these visuals to, for example, Pat Martino (particularly the Pat Martino Trio -- Lotus Jazz Festival 2014) who seems to work mainly on the middle four strings all over the neck.
6. Learn the Blues (for example, Blues in F, Blue Monk, Twisted Blues, and many others). Be sure to read the excellent discussions of Missile Blues (Marhsall, 2001: 9-10), West Coast Blues (Marshall, 2001: 24), Naptown Blues (Sokolow, 1988: 70), Movin' Wes Part I (Sokolow, 1988: 55) and Movin' Wes Part II (Sokolow, 1988: 92).
7. Learn to swing (it's hard to teach but there is a good discussion by Emily Remler here).
8. Play Ballads (required by Wes Montgomery International Jazz Guitar Competition for example Misty, Ghost of a Chance, Polka Dots and Moonbeams, Serene,  Angel Eyes and more).
9. Play Pop Music and Smooth Jazz (The origins of Smooth Jazz have been traced to the albums by Creed Taylor and Wes Montgomery, for example the Bumpin' album).
10. Play Bossa Nova and Latin Jazz (for example, How Insensitive, Here's That Rainy Day, Watch What Happens, Besame Mucho, Nica's Dream, and more)
11. Play Rock (for example, Green Peppers, Goin on to Detroit, Winds of Barcelona, Wind Song, Goin Out of My Head, Windy, Eleanor Rigby, and more).
12. Learn to "first play the lead sheet form before you attempt the stylistic solo" (Garson et. al, 1968: 18). Make sure to add bluesy touches to the lead sheet; don't play it straight. Most lead sheet melodies can be played easily within two-octave boxes choosing the position based on the key signature. The boxes extend nicely on the top four strings, showing how Wes Montgomery certainly visualized the fingerboard. If you don't have a lead sheet, play the melody along with a recording and memorize it (how Wes did it) or write out the melody and make your own lead sheet (for the chords, play the bass line and use Figured Bass--I'll talk more about this in future posts but also see Mehegan, 1959: Chapter 76). 
13. When improvising "retain enough of the notes of the original melody to maintain the feeling of the tune"(Garson et. al, 1968: 18). Either explicitly or implicitly target the melody notes (Garson et. al, 1968: 18).
14. Play Vamps and Ostinatos (for example, Movin' Wes Part II, Scarborough Fair, and Sunny).
15. Use three-part structure improvisations (single-note, octaves, and chords, for example Full House). Wes did deviate from the pattern leaving out a single-note or a chordal improvisation but my guess is that he experimented with each form before deciding what worked best for the song, for example compare Sunny and Sunny (Alternate Take). In the more commercial records, the decisions were often made for him to just play octaves (Ingram, 2008: 47). 
16. When playing single-note solos, visualize the Comping and Complex Chord shapes  of the underlying harmony as Charlie Christian did (Hansen, 2001) and Wes surely picked up through transcription.
17. When playing scales use  sweep-picking, especially effective with the thumb (see useful closed-form arpeggio fingerings and exercises here).
18. Learn to play chords (triads, chords built in thirds, chords built in fourths, and spread chords) and chord scales. A useful place to start is with Comping and Complex Chord shapes which are root-position chord forms widely used in jazz (you can pick up inversions later or see Fowler, 1977:5).
19. Learn voice-leading, harmonization of non-chordal tones, treatment of appoggiatura, treatment of chordal anticipations, and  reharmonization of lead sheets (see Garson, 1968).
20. Play every Wes Montgomery transcription (here) and Charlie Christian transcription you can get your hands on (Hansen, 2001).
21. Listen to John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Tony Bennett, Barney Kessel, Jimmy Raney and Tal Farlow (Ingram, 2008: 50) musicians  who Wes liked and studied.
22. Listen to and use Big Band horn section ideas and arrangements, particularly call and response (for example,  Twisted Blues, Naptown Blues,  Movin' Wes Part II, and others). 
23. Write your own songs (possibly as a jazz contrafact). In Adrian Ingram's (2008) discography, Wes Montgomery is credited with writing forty-five songs. Start with Blues Structure, add II-V-I progressions, add Cycle of Fifths, use some unexpected chords.

This would be a lot to have to study in preparation for a guitar competition! For the current Wes Montgomery International Jazz Guitar Competition, you are going to have to be selective. One idea would be to chose the cover song you want to play, identify all the Wes Montgomery stylistic elements and bring them in to your other selections. You might also want to listen to the current submissions (here) to evaluate your competition on the Wes Montgomery stylistic elements listed above.

So far, I have posted about octaves, arpeggios, melody statements and complex comping chords. I'll try to pick up the rest of the topics over time, but I have one word of caution. We do not know definitively how Wes Montgomery approached jazz guitar playing. We know that Wes did not have a formal teacher "Wes did remember though that he once tried to get some guitar lessons for Indianapolis guitarist Alex Stevens (without success) " (Ingram, 2008: 16). We know from video recordings that his approach was somewhat idiosyncratic (he evidently did not use his fourth left-hand finger for single note playing although he did use the fourth finger for octaves on the top two strings). We know that Wes understood more musical theory than he would openly admit (he said he did not know the names of the chords he was playing but proceeded to give Pim Jacobs, here,  a sophisticated discussion of chord changes and substitutions in End of a Love Affair in the BBC sessions). Utlimately, Wes' comment that other guitarists were playing with the "same six strings I have" saves us here. We are all playing with the same six strings Wes did.

The title of this post implies that there will be future posts where I add my own insights to this list. It is also a play on the title on two great Wes Montgomery tunes Movin' Wes, Part 1 and Movin' Wes Part 2.

QUOTES

"...by the time he had reached his twentieth birthday he was playing Charlie Christian solos regularly at the 440 Club" in Columbus, Ohio" (Ingram, 2008: 12).

"I...[Wes]...even took his album 'Giant Steps' and played it at 16 rpm to study what he...[Coltrane]...was doing and every note was correct." (Ingram, 2008: 53)

"I...[Creed Taylor]...worked with the arranger, he would put a piano sketch on tape and send it to Wes  wherever he happened to be on the road.  He'd rehearse between jobs and then come into the studio to record. He didn't read at all..." (Ingram, 2008: 34).

"These few minutes in discussion with pianist Jacobs lay to rest one of the mythologies surrounding Wes and the nature of his musicianship. How often in liner notes and articles have we been dutifully reminded of Wes's supposed inability to read music, the fact that he was 'self-taught' and all of the other points of lore trotted out to somehow mystify the genius that is utterly self-evident in the legacy that is his music?"

"In a particularly illuminating exchange, we see Wes discussing the harmony with pianist Jacobs. In requesting one of his favorite variations on the tune's ...[The End of a Love Affair]... descending harmonies we hear a musician not only fluent in the traditional nomenclature of harmony, but one who is thoroughly enlightened, eloquent and direct. (Instead of Bbm7/Eb7/Abmaj7 direct to the following Abm7/db7/Gbmaj7, Wes requests that an additional II-V anticipating the next change a half step higher be added to set up the next sequence, resulting in Bbm7/Eb7/Abmaj7/Am7/D7/ the onto Abm7/Db7/Gbmaj7 etc.)" (Metheny, 2007: 7-9).



REFERENCES

(If you are aware of further references, let me know and I'll add them to the list.)

Amazon Wes Montgomery.

Pete Billlmann and Paul Pappas (nd). Wes Montgomery Guitar Anthology. Milwaukee, Wisconsin:Hall Leonard.

Dan Bowden (1995) Wes Montgomery: The Early Years. Pacific, MO: Mel Bay Publications.

Corey Christiansen (2001) Essential Jazz Lines in the style of Wes Montgomery. Pacific, MO: Mel Bay Publications.

Tim Fitzgerald (2009) 625 Alive: The Wes Montgomery BBC Performance Transcribed. Tim Fitzgerald Music.

William L Fowler (1977) Guitar Patterns for Improvisation. Chicago, IL: Maher Publications.

Lee Garson, Jimmy Stewart and Charles Stewart (1968) Wes Montgomery Jazz Guitar Method. New York: Robbins Music.

Ralph Gleason (1961) Wes Montgomery.

Dave Gould (2013) Wes Montgomery Interviews: Interview by Ralph J Gleason first published in Guitar Player Magazine in 1973

Dave Gould (2013) Wes Montgomery Obituaries

Jesse Gress (1998) The Godfather of Cool: Wes Montgomery's Baddest Solos Note for Note. Guitar Player Magazine.

Jess Gress (2008) 10 Things You Gotta Do to Play like Wes Montgomery. Guitar Player Magazine.

Garry Hansen (2001) (ebook) Charlie Christian - Legend of the Jazz Guitar Scrib

Jamie Holroyd (2013) Play Like Wes Montgomery Today.

Adrian Ingram (2008) Wes Montgomery. Ashley Mark Publishing.

Henry Johnson (2006) Mel Bay Presents: Wes Montgomery Best of Boss Guitar. Pacific, MO: Mel Bay Publications.

Steve Kahn (1995) The Wes Montgomery Guitar Folio. Ft. Lauderdale, FL: Gopam Enterprises.

Wolf Marshall (2001) Best of Wes Montgomery. Milwaukee, Wisconsin:Hall Leonard.

John Mehegan (1959) Jazz Improvisation. New York: Watson-Guptill.

Pat Metheny (2007) Wes Montgomery Jazz Icons DVD Liner Notes.

Matt Mullenweg (2013) Wes Montgomery | Jazz Quotes

George Pasdirtz (2013) Wes Montgomery Transcriptions.

John Purse (1995) Mel Bay Presents: Wes Montgomery. Pacific, MO: Mel Bay Publications.

Emily Remler (2014) Bebop and Swing Guitar. Video and Instructional booklet.

Sheet Music Plus Wes Montgomery.

Fred Sokolow (1976) Wes Montgomery Jazz Guitar Solos. Hialeah, FL: ALMO Publications.

Fred Sokolow (1988) Wes Montgomery Artist Transcriptions for Guitar. Milwaukee, Wisconsin:Hall Leonard.

Leo Valdes (2013) Transcriptions: The Guitar Solos of Charlie Christian

Matt Wampler (2013) Wes Montgomery

Matt Warnock (2011-2014) Wes Montgomery

Matt Warnock (2011) Jazz Guitar Chords: Wes Montgomery Chord Scales

Matt Warnock (2012) Wes Montgomery Chords for Jazz Guitar -- V-I Concept

Matt Warnock (2013) 3 II-V-I Wes Octave Licks for Jazz Guitar

Matt Warnock (2013) Learn About Wes Montgomery (1925-1968).

Matt Warnock (2013) Learn About Charlie Christian (1916-1942).

Matt Warnock (2015) How to Play Jazz Guitar in the Style of Wes Montgomery. e-Book

Josh Workman (2006) The Top Five Wes Montgomery Riffs of All Time. Guitar Player Magazine.

Josh Workman (2005) "Motgomeryland Funk": As Performed by Wes Montgomery. Guitar Player Magazine

Enter the Wes Montgomery International Jazz Guitar Competition

Resonance Records, Inaba Music and the Wes Montgomery Estate are holding a competition in New York City at the Merkin Concert Hall on October 10. Although the purpose of the contest is to find "this generation's next great jazz guitarist" anyone ages 14-33 can enter. The web site (here) provides all the details. Although the competition is stiff (Graham Dechter has already produced three great submissions, one of them above and another below), it's a great opportunity for students to get into the mix and provides a great learning opportunity. Also, anyone can vote on each submission (see the "Vote Now" button above).

Here are the details:

• Contestants must between the ages of 14 and 33.
• Applicants must provide three audio samples of their performances. The samples must include one Wes Montgomery cover song and two additional songs, one of which must be a ballad. Additionally, a video performance sample, not to exceed six minutes, must be submitted via YouTube or Vimeo. Notice in Graham Dechter's submissions, the performance is cut off after his solo to meet the time requirements.
• The cover songs were all written by Wes Montgomery: Jingles, Four on Six, Far Wes, Full House, Road Song, Leila, The Trick Bag, Wes Tune, Serene, West Coast Blues and associated  Finale Files. Transcriptions of actual Wes Montgomery performances are available for the songs (see the sources here, except Leila--does anyone have a transcription?). Lead sheets for each song are available for download on the web site (here).
• Total performance time for all three submissions must not exceed ten minutes. The submissions  are meant to show the contestant's abilities and need not be broadcast quality. The performances can either be solo jazz guitar, fronting a live band or playing over a pre-recorded track.
• The judges will include Pat Martino, Robert Montgomery (one of Wes Montgomery's sons) and others. Five finalists will get the trip to New York city.
• The grand prize is a $5000 Pat Martino Signature Model Benedetto Guitar.
• Submissions are due by 2:00 pm Eastern Time July 15, 2015.

For those thinking about a submission, an interesting strategic issue is how close to base your performance on Wes Montgomery's existing discography. This is really a tough question since Montgomery's performances of his own songs are all canonical and not many other jazz musicians have covered every song. One place to start would be to listen to Pat Martino and Emily Remler who have both freely played Wes Montgomery songs in their own style and some transcriptions are available (here and here). My guess is that some quotes or stylistic elements from Wes Montgomery's solos wouldn't hurt (see my next post).

The submission process is easy and I suggest all eligible jazz guitarists (particularly high school and college students) give it a try. Since you can listen to all the other submissions, there is a lot to be learned about playing jazz guitar and entering competitions which are not everyday events specifically for jazz guitar. I wish I met the age requirements!