Wes Montgomery is widely considered the greatest jazz guitarist who ever lived. Here's what made his technique and musical thinking so extraordinary.
Wes Montgomery (1923–1968) was an Indianapolis-born guitarist who transformed jazz guitar in the late 1950s and 1960s with a technique that had no precedent and has never been fully replicated. Self-taught, he learned to play guitar as an adult and developed a style so complete, so musical, and so technically original that he immediately stood apart from every other guitarist of his generation.
His most famous technical innovation was using his thumb — rather than a pick — to pluck the strings. This choice was originally made to avoid waking his neighbors during late-night practice sessions, but the thumb's soft flesh produced a uniquely warm, mellow tone that became his signature sound. Combined with his mastery of bebop melody, his architectural approach to building solos through three stages (single notes, octaves, chord solos), and his extraordinary melodic imagination, Wes Montgomery created a template for jazz guitar that every subsequent player has studied.
Wes Montgomery's most distinctive compositional innovation was his approach to building solos through three clearly defined stages that create a natural arc of intensity and interest:
Octave technique is the most immediately learnable aspect of Montgomery's style and one of the most useful tools for any jazz guitarist. The standard octave shapes on guitar: on strings 6 and 4, the higher note is two frets higher than the lower note. On strings 5 and 3, same relationship. On strings 4 and 2, the higher note is two frets higher with the middle string muted. On strings 3 and 1, same pattern.
Practice octave shapes by playing simple melodies you already know — "Autumn Leaves," "Stella by Starlight," any standard you're familiar with — in octaves. The added thickness and authority of the octave sound is immediately striking, and the technique of muting the middle strings with the fleshy part of the index finger (or with the third finger) comes quickly with focused practice.
Wes Montgomery's thumb-plucking technique produced his specific tone, but octave playing works with a pick too — just as it does for George Benson and countless other jazz guitarists who adopted the style. Don't feel obligated to abandon your pick to study this technique.
Montgomery was steeped in bebop — the complex, high-speed jazz vocabulary developed by Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie in the 1940s. His single-note lines display bebop's characteristic features: eighth-note streams that outline chord changes through chord tones, chromatic approach notes from a half step below or above target chord tones, encircling (approaching a target note from both above and below), and strong rhythmic placement of chord tones on strong beats.
Studying transcriptions of Montgomery's solos — recordings like "Four on Six," "Full House Live," "Movin' Along," and his recording of "Yesterdays" — reveals these bebop devices in action in some of their most musical, lyrical expressions. Every jazz guitarist at the intermediate level should have at least one complete Montgomery solo in their vocabulary.
The best way to study Wes Montgomery is through direct transcription — listening repeatedly to his recordings and finding his phrases on the guitar by ear. This ear-to-fretboard process is the most direct path to understanding how his musical mind worked. For supplementary study:
BestGuitarLessons.net curates the finest free jazz guitar instruction available online — from beginner shell voicings to advanced Wes Montgomery transcriptions.
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