Wes Montgomery Chord Solo Jazz Blues

 

Listening to Wes Montgomery play jazz can be both a liberating and intimidating experience. For a guitarist still learning the ropes of chord soloing, trying to play like Wes is daunting from the get go. As far as chord soloing goes, Wes is known for his incredible speed, rhythm, and musical sensibility.

 

Using familiar shapes, most commonly drop 2 chords, Wes formed some of the greatest chord soloing lines in jazz history. Even though Wes restricted much of his chordal vocabulary to drop 2 style chords, Ted Green, the chord chemist himself, said,

 

“He said more with the chords he played than anyone else I’ve ever heard.”

 

Knowing how to use a few chords really well will always sound like music to your ears when compared to a long and complex chord progression played poorly.

 

So, what chords should you play then?

 

Wes himself stuck with chords played mainly on adjacent strings and drop 2 chord shapes. In this lesson you’ll learn Wes Montgomery inspired chord solo licks that you’ll apply over a full blues chord solo at the end of the lesson. Using drop 2 chords that Wes played, in his style of playing, you’ll see how much music can be created from a few chord shapes and rhythms.

 

If you want to learn more about jazz guitar chords, licks and concepts, take a moment to pick up your free copy of Terence Wright’s 64-page eBook, the Jazz Guitar Primer. 

Lick 1 – Diminished 7 Chords

A variation of the diminished 7 lick below is found in many of Wes’ recorded chord solos. Using a single diminished 7 chord shape, you’re able to create movement, tension, lines and interest in your chord solo.

 

The lick itself is based off of the 4 inversions of the Drop 2 diminished chord. The reason you’re using a diminished 7 chord is that it works as a substitute for the dominant 7 chord.

 

Playing a diminished 7 chord from the b9 of a the F7 chord gives you the following chord tones:

 

• F7 – F (R) A (3) C (5) (Eb)
• Gbdim7 (over F7) – Gb (b9) A (3) C (5) Eb (b7)

 

Because the diminished 7 chord works over any 7 chord, it means that you can also play each inversion of the diminished 7 chord. It’s in the inversions of the diminished 7 chord where this lick gets really interesting.

 

For each inversion you play, you’ll also play a neighbouring diminished 7 chord. The neighbouring diminished 7 chords are always one fret away from the original inversions. Mix in a bit of rhythm, and you have a lick that you can plug in over any 7 chord. Using an F7 as an example, play through the full lick below.

 

Listen & Play

 

This diminished chord lick is a great lick to experiment with in other keys as it’s very transposition-friendly. Here is the same lick played over a G7 chord below.

 

Lick 2 – 7 Chords and min7 Chords

Playing a chord solo over a 7 chord doesn’t always mean you need to play a 7 chord. Certain chords work great as substitutions or passing chords. A m7 chord is one of these chords. Wes Montgomery often played m7 chords in the place of 7 chords, or in combination with other 7 chords.

 

He would often build a m7 chord a 5^th or a major 6^th above the root of the 7 chord. Using an F7 as an example, the two m7 chords you could substitute a 5^th or 6^th above the root are Cm7 and Dm7.

 

In this lick example, you’ll be playing an F7 chord in combination with a Dm7 to create a lick.

 

Listen & Play

 

This chord lick is another example of a lick that you can start transposing right away in the woodshed. Here’s the same lick as above played over a G7 chord.

 

Lick 3 – 9 Chords and more Diminished 7 Chords

This next lick starts out with another substitution for the dominant 7 chord. Building a min7b5 chord off of the chord 3^rd of a dominant 7 chord gives you the 9^th of the dominant 7 chord. See how the chord tones in the Am7b5 fit in relation to the F7 chord tones below.

 

• F7 – F (R) A (3) C (5) Eb (b7)
• Am7b5 (Over F7) – A (3) C (5) Eb (b7) G (9)

 

Here’s the full lick:

 

Listen & Play

 

After outlining the F9 chord with the first 2 chords in the lick, the lick creates tension by playing two diminished 7 chords. The first diminished 7 chord in the lick is a V7 of V7 (or secondary dominant), being a substitute for G7b9.

 

The second diminished chord is the V7 of F, and is a C7b9 chord. Instead of heading right back to F7, the lick features a diminished triad built off the #9 of F (G#).

 

Playing a diminished triad, voiced in this particular way, gives the lick a very bluesy feel and is a key feature to understanding and emulating Wes’ chord playing.

Lick 4 – The Turn Around

Finally, let’s take a look at the last lick before the full Wes Montgomery chord blues solo. This lick is relatively large and contains all four bars of the turnaround as you’ll find them in the blues solo below. The more time you spend with this excerpt, the easier you’ll find playing the solo at the end.

 

Listen & Play

 

The first bar in this lick features an anticipated chord on the ‘and’ of 4 from the previous bar. Instead of playing a Gm7 as indicated by the blues form, you’ll play a Bbmaj7 as a substitution for Gm7.

 

This first chord substitution is another important piece of information to remember and add to your playing. A maj7 chord built from the b3 of the minor 7 chord gives you the following chord tones:

 

• Gm7 – G (R) Bb (b3) D (5) F (b7)
• Bbmaj7 (Over Gm7) – Bb (b3) D (5) F (b7) A (9)

 

After playing the Bbmaj7 over the Gm7, you’ll play through a Gm7 Drop 2 chord in 3^rd inversion. From here you’ll play 2 diminished chords.

 

The first diminished 7 chord in the first bar leads chromatically into the second diminished 7 chord. The second diminished 7 chord is actually a 7b9 substitution for the C7 chord played in anticipation of the second bar, where the C7 falls naturally In the blues form.

 

Once arriving at the second bar, another C7 Drop 2 chord is played. This time the chord is a completely unaltered C7 Drop 2 chord in 3^rd inversion. In bar 4, a I – VI – II – V progression is played using the following chords:

 

• The I chord is a third inversion Drop 2 F7 chord (F7/Eb).
• The VI chord is a second inversion Drop 2 D7 chord (D7/A).
• The II chord is a third inversion Drop 2 Bmin7b5 chord used as a substitute for G7 in order to get the 9^th.
• The V chord is a third inversion Bbm7b5 chord used as a substitute for C7. Because this is a m7b5 chord built from the b7 of the C7 chord (Bb), you end up with the b7 (Bb), b9 (Db), 3 (E/Fb), b13 (Ab).

Full Wes Montgomery Chord Solo

After playing through each lick, work on the complete blues solo below. The solo includes all of the material covered from the previous 4 licks as well as a few new licks.

 

Backing Track

Listen & Play

 

What should you take away from this lesson? Firstly, you’ll have a few new chord licks and ideas to work with in the woodshed.

 

Knowing a particular voicing (ie: Drop 2) on the guitar can provide you with countless musical ideas. In combination with creative rhythm and substitutions, Drop 2 chord voicings alone will provide months of new practice material in the practice room.

 

Some of the most common substitutions in Wes Montgomery’s playing that were covered in this lesson include:

 

• m7b5 for a 7 (built from the 3 or b7 of the 7 chord)

• maj7 for a m7 (built from the b3 of the m7 chord)

• dim7 for a m7 or 7 (built from the b9 of either chord)

• m7 for a 7 (built from the 5 or 6 of the 7 chord)

 

 

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