Thinking about adding improvised Wes Montgomery-style chord lines to your arsenal? Technically, when considering the material that a performer plays, there are no mysteries: we can analyze, understand, transcribe, and explain everything. What is not so easy to get a grasp on is the part of the performance that has to do with creative flow, evolved personal style, and those things that spring forth from the spiritual well.

We might think of Wes Montgomery’s improvisation style as being concerned with “unit structure” or “constructionism”. Essentially, melodic pieces are linked together in phrases, creating a chain which builds in excitement and tells a kind of story.

Some of these melodic fragments stand alone and are not developed, but are rather simply melodic statements. Other fragments may be repeated, built on, and developed. Still other phrases make use of the blues vocabulary and are riff-style in nature, possibly with or without further development.

This is part of the constructionist approach: one establishes a personal vocabulary and draws/improvises phrases from that, in a fashion where these phrases, statements, riffs and motifs are all threaded together in a cohesive way and fit the underlying chord changes of the song.

  Wes-Style Chord Solos:

 

 

Example 1 demonstrates a favored Wes device: the parallel movement of a diminished form, in the execution of the blues scale sound. It resolves to its tonic (F7).

When it comes to the chord lines technique, I have found it can only be learned through years of transcribing chord patterns from those who did it successfully (especially Wes, Cal Collins, Barney Kessel). Practice playing chord line patterns over and over in as many keys as possible and the art of linking the stock patterns together over standard tunes. It is one of the most advanced of jazz guitar techniques, and requires a lot of study in order to arrive at a functional vocabulary that also embodies the player’s personal style.

Example 2 below shows how the tonal centers can be used for stringing together phrases drawn from major and dominant 7 tonalities. Broadly speaking, when you practice for this technique, you practice and memorize phrases that fit various harmonic situations:

• Prases that are tonic I (major) in nature.
• Phrases that are dominant 7 in nature (an area that includes interchangeable ii and V chords).
• Phrases that are tonic i (minor) in nature.
• Phrases that employ the blues tonality.
• Phrases that fit diminished areas.

On a tune such as Days of Wine and Roses, you can approach the changes as demonstrated in example 2:

• Over the first Fmaj7 chord, you can apply a variation of stock phrases that have a tonic I function.
• The Eb7 provides an opportunity to apply variations of standard dominant 7 patterns.
• The following D7 provides two entire measures and can be a sequence (the Eb7 pattern played down a half step). Or, the D7 space provides plenty of room to improvise afresh with the many stock phrases (in variation form) that have been pre-learned which fit over dominant 7 chords

 

In order to spontaneously execute this technique, a player MUST have a methodology for creating a line of chords. Otherwise, the player has only a concept for comping, but not creating a line. The technique is all about how a line of chords is constructed and then how the chord lines are connected over changing tonal centers!

 

Example 3 shows a typical pattern that has a ii-V function. It can also be used as a C Dorian type of center. This is exemplary of a line that blends the ii and V chords.

Example 4 demonstrates a line that can function as a D dominant 7, but using chromaticism (alternating between Eb7 and D7).

 

It’s a daunting task to develop this vocabulary of chord lines; that is why so few players are versed in the technique! The best place to start is in the keeping of a musical journal.

Over many years I have found the following to be helpful, with all the work kept in a notebook that I continually use for daily practice:

• Transcribing the chord lines of the masters (this can be entire solos, or select phrases).
• Turning bebop lines into chord lines.
• Practicing chord lines in their application in the broad areas of tonic (especially major7 and minor7), dominant (the broad area of ii-V functions); diminished, and blues phrases.
• Practicing linking these phrases together over standard tunes.
• Writing out entire chord solos.
• Singing everything that I practice.
• Practicing repetitively the phrases I am trying to incorporate into my improvisational vocabulary.

The work is worth the effort. Playing lines of improvised chords adds a whole new, and exciting, dimension to your playing….and we collectively advance the craft of jazz guitar!

Jim Bastian is a full-time performer, career jazz educator, and vintage guitar enthusiast. He has written 10 jazz studies books, including “How to Play Chordal Bebop Lines, for Guitar” (three volume set), “The Boss Guitar of Wes Montgomery” (in two volumes), “Sixteen Artist Jazz Guitar Solos”, “The trumpet Artistry of Chet Baker”, and “Chet Baker’s Greatest Scat Solos”. Visit Jim at www.jimbastian.com

 

 

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