Wes Montgomery Style Jazz

by Pedja Simovic

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  • Hello GMC! Welcome to my second lesson. This lesson is part 1 of the series regarding Jazz and approach I use over this type of Jazz/Pop/Rock/Blues harmony.

    The key of this piece is A minor, and around that A minor I use modal harmony. The scales used as a guide are A natural and harmonic minor. So here we have a modal type of harmony which we will discuss in future parts of this series. Melody is played in style of great Wes Montgomery, using octaves only to create warm and smooth sound.

    Entire piece is played using octaves. Play this slow until you have no noise in between octave movements. Octave slides can be a little bit tricky so make sure that both notes slide in and sound smooth. You should use your right hand thumb trough out the whole piece. Make sure you play with side of your thumb making a "brushing" feel trough your strings.

    In this lesson I tried to create a melody in style of George Benson and Wes Montgomery.

    When you finish this lesson hopefully you would have captured and mastered some of the following techniques:

    - Playing double stops (octaves)
    - Left hand muting
    - Rhythmic repetition
    - Syncopated rhythm
    - Straight rhythm
    - Motive development
    - Q & A type of phrasing
    - Right hand finger style (usage of thumb)

    Equipment I used for recording my sound was: Custom built guitar (G.Papazoglou) with Pod X3 live going directly to computer.

    Hope you guys will have fun playing around with octaves and learn form this piece as much as possible. Don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or comments related to this lesson.

    I look forward hearing from you all!

    Pedja

    A natural minor copy.jpg

    A harmonic minor copy.jpg

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