Why Do You Always Play the Same Rhythms? Because You Sound Like What You Listen To
If every solo comes out in straight eighth notes, the problem is your listening diet, not your hands. Learning jazz guitar works like learning a language: you absorb the rhythm of whoever you immerse in — so choose Wes Montgomery, George Benson, and Grant Green.
How Do You Hear a Chord Change When Only One Note Moves? Upper Structures and the Announcing Note
Drop the root and Fmaj7 becomes an A minor triad. From there, most chord changes are carried by a single moving line — find the one fresh note that announces the change and target it in your solo.
Which Notes Matter Most for Voice Leading? The Melody Already Told You — It’s the 3rd
The most important voice-leading note over each chord is almost always the 3rd — and in most standards the melody is already sitting on it. Fly Me to the Moon, All The Things You Are, and Autumn Leaves prove it chord after chord.
Do You Have to Count Every Beat in Jazz? No — Target the ‘Head of the Beat’
You don't count every beat when you play jazz guitar. You aim at targets — the places where melody and harmony line up, especially beat one of each bar, the 'head of the beat.' Everything in between is free.
es Montgomery Write His Own Blues? Four Tunes That Teach the Whole SystemWhy Did W
Wes Montgomery didn't just play the blues — he wrote his own: Cariba, The Thumb, Fried Pies, West Coast Blues. Each tune distills one side of his system — the sound, the line, the voice — and the jazz-waltz West Coast Blues ties them together.
elve Bars, Different Voice: How Wes Montgomery Made the Blues Sound Like HimselfSame Tw
Everyone plays the same twelve bars — the voice is in the phrasing. Wes Montgomery's own blues 'Fried Pies' shows how motivic development turns shared structure into a personal sound, and how you can do the same without copying licks.
How Do You Connect the Changes on a Blues? Wes Montgomery’s Diagonal Line in The Thumb
Connecting the changes on a blues means your line travels with the harmony instead of parking in one position. Wes Montgomery's own blues 'The Thumb' is a masterclass: a riff-and-groove tune whose whole engine is diagonal movement across the fretboard.
Why Does Your Blues Sound Like Practice? Wes Montgomery Built His on Sound, Not Patterns
If your blues solos sound like practice, the missing piece isn't a new lick — it's the sound: the tension between major and minor thirds that makes a line feel like the blues before any 'blue note' is played. Wes Montgomery's own blues, Cariba, is the clearest proof.
The George Benson Answer: Do You Need Jazz to Play Modern R&B Guitar
Modern R&B guitar is jazz wearing new clothes: the vocabulary of today's hottest players traces straight back to George Benson. From Tom Misch sampling Benson's Stella by Starlight intro to Peter Bernstein playing Prince, here is why learning jazz makes you a better R&B player.
lo Over All The Things You Are Without Thinking in Scales? Five Chords, Two ShapesHow Do You So
The first five chords of All The Things You Are reduce to two upper-structure shapes: Fm7 becomes A♭maj7, B♭m7 becomes D♭maj7, and E♭7 is just D♭maj7 with one note lowered. Here is the full walkthrough plus the diatonic circle-of-fifths practice sequence.
How Do You Play Chord Melody When the Melody Climbs Too High for Your Chord Shapes?
When a melody note sits too far above your shell voicing, switch to a drop 2 voicing with the melody on top. Using All The Things You Are, here is exactly when to switch, why the guitar melody belongs in the tenor range, and the Joe Pass shape trick.
How Do You Build a Jazz Guitar Repertoire? Own One Tune From Intro to Ending
The fastest way to build a jazz guitar repertoire is to fully own one tune — intro, melody, solo, comping, and ending — before adding another. Here is the complete checklist and the playlist method for learning it.
The ‘Big Ears’ Secret: How Jazz Guitar Masters Really Learned to Play
The real secret to playing jazz guitar like the masters isn't a scale system — it's the ear. George Benson learned tunes in one listen; Wes Montgomery memorized big-band parts without reading. Here's how 'big ears' are built.
Jazz Guitar Upper Structures: How a Dominant Chord Borrows the Next Chord’s Sound
The altered, dominant-function sound on a jazz blues comes from one move: voice the target chord's upper structure a half-step above and slide it down. Here's the logic — and how George Benson used it.
How to Learn a Jazz Standard on Guitar: Start With the Melody, Not Scales
To learn a jazz standard on guitar, start with the melody — not scales or licks. Play the tune until it lives in your ear, add the bass note, then a shell voicing, then build a simple solo from what you already hear.
GuitarYour Sound Is Inherited: A Weekend Reflection on Lineage in JazZ
Your sound on jazz guitar isn't invented from nothing — it's inherited from the teachers and heroes you study, then quietly personalized. A weekend reflection on lineage, the thumb, and the strings that carry someone else's influence.
Voice Leading on Jazz Guitar: Why the Guide Tones Follow the Melody
On jazz guitar, voice leading works because usually only one note moves between chords — and that moving guide tone lines up with the melody. Here's how to see it and practice it on standards.
Pull Triad Pairs Out of a Diminished ChordJazz Guitar Upper Structures: How to
A single diminished shape hides a whole family of triad pairs. Replace each diminished chord tone with the whole-step tension above it and major triads fall out — ready to chain into altered-dominant lines, as on Stella by Starlight.
How Wes Montgomery Saw the Fretboard Differently — Free Online Jazz Guitar Lesson
A free online jazz guitar lesson on how Wes Montgomery saw the fretboard — the Wes Line and Django Line, guide tones (3rd and 7th), and diagonal voice leading — taught by Junewon Choi of VoiceLid Jazz Guitar.