How to Find Jazz Guitar Guide Tones on the Second and Third String

Office HourGuide Tone
Written By June

How to Move Jazz Guitar Guide Tones to the Second and Third String

At the April 4, 2026 Office Hour (~00:46), a member named Greg asked about finding guide tones on the second and third string. He had heard Junewon reference this in a previous session in the context of Blues for Alice — a Charlie Parker blues head in B-flat — and was unclear on how to locate those same guide tone positions on the higher string set rather than on the fourth and third string pair where he was accustomed to finding them.

The Core Idea

The answer is octave displacement. (~00:46)

In the Functional Diagonal Approach (FDA), guide tones are the third and seventh of each chord — the two notes that define the chord's function and direction. For a B-flat 7 chord (as in Blues for Alice), the third is D and the seventh is A-flat. On the standard shell voicing position, these notes sit on the fourth string (third of the chord) and the third string (seventh of the chord), with the root on the fifth or sixth string below them.

If you want those same guide tones to appear on the second and third string instead, you move the lower note of the pair — the fourth-string note — up an octave. That note, now an octave higher, lands on the second string at the corresponding position. The seventh, originally on the third string, can adjust or remain in place depending on the voicing register you are targeting. (~00:46)

What makes this visible — and physically natural — on the guitar is understanding how Wes Montgomery saw the fretboard through his octave technique. (~00:48)

Classical-trained jazz guitarists before Montgomery typically played octaves in a fixed parallel shape: two strings apart at the same fret, using a formal two-finger right-hand technique. Montgomery's octave approach was fundamentally different. He played a diagonal shape — the lower note and the higher note ran at an angle across the fretboard, not straight across parallel strings. This angle corresponds to the natural structure of the guitar fretboard: because the strings are tuned in fourths, the same pitch class appears at a different fret on each adjacent string. The octave therefore does not sit parallel — it sits diagonally.

Montgomery muted the strings between his two target notes with his left hand and struck all of them with his thumb, letting only the two diagonally-positioned notes ring while the in-between strings added percussive texture. That diagonal shape is the same line that the Wes Line in the FDA describes — the path from the lowest note of a chord shape to the upper structure chord above it. (~00:48)

Once you understand that the octave relationship on the fretboard runs diagonally rather than in parallel, finding the guide tone an octave higher becomes a visual question: locate the same pitch class two strings higher, two frets lower, and you have the octave. From there, you can pair that note with the seventh of the chord to form a guide tone voicing on the second and third string. (~00:50)

Fretboard Breakdown: What to Play

  • For Blues for Alice in B-flat: the guide tones of B-flat 7 are D (third) and A-flat (seventh). Find D on the fourth string and A-flat on the third string — this is your standard shell voicing guide tone position. (~00:46)

  • To move to the second and third string: take D on the fourth string and locate its octave using the diagonal shape — two strings higher, two frets lower — which lands D on the second string. (~00:46)

  • Pair that second-string D with A-flat on the third string. You now have the guide tones for B-flat 7 on the second and third string — the same harmonic content at a higher register.

  • Practice the Wes Montgomery diagonal octave shape for each guide tone note: find the lower string position, then immediately locate the diagonal position two strings up. (~00:48) This trains your eye and hand to read the fretboard as Wes did — as a diagonal map of tone relationships, not a fixed grid of isolated positions.

The Mistake to Avoid

The common confusion when searching for guide tones on the second and third string is treating the upper string pair as a completely separate voicing problem requiring a new calculation. It is not a new voicing — it is the same guide tone pair displaced upward by one octave. If you cannot find the upper position immediately, it almost always means the octave relationship on guitar has not been internalized as a diagonal movement. Guitarists who learned octaves using the classical parallel shape — same fret, two strings apart — typically do not see the diagonal that connects adjacent string pairs. Montgomery's diagonal octave, which follows the Wes Line's fretboard logic, is the key visual tool for finding any guide tone pair at a higher position. (~00:48)

A 10-Minute Practice Assignment

Take any dominant 7 chord you know well. (~00:46)

  1. Find the guide tones — third and seventh — on the fourth and third string in shell voicing position. Play just those two notes and hear the harmonic color.

  2. Take the fourth-string note and locate its octave using the diagonal shape: two strings higher, two frets lower. Now you have the same note an octave up on the second string.

  3. Pair that second-string note with the seventh on the third string. Play the guide tone pair in both positions — fourth-third and second-third — back to back, slowly. Confirm they carry the same harmonic color.

  4. Move to the next chord in a ii-V-I and repeat the process for each chord, finding the guide tone pair on the upper string set.

The goal after 10 minutes: find any guide tone pair on both the fourth-third and second-third string sets without stopping to calculate — by seeing where the diagonal octave displacement lands on the fretboard.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How do I find jazz guitar guide tones on the second and third string instead of the fourth and third?
A: Take the fourth-string note of your standard guide tone voicing and move it up one octave — two strings higher, two frets lower — to land on the second string. Pair it with the seventh on the third string. This octave displacement places the same guide tones (third and seventh) on the second-third string pair. Junewon Choi demonstrated this process using Blues for Alice at the April 4 VLJG Office Hour.

Q: What is the Wes Montgomery diagonal octave and how does it relate to guide tones in the FDA?
A: Wes Montgomery played octaves diagonally across the fretboard rather than using the classical parallel shape (same fret, two strings apart). His diagonal shape follows the same structural line as the Wes Line in the Functional Diagonal Approach (FDA) — the path connecting a chord's root position to its upper structure notes. This diagonal is also the visual path for finding guide tones on higher string sets: the upper string position sits two strings higher and two frets lower than the lower position.

Q: Why are guide tones on the second and third string useful in jazz guitar soloing?
A: Guide tones on the second and third string sit in the highest melodic register available on the guitar, making them clearly audible above the rest of the harmony. Lines built from these positions have a brighter, more vocal character than lower-string guide tone movement — closer to the range of a saxophone or trumpet. In the Functional Diagonal Approach (FDA), knowing the guide tone position on every string set gives you harmonic freedom to phrase in any register without losing your place in the chord changes.

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June
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