How Wes Montgomery Saw the Fretboard Differently — Free Online Jazz Guitar Lesson
Yes — this is a free online jazz guitar lesson built directly on Wes Montgomery’s technique. Wes didn’t navigate the neck with scales or theory; he saw it as two stable structures moving diagonally — what VoiceLid Jazz Guitar calls the Wes Line and the Django Line. Instructor Junewon Choi breaks down how that diagonal logic lets your solo follow the chord changes across the whole fretboard, instead of getting stuck in vertical scale boxes.
Watch the full 24-minute lesson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KakMgNMXBs
Why don’t scales help you play like Wes Montgomery?
Because Wes Montgomery wasn’t thinking in scales. Most guitarists learn the fretboard in vertical positions — one box, then another — and try to connect them under pressure, so a solo can be correct and still sound disconnected. Wes’s approach reduces decisions: by seeing the neck as two diagonal structures, the next note becomes obvious, so the line stays musical even as the harmony moves. The famous octaves are a by-product; the real engine is the diagonal map underneath.
What are the Wes Line and the Django Line?
They are not licks — they are structures. The Wes Line is a stable diagonal pathway that keeps your line glued to the harmony, giving a clear harmonic identity and phrasing that doesn’t collapse when chords change. The Django Line is a second stable pathway in a different register. Together they reduce every where-do-I-go decision down to two reliable shapes, built from guide tones:
Shell voicing: strip the chord to its 3rd and 7th, the guide tones that define the sound
Rootless structure: stack thirds to reach the upper-structure tensions
Upper structure: how bebop turns that structure into melody, the line Charlie Parker implied on Donna Lee
How does this unlock the whole fretboard for improvisation?
Once the two structures are stable, the harmony can move faster and you still sound like music. You stop running boxes and start following a structure that already knows where it wants to go — diagonally, across registers, the way Wes connected two octave shapes into one directional line. It is the same logic you can hear across the lineage: Charlie Christian, Wes Montgomery, George Benson, and Peter Bernstein, plus Kenny Burrell and Grant Green.
Where should a beginner start?
Follow the diagonal sequence in order:
Learn the diagonal idea: train your eyes and ears to accept diagonal movement as normal.
Learn the two structures: make the Wes Line and Django Line sound stable, even slowly.
Learn the completion: see how the diagonal logic finishes itself so you are never stuck in one direction.
New to the method? Start with the free Building Blocks foundation — two hours of lessons plus a 28-page PDF — at voicelidjazzguitar.com/building-blocks, or go deeper with Wes’ Insight at voicelidjazzguitar.com/jazz-icon-wes-insight.
About the instructor: Junewon Choi is the founder and teacher behind VoiceLid Jazz Guitar, where he teaches jazz guitar through melody-first improvisation and functional harmony. He studied with Richard Hart — a student of George Benson who transcribed over 400 Wes Montgomery solos — and teaches the diagonal Wes Line and Django Line system as part of his online jazz guitar lessons.