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.
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.
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.
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.
Jazz Guitar Improvisation Tips: How to Transcribe So Your Ear Actually Grows
Your ear only hears what it already knows — which is exactly why transcription, even when you get it wrong, is the fastest way to grow. Here's how to transcribe jazz guitar so your ear expands instead of staying stuck.
How to Learn Jazz Guitar as a Beginner: A 3-Step Method That Actually Works
If you're a beginner wondering how to actually start learning jazz guitar, three steps cut through the noise: research your hero's heroes, listen deeply to pre-1960 jazz, and transcribe one player in depth.
Jazz’s Real Revolution Was Rhythm, Not Notes — A Weekend Reflection
By the time Schoenberg pushed note choice to its limit with twelve-tone music, jazz had already changed everything — not by inventing new notes, but by inventing a new rhythm. Swing, not harmony, was the revolution.
From Swing to Odd Meters: How Two-Against-Three Unlocks 5/4 and Metric Modulation
Once you hear swing as two-against-three, odd meters stop being intimidating. The same polyrhythmic pulse lets you play Wes Montgomery tunes in 5/4 and pivot a 3/4 waltz into swinging 4/4 mid-solo.
Means ‘Compliment’: How to Comp Behind a SoloistJazz Guitar Comping M
The word 'comping' comes from 'compliment,' not 'accompany.' Your job is to react to the soloist, not to wallpaper the background. Here's the on-beat / off-beat practice ladder that builds responsive comping.
What Does ‘Swing’ Actually Mean in Jazz Guitar?
Swing isn't a shuffle. It's the feeling of two and three happening at the same time — a triplet pulse with the middle note pulling the beat. Here's how to hear it and practice it with a metronome.
Learning Jazz Guitar: Why the Right Teacher Grows Your Repertoire, Not Your Scale Drills
The best way to learn jazz guitar is to find a teacher who keeps adding tunes to your repertoire, not one who drills modes and scales. Like a soccer coach who only makes you run laps, a scale-only teacher never lets you touch the ball.
Jazz Guitar Voice Leading: Soloing Through I’ll Be Seeing You With Guide Tones and the Wes Line
To solo with voice leading on I'll Be Seeing You, treat the Ebmaj7 as a Cm6, choose your fretboard position with the Wes Line, and move guide tones smoothly between chords. The first eight bars and second eight share the same voice-leading shape.
Jazz Guitar Comping: How to Lock Your Quarter-Note Swing With the Bass and Drums
Good jazz guitar comping means locking your swinging quarter note to the bass and drums, not playing flashy chords. Learn the Freddie Green four-to-the-bar approach and the role of the guitar in the three classic jazz trios.