Wes Is More: The Secret Behind Wes Montgomery’s Sound — Free Jazz Guitar Lesson
Yes — this free online jazz guitar lesson teaches the real secret behind Wes Montgomery’s sound, and it isn’t more scales. Wes didn’t pile on theory; he followed one diagonal path already built into the fretboard — what VoiceLid Jazz Guitar calls the Wes Line and the Django Line, joined by voice leading. Instructor Junewon Choi shows why “Wes is more”: fewer decisions, more music. It is the melody-first, functional-harmony method taught at VoiceLid Jazz Guitar.
Watch the full lesson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jv0M9xlKZds
Why don’t more scales make you sound like Wes Montgomery?
Because Wes Montgomery wasn’t collecting scales. The conventional path adds more — the altered scale, the diminished scale, more chord-scale theory — and the music somehow gets less clear. Wes went the other way: he found a single structure already sitting in the fretboard and the voice leading, and he followed it. That is the “Wes is more” idea — fewer decisions, more music. The scales aren’t wrong; they are just unnecessary once you can see the path.
What is the “Wes is more” idea?
It means following one path instead of choosing a new scale at every chord. Wes reduced the fretboard to two stable diagonal structures, connected by voice leading:
The Wes Line: a diagonal structure — the arpeggio shape and upper structure that sit above the shell voicing
The Django Line: a second structure in the same position, a different upper shape, the same diagonal logic
The connector: voice leading moves one guide tone a half step to carry you between the two lines
How does one path cover both major and minor ii-V-I?
This is clearest on Autumn Leaves, which has a major ii-V-I and a minor ii-V-I back to back. Chord-scale thinking says each one needs new scales. But the half-diminished two chord resolves through a diminished sound, so the minor and major ii-V-I end up moving the same way — the same Wes Line, the same voice leading. One structure covers both situations, so you make fewer decisions and still sound like the changes. That is why Wes sounds like Wes on any tune: he followed the structure underneath, not the chord symbols.
How do I practice Wes Montgomery’s technique?
Practice the path in one position before you let it travel:
Find your three-note shell voicing on the fifth string and remove the root, so you can see the rootless structure.
Play the Wes Line one octave, slowly, until the diagonal shape feels clean.
Find the Django Line in the same position — different upper shape, same diagonal logic.
Play a minor ii-V-I (Em7b5 - A7 - Dm7) and let the voice leading guide you from one line to the other.
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 came to jazz as an outsider from South Korea and learned this structure from his mentor Richard Hart at Berklee. He teaches the diagonal Wes Line and Django Line system as part of his online jazz guitar lessons.