Wes Montgomery's Block Chord Method: Transform Your Playing
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- čas přidán 22. 05. 2024
- In this video, I'm showing you Wes Montgomery's Block Chord Method, an essential technique for any guitarist.
This lesson will teach you how to play Block chords using Wes Montgomery's famous technique. This tutorial is designed for anyone who wants to improve their playing skills, and it's a great way to learn new chords and techniques.
So whether you're a beginner or an experienced player, make sure to watch this video and learn Wes Montgomery's Block Chord Method!
Intro and outro backing tracks provided by Phil Wilkinson: www.playjazztracks.com
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Chapters:
00:00 - Intro
00:32 - Passing Diminished Chords
04:37 - Wes's Concept on Minor 7 Chords
05:13 - Wes's Concept on Dominant 7 Chords
06:17 - Combining It All Together
09:21 - Demonstration of Concepts
Link to my website: nathanborton.com
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Transcription to Gone With the Wind: • Gone With Wind: Wes Mo...
More Wes Content: • Wes Montgomery Secrets...
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Here is the link for all the extra lesson materials! www.patreon.com/NathanBortonMusicPatreon? ERROR CORRECTION: at 4:50 the chord should be 6767 on TAB not 7878! Also at 6:16 the melody should be F and harmonized 12-13-12-13. These changes will be fixed on PDF's. Thanks for your understanding.
Chapters:
00:00 - Intro
00:32 - Passing Diminished Chords
04:37 - Wes's Concept on Minor 7 Chords
05:13 - Wes's Concept on Dominant 7 Chords
06:17 - Combining It All Together
09:21 - Demonstration of Concepts
You should pin this comment! :)
This is really the key to Wes’ harmonic sound and while it is a simple concept, it takes years (lifetime) to master. The other very important part of the equation that not many people talk about is Wes’ incredible sense of rhythm and time. Anyone who has transcribed a Wes solo notices right away that his timing is hard to copy. By far my favorite player of all time. Nathan, you are a great player and an awesome teacher. It’s nice to see someone carrying the torch. Keep it up. You deserve way more subscribers.
I agree. I have been working on chord soloing in this style a ton for about 5 years now. The ideas are simple, but the application is a challenge! I also agree that Nathan is a great player and teacher!
Thanks for the kind words and yes! Rhythm is so very important and is often overlooked on YT. Hopefully if people practice the etude for this lesson they will get some sense of Wes's block chord rhythms, but the best way is to just transcribe Wes. Thanks for your comment!
I agree totally. Great lesson. And Wes’s time is the best. He always sounds like he’s so locked with the drummer, like he IS the drummer. For me, that’s one of the many great things about him. And his spontaneity and relaxed sense of the whole thing. Like it’s just a walk in the park. He makes it look and feel so effortless, natural. Just the bluesiest, swinginest cat ever! That’s why it’s such a challenge for me, and probably most of us. Not only do we need these concepts, lines, chords etc. But the feel and execution. I’ve been trying to pull off that octave solo on Polkadots and Moonbeams for decades. It’s a great one. I’d love a lesson on how Wes “sees” the neck. I’m always amazed in the videos when all those lines look like he’s playing them with 2-3 fingers and shifting smoothly up and down the fretboard. Definitely not locked into scale patterns. What’s happening there?
I’m pretty sure he is visualizing simple triads for everything. That’s why he’ll slide into a note with his third finger instead of using his fourth finger which allows him to keep the shape of the triad. It allows him to slide in and out if his “home base”. A lot of his licks are surprisingly easier and faster if played with 3 fingers. Whenever doing any transcription of his work, it’s best to try and figure out how he could’ve played it with three fingers. It’s also part of why his timing is the way it is. Here’s an example on my channel. You’ll notice that I play it slower than Wes. His speed is mind blowing and I can’t keep up with that. czcams.com/video/_ulIOG3vLaE/video.html
Fantastic tip! Thanks!
Trust me mate, i m graduate here in Italy in jazz at college and this video Is the best lesson i have ever seen
Hey! Really appreciate your kind words, thanks!
Now I see a link/practical application of those Barry Harris repeating 6th/diminished chords from the harmonized 6th diminished scale. You just opened a huge door in my musical progress. I've been stuck trying to figure out how to practically apply the Barry Harris basics. This lesson finally gave me the big AHA! moment. This is a gigantic rut-buster. Thanks Nathan!!!
Hey thanks for watching! Yes, this is a great way to use the major 6th scale! You'll see that the application of it is slightly different, but the scale is the same! If you have any questions let me know.
There’s an excellent book by Alan Kingstone that puts Barry Harris method on guitar and also shows you how to use it. And lots of good lessons online about his method as well.
I have that book. Need to spend more time in it...Thanks
This technique was used a lot in the 1930s where 6th and diminished chords were used for tunes back then.
2 years in Music school and this is the best lesson on block chords I've seen. Awesome job.
This very helpful, Nathen.
Awesome, Nathan!!
Thanks for watching !
Awesome content man, thanks so much!
Thanks for watching!
Great video, thanks.
Appreciate you watching!
Thank You!
No problem!
Great stuff Nathan!
Appreciate that :)
Great lesson!!
Thanks for watching!
Nice lesson like usually. Really clear👍 Thanks you for this treasure of the master. I hope the best for you🎵🎸🎶
Thanks Emmanuel, appreciate you watching!
Great content and upgrade!
Glad you enjoyed it! Hope it helped you!
Awesome lesson, great video production. Bravo and thank you!
Thank you kindly!
great lesson
Thanks so much for watching!
great lesson and examples dude :)
Hi Sam, appreciate you watching!
Thanks for the clear expression!
You're very welcome!
Wow! It’s so cool! Thank you! ❤
Thanks for watching! Hope it helps you!
Hey! Great lesson! Thanks for sharing your knowledge!
Glad you enjoyed it!
thanks for another great video!! and I love the new recording style🤌
Appreciate that :) Still trying to find the perfect set up but I really like where it's headed!
Great as always. ❤
Thanks Larry, appreciate that!
Great content 🎸👍 thank you!
Thank you for watching! :)
well done presentation - thanx!
No problem! Thanks for watching :)
Really appreciate this lesson! Always wanted to dip my toes into jazz and Wes’ style and this is a great foundation.
Appreciate you watching! Thanks!
Love this Nathan, wonderful channel you have developed.
Thank you kindly!
Great Lesson !!! Your patreon is excellent !!!
Thanks so much! I put alot of work into making it the best it can be. Glad people are finding the material useful!
thx, great lesson
Appreciate you watching!
Great video ! First part is an incredible application of 6th diminished scale by Barry Harris. Thanks, you play great !
Thanks so much!
Great video!
Thanks Rick! Appreciate it!
Maaan.. Thanks for this. I've been studying my drop two chords With the diminished passing tones for a long time now. Including side stepping has really helped me turn a corner on this style. Thank you so much again. I've been working at this for years.And this one concept really helped me out quite a bit.
Nice and easy to understand, not too fast and overwhelming for some of us. Thanks 🙏😊
Thank you that means a lot! Also appreciate you watching :)
I’ve been searching for years for someone to make sense of this 😭 thank you!
No problem! Really glad I could help!
Great video! Good information density, no fluff or exposition, no unnecessary camera tricks, nice lighting sound and angles. and great playing and tone! Thank you very much, super work.
Thanks for your kind words!
Good stuff! Nice camera work and great block chords. I’m going to apply this to ukulele. Mahalo
Awesome! Thank you!🙏
Barry strikes again. I know it's not his system but he made a meal out of the 6th/diminished approach to wonderful effect. I didn't realise Wes was using this approach too.
Thanks for the video. I have also heard of the idea of playing a chord scale and using diminished on the notes in between (b2, b3, b5, #5 and b7). I like this idea of inversions also.
Hope this lesson helps you use these block chord concepts! Thanks for watching :)
Thanks for the lesson. Greetings from Chile.
Appreciate you watching! Thanks!
Block chords this is the best lesson more of block chords please 🙏
Thank you! If you like block chord stuff make sure and check out my pervious lesson on Joe Pass blues block chords: czcams.com/video/pGnllenE5Go/video.html
great analysis! tell us about your lamp too! love the colors
Hey thanks! The RBG lights set a vibe I think? haha just a couple groove lights from amazon is all
Damn, I kind of grasp part of this. I'm going to be throwing in the different inversions of the VI at our next gig...that should work great on an outro. Great teaching!
Appreciate that :) Hope it helps you!
Nathan I’ve always loved Wes since I was a kid, he was a genius. Your analysis of his playing opened my eyes to a few things I can incorporate into my playing thank you very much.
BTW, what guitar strap is that that you use?
So great to hear! and the guitar strap I use is the zero gravity guitar strap from CGF
If you struggle with the C6 chords you can think of them as Am7 chords :)
Great lesson! I think I noticed a couple minor errors, correct me if I'm wrong though: at 4:48 (and again at 5:00) the chord symbol shows a B° which is what you play, but the tablature shows a C°. Also the tab shows a D° which is what you play but the chord symbol is D-7.
Nice outro!
Thanks! Also appreciate you watching that far into the video :)
Hey Nathan, this Michael from Michigan. Still getting better every day. Glad to see your videos popping up.
Hi Michael, so good to hear from you! Hope bear is doing well, he was such a big cat! Glad to hear you're still at it, let me know if I can help at all. All the Best, -Nathan Borton
Man, that’s so clever!
Will try to get it under my fingers.
Hope this helps!
@@NathanBortonMusic I hope so too haha
Please more about block chords🎉🎉
Thanks for letting me know! I’m the mean time my last lesson covered joe pass block chord shapes off the blues if your interested: Joe Pass’ Chord Secrets To Elevate Your Playing (A Must Know For Trio and Solo Guitar)
czcams.com/video/pGnllenE5Go/video.html
This is deep. Probably the reason I never gravitated towards jazz guitar playing is that it's too "heady" for my lazy arse. I know my theory but not at this level. This is an outstanding lesson. Thank you.
Thanks for your kind words!
Great video. Such an important part of Wes' sound. But I don't hear this sound as much nowadays as back then. Isn't this also the foundation of his solo lines too? And this is also a big part of his partner and friend the organist Jimmy Smith, who he made several albums with.
Yeah definitely! I think I still hear it now, but in more straight ahead cats like Bruce Forman or even young players like Dan Wilson. Thanks for watching!
Nice lesson! You really cracked the code!
Question: Rather than voicing C6 on the middle 4 strings (which is tough to grab) , can you simply replace wth Cma7? Thx
I don't see why not? Wes often mixed the shapes as well!
basically, the barry harris harmonic concept. thats cool. C6dim scale
change those minor 7’s to m6’s and its Cm6dim…basically plus the other cool stuff u outlined. great playing dude. jealous of your doublle time chops!
Yes and no, it’s very similar but differs in application. Like the video covers, Wes uses it over the ii the V and the I differently. Barry’s thing is harmonic generalization while Wes’s is more so a melodic device. Hope that explains it and thanks for watching! (Make sure to check out Etude at the end for examples)
@@NathanBortonMusic gotcha! i shoulda said it “reminds” me of the BH harmonic thing…
It is similar enough that it helps to be familiar with both! Great lesson Nathan!
...now I need to go back and re-watch your other Barry Harris vids again...
I have a question. If youre playing over a major chord do you have to use a major 6 chord in order for this method of playing to work or is a major 7 chord ok as well? This was a great and informative lesson! I will incorprate this into my playing.
You could use major 7 if you would like! It’s fun to mix up the inversions and the shapes with major 6 and major 7 :) there’s no rules, only your ear!
Also if you go up a fifth of the chord and play major 6 you get a major 9 sound. Ex Cmajor go up 5th play Gmajor 6 = g,b,d,e. Rootless Cmajor9
For the lick at 7:19, you are basically thinking A-7 over the D-7, correct? I noticed that you are playing A-7 and its associated passing diminished chords rather than D-7. I would not have thought of using those diminshed chords over a D-7. I understand the extensions that the A-7 voicing gives relative to D. You end up with a 9th and 11th. Very cool!
Brilliant lesson. Thanks a lot for this. On the minor chord there’s no major sixth, isn’t it supposed to have a major sixth on the Dorian mode?
Thanks so much! The minor chord could have a natural 6th but then it would not be a ii chord sound but a i-6 sound (tonic minor). If you keep the passing diminished chords and make the minor chords minor 7ths, it works perfectly over a ii-V-I or an variation of that!
An idea for a follow-up video could be a comparison of chord solo'ing and compin' for someone else. What chord you can learn from chord soloi'ng to apply to comping and how comping is NOT chord solo'ing. In past lessons with my teacher, we discussed the importance of clarity: time, rhythm, and basic voicings. When I explored chord solo'ing in the past, I mistakenly thought that I could use all the same concepts in my comping...and that actually got in the way of the soloist I was accompanying ;)
Also, please don't call Barry Harris's method "harmonic generalizing." I think that there's A LOT of misconceptions of Barry Harris's teaching on the internet. When I first encountered Barry--I found cool videos on CZcams and thought--cool, now I know this stuff. Wasn't until I found one of Barry's former bandmates to study with that I understood the depth of BH's teachings--and that was well after I met Barry in person during those NYC workshops. Everyone says that Barry's concept is just "chromatic scale I learned from Chris Parks" (he's an awesome teacher, btw--but everyone gravitates to THAT video) and "just play the V." There's much more to playing the movements than that--even over the V chord--in Barry's teachings...
Yeah that’s a great idea! And great point, though the techniques are similar in comping and soloing using chords, the application is very different. I’ll put that one in the book, thanks!
@@NathanBortonMusic Read the rest of the comment--I wasn't quick enough with my editing. There's a lot of misconception about Barry's teachings on the internet...
@@pickinstone yes I agree. I’m not the Barry Harris master but I was simply referring to the the general use of his major 6th diminished scale. I found that for me I use his scale to “harmonically generalize” and also to “expand a sound.” I made a video a while back talking about this, I would to hear your thoughts. (Attached below). Yes there are so many things people, including myself, don’t know about Barry’s method, however the little bit that I do know I put to great use :)
czcams.com/video/_KLrdP7SCIw/video.html
@@NathanBortonMusic Apologies if I came off brash. I am still chipping away at the Barry Harris iceberg. My comment was more of a reaction to certain misconceptions elsewhere on CZcams. The internet can be a great place to share knowledge, but it can also be a place where knowledge goes to die.
Thanks for this great video Nathan. I’m an intermediate piano player (with guitar distant past) so I am following 90% of this. You mentioned Wes would put a #5 on the diminished chord to aid resolution to the C6. So does this make the A flat in the D diminished an A natural, or are you looking at the D diminished like a G dominant #5 flat 9 no root (which would give a d sharp there so that makes no sense). Thanks!
Thanks for your question! Yes you could think about it as harmonizing the G7b9 off the b9 or just simply an added chord to create a natural flow into each inversion of the one chord. When you listen to the example with the added chord and the one without you will hear the effect this added chord has. Hope that helped!
@@NathanBortonMusic Thanks Nathan! I’m still a little confused (sitting at the keyboard now wanting to learn these). If we want to harmonize a simple C major scale with C6 D diminished / C6 etc how do we specifically avoid the Aflat?
@@atlasproaudio6141 when you play an inversion of your diminished chords for G7b9 (V7) it’s going to have a Ab built into it, so it’s apart of the sound. Think about it was tension release. Even though you’re playing a G7b9 over a C major chord it’s going to work as long as you resolve it to an inversion of your one chord (C6 in this case). On my examples in the video, play a cmaj chord under them and your will hear it works even though we are not play purely stuff inside the c major sound.
@@NathanBortonMusic ok thank you that makes sense! :-). I think this must lead to the Barry Harris Bebop 8 note major scale?
@@atlasproaudio6141 yes! It’s pretty much the same, just the application is a little different
Fantastic! I was just listening to Smokin' at the half note and thought I really need to find out what's going on in Wes's chord work, and then your video came up. Wow! thank you, great insight. It does have a Barry Harris kinda sound to it too but this seems much clearer and from a guitar point of view more practical.
Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for watching :)
Great production quality (with new cameras) ….Very similar to Barry Harris method. major/minor/dominant 6 combined with diminished chords…major6 diminished scale (#5 note to major scale) etc…
Thanks! and yes, very similar, just the application that differs! Thanks for watching :)
Is this the same as diminished 6th by Harris?
Very similar! The difference is in application. However most people use Barry’s scale to harmonically generalize (as is play one sound over many types of chords) while Wes uses it as embellishments over various sound (like on the video it covered his approaches on the major, minor, and dominant chords). Hope this helps and thanks for your question!
Very helpful. A lot in 11 minutes. Would be very helpful to use a guitar with fret markers very visible.
Hi Larry, yes sorry about that. It's the only guitar I own (believe it or not) and I can't justify buying another guitar for just CZcams at the moment. Hopefully someone will give me a guitar to review and that could be the new CZcams guitar :)
So do we do the same with the Am7 scale which appears to be a cm7 in reality in the video
Thanks for your question. Yes, Wes will take this process and do it for the ii chord and the I chord. Remember that the V chord uses just diminished chords on half steps (covered in video). Is the Am7, your referencing, from the example towards the end of the video? If so it’s just the same process but now the key is G so our chords would be Am7, D7, Gmaj. If your referencing the fact that Am7 is the same sound as c major 7, then yes that also works. The chords for am7 could work over cmaj7 as well as the reverse. Hope this helps!
ty@@NathanBortonMusic
Why is there no diminished chord between the C6/E and the C6/G at 2:47?
On the side slipping section over a ii v i in C you just play diatonically in Am, does this mean we have two options over the two chord? Either play the shapes over Am or Dm? Thank you in advance
Hello, thanks for your question! I breakdown that line starting at 7:16. The main points of side slipping are between the chord inversions and passing diminished chords. The main line is based around diatonic C major stuff, but sounds more complex because of the side slipping between the chord shapes. Hope that helps!
0:42
What is that chord on 9:41
Hello! That is just a D13 chord with C in the bass. You could also play it on the higher string set D string -C G string -F# B string - B and E string -D
Is there wrong chord in notation @4.50? You play b as top note in B˚7. Notation says c.
Also 6.16 melody goes up to f, 13th fret
Yes, those are errors. I appreciate you pointing them out... unfortunately I'm doing everything myself so things sometimes slip though. I will change those on the PDF's for the Patreon page. Appreciate you!
Great lesson anyway! Thanks!
One suggestion.
At 3:05 to 3:20, the chords as annotated on the staff are consistent with the point you are making: ascending diatonically; adding a dim chord for each non-C6 note; and also adding a #5 diminished. However, the chord names you have written above are not consistent with that ascending pattern and IMO somewhat obscure the point. The teaching point would be reinforced if the chord names also reflected ascending pattern.
Just a suggestion for an otherwise superlative lesson.
Thanks for the feedback, appreciate it!
If you think about it, a minor 7 is just an inversion of a 6.
Yes! I didn't want to include that nugget of information as to not overload with to much info. I try to keep the videos as streamlined as possible
Barry Harris 😊
Very similar yes!
I maybe wrong but I dont see like diminished chords, for me, I maybe wrong, these are Dom b9 chords, all are inversions of G7b9, for me a diminished is a passing chord but not in this kind of progression, most of the times when going before a minor chord, so , the key for me is always, and as a main rule for almost everything, what goes AFTER , if its a major chord it cant be a diminished, its a dominant
Yep you’re right, it is a diminished chord that implies a dominant sound. However, it’s still a diminished chord being played, so as an educator trying to fit as much information as possible into a video and still make it clear, often times things are left out. In this case someone will discover that if they dig deeper into this, but a lot of this these videos are to get people a starting point or interested in a topic.
I play just enough guitar to not understand any of this. Lol.
Sorry about that! If you have any questions just let me know!
@@NathanBortonMusicthanks friend! It’s ok, I still enjoy guitar very much.
WHOE . funny story. Wes came up with his warm sounding thumb picking style because his neighbors were bothered by his somewhat louder picking. If you don't know Wes you should check him out. Hendrix did and so should you. Just sayin. Rock on!
CZcams ,i'll never buy your product when your AD is inside the video !
What happened? Was there an ad that was not weird? I want to make watching the video and enjoyable experience, but unfortunately I need the adds to make the little money I do :/