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Jazz Guitar Gazette Premium Edition 1 Wes Montgomery: Four on SixPage 1 of 9The Jazz Guitar Gazette - Premium 1This first issue of the JGG Premium Edition is free, but the following issues are not.Subscribing costs 19.97 for 3 months. There will be about 4 issues each month, sothat's 12 jazz guitar lessons for the price of a CD and a half :)30-day money-back guarantee!Click here to Subscribe.In this first issue you will learn how to play WesMontgomery's Four on Six.In 1960 Wes Montgomery's album "The incredible JazzGuitar" was released with on it two of his most famouscompositions, "West Coast Blues" and "Four on Six".Four on Six is a great song to play and your audience willlove it.Here's how the complete theme sounds:Click here to listen.Here's a backing track to practice improvising:Click here to listen.Four on Six - The ThemeThe IntroFour on Six has a great intro that is made entirely out of fifths and played in unison with the bassand piano.Here's is how the intro sounds like:Click here to listen.And here's how you play it (scroll to the next page). I mute the strings a bit with the palm of myright hand:
Page 2 of 9The BreakThe intro is followed by a break that can be a bit challenging in the beginning:Click here to listen.
Page 3 of 9The MelodyThen comes the melody, a modal melody line that moves around the notes of Gm9:Click here to listen.The AccentsThe melody is followed by a II V sequence with strong accents. The II Vs follow the harmony ofthe intro:Click here to listen.The accents are followed by the theme again, then the break before the solos start.Four on Six - ImprovisationHere are the chord changes for the solos: Gm7 Cm7F7 Gm7 Bbmaj7 Bbm7 Am7b5Eb7D7 Am7 Gm7D7 Ebm7 Cm7 D7Ab7F7
Page 4 of 9The chords are not very hard to improvise over, although the tempo makes it challenging (202bpm). Let's have a look at the harmony:Bars 1-4on the Gm7 part Wes Montgomery generally plays: G Dorian. Here's the scale diagram for G Dorian in root position:Don't limit yourself to this position though, learn to play the scale over the entire neck, likethis: G minor pentatonic with or without blue notes. Here are the 2 main positions of this scale, but the sameapplies as above, learn the scale over the entire neck. The blue notes are shown in orange, use them toslide, hammer or pull into D or C.:
Page 5 of 9 Gm(7) arpeggio with extensions, most of the times a Gm9. He often makes big jumps on the fret board,like in this example:Click here to listen. Sometimes the G minor goes to C7, like in the following exampleClick here to listen.
Page 6 of 9 Gm/maj7 arpeggio (minor/major7: a minor chord with a natural 7). In this example Wes plays a Gm/maj7arpeggio first, followed by a Gm7 arepeggio resolving into the 3rd of C7:Click here to listen. Here Wes Montgomery uses a unison-interval blues cliche:Click here to listen.Bars 5-8:These are a series of 4 II-Vs. On the theme, the dominant chords have a natural 9 and a sharp11 (F9#11). The scale played on chords with these tensions is the melodic minor scale: Cm7 F7: play the C melodic minor scale here. On the F7 the name of this scale is lydian dominantscale (5th mode of the melodic minor scale).
Page 7 of 9 Bbm7 Eb7: Bb melodic minor. Same scale as in the above scale diagram, but shift 2 frets down.Am7 D7: A melodic minorEbm7 Ab7: Eb melodic minorWes Montgomery doesn't think in scales on this part, but in melodic patterns. That's agood idea because the tempo is so fast, which makes it difficult to play scales musically. Heusually plays a pattern on the first II V and transposes it down the neck for the rest of the IIVs.Here's an example where he uses a minor 9-11 pattern:Click here to listen.Here's another example, this time Wes Montgomery uses his famous octaves. Wes"strums" the octaves with his thumb. I'm not so good at playing with my thumb, that's why Iplay octaves with my thumb and index finger:Click here to listen.
Page 8 of 9Bars 9-12The same modal part as bars 1 to 4, the only difference is a II V to Bbmaj7 in the last bar.Bars 13-16Nothing special here.In this example, Wes plays the D altered scale (more about the altered scale) over bar 14:Click here to listen.Related Lessons: Wes Montgomery's Guitar GearMore Wes Montgomery LicksWes Montgomery Style Chord Solos
Page 9 of 9To get more lessons like this, subscribe to the Jazz Guitar Gazette Premium
Wes Montgomery's Guitar Gear More Wes Montgomery Licks Wes Montgomery Style Chord Solos Page 8 of 9. To get more lessons like this, subscribe to the Jazz Guitar Gazette Premium Page 9 of 9. Title: Jazz Guitar Gazette Premium Issue 1 - Four on Six (Wes Montgomery) Author: www.jazzguitar.be Subject: Four on Six (Wes Montgomery) Keywords: jazz guitar four on six wes montgomery Created
