Wes Montgomery’s 'West Coast Blues' jazz blues masterpiece! Learn the head, solo & changes

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A cool and classic jazz/blues from Wes Montgomery.. we learn the head, and the first solo (chords and lead for both parts!)
Learn to put some swagger in your swinging 3/4 blues with this one.. oh and a bonus "ladybird turnaround" thrown in for good measure as well as some very powerful concepts and topics covered in depth!

As always, stick around til the end for gear talk and recommended listening 👌🏻

⏱️TIMESTAMPS;⏱️

00:00 - Performance
01:30 - Introduction
02:07 - Chords (Head)
04:05 - Chords (solo sections)
06:43 - Tritone subbing a ii-V
???? - Lead (the head)
10:37 - Wes’s M.O (upper extensions on a minor chord)
11:20 - Minor thinking over the IV chord
14:59 - Practice tips (metronome!)
16:25 - The Solo!
18:04 - Do I REALLY have to play the changes?!
22:30 - My favourite lick in this solo!
23:01 - Classic Wes minor 9 line
23:32 - Easy altered dominant idea!.. Expanded into ii-V-I
23:34 - Navigating the “Ladybird Turnaround”.. thinking ii over the V
26:48 - My non-negotiables; high standards & accountability
27:16 - Recommended listening!
28:37 - Patreon shoutout!

Gear used in this video;

Gibson es335 63' reissue
1958 Gibson es175
Lazy J20 amp
Bluechip Pick (jazz 3 style)
D'addario NYXL 10-46 (on the es335)
D’addario EPN21 strings (on the es175)
Universal Audio OX - amp top box
Universal Audio Apollo Twin X
Logic Pro
Universal Audio plugins

Sony ZVE-10 camera
Neewer Desktop Tripod
Final Cut Pro

Thanks for watching!
Alex

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[MC-mick]

I really appreciate how clear you are with your explanations. I remember learning this tune many years ago but really not quite understanding what was going on harmonically, and, thus, it not sticking with me. It’s crazy how melodic Wes’ ideas are.

[joepalooka]

Another 5 Star video, Alex. Studying Wes Montgomery is essential for any serious guitar player, no matter what your genre. Your guitar sound is excellent. Universal Audio Twin and the OX make a huge difference vs. cheaper interfaces. I'm going to have to make the leap!

[goswo]

I came here kind of out of the blue, in search of great 335 tone - I will for sure stay, because of the good vibe and outstanding guitarism 🙏

[floydmorrison]

YESS!! One of my absolute favorites! Like you, Alex, 'The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery' was my first ever record by him, and I practically wore it out!! I think that besides teaching you how to really nail your target notes when playing over changes (as you stress here in the video), what my major takeaway from Wes's playing on this song was/is just how melodic his solos were. Each phrase was like a little mini-song masterpiece that I could sing back to myself, while I was driving in the car or whatever!! When first learning this solo 30 years ago, I didn't really even have to rewind the CD, because each gorgeous phrase was already ingrained in my head, like the lyrics to a catchy song, so all I had to do was find the notes on the fretboard!!! Wes blew you away with his commanding melodies, played at a reasonable, almost conversational tempo, and because he didn't need blindingly fast flurries of notes to blow you away, they were attainable to my young fingers haha!! You can tell that he was strongly influenced by Charlie Parker, (because to my ears, anyway), I hear a lot of similarities in their playing, with Wes always exploring those upper extensions of the chords with the 9ths, 11ths & 13ths, etc. That es175 sounds tremendous!!! The strategically placed candle really lit up her beautiful colors!!! Please be careful with that Bluechip pick!!! All it would take is for you to put it down for a second, Louis to find it and start tossing it around, and then it's gone!!!! A very expensive cat 🤣🤣. Thank you so much for another fantastic lesson, 🙏🙌

[DamonBates]

Love love your stuff Alex. Thanks for all you do. Small ask: Please turn off the auto focus tracking on your camera, as it's continuously trying to reacquire focus. Just manually set focus on your eyes or the fretboard to avoid this. maybe use a smaller aperture to get both in focus...they are almost in the same plane of focus and a smaller aperature would increase depth of field to include both. TIA

[manuelfornies]

Fantastic lesson, Alex!! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻I love your YouTube videos.

[jeremyversusjazz]

Sooo great brother…Been playing wcb for years…but methinks i been playing it wrong…🧐love for u to teach that killer intro from the later Verve version of wcb…its like the lady b turn but the rhythm is tweaked…yeah that old video is cool…

[Anthony-bj]

This is really good...slow..repeated & very
knowledgeable

[demifiendrussia]

Yes! This is my favorite blues ever. Can’t wait to get home and practice the shit out of it

[RiversCuomo-cvmu]

Sounds awesome. The format of your videos are so neat and easy to understand. Performance followed by chords theory and then solo theory all in one or two videos.

[NelsonRiverosMusic]

Thank you for the great video and lesson.The sounds you are getting are impressive. What microphones are you using for speaking, guitar and amps? thanks

[loontil]

I love this track, great to see it teased out & broken down by my new favourite guitar teacher!! Kinda have learnt the beautiful Round Midnight from Wes (first name terms), so cool to have some fresh meat.. . .

[ericmintz]

Thanks, Alex. That was a superb lesson. (Almost supernatural how much teaching and guidance you can compress into slightly less than half an hour!). Looking forward to learning this classic and getting the inner workings that make it so great under my fingers and into my head. Blues forward!

[rogerhaase]

Nicely done!!! The rhythm pattern...you play all downstrokes on the strong beats 1 AND and 3. The AND of 1 would be an upstroke if we strictly alternate strokes on this Jazz waltz. Furthermore, do you play the bass note AND 1 up/down or down/up?
I tend to strictly alternate strokes but need to still figure out what sounds best....

[heypockyway]

Phenomenal. Can’t wait to get stuck into this

[tamara]

Great Lesson!! Thank You :) is it possible to get this Backingtrack ?

[rtstodden]

Great lesson Alex! How do you like the ES-175? Thinking of buying one. There is a mint one owner late 60’s ES-175 available near my house in Colorado for $550.

[jimc]

Love this style, Alex!! well thought out and nicely paced descriptive lesson that has me fairly closely emulating Wes (if I dare be so bold but on your well-thought-out lesson and direction.... how can we fail?) and also love how you encourage us to use alternative fingered chords!! This piece is just pure fun, buddy!! Jim C.

[davidsummerville]

One of my favorite tunes, so I guess I better like and subscribe.