Why Pentatonics Are Killing Your Blues Solo

The blues was never pentatonic. The first Wes Montgomery solo I tried to copy by ear — a blues in the key of A — fell apart because I'd learned the blues as a pentatonic box. It isn't. It's centered on the I6 (one-six) chord — and once you hear it, the box never sounds the same again. I prove it three ways — three players, three generations, one chord: Charlie Parker wrote the I6 into the melody of "Billie's Bounce." Wes Montgomery turned it into a line on "No Blues" (Smokin' at the Half Note). George Benson stole the same path and made it sound like Benson. You'll see the major third and the sixth sitting right in the melody, the F6 voicing collapse into a D minor triad, the Wes Line rising out of G minor 7 as the ii of F, and why the I chord on a blues — and on rhythm changes — was never a major seventh. I'm Junewon Choi. I studied jazz guitar at Berklee College of Music, but I learned to hear from Richie Hart — and this channel passes down that apprenticeship. Next: the whole story of "Sundown" and how Wes actually built that solo — melody, upper structures, the Wes Line, the Django Line. — How do you make this yours? That's what Blues Print teaches — 12 hours, 13 diagnoses, the whole system: the I and the IV chord, the blue notes, the third, voice leading, and how to diagnose your own playing when it goes flat and you don't know why. ▶ Blues Print (12 hours · 13 diagnoses): https://www.voicelidjazzguitar.com/bl... 🎸 Start free — Building Blocks: https://www.voicelidjazzguitar.com/bu... 🧭 Find your track (free Scorecard): https://www.voicelidjazzguitar.com/sc... ▶️ Watch next — Blues Is Not Pentatonic (full blues series playlist) →    • Blues Is Not Pentatonic   CHAPTERS 00:00 Wes Montgomery "Sundown" Blues in A — The Pentatonic Mistake 01:51 The I6 Chord Is the Center of the Blues 02:45 One-Chorus Blues Solo Demo on the 6th Sound 03:11 Berklee Grad & Richie Hart Apprenticeship 03:46 Three Players Prove the I6: Parker, Wes, Benson 05:16 George Benson's "Billie's Bounce" Melody on the Fretboard 06:38 F7 One Chord: D Is the 6th, Not a Pentatonic Box 08:43 IV Chord Bb7, the Ab, and the F Minor Blues Sound 10:04 Rhythm Changes I Chord Is I6, Never Major 7 10:50 Sixth Voicing Behind the Singer, Not Major 7 11:40 F6 Voicing to D Minor Triad — Where Wes Plays 13:29 Wes Montgomery "No Blues" — Smokin' at the Half Note 15:50 The Wes Line Rising: G Minor 7 as ii of F 17:08 George Benson's D Minor Blues Scale on "Billie's Bounce" 19:01 Three Players, One Chord: Blues Was Never Pentatonic 19:23 Next: Wes "Sundown" Solo, Wes Line & Django Line 19:45 Blues Print — 12 Hours, 13 Diagnoses #JazzGuitar #WesMontgomery #BluesGuitar