Stop Playing in "Boxes": The Wes & Django Escape Method
The Wes Line isn't a Dorian scale. Wes Montgomery played Four on Six as a diagonal melodic-minor shape — not stepwise blocks. Here's the structure my Berklee teacher Richie Hart named. Based on concepts from Richie Hart (Berklee College of Music) , we compare the "Wes Line" (Stacking thirds) vs. the "Django Line" (2-finger horizontal runs). This video is part of the series: "VoiceLid Jazz Guitar: The Diagonal Harmony Series 🔶 Wes to Django" ▶ Start from the first video in this playlist: • VoiceLid Jazz Guitar: The Diagonal Harmony... Previous episode: • 99% of Guitarists Get Wes Montgomery's Tec... Next episode: • The “Piano Secret” Wes Montgomery Used to ... 🎸 What exactly is the “Wes Line”? In this lesson, Junewon Choi (VoiceLid Jazz Guitar) breaks down the diagonal fretboard logic behind Wes Montgomery’s legendary phrasing — the line structure his teacher Richie Hart called The Wes Line. You’ll learn: • The Wes Line: How to stack thirds on top of Shell Voicings (It's not just Dorian!) • The Django Line: How to cover 2 octaves using only 2 fingers • The Problem: Why static "Position Playing" kills your flow and how to fix it • Application: Examples over "Four on Six" and "Days of Wine and Roses" This is part of the VoiceLid Jazz Guitar series, introducing the *Functional Diagonal Approach* — learning jazz guitar through chords and voice leading, not scales. --- 📚 Download free PDF exercises & subscribe for more: https://voicelidjazzguitar.com/buildi... 🪶 Chapters: Chapters: 0:00 Intro — From the Octave Position to the Wes Line 1:33 What Is the Wes Line? (Named by Richie Hart at Berklee) 1:56 Wes on “Four on Six” — Dorian vs Melodic Minor 3:55 Two Ways to Find the Wes Line 4:24 Shell Voicing: The Prerequisite 5:08 Bb Triad — The Backbone of the Wes Line 6:06 Transposing the Wes Line to Any Key 6:40 “Days of Wine and Roses” — Wes’s Actual Line 8:50 The Gm7 Line + Right-Hand Down-Picking Feel 10:30 Bb Minor in Two Octaves 11:15 Django Reinhardt — Where the Shape Came From 12:06 The Django Line in Two Octaves (+ George Benson) 14:20 Why the Wes Line Is Hard (Stop Locking Your Position) 16:39 Two-Octave Wes Line Phrase --- 🎬 *Next in the Diagonal Harmony Series:* 👉 [Wes Montgomery’s Second Secret – The Django Line Explained • The “Piano Secret” Wes Montgomery Used to ... ] 🔁 Watch the full playlist: [VoiceLid Jazz Guitar: The Diagonal Harmony Series 🔶 Wes to Django • VoiceLid Jazz Guitar: The Diagonal Harmony... ] --- #JazzGuitar #WesMontgomery #VoiceLeading #GuitarLesson #ChordBasedLearning

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