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.
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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
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🎬 *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... ]
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