The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #1

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    Hello,

    Just began with learning jazz, and I'm thesis is on the Man Wes..
    So as of now my teacher wants me to learn 3 different ways of playing an Amin/Gmin 7 chords, and wanted to ask
    1. How did wes play them with 3 fingers
    2. Are there example of these chord shapes. I know the E string form with second finger on 3 strings..
    Thank you
    Steven

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    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #2

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    You're thinking of Django, who had to use 3 fingers, not Wes
    I'd start with the Mickey Baker books

  4. #3

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    Hi Steven,
    Nore the discrepancy between the subject line and what you're asking. You're asking about fingering of minor chords but in the subject line you write major chords . Important to know the difference.

    I have four fingers and a thumb on each hand, thankfully. And like other guitar players who are similarly fortunate I play minor 7th shapes with three fingers. Sometimes only two fingers and sometimes only one! My guess is your teacher is asking you to voice those chords with only the root, third and seventh, find three different ways to do that. These are sometimes called "shell voicings".

  5. #4

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    There is a tradition that the self-taught great players like CC and Wes tended to play with almost exclusively 3 fingers of the LH. That might be what the OP means.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

  6. #5
    thank you

  7. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by patshep
    You're thinking of Django, who had to use 3 fingers, not Wes
    I'd start with the Mickey Baker books
    Do these books give the 3 fingers possibilities?

  8. #7

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    Wes didn’t play exclusively with three fingers

  9. #8

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    The forum has chord examples you may find useful:

    Jazz Guitar Chords

  10. #9
    Groovy, will check this out.
    Thanks again.
    SB

  11. #10

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    There is a tradition that the self-taught great players like CC and Wes tended to play with almost exclusively 3 fingers of the LH. That might be what the OP means.
    But it was about playing lines that they used mostly 3 fingers (as partly Benson and Pat Metheny do, and Pete Bernstein), in chords they used pinky occasionally and a thumb for sure

  12. #11

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    Wes played single note lines with three fingers. He used his pinkie for octaves and chords.

    I believe he used more position shifting than most four finger players.

  13. #12

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    check the book "Jim Ferguson- All Blues for Jazz Guitar" there are many example

  14. #13
    Does this book have different fingerings?

  15. #14

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    3 note chords are standard learning for jazz guitarists, not specific to studying Wes. Typically these are root-3rd-7th forms (may be voiced in the R-7-3 spread voicing order, R-3-7 closed voicing, etc.). You should be able to figure those out for yourself in a few minutes of looking at scale forms.

    Fortunately there are videos of Wes you can watch to see how he fingered. He used all four fingers for chords, but mostly played lines with three fingers. His scale forms were based around this, with more shifting up and down the neck than many players use. Wes used a lot of minor 3rd intervals in his lines, part of what gave him his sound. Listen and watch rather than looking for things others have written.

    Also, look at Jimmy Raney videos.