Learning an entire jazz guitar solo

[MrPelicano]

I'm sure someone has mentioned this before but I believe that Wes once said in an interview that he learned most or all of Charlie Christian's solos note-for-note by listening to recordings (Wes wasn't a good sight-reader).

Speaking for myself, if I could play all of Charlie Christian's solos note-for-note I wouldn't give a hoot whether I ever developed my own musical voice on the guitar. :>

[Jazzarian]

Do you think its worth learning an entire solo like the ones in the Wolf marshall book. Seems like their great sols, but will take alot of time to memorize them. I really like the the Wes version of Misty.
Any thoughts?
Thx
ken

Sometimes it helps. I once memorized about 10 pages of Wes Montgomery's "Moving Wes, Part II". Quite an accomplishment, and I guess it helped me later in life.

Great song!

[gravyTrain]

Playing arrangements is not jazz. It can be a step in the process, but jazz is about improvisation, not mimicry, or rote memorization

This is an important point for new jazz learners (like myself) to aspire towards, and always remember.

Improvisation is a major element that defines jazz...

[marius2007]

Perhaps a good compromise to the debate thus far might be to try transcribing by ear Wes' version of Misty and correcting yourself afterwards using Wolf's notation.

Although I can understand why some players shy away from learning the entire solo by rote, in the case of Wes Montgomery for me an exception must be made.

This particular version of Misty you are learning is a beautiful one! I would learn the whole piece, you will take so much from it. I would suggest that you will be still analysing parts of it for years to come. It will massively improve your technical ability to play sliding octaves for one.