Hi, I am an aspiring Jazz Guitarist/Musicsian. Wes Montgomery is so great to me .... Does anyone know how he leared to play so well and does nyone know where all the Steely Dan session guitarists learned to play .....

wes was self taught

That`s true, paul, Wes learn by himself, but did a lot of solos transcriptions from Charlie Christian by exemple. But he created his style, especially with those licks in octaves.Never before a guitarist have used octaves that much and like he did.

By the way you might know it already but Wes didnt use a pick. He liked the tone of his right thumb better so he chose it instead. The thing is that it`s goddam harder to play fast with your thumb, just try it. You should do solo transcriptions of Wes, if you have a good ear and know a little about the chords changes. It`s a very formation for a jazz guitarist, all the kings have done it.

I heard that he developed the thumb playing because he could only practice while his wife and children were asleep at night. While his early stuff is amazing, I feel that he got too much into overproduced elevator music toward the end. it`s not so much him, but rather the backing band that sounds like Kenny G.