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The Latest Breaking News from Wes Montgomery

“A lot of cats say you don’t have to play fast, but it can cause you to phrase better”: Why bebop master Wes Montgomery never used a guitar pick – and only played using his thumb

It became the jazz legend’s defining technique, but it wasn’t a decision made wholly by choice

Guitar World

“He said, ‘Yeah, you know, it’s kind of harder to play that way’, but he just loved the way it sounded”: Eric Johnson on why pick choice and picking style are fundamental to your playing – and how his favourite jazz player got his sound by using his thumb

Your guitar pick, the material it's made from and how you use it are "the beginning of the whole thing," says the Texan virtuoso

MusicRadar

“It didn’t sound like a big guitar song, so I wound up playing keyboards. Eddie Van Halen played keyboards on Jump, so I figured I could too”: How Billy Idol seized upon the success of Rebel Yell – and Linn Drums – to take his sound to new frontiers

Steve Stevens remembers the early days of true international stardom, when he and Billy Idol utilized their creative freedom and exciting new tech to make a very different kind of record

Guitar World

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“The jazz people were laughing when they saw me at the audition with my Telecaster”: Steve Morse says the music school jazz snobs were not impressed by his choice of guitar

After flunking the audition simply because of his guitar choice, Morse could have turned deep purple with rage – but it was the making of him

Guitar World

“Transcribing Wes Montgomery and Joe Pass really helped me on my journey. You can see the amount of joy they were bringing to the music”: How Italian maestro Andrea Rinciari is reinventing the great American jazz guitar songbook

Soho Sessions is the sound of Rinciari cutting loose and putting his own stamp on the classics, with the help of his one-of-a-kind Fibonacci Ambassador

Guitar World

This iconic jazz progression was played by countless guitar legends – and it can help you learn the chord secrets of Joe Pass, Barney Kessel and Wes Montgomery

Want to add sophistication to your chords? Master this essential chord progression as played by 5 guitar legends

Guitar World

“I get a lot more feeling when I play with my fingers. Wes Montgomery was my reference as a kid for not using a pick”: Championed by Fender and signed to Blue Note, Maya Delilah might just be the most melodic guitar soloist since John Mayer

After being named as a member of Fender’s Class of 2024 and lauded as a 2025 Spotify Artist to Watch, Maya Delilah makes good on those promises with her Blue Note debut, The Long Way Around

Guitar World

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“There’s apparently only two of them, so I feel very lucky to have it”: The oddball electric guitar that fast-rising soul-pop guitarist Maya Delilah favors over her Strats and Teles

The fingerstyle guitarist and genre-blending singer-songwriter recently released her debut record on the historic Blue Note Records

Guitar World

Bend it like B.B.: What you can learn from these 6 blues and jazz guitar greats

Bends, embellishments, arpeggios and more – from Charlie Christian to BB King and George Benson, how to unlock the genius of the jazz and blues icons

Guitar World

“Okay, I’m saying it. I didn’t post the video because Giacomo couldn’t play well enough to be on my channel”: Rick Beato comments on the Giacomo Turra plagiarism scandal and says stealing other people’s music is “completely not cool”

Turra has been accusations of using other guitar player's arrangements and passing them off as his own. Beato remains unconvinced of Turra's playing – and his apology

MusicRadar

5 lo-fi guitar chords to add to your progressions

These chord voices are so cool they're worth the stretch

Guitar World

“Copying the people you admire is a healthy thing to do – it teaches you to get inside what they do, then you can take it from there”: Eric Johnson on his G3 reunion with Joe Satriani and Steve Vai – and why the limits of guitar have yet to be reached

We catch up with the maestro to talk all things G3, formative influences, hollow-body Strat designs, and what he has to learn from Wes Montgomery after all these years

Guitar World

“Imagine not knowing Eric Johnson, Vai and Satriani and seeing this for the first time? It literally blows your mind”: Matteo Mancuso – 10 albums that changed my life

The Sicilian virtuoso salutes Jimmy Page's stylistic adventurism, the compositional genius of Pat Metheny and Al Di Meola, and declares Jaco Pastorius “the Jimi Hendrix of bass”

MusicRadar

“I had a hard time playing in tune. The producer stopped me and said, ‘George, tune up again.’ I didn’t realize the value of that until Breezin’ came out”: How George Benson landed a hit album by breaking the rules – and learning to play in tune

As Benson prepares to share his skills first-hand in an immersive music experience, the jazz guitar legend looks back on a magical career and explains why he's still learning

Guitar World

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Louder

"We weren’t fiddling around and wondering what to do, we were going to nail this sucker": Steve Howe names the best record he's ever made

Yes guitarist Steve Howe picks his records, artists and gigs of lasting significance

Guitar World

“I heard some criticism that I didn’t play the parts enough like Criss, but I didn’t want to just go in there and try to be a clone of him”: When Alex Skolnick quit Testament – and was recruited to replace the late Criss Oliva in Tampa metallers Savatage

In 1994, following the death of the brilliant Criss Oliva, reeling Tampa metallers Savatage enlisted then-ex-Testament man Alex Skolnick. The experience left a lasting impression on both

Guitar World

“I was really into Django Reinhardt, Pat Metheny, and Wes Montgomery, but I also loved Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin. I asked him if I could have a guitar that does it all”: Trey Anastasio discusses the birth of his iconic Languedoc Koa 1 guitar

The Phish virtuoso has championed Paul Languedoc’s “genius”, which turned his scattershot six-string dreams into a reality

Guitar World

“People use them for fashion and shock factor. Your guitar is your workhorse, but on stage, it’s also your prop”: Phoebe Bridgers is playing B.C. Rich. Willow and Pete Townshend are picking up Jacksons. Have metal guitars gone mainstream?

When indie stars are grabbing pointy six-strings while metal musicians are eyeing up offsets, you know there’s something afoot in the guitar world. We explore the trend inverting the industry and why it’s good to shred outside the box

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Guitar World

“Riders on the Storm started off as a surf tune – then it somehow morphed into what it became…” Robby Krieger on honing his Doors guitar tone, overcoming “dentist’s syndrome”, and why slide guitar is the ultimate way to express yourself as a player

Robby Krieger breaks down his new album with the Soul Savages’ new album, and details his struggles to come up with his own sound during his time with the Doors

Guitar World

“I’d never buy one from the ’70s because I’ve always felt that there’s no such thing as a good guitar from that decade”: Robby Krieger on what makes his 1968 Gibson Barney Kessel special

In 1983, the Doors guitarist and rock legend posed on the cover of Guitar World with a 1968 Gibson Barney Kessell. Krieger reveals the story behind his fellow cover star – and why it isn’t an SG

Guitar World

“It’s an anti-establishment statement – I’m trying to make it okay for jazz guitarists to go out with their metal guitars”: Meet Cecil Alexander, the prog-loving jazz guitarist who’s challenging elitism by shredding bebop on a Jackson

The Michigan-born virtuoso shares his secrets for getting the perfect jazz tone on a metal guitar, the parallels between jazz and prog, and why jazz guitar isn’t as scary as it seems

Guitar World

“He showed complete mastery of the bebop jazz language – a language invented on horns”: Celebrating Joe Pass, jazz guitar’s great re-inventor – and a player who had the rare ability to nail sax lines on a six-string

Bona-fide jazz legend Joe Pass had it all. Here we celebrate the life and career of on of jazz guitar's most fluid and fluent players

Guitar World

Think metal guitars can’t handle jazz? Cecil Alexander just shredded a set of Wes Montgomery classics on a Jackson Soloist – and his tone has guitarists raving

The jazz guitarist is proving you can shred bebop with clean and distorted tones on his Jackson Soloist, mimicking a semi-hollow guitar in extraordinary fashion

MusicRadar

Pat Metheny on Wes Montgomery: "He had this amazing ability to describe very complex ideas in ways that were so clear and well backed up with spirit and soul"

Newly shared documentary footage finds the jazz great digging into his roots and the inspiring element of his hero's musical legacy that's often overlooked

Guitar World

Rik Emmett: “If I wrote a pop tune, the guys wanted to make it heavy. I’d put more power chords in and Townshend it up. For a while, it worked”

The former Triumph guitarist looks back on the Canadian rock phenomenon, addresses those Rush comparisons, and reveals how they kept the Rock & Roll Machine running – until it ground to a halt

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