Secondary and tertiary carboxylic methyl or ethyl esters ( 2a-c) were converted with trimethylslylmethyllithium ( 3a-c) in high yields. Under identical reaction conditions the primary esters 2d,e gave 3d, e in lower yields. Since the trimethylsilyl (TMS) group α to a ketone is known to undergo facile elimination under a variety of reaction conditions, the method also constitutes a highly versatile ester to methylketone sequence.