Pat Metheny on the Illusion of Effortless Playing

you're able to just effortlessly weave this uh over this chord brid what is it like d flat E flat uh I mean you have a lot of uh major Triads moving by whole steps in different in a couple different patterns I believe and that's easy for you no it's not it's not easy at all it sounds easy for you it might sound easy but extremely difficult to do though well I mean you use the term effortless no believe me I've spent like a lifetime trying to get to the point where I understand so that I can be you know to me it's like that it's like okay the stuff that I can't do that's what I want to work on I don't need to work on what I can do and most stuff I can't do so a bridge like that it's like I'm GNA write something like that CU I can't do that over years you know and hours and hours and hours of working on it I've kind of gotten to the point where I can do it and also it would be pretty hard for me not to do it now like I can do it because I can do it it wasn't effortless your idea flow on on the recording on travels your idea flow on the bridge every time is phenomenal and that's one of my favorite that way the first time at all believe me that's one of my favorite solos of yours too the melodic development throughout that whole thing starts in the C7 sus then it goes down the FP major 13 the Jos of that in the in the a part and then the the the moving Triads in the B part it's a very challenging song it's a very satisfying song when you're playing when you're the ear hears those things especially when you're killing it all your ideas are so welldeveloped in that solo and on that you know you've touched on a couple things leading up to this that I'd just like to go back to a little bit one one is the you know we kind of we're starting on melodic development and and all that which is this is related to too and then you kind of got to Rhythm yes the time thing is a thou as much as I can talk about Melody and love to and explain its mystery to me and all that and as much as I love talking about you know major chords moving in whole steps and as much you have a great feel if you can't play in great time I know that you can play anything if you have great feel Jerry bergonzi he when he plays he can play anything doesn't matter all wrong notes not it doesn't sound like they all sound like right notes because it because it feels so good right and I think that's something Universal to all music yeah it's got to feel good anybody that has great feeli can play anything pretty much and lots of times I mean I have to say when I you know have the really it's a a privilege for me to hang out with young musicians and talk about music and then hear them play in almost every case the guy who wants to talk about playing outside and you know like chromatic this and all that stuff it's like great let's play some quarter notes like can you play you know a bunch of good quarter notes right you know and usually there's some work to be done there because if if you if that's not happening all that other stuff doesn't really do a thing right and um you know our again our general area of music it's kind of easy in a way to focus on some of the superficial aspects of it because we can kind of talk about them and they're fun to talk about and there's magazines and all that and but the basic stuff is the basic stuff and that doesn't ever really change and the most important thing you said it is feel I think even got some videos on that right yeah that's feel is everything it's everything it's everything all the rest you can fill it in right and it doesn't matter you can play any notes if it feels good any notes work yeah my middle son Jeff is incredibly great guy he's an amazing guy he's one of my heroes in life and you know he's been around musicians his whole life and he's he could be a musician I think if he wanted to he's you know he's got other things on his mind but you know he's hung you know he's been around Charlie Hayden and Christian and you know great Steve rodby great bass player he doesn't even remember but he's been like on the floor next to Charlie and stuff so he got interested in bass and high school got an acoustic base he has like the feel and he's I'm like if you practiced like five minutes a day I could almost hire you even but he doesn't it's like you know but he's just kind of playing like I don't really know what notes on you know he kind of he actually is now trying to fill it in but it's like that thing that he can do it's like I can work with that right but I you know I've run across guys who can play all this stuff but it's like you know it that feel thing isn't there and the feel is the thing well that's the thing going to Charlie when when Charlie's playing not only has Charlie had Charlie had incredible feel but Charlie could make anyone nothing was ever really free with Charlie playing because he would always play the right things under whatever ornette was playing whatever you were playing it didn't matter there was no free with Charlie Charlie's ear was so good and his feel was so good nothing like that nothing like it nothing like that who else could ever play basically the root and conjure up Infinity Charlie right he like owned Infinity yeah you know and I mean you know he was my best friend yeah and you know I still don't know what that is H just playing and it be like you know the sky would explode well one of the best gigs that I ever saw I mentioned to you was was you at the Village Vanguard with Charlie and Billy Higgins and and uh playing with them especially since they had such a connection um gave you a freedom to play that um was was I think really unique that was a unique I mean I saw you play with Roy Haynes and Dave Holland I saw you play with Roy haes and Miroslav I saw you played with but this was very different those two together um uh I I felt your playing was was was different in a way definitely and there was a there was just a different I don't want to see deeper connection because I don't want to minimize the other two you know playing with any of these other great musicians but there was a connection between you guys that was captured in this particular gig I saw and and uh uh and I think it's that can the the your freedom to play what you're you know just anything over what what they're laying down well we loved each other we had a lot of fun that band and we toured a lot we did a lot of gigs around that period it's kind of a shame that the only real representation of it is the record that we made and you don't what you don't like the record right it's okay okay so I have to disagree with you on this yeah okay okay it's okay we you were a lot better than you heard us you were amazing oh no the lot the the that gig was way better than did they even sound the same no no that was no different no comparison thing you know is that it just doesn't even I mean for what it is it's sort of okay but it doesn't represent what that band was no although Lonely Woman is a is is is great on that that is great that was great story from a stranger that tune is a great tune that's one of my favorite tunes of yours and I love your solo on that is is incredible and the heart just the the structure of the song is absolutely beautiful I guess more just us playing as a trio maybe okay maybe the Straight Ahead songs on there that's that's the stuff that I felt like it we didn't get to our thing and there are a lot of reasons why we didn't but um I wish you had recorded this Village Vanguard gig CU that that would have that was yeah that band was you know not really represented that well for what it was and you know so that's Billy who is one of the greatest people ever yeah and somebody that I just miss every day hold we got minutes oh and you have to change the card you want to stop it um actually if it's five minutes let me finish this one and then then we'll be on the the same topic um and you know playing with Billy was great and touring with Billy and Charlie was great because they should have had a comedy show those two I mean they had a 30-year history before you know that you know and it was just really funny to be around them but the thing with Charlie and I was something I know I've never experienced anything like that and I think it was the same for him I mean you know we come from towns 50 60 miles apart we do have a 18y old 18 year difference he was incredibly immature though so made we were about right in a lot of ways um but we man on every level we just could connect and I mean you know there's a lot of overt examples of that but the one I always point to is on the Josh Redmond's record wish yeah there are a couple tracks at the end of that which are from the Vanguard where there's a point where Charlie and I I think it's just us playing we're playing a blues and that's the only known example that I know of on a record of what we did where we would just start going places we would stay in the form and we would just make up all new changes so it wasn't like the ornette thing it was this other thing where we were playing changes and we would make up new changes all the time yeah and I've never experienced that with anybody it's and you know according to him I think with Keith he had something sort of like that and and infinity more because their thing was unbelievable but it's it's a rare thing to be able to just start like okay we're going to take this form and we're just going to start messing with it but we're going to stay in it and um there was that and then also just the sound thing of Charlie like we could just I mean we start to sound like one instrument you know when we would play whether it was electric or acoustic or whatever we just became this thing together that was you know and that's what a lot of the song X stuff was was you know it's like my one of my main motivations for song X is I just wanted to hear Charlie and rette play together again because they hadn't played together for 10 years at that point and then I thought well I want to just kind of try to get in there so that I'm kind of with Charlie like helping with that stuff

Channel: Rick Beato 2

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Keywords: pat metheny, rick beato, jazz guitar, everything music, music theory, guitar lesson, pat metheny group, pat metheny album, pat metheny live, Music theory, Songwriting, jazz guitar licks

Id: uh2NbQ02osQ

Length: 11min 5sec (665 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 01 2023