Pat Metheny on Music Improvisation

[@mariothepookster]

One of the great jazz musicians, creative artists of our time. Always striving, always exploring … just a great, notable musician. I love all his interviews on KZbin. A great opportunity on the internet.

[@lowcountrystrings]

Not many musicans who can speak like this. Another level.

[@winstonsmith8240]

Not sure if people are aware, but Pat is one of the greatest musicians to ever have lived. Just saying.

[@bierdlll]

Wow what did I just hear. I think very few people are as articulate, insightful and down to earth as this guy.

[@JD-ir5fj]

That's what we said when we listened to the albums he made when young in the 70s.

[@paulmax9871]

I’m still trying to catch my breath! I wish all peoples had an understanding as this.

[@BrettShuman]

Intelligent, articulate and humble - lovely talk. I saw Metheny and Lyle Mays in concert in London in 1989. Still rates as the best and most exciting, stimulating concert I have ever been to.

[@nicolosmoffitt]

He’s a gem of a person. So kind

[@mjsmcd]

Nah he ain't Ask kenny

[@gregkonopka5592]

Been a superfan since 1980(gasp)… seen Pat,Lyle,Steve, etc dozens of times. Met him twice. Truly grateful to have been in the presence of such genius.

[@paulmax9871]

How awesome to be in the presence of such love and understanding of being in the now…

[@DaveHillJr]

Wow, I’m in awe listening to Pat speak. What a true master.

[@apisdude]

what a thoughtful and well spoken gentleman Pat is. His white album got me thru college years ago.

[@cezarsantana]

Incredibly articulate and insightful speech - lots of food for thought for performing musicians, and for that matter, any artist that strives to be better every day, no matter what level they're already at. Mindfulness combined with hard, consistent work and focus to get to spend more time more often where everything aligns and there's no other place to be but in the zone...

[@paulmax9871]

Amen!

[@elginphelps5291]

I spent 35 years as a teacher. Improv was essential along with listening.

[@gregnokura5369]

I miss living in Boston! Seems like I saw him jogging downtown before his gig like yesterday. I got to see Pat perform at least a half dozen times and I became friends with his guitar tech Carola (anybody know her and reconnect us??). Anyway I’d see guitar players regularly and I’d think “thats the best guitar player I’ve ever seen” and then I’d see Pat. Unbelievable!!! The most connected guy I’ve ever seen! He’s the PERFECT guy to have talk at this thing!!!

[@shawn21127]

When...Pat Metheny plays an instrument called spoken word...it still sounds amazing.

[@jornfox3545]

I get to be a visual/paintings improviser for many years now, so grateful for the chance. When I listen to Pat and other wonderful improvisers, it lifts my creative ability to another level. Thanks Pat.

[@Jazz313]

This Guy is a American Treasure ❤love his music. Lyle Mays in the early days was his peak!

[@dancelzard]

What an articulate guy!

[@PaulWegmann]

He was reading?

[@antoniopaloumusic3914]

Absolutely

[@sheddingaway]

@@PaulWegmann he dont read he improvise

[@katebarns6042]

So impressed. Brilliant guy.

[@DearProfessorRF]

@@PaulWegmann Possibly. It sounds to me like he was, written by him for sure.

[@BillyCraigMusicArtist]

This is INCREDIBLE.

[@rameau1124]

Gives a good speech too…❤

[@jazzguitarneophyte-christo7988]

Amazingly professorial in delivery and a good one at that! That was profound to say the least!

[@donkkong5551]

He is a very interesting individual and a Master in the art of guitar and music! Having seen Pat several times in the Last 20 years I recently started exploring works of his that I somehow missed over the years and I must say the Travels album is just phenomenal always had the record in my collection but just never fully listened to it from start to finish, Phase Dance and San Lorenzo are just wonderful musical arrangements, I have been playing guitar for 30 years and I don't think I will ever be able to play pieces like that and I have been told by others I am a great player and I am extremely hard on myself and self-conscious always have been and don't know why maybe my upbringing? Pat, I look forward to seeing you again in September thanks for all the great music and bands you have assembled over the years.

[@charliebarredafriends61]

Wow! What a way to express himself! So articulate and to the point. Love his playing, just amazing.

[@williambyrne6855]

Loved Metheny since I was a kid. Obvious his talent is far beyond his own words.

[@NYCBG]

And now, for the commentary, Rihana!

[@gillyarchtop]

When you don’t know something, it’s abstract, it’s improvising. When you know something, it’s not improvising, it’s repeating. That said, everything we improvise is next level discovery based from a launching point of what we already know.

[@adamrafferty]

This is rolling off his tounge and I don’t think he’s using a teleprompter….that’s improvisation!!!! A master speaks….

[@johnplink]

His delivery is so fluent and his speech sounds as if he could have written it. I think he's using a teleprompter. If he weren't, I think he would have paused many more times.

[@butziporsche8646]

Watching Pat makes me think of Lyle and I get sad. Metheny, Towner, Weber, etc. these guys can't be replaced.

[@pjost6643]

Not to mention, Pat has also said that in jazz if you don’t know the bebop language, it doesn’t sound interesting. He said the first few years his playing sounded bad but it just takes time. And really really listening well.

[@kishanbalaji1007]

Pat Metheny is an alien! A true genius!

[@raymondkarlsson9794]

One of the best ”speakchs” from Metheny so far

[@arandompersononearth]

Great to learn Metheny's a fan of Mahler!

[@bigvrocks2480]

Always loved me some Pat Mackelhaney...

[@Alan-zi2rs]

Pat Metheny is so aware one of a kind with a mind

[@espr7564]

Top speech, very cool 😎

[@rubenmora9880]

El gran Maestro, Pat.

[@BrianKlobyGuitar]

Indeed..

[@maxxhenry]

As eloquent a speaker as any, including his own guitar playing.

[@GagassagaG]

You have understood all that the West has offered to humanity. Next is going to the East, that’s what you are looking for my friend, and you can’t find that in the West, just as you can’t find chordal harmonies in the music of the East. You won’t have harmonies to help you shape your improvisation, you will only have you.

[@darrylstaflund3431]

Wow, that was great.

[@MisAsar]

Gamma brainwaves 🙏🏼 and sometimes beyond 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

[@ShrobsImprov]

Pat is a Human Giant

[@prestocrypro44]

“Relatively esoteric”❤

[@rillloudmother]

this is posted elsewhere in full resolution on youtube...

[@thomasmotschmann3127]

What a consciousness on music...

[@BlossomVpiano]

Music from SILENCE (pure consciousness)

[@TruthSurge]

ok but uh.... 4 min in and I know nothing more than I did before clicking start. Now, I will improvise and decide... hmmm should I keep watching and risk another 6 min or just click off and go play some guitar???

[@louispconstant6624]

Wow, this is amazing. I've been playing for roughly 25 years and am 37. I never looked up jazz, past typical Django Reinhardt and even though could play his imporovisations, I never understood what was actually happening or fully grasped that these songs and melodies are being made up on the spot. Fast forward to a week ago and I'm going nuts on Rick Beato's channel. Just absorbing everything. I find out about Pat, Oscar peterson, Joe Pass, Keith Jarrett. There, Keith Jarrett, stop... A clip called the most beautiful 2 minutes of music by Beato. Lauanne by Jarrett. I experienced what Pat is talking about here and have sounded like a madman who has found god asking others if they knew the same esoteric feeling. Kind of like if the revelations and realisations felt on dmt mushrooms or acid could be translated into sound this is it, This is how that would sound. After Jarrett plucks the inner strings of the piano as an intro and starts playing. Within a minute or less, I am taken away. Time is bent, I experience the sound of ALL music within a minute, almost like the ultimate mash up, not needing many notes though to tell a very full story. This is the closest thing to magick I have ever experienced again besides dmt, but just a equally baffling in it's strangeness, beauty and wisdom. I don't know how to describe it the same way Pat did. I am just so happy I'm not going insane and what I have been feeling when playing and listening is real. Thanks for posting!

[@roquenarvaja4165]

No entendi casi nada, pero es el mejor musico que escuché

[@keeyust2457]

What I’d do to meet this legendary music and human being…

[@ValdrthePraxama]

I started out rapping at 15 , i picked up the bass at 22 and i just play wut i hear

[@jensclarberg6419]

gr8

[@BuckJoFiden]

I can’t play like him But I’ve got his play face down pat.

[@rwjazz1299]

funny he talks about improvisation, but his tunes tend to be some of the most highly orchestrated songs in the world of jazz music.

[@michaelthompson6452]

Now we can create a robot with all of Pat's info.

[@RonCarterBassist]

;-)

[@chirag_playsandcries]

RON CARTER has replied to your comment omg

[@harrypalmer3481]

I expected to hear something good, but this was better than! "I'm a music fan first" - I heard Paul McCartney say the same thing in an interview many years ago, it seems, & I suspect, just about all the great musicians feel that way.

[@JD-ir5fj]

Pat is on the fringe of the astral plane and sometimes he sticks his head onto the other side.

[@chazinko]

8:19 wow, so politics and other factors become a conscious component of your sound, in Pats view.

[@JD-ir5fj]

Bankers, lawyers, politicians, wasn't that Jimi?

[@JD-ir5fj]

Stokin' the star maker machinery behind the popular song? Joni Mitchell He Played for Free

[@lawrencesarabia8190]

He speaks like he plays

[@carterthaxton]

I found the TV to phone transfer distracting. Here’s the original: kzbin.info/www/bejne/r5mkk4GsZsx9ipo

[@haisamjab]

Does he come from Alpha Centauri? Is he made of dark matter? Does his mind pulse out of a Quasar? Great man

[@Dakez3112]

My favorite Part Metheny quote: "compared to Bach we all suck"

[@JD-ir5fj]

Pat needs to hear Kepler's Harmonices Mundi. 😂

[@michaelkiese7794]

Ask him about Kenny G. 😂😂😂

[@ryanbrownnew]

Necessarily abstract.

[@JD-ir5fj]

Sounds like his next release. 😂

[@marcelsiebers-carljohannes]

👏🙏☯️

[@davidscott3292]

Strange he never mentioned musicality and having a good ear.

[@NinoNiemanThe1st]

Total BS. He did, said formal musicality was extremely important, untrained people can't do it, but those trained can move beyond it to great improvisation. Like any art, you need basic and mostly formal classical training, it's not some random thing. Great musicians stand on the shoulders of historic musicians...a few make it from crappy pop for a year or two in pop charts, but it's very few.

[@davidscott3292]

@@NinoNiemanThe1st How many minutes in does he mention musicality?

[@kilimanjarno]

@@NinoNiemanThe1st No he doesn’t. He doesn’t say anything like what you write here.

[@dizgil6881]

5:00 "when im looking for musicians to play with, of course i want folks who are absolutely great, who are fluent, play their instruments really well, but [...] are much more valuable to me" 5:20 "the number one key skill [...] is being a great listener" at those minutes in :) do you think i qualify as a great listener now? maybe pat is hiring who knows! edited to add to musicality: 6:34 "i often describe my relationship to it all as being a listener first. [...] And if there happened to be a guitar player there [..] what would i like him to do? and then do that"

[@derekjones8944]

The essence of what it took him 10 mins. to say could have been condensed to about a minute a half!

[@dongiannico]

That would be helpful to everyone if you think you could condense it here eloquently in a few sentences.

[@JD-ir5fj]

Professors with 50 honorary degrees from universities worldwide tend to be a little long winded but when does Pat talk anyway? His guitar does that.

[@vanyathesniper]

You still wouldn't understand

[@kykah01]

Nothing new. Pure Plato's ideas. No answers, just old questions

[@Jonobueno]

Is it just me ,, or does Pat look a bit like Jack Nicholson in a Tina Turner wig?

[@JD-ir5fj]

I think he should team up with Steve Perry and Steve can just sing in musical phrases using no words. I once asked Pat to check out Punjab Pakistani folksinger Sanam Marvi. I hope he did.

[@JD-ir5fj]

I think Pat would get a kick out of jamming with Sanam and crew. kzbin.info/www/bejne/h6KsZqODf9p5mKc

[@JD-ir5fj]

I think they could make some real triply music together. kzbin.info/www/bejne/qqLCmn1_aMymirc

[@mikemarino4242]

Everyone's free to express themselves except.....Kenny G. Haha!

[@pauldudakadanielthomson8890]

Ahh , I fully understand the geometric logic he is trying to get across. And he would have found the key and proved the sailors were pilfering the strawberries.

[@jimmyb5498]

oh shut up pat!!😂😂

[@FairyTalesInYoghourt]

That Pat Metheny recording has a pretty crappy mastering

[@manguera9]

i think he is "stone" he went in to the bushes

[@JD-ir5fj]

Into the Land of Sensi?

[@manguera9]

@@JD-ir5fj whe Pat said ,improvisation in a languaje , and he plays by the feeling ,he is not thinking about chords ,modes ,scales he is right, beginners will understand , then when he explain much further ,beginner wont understand, there is a lot to talk about, in the bushes, i had read john Mc laughing ,his influences for creation of melodies ,he goes a lot in to the bushes, that beginners from Berklee wont understand

[@JD-ir5fj]

Way out in the banshees... kzbin.info/www/bejne/j3TSmaCVeM6fi7s

[@JD-ir5fj]

Sort of like painting by notes.... Improvisation

[@JD-ir5fj]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/bX2cXnuqabiHg5o