Guitarspeak with Pat Metheny

It’s ironic how one of the most innovative jazz guitar titans of the past few decades has evolved a soloing philosophy and technique that’s anything but guitar-like.

From duo settings with mentor and jazz legend Jim Hall to full-blown band settings with Ornette Coleman, Herbie Hancock, Michael Brecker, Steve Reich and of course, the Pat Metheny Group, Metheny’s horn-like and unpredictably complex melodic lines weave in and out of the most challenging chord progressions.

And although most of his album catalog showcases his eclectic influences and brilliant compositional skills (including the gold record-winning (Still Life) Talking, Letter from Home and Secret Story), it’s in his trio albums where he gets the chance to burn and showcase his fretboard virtuosity. To date, some of his best trio works include Bright Size Life, Rejoicing, Question and Answer and Trio ’99.

It’s not surprising how his debut album (which also featured bass wizard Jaco Pastorius and drummer Bob Moses) was actually comprised of guitar exercises he wrote for his students, during his tenure at the Berklee College of Music. In 1973, when he was 19, he became the school’s youngest teacher. Metheny felt his teaching stint gave his theoretical grounding a more pragmatic, real-world footing.

"At that time," Metheny recalls, "I was very dogmatic, as 19 and 20-year-olds tend to be. I had very, very strong opinions about a bunch of stuff that I’ve since modified drastically. But on the other hand, it probably didn’t hurt anybody too much to hear me rant about how you HAD to be able to play Falling Grace using only chord tones. Now, I could hear somebody play the same song and do some really hip free stuff over it, and I’d probably say, "Yeah, that’s an interesting way to do it." Back then, it would have been, "No! You’ve GOT to do it this way!"

Of his debut album, he says, Bright Size Life itself was an exercise showing how to use interval leaps in playing diatonic chord scales. Unity Village was the same kind of thing, using a larger major-seventh interval leap and inversions of it. When it came to make my record, it was like, "Well, okay, I’ve got these," he muses." I mean, they were called Exercise No. 3 and Exercise No. 6. Bob (Moses) used to make fun of the titles."

In retrospect, Metheny’s horn-like phrasing was an offshoot of his trumpet-playing days, which he started at age 8. It was during that time when he soaked up the works of Clifford Brown, John Coltrane, Charlie Parker and Miles Davis. As he narrates,

"It took exactly one listen to a Miles Davis record (Four and More) to start me on that long and fascinating road that it seems all improvisational musicians must journey."

And although he can run through a flurry of long-winded sixteenth-note phrases, Metheny usually stays within the confines of simpler, singable melodies.

"That’s the area where most horn players have a hard time with guitar players," Metheny explains. "Their phrasing just doesn’t feel that good to them. So many guitar players, if they were trumpet players, they’d be tonguing every note. It would be like, ta-ta-ta-ta-ta. You can’t sell a line with that kind of phrasing."

"With somebody like Paul Chambers, Clifford Brown or Joe Henderson, there’s so many details in the way that they phrase, and so many guitar players don’t even think about that," he adds.

In more ways than one, Metheny’s sense of phrasing sounds remarkably similar to Ornette Coleman’s, in that both have the knack for squeezing out the most of a simple melodic idea: repeating it with various accents, making a related counterphrase, and twisting and turning it around harmonically and rhythmically for all it’s worth.

"That’s always something to strive for," reaffirms the Kansas City native. "That is development in a linear or narrative way of playing. When I think of the best improvisers around, Ornette would be right at the top, but there’s also Gary Burton, Sonny Rollins, Herbie Hancock, Paul Bley and Charlie Haden. All of those guys have something in common, which is, every idea that they have, they let it be itself, to its natural conclusion.

So many improvisers that I hear, especially younger guys, it’s almost like soundbytes: They play this, then it’s over, then they play that, then that. The best solos I’ve played, it’s really one idea. You take that one idea and you find a way of going with it to the end. That’s something I always encourage musicians to think more about, because that’s something non-musicians can respond to — a style that expands on single ideas so that anyone, musician or not, can follow the line."

Like Miles Davis, Metheny’s often employs a more economical style with lots of space, at times repeatedly playing the same note two or three notes with different accents.

"Most musicians tend to think that motivic development means expansion, or playing more notes. But that’s not always the case. Sonny Rollins is a great example of that; he’ll just keep reducing things down to an essential point. It’s also useful to find common notes, common tones that can connect things throughout a piece."

Even after winning countless music polls and garnering various ‘Best Jazz Guitarist’ awards, Pat Metheny’s distinctly-singular ‘phrase dance’ continues to echo in his songs as he continues to lead a hectic touring schedule while at the same time lending his support to emerging artists and established veterans alike.