Pat Metheny Picking & Playing Technique?
Drewster58
curious about that unique way he holds his pick, curls his pinky under
the fingerboard often, and throws his thumb way over the top of the
neck. He makes that horrible looking technique work for him very
creatively. Sort of reminds me a little of Johnny Lang's horrible
looking technique that he also makes work for him. How?
Dan
technique' doesn't get in his way!
bob r
at drew_...@hotmail.com wrote on 7/24/05 2:21 PM:
It's called "determination to play".
--
Bob Russell
http://www.bobrussellguitar.com
http://www.cdbaby.com/bobrussell
Joey Goldstein
incredible music with it so it works for him. If you want to sound
exactly like him (which I don't think anybody really should want btw)
you'll probably have to do things the same way he does. It's the best
technique around for Pat Metheny music.
Let's just call his technique unusual.
Now...I think that part of the reason he can get such a fat sound while
using light strings (he uses D'Adarrio Chromes .011"-.050") is because
he uses those big flappy picks on the angle that he does. Part of the
reason he has become so good at hammer-ons and pull-offs (besides
hearing things that way) is probably because his technique is not so
well suited for picking every note. The techniques that other folks use
may not be so well suited to hammer-ons and pull-offs. One of the
reasons he uses light strings is so that he can use more hammer-ons and
pull-offs. It all goes together.
Lots of great players have their thumb hanging over the top of the neck,
contrary to "proper" classic technique. Actually most great players do
this. But when the thumb *needs to be* in the "right" place for this or
that grip or passage Pat will move it where it needs to be. Laying the
thumb over the top can be a way to relax the hand so that you can play
longer without fatigue. It also is an effective way to mute the open E
string as well as to finger the odd bass note here and there.
--
Joey Goldstein
http://www.joeygoldstein.com
joegold AT sympatico DOT ca
Henry Moon
he..................
uh, never mind.
I forgot to take my medicine today.
Wishful thinking-Henry
Dan Adler
any player I know. He regularly does hundreds of concerts a year for
the last 30 years, and usually plays 3-hour sets with no breaks. I
don't know anyone else who can physically do that, and you can bet that
if there was an ounce of inefficiency in his technique, it would have
ruined his hands years ago.
woodyhonkin
Maybe there something there... his sound and lyrical approach is so
different...
I have been working on Gypsy Jazz technique lately, and my playing has
jumped forward - turbo charged. Technique definitely has an impact on
one's output.
Unorthodox technique = unorthodox approach = unique music:
Pat Metheny "bad" technique
Django Reinhardt - two burned, mangled fingers, used thumb and only two
fingers... hmmmm
Who else that has a unique sound that also has a "fonky" technique that
produces stellar results?
ric...@gmail.com
woodyhonkin wrote:
[...]
>
> Who else that has a unique sound that also has a "fonky" technique that
> produces stellar results?
Well, Wes Montgomery never learned to play with a pick :-)
...richie
glen
really a horn player in awe of his big brother. Seems to me Pat's main
concern was always how to phrase on a instrument as "clunky" as the
guitar in a natural breathing, singing style. he's on record as saying
that when he was a lad he encounterd guitarists on the bandstand in
Kansas "just stinking the place up".
yeah he's a big Wes fan, blah, blah, blah, but Metheny's real field of
interest is trumpeters - Miles changed his life, Dolphy made that
change irrevocable, his big brother is his *main* influence. Cuong Vu,
*that* synth guitar sound... He plays "wrong" because (IMHO) the
instrument has always seemed wrong to him.
He's that good because he allows the music to show up the limitations
of the instrument.
Then he sets about tackling those limitations becasuse he's *only*
intereseted in the music.
He mostly writes at the piano, he constantly fucks with the orthodoxy
of guitars and guitar playing, he's as much on top of it as you can get
and he still doesn't like it
Let's face it.
Guitars are shit.
How do you start an argument here?
8-}
g
Max Leggett
>Let's face it.
>
>Guitars are shit.
>
>How do you start an argument here?
What's to argue?
:-)
Krzysiek Inglik
John Scofield said that he plays a lot of hamer-ons and pull-offs because
he can't pick fast. So, as someone could say, the limitation created much of
his playing style. :)
Pat, as a teenager, played with THIN picks because there was not any other
available. So he played with these thin picks but with the round side of it,
and he bent the pick with his fingers (to make up for it's gauge). So, once
again, the limitation created much of his playing style.
Isn't it interesting?
--
_________________________________________________
Krzysiek Inglik // [also: jazzy, jazzychris]
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/3/krzysztofinglikmusic.htm
POLISH GUITAR ZONE - http://GuitarZone.org
glen
anyone else?
guitars are shit, guitars are shit, guitars are shit.
8-]
ind...@aol.com
Bill
glen
I've seen Pat say that people have asked him about his use of
compression. He doesn't use any. The "pop" on the attack that sounds
like a really hard- knee compressor kicking in is just his "shitty "
pick technique.
To me this sound of his reminds me of what Santana said about BB.
"it's like you can hear the note straining to come out".
My take on this is that to most of us, guitar looks like a mountain.
To Metheny it just looks like an impracticality. A bunch of shit
blocking the view of the mountain.
g
Max Leggett
>come on Max? there must be somethin?
> guitars are shit, guitars are shit, guitars are shit.
Oh, ok. Don't want to let the side down. Ahem. The phrase, "guitars
are shit, guitars are shit, guitars are shit," fails on two counts.
One, the subject, "guitars", is not capitalised, and only a swaggering
jack-booted thug would fail to capitalise. Secondly, the repetition is
excessive, and reminiscent of the worst excesses of the Mongol hordes.
Apart from that I can't see anything wrong with it.
:-)
glen
Guitars are shit.
Once.
My nation resents the implication that we are a repetiitive horde.
We have only ever burned, raped, and pillaged our way across the great
western landmass, drinking the blood of our enemies bass players and
bewailing our lack of embouchure based phrasing, once.
once.
ok
you got it. once .
ahem
Max Leggett
LOL! All joking aside, what you say about Metheney looking at the
guitar as a mere impediment to the music is right on, but the same
applies to all instruments, be it saxophone, trumpet, kazoo, you name
it. The ability to transcend any instrument is what is to be desired.
I don't want to be a guitarist, per se - I want to be a musician. As
it happens I like the limitations the guitar imposes, just like
trumpeters like, and endeavour to transcend, the limitations what
could charitably be described as a warped piece of plumbing played by
the spavinned spawn of poxed gargoyles. LOL! I wonder how trumpeters
refer to guitarists. I'll likely find out very soon. I like the way
trumpeters phrase - that little plosive before the note hits - and
trying to incorporate that plosive on the guitar - physically
impossible - makes the search that much more interesting.
juru...@aol.com
guitars are shit, guitars are shit, guitars are shit.
Maybe, but I wouldn't wanna pass one...
Whaddya eat to make one come out sunburst, anyway?
Rick Del Savio
course. RDS
--
Jazz Guitarist/Educator
Check out lessons and original music @
http://www.rickdelsavio.com
tomb...@jhu.edu
>
> yeah he's a big Wes fan, blah, blah, blah, but Metheny's real field of
> interest is trumpeters - Miles changed his life, Dolphy made that
> change irrevocable, his big brother is his *main* influence.
Dolphy played trumpet?
> Cuong Vu,
Cuong Vu yourself.
> How do you start an argument here?
I'm doing my best.
bob r
tomb...@jhu.edu at tomb...@jhu.edu wrote on 7/26/05 8:12 PM:
I'd say that Ornette was a pretty big influence on Metheny, and calling
Ornette a trumpeter would be a stretch.
Tom Walls
Someo...@whatever.com says...
>
> I'd say that Ornette was a pretty big influence on Metheny, and calling
> Ornette a trumpeter would be a stretch.
>
>
--
Tom Walls
the guy at the Temple of Zeus
bob r
wrote on 7/27/05 8:07 AM:
> In article <BF0C5739.3FA2C%Someo...@whatever.com>,
> Someo...@whatever.com says...
>>
>> I'd say that Ornette was a pretty big influence on Metheny, and calling
>> Ornette a trumpeter would be a stretch.
>>
>>
> More of a fiddler, really.
LOL!
glen
thinking Ornette but typing Dolphy.
So Cuong Vu!
BTW is this the five minute or the full half hour?
glen
bob r
glen.m...@talk21.com wrote on 7/27/05 11:53 AM:
> That Dolphy was a lager induced Freudian Slip.
And those can be the worst! :-)
tomb...@jhu.edu
>
> So Cuong Vu!
>
> BTW is this the five minute or the full half hour?
My archaic belief system shits all over your antique mythology.
juru...@aol.com
If you eat fruit salad, apparently your archaic belief system will come
out sunburst, perhaps all over the antique mythology for an
attractively modern layered look.
RB
> Secondly, the repetition is
> excessive, and reminiscent of the worst excesses of the Mongol hordes.
> Apart from that I can't see anything wrong with it.
>
HILARIOUS!!! LOL
glen
oh aye?
well i've got a shed- load of peple sayin otherwise. In fact over on
rec.antique.mythologies. there's a whole bunch of people claiming me as
the second coming on this sort of stuff.
One guy, Richie Bonham, is saying that regardless of what other people
are doing in the Antique Mythology field I am the *best*. NO argument.
The best. There's only me and I'm the Gold Medallist. The One. Sure
there's a lot of other Antique Mythologists pissin around with it but
when it comes to really Antiquing and Mythologising I just do it
measurabley, objectively better than anyone else in the field. I am
the greatest. And that guy on the AM group knows it. You should check
him out. He's a genius when it comes to me.
That other stuff...........? that archaic belief system shit?
Strictly for no hopers.
g
Willie K. Yee, MD
>Does anybody know how Pat sets up his action?
>
He sits down at the bar next to some gorgeous chick, says, "Hi, I'm
Pat Matheny, the jazz guitarist. You like the music here?"
sixstr...@sbcglobal.net
has much hope of succeeding...
But Pat can probably pull it off with that toothy grin and big hair...
Max S.
sixstr...@sbcglobal.net
while using light strings (he uses D'Adarrio Chromes .011"-.050") is
because he uses those big flappy picks on the angle that he does."
I know Pat used flatwounds for years, but I've seen him mention several
times on his web site in the past 3-4 years and in an interview that
he now uses D'Addario roundwounds (.011 - .049) - he has been pleased
and surprised to find out that he still gets his sound with them, plus
a bit more tonal range.
Don't really remember why he changed - they are cheaper than Chromes,
but I doubt that's an issue for him, unless he's one of those guys who
uses new strings every gig.
Max S.