Pat Metheny Quotes & Sayings

When talking about writing, I often use the analogy of archaeology. There are these great tunes all around. Your skill as a musician allows you to pick them out without breaking them. — Pat Metheny

I didn't want there to be a computer on stage. When I see people with computers on stage, I think, 'Are you sending e-mail?' That's so corny. — Pat Metheny

I saw A Hard Day's Night 12 or 13 times. — Pat Metheny

My older brother Mike is an excellent trumpet player. By the time he was 12, he was playing around Kansas City in classical situations. He was already an amazing talent. — Pat Metheny

The guitar for me is a translation device. It's not a goal. And in some ways, jazz isn't a destination for me. For me, jazz is a vehicle that takes you to the true destination - a musical one that describes all kinds of stuff about the human condition and the way music works. — Pat Metheny

I have to admit that more and more lately, the whole idea of jazz as an idiom is one that I've completely rejected. I just don't see it as an idiomatic thing any more ... To me, if jazz is anything, it's a process, and maybe a verb, but it's not a thing. It's a form that demands that you bring to it things athat are valuable to you, that are personal to you. That, for me, is a pretty serious distinction that doesn't have anything to do with blues, or swing, or any of these other things that tend to be listed as essentials in order for music to be jazz with a capital J. — Pat Metheny

Jazz music will continue to thrive, possibly in unexpected ways. — Pat Metheny

Somehow, trumpet is the reference point for me - it was actually my first instrument. — Pat Metheny

I used to love going and playing jam sessions, doing things spontaneously. I can't do that anymore. Everything you do is documented, nothing is casual anymore. — Pat Metheny

The reality of music itself, which is the fabric of life for me, is where most of my attention is. — Pat Metheny

'The Unity Band' project has been life-changing for me. I have led many groups of talented musicians, but this is unlike anything else. — Pat Metheny

I'm always inspired when there's a robustness to the material in front of me. — Pat Metheny

There are musicians who go through their lives sort of shedding their skins. For me, I've always felt backward-compatible to Version 1.0. — Pat Metheny

And if I ever DO see [Kenny G] anywhere, at any function - he WILL get a piece of my mind, and maybe a guitar wrapped around his head. — Pat Metheny

I have three young kids and a great family. I love hanging out with them more than anything. — Pat Metheny

I can't really say enough about Chris Potter. He is one of the greatest musicians I have ever known, and every second I have been on the band stand with him has been an absolute pleasure. — Pat Metheny

If you come to my house, you won't see a wall of trophies or things like that. I'm sort of 'on to the next thing' all the time. — Pat Metheny

I don't worry too much about the fundamentalist principles that are in almost any discussion about jazz. — Pat Metheny

I think jazz is actually quite unforgiving in its disdain for nostalgia. It demands creativity and change at its highest level. — Pat Metheny

Players get to that intermediate level where they can already play pretty good, and that's kind of a dangerous period because they tend to start playing only the things that they can play, rather than the things they can't. — Pat Metheny

There's more bad music in jazz than any other form. Maybe that's because the audience doesn't really know what's happening. — Pat Metheny

People sometimes say it takes a long time to become a jazz fan, but for me it took about five seconds. — Pat Metheny

The first thing I learned was the theme from Peter Gunn. — Pat Metheny

I would always contend that talent is an element, but over the long run, ultimately, a minor part of it all; it is mostly hard work. — Pat Metheny

Learning to play is mostly about learning to hear, and learning to really listen deeply to sound in a musical way is a lifetime's worth of work. — Pat Metheny

I think I have a basic sound aesthetic that is in most of what I do. — Pat Metheny

I'm always trying to find 'connections' between things. That art is the juxtaposition of a lot of things that seem unrelated but add up to something recognizable. — Pat Metheny

The pianist Cecil Taylor is extremely melodic; the guitarist Derek Bailey is extremely melodic, and Ornette Coleman. — Pat Metheny

Someone who knew me when I was 14 said I was the oldest 14-year-old on the planet. Now I'm a 14-year-old who is 60. — Pat Metheny

A lot of jazz artists think people should like what they're doing just because it's jazz. I don't buy that. — Pat Metheny

It's a shame that jazz is now being turned into dried fruit. It's becoming quantized, diced and defined. It's becoming an idiom. To me if it's anything, jazz is a verb ? it's more like a process than it is a thing. — Pat Metheny

I love playing and working on music. It is something that I feel really lucky to be able to spend my life doing. And I don't sleep much! — Pat Metheny

I realized that equipment really had little to do with why I sound like the way I sound. — Pat Metheny

Music is what you notice when it's no longer in your presence ... — Pat Metheny

The best musicians are not the best players, they're the best listeners. — Pat Metheny

The more I can learn about music, the more I learn about other things. — Pat Metheny

Listening is the key to everything good in music. — Pat Metheny

More and more as time has gone on, I realize that playing is really more about listening than it is about playing. — Pat Metheny

I was deep in the zone of practicing almost constantly. — Pat Metheny

What I look for in musicians is a sense of infinity. — Pat Metheny

Whatever my recorded output is, it's a reflection of a general love of music. — Pat Metheny

No two notes are ever the same volume. With the guitar, you really have to model in your mind this wider thing; you're trying to create the illusion of a bigger dynamic range. — Pat Metheny

If jazz has to be termed as a wave, then music is a sea, but if the reflectors in the water is the chord. — Pat Metheny

Jazz is not something that can be defined through blunt instruments. It is much more poetic than that. — Pat Metheny

I try to be prepared for the moment, through understanding, and being warmed up, knowing all about chords and scales, so I don't even have to think and I can get right to what it is I want to say. — Pat Metheny

It's more about conception and touch and spirit and soul than whether my hardware was in place. — Pat Metheny

I think I represent a more left-wing view of what jazz is. — Pat Metheny

I was able to work with the best musicians in Kansas City starting when I was really young. — Pat Metheny

One of the things jazz has always excelled at is translating the reality of the times through its musical prism. — Pat Metheny

I hate the way chorus boxes sound. — Pat Metheny

One very fundamental thing has not changed and I realized that it will never change ... is that I really need to go home and practice. — Pat Metheny

My first relationship to any kind of musical situation is as a listener. — Pat Metheny

From 1962 to 1965, the guitar became this icon of youth culture, thanks mostly to the Beatles. — Pat Metheny

If you plan on continuing a tradition, it might be a good idea to find out just what tradition it is that you intend to continue. — Pat Metheny

1962 to 1965, where suddenly the guitar became this icon of youth culture all over the world, thanks mostly to the Beatles. Add to that, that I saw A Hard Day's Night 12 or 13 times, and that the guitar was the one instrument that my parents absolutely refused to let in the house. So you add it up and see that irresistible forces led me to the guitar. — Pat Metheny

Jazz is an idea that is more powerful than the details of its history. — Pat Metheny

I don't know if I would qualify as mainstream. I think I have managed to function pretty successfully on the fringes of the music world and have been able to play exactly what I have wanted the way I have wanted. — Pat Metheny

Jazz demands that you bring to it things that are valuable to you, that are personal to you. — Pat Metheny

Smokin' at the Half Note is the absolute greatest jazz-guitar album ever made. It is also the record that taught me how to play. — Pat Metheny

It is Jazz's very nature to change, to develop & adapt to the circumstances of its environment. — Pat Metheny

I just have never seen anyone build anything significant in any field without having a deep and detailed sense of what they are building on. — Pat Metheny

The beauty of jazz is that it's malleable. People are addressing it to suit their own personalities. — Pat Metheny

If we are going to list guitar influences, the biggest one by far is Wes Montgomery. Also, Gary Burton was obviously huge for me in a number of ways. But beyond that, Clifford Brown, Miles Davis and Freddie Hubbard. — Pat Metheny

I met Gary (Burton) at the Wichita Jazz Festival when I was 18
he was one of my favorite musicians and I got to play a few tunes with him there. Shortly after that, I joined his band, which was the equivalent of joining the Beatles for me! He was, and still is, one of the greatest musicians I have ever been lucky enough to be around. — Pat Metheny

For me, let's keep jazz as folk music. Let's not make jazz classical music. Let's keep it as street music, as people's everyday-life music. Let's see jazz musicians continue to use the materials, the tools, the spirit of the actual time that they're living in, as what they build their lives as musicians around. — Pat Metheny

There are some musicians who are talented and see themselves as some kind of natural geniuses or something because of a certain amount of natural ability. But that is often rarely the case over the long term. — Pat Metheny

I'm triggering acoustic instruments. I'm literally beating, smacking, hitting, blowing, doing physical things. It's an incredibly exciting way to make music. — Pat Metheny

Most guys at Berklee are going to wind up truck drivers ... — Pat Metheny