Feed Your Ears: Pat Metheny

Most guitarists have heard of Pat Metheny. This post is just an invitation to watch and hear him playing in a few different contexts. See if it inspires you to play something different.

First here's a live performance with a cracking, straight-up guitar solo:

In this next clip he seems to be playing a guitar synth (or perhaps a stack of effects -- the distinction's a bit academic anyway) but listen to the way he builds and releases tension in the solo:

Here's Pat taking an old standard, "All The Things You Are", and giving it his own twist. The result is choppy and restless, with some lovely jazz scales in evidence:

Here's a more through-composed piece that includes some beautiful outside playing:

Finally, here's a track from Zero Tolerance for Silence, his notorious multi-tracked solo album in which he experiments with more avant garde sounds. I'm not sure it's always successful but he does build up a kaleidoscopic hall-of-mirrors kind of effect that's certainly interesting. See what you think: