Pat Metheny Guitar Lesson:

Rhythm TRUMPS all

Hear Subdivisions whether it’s 8th note triplets or sixteenth notes (depending on the tune) AT ALL
TIMES. Better yet really FEEL these subdivisions.

Play with great drummers as much as you can! Doesn’t matter the style.

Charlie Parker and Coltrane are the best examples of getting lines in a solo to really sink in with the
rhythm section.

The goal is to "get your hands dirty harmonically and rhythmically at the same time".

You become part of the rhythm section as a soloist.

You really want to describe the changes so that if you played with just a bass player or drummer you
would hear all of the harmonic information.

Play more arpeggios, guitar players have a tendency to shy away from this obvious fact.

Pat plays about 50% straight chord tones when soloing.

With the exception of maj7th over min7 chords, Pat hears all 12 tones over any chord. Think
extensions. "This took a long time to get together"

If you have great time, you can get away with playing pretty much anything. Listeners respond
intuitively to solid rhythm.

Listen to people a lot who have great time to imitate the feel. Along with Miles, Trane, and Parker,
Sonny Rollins is great to imitate for guitar. His lines are easier to execute on the guitar. Sonny can
also turn a small idea and stretch it over a solo which is something guitar players have trouble with.
Aim for Rhythmic definition and power under everything you play. This is best developed playing
with others.

A drum machine can suffice if you don’t have access to a good drummer.

Aim to land on/end a line/phrase on harmonically strong notes on strong beats.

Pat recommends playing really simple with the chord tones over a progression and try to make as
rhythmically accurate and interesting as possible.

The goal is to make your rhythms so accurate the drum machine disappears.

Be careful to make triplets clear, not like eighths or sixteenth notes