Pat Metheny on chord/scale theory

Pat Metheny on chord/scale theory
excerpted from "Pat Metheny: An Authentic Voice", Fingerstyle Guitar,
No. 58

FG:Give your thoughts on chord scale theory. Do you think this is
something that is not emphasized enough
or is it over emphasized?

PM:I have a funny relationship to that system and to that world
because on one hand I didn't learn that way....
Yet when I joined Gary Burton's band there was absolutely no way to
play the kinds of tunes he was doing at the time and address them
successfully in any other way and Gary happens to probably be the
chord/scale expert of the universe. I've never seen anybody who can
break it down as clearly and as fluently as he can.
I was very much under his influence for a three-year period and sort
of switched dramatically over to that way of thinking. But I have to
admit that when I hear people play, let's use the word clams,
like you're playing along ant it's a minor7b5 chord and I hear them
play the natural 5th it really bugs me, yet at the same time it
doesn't bug me because they didn't play the Locrian mode,
it bugs me because it doesn't sound good....
The way you get to the right answer doesn't really matter as long as
it's the right answer.

FG:It certainly won't make you enjoy the performance more if the
player explored what he thought.

PM:Exactly! The one beef I have with the chord scale movement is that
it sort of suggests all seven notes are equally cool, when in fact
that's really not the case. There really are usually four notes you
want to land on that are the really, really, good ones.
Then there are the others you want to get through and some you barely
want to touch them. That degree of weight thing is usually not
discussed because it is usually presented
in the form of modal thinking rather than voice leading .My advice to
people is yes, learn the chord scales but also make sure you can solo
using just the chord tones. A big chunk of early jazz history was
largely improvising using chord tones and improvising around the
melody. Those are two valuable entry points.


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Relevant Pages

  • Pat Metheny on chord scale theory
    ... I've incorporated some chord scale theory into THoTH. ... of some good points Pat Metheny recently made about chord scales. ... play the kinds of tunes he was doing at the time and address them ...
    (rec.music.makers.guitar.jazz)
  • Re: Pat Metheny on chord scale theory
    ... I've incorporated some chord scale theory into THoTH. ... of some good points Pat Metheny recently made about chord scales. ...
    (rec.music.makers.guitar.jazz)