Pat Metheny Quotes

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Pat Metheny

Profession : Musician

Birth : August 12, 1954

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'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

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

Pat Metheny

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

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

Listening is the key to everything good in music.

Pat Metheny

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

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

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

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

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

Pat Metheny

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

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

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

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

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

Pat Metheny

I hate the way chorus boxes sound.

Pat Metheny

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

Pat Metheny

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

Pat Metheny

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

Pat Metheny