“I said, ‘Really? You don’t practise any more?’ He said, ‘One day I just sort of realised I could play.’ I’m wondering if I’ll get to that level… we’re about to find out!” Pat Metheny just wants to understand music
In a Prog magazine interview, jazz guitar virtuoso Pat Metheny discussed why he had largely stopped practising guitar, and, following the 2023 release of his album Dream Box, explained why he was about to change that approach. The piece explores Metheny's decades-long career and his enduring quest to understand music at a deeper level, touching on an exchange in which a fellow musician told him he no longer needed to practise because he had simply "realised" he could play.
Metheny, born in Lee's Summit, Missouri, is one of the few jazz guitarists to achieve household-name status, with a body of work spanning fusion, Latin music, progressive jazz, synthesised music and film scoring. He originally played trumpet before persuading his parents to buy him a Gibson ES-140 guitar for his 12th birthday after being inspired by The Beatles on American television, and at 15 he won a scholarship to a prestigious US jazz camp.
- Pat Metheny discusses practising less and his 2023 album Dream Box.
- He reflects on a peer who plays without regular practice.
- Career overview: trumpet-to-guitar switch, Beatles inspiration, jazz camp scholarship.