Love the Metheny series to date, Doc... thanks so much for the enlightenment! Any chance of doing a few vids on Tord Gustavsen (ECM artist)? 🙏🏻✌🏻😎☀️🇨🇦🎼🎤🎹
Love this video! I would say that I Am The Walrus is actually simultaneously in A minor and A major, because it uses all the degrees of the minor scale with borrowed chords from the major scale. If it was predominantly in A major, it would contain too many chromatic chords which overcomplicates it's analysis. And the melody contains a lot of minor/blue notes in it as well. The chords in the beginning can also be rewritten as B - A(6) - G - F(6) - E(7) - D7 - A, and the rest of the chords in the song are based on the degrees of the minor scale: Im, IIdim, III, IVm, Vm, bVI, bVII, but with major and minor types swapped: A(borrowed tonic), B(not diminished), C, D(7), E(7), F, G, with some variations here and there.
It's hard not to feel so good when listening to Better Days Ahead, it's like a part of me doesn't want to know what the chords are and where they're going so it can always surprise me every listen. There's an early live version or two on YT before its official release where they pause even longer on the A7sus4, admittedly I thought it was a bit cheesy, so glad they left it out in the future, heh. And apparently Pat has a new piece out now, have you seen him live with the current band?
To me personally, this piece seems very sad to me, I perceive a lot of nostalgia in certain chords and resolutions, it is like being at a carnival party with a caipirinha in hand, maintaining a smile but being nostalgic and sad inside, an opinion of my own, Every time I hear this song it leaves me a little depressed, Pat Metheny is a genius
Great explanation of this. I'll be listening to this one later tonight. One of Pat's best tunes, and one that should be a standard. The original version of this tune from 1981 had an intro section and an interlude, which I usually appreciate about PMG tunes, but it detracts from this tune's wonderful circular motion that you talk about. That want to play it (or listen to it) over and over again is what makes it such a happy tune.
Thanks for this, Guy! Another example of the group's ability to write beautiful melodies over great chord progressions. The "altered" chords at the end of the sentences as you pointed out make it special.
To me personally, this piece seems very sad, I perceive a lot of nostalgia in certain chords and resolutions, it is like being at a carnival party with a caipirinha in hand, maintaining a smile but being nostalgic and sad inside, an opinion of my own, Every time I hear this song it leaves me a little depressed, Pat Metheny is a genius
This is a fantastic topic, Guy ... "beginning, middle, end" thankfully does *not* always mean "strictly limited variations of tonic, something else, tonic", in *so* many different and wonderful ways. Also, that is a *wonderful* layered acoustic and electric (tines) piano patch that you are using! :-)
You're right, Jim. And the way the first part ends on the Gb/F# (before going to the VI and the IV) is miraculous (even if it doesn't sound like home at that point). Later, of course, approaching the tonic becomes more evident. And about the sound, thank you. Let me give you a hint: Burton/Corea :)
This is great as usual, never stopped to think about the pause on the Sus chord...Sus in time too. A round, perfect and fun song. I adore the "road to You" Version of it. Cheers Guy!.
Thanks, Sergio. And the thing with Pat, he has never had anything against 16/32 bar tunes starting with the tonic, but this one is so dynamic from start to finish!
Dr Guy, thanks again. Your ears are Golden and your skill is immense. I wish I had kept going with all my piano lessons but i can still listen while my ears are working. I used to play a bass guitar by ear for pop bands years ago. I used to love it when the bass not was never the route note but part of the chord, a bit like the swing pattern. McCartney was a great player thats true, but he nearly always overdubbed his bass lines after the song was recorded. He never told us that in 1968.
Thanks bob. McCartney was so smart to do that - that was his way of letting the full composer in him do the best job with the bass. Listen and react with his full melodic and harmonic talents.
Great. Playing this by ear for years. Had thought first chord was an E, (as those are the first 3 notes of the melody played together) , and third chord was Gmaj7, but yours with the third one(A7 sus4) sounds much coser.
I just realized that tension movement you point out @4:53 is Pat/Lyle quoting "September Fifteenth" from AFWSFWF! See ruclips.net/video/QxK1Mf6_yBw/видео.html @3:38
Came here on your request. Superinteresting. I guess the secret of life itself Is never "going home", never "closing" things. Plus, jazz itself are variations on variations. But Pat charm Is that each theme Is like a Lot of songs enclosed into one. And your own charm Is explaining it. Thanks for lighting up my coronavirus loneliness in cozy prison at home
Hello, Guy! I also discovered Pat is the highest paid guitarist, worth $240,000,000. He's currently touring Europe, South America and Asia. I don't know how he manages to have a personal life. Thank you for sending me a note, my fellow Metheny aficionado. Happy to hear from you any time. Victoria.@@dr.guyshkolnik_composer
Thanks for your interpretation of this short, quirky instrumental. When I used to play guitar I would approach it from a guitarist's perspective and I acknowledge that some of the chords that you're playing on the keyboard are quite different from the augmented/diminished, suspended 7, 11 what have you, particularly when you can exploit open chords on the guitar. Nonetheless, the notion of not beginning on the tonic and not ending on the tonic is giving a phrase to something that I would do quite naturally, intuitively without putting it into words. What I love about Metheny's instrumental, apart from it's quirky melody is its, as you drew attention to, rhythmic pauses/extensions together with unusual modulation that give the listener a feeling of disorientation. The subtlety of the piece is that it can be quite difficult to pinpoint why this effect is so palpable even when you have identified some of the reasons why and play the piece yourself! It would be far easier to discern changes in counterpoint (perhaps in Bach) and identify that the emotional hue or rhythm had changed and that would account for the difference that you hear. I also enjoy the light, popular feel of the piece, borrowing heavily on South American Pop and Jazz, that seems to oppose the complex and sophisticated structure of the piece. Complexity in Jazz often meant the fast, highly complex, highly developed improvisations of Bebop. Here, Metheny, who is capable of all the convolutions of Bepop, creates music that is accessible, structured and sophisticated.Either Metheny or Metheny/Mayes, that is.
You know, Pat has said in an interview that for him Karen Carpenter singing is no less than Coltrane.I think It explains best this mix you're talking about.The sophistications with this sing-along melody. Thank you!
Really good and helpful harmonic analysis of a complex tune. Even with a jazz degree I had a tough time understanding the ins and outs of this harmony. I would love to see a video on how you would approach improvising on this tune! Thank you sir! 🙏
Thank you! I find more and more that "classical" harmony, coupled with counterpoint often gives the best results in understanding the music. It allows you to see the skeleton level of the music, and see more clearly the unique parts of the music. I try to follow Pat Metheny's philosophy about improvisation: you try representing the original harmony from various angles. It's like telling the audience: "see how beautiful this progression is? let me show it to you again!" Pat himself sits with a single tune for hours and hours exploring its ins and outs.
Im not a musician but a choir singer ( contralto soprano AND mezzo). My director explained us the power of notes on the listeners spirits AND emotions. Long to explain, but it was weird....As notes go down, we anticipate joy. As they go up, it feels like tragedy. Please explain it better...ha ha
Hello Dr. Guy: what's a Nice Pat's music analysis! Better days ahead its one of My favorite. I would like to see and listen Antonia analysis (from the álbum secret story). God bless you Dear Doctor Guy !!
one of my all-time favourite Metheny tunes from the "Brazilian period" PMG. QUESTION: would you ever consider recording an album of Metheny covers on keyboard? you play amazingly.
Thanks Allan! I love playing these tunes so much (I believe it shows :)), but to me following the spirit of the greats means coming up with my own tunes. We recorded the album Niogi/Landing in 2016 (on all the platforms), and new ones are coming up in 2020.
What a freakin composer! Nice video Guy, which books do you recommend me to learn more about harmonic movement and how interesting movements are made? Thank you so much! :)
Hey Juan Pablo! Thank you! I'm writing a new program specifically about these things. About the harmony in composition - The basic yet profound principals that go very deep, AND can lead to innovation. Are you in my Facebook group?
@@juampsmusic Oh good, If you liked the page, you'll see additional stuff I post there, just visit it once or twice so it appears in your feed (it's Dr. Guy shkolnik)
Love the Metheny series to date, Doc... thanks so much for the enlightenment! Any chance of doing a few vids on Tord Gustavsen (ECM artist)? 🙏🏻✌🏻😎☀️🇨🇦🎼🎤🎹
Thank You!! Yes, I know his music, maybe at some point :)
Love this video! I would say that I Am The Walrus is actually simultaneously in A minor and A major, because it uses all the degrees of the minor scale with borrowed chords from the major scale. If it was predominantly in A major, it would contain too many chromatic chords which overcomplicates it's analysis. And the melody contains a lot of minor/blue notes in it as well. The chords in the beginning can also be rewritten as B - A(6) - G - F(6) - E(7) - D7 - A, and the rest of the chords in the song are based on the degrees of the minor scale: Im, IIdim, III, IVm, Vm, bVI, bVII, but with major and minor types swapped: A(borrowed tonic), B(not diminished), C, D(7), E(7), F, G, with some variations here and there.
That Gmaj7 at the end always floors me! It's just so beautiful.
I wish I had the skills to play this song, but sadly I don't. 😔
So right about the feeling of the song never wanting to end and when I play it I don't want it to end!....thanks
Me neither :) Thanks Edgar.
It's hard not to feel so good when listening to Better Days Ahead, it's like a part of me doesn't want to know what the chords are and where they're going so it can always surprise me every listen. There's an early live version or two on YT before its official release where they pause even longer on the A7sus4, admittedly I thought it was a bit cheesy, so glad they left it out in the future, heh.
And apparently Pat has a new piece out now, have you seen him live with the current band?
The new album sounds like a dream!
To me personally, this piece seems very sad to me, I perceive a lot of nostalgia in certain chords and resolutions, it is like being at a carnival party with a caipirinha in hand, maintaining a smile but being nostalgic and sad inside, an opinion of my own, Every time I hear this song it leaves me a little depressed, Pat Metheny is a genius
Thank you so much for this Guy. It's nice to have a deeper look into the music I consider my religion. You're doing a great service for all of us.
Thank you (Matt?). Religion - I feel the same way :)
That outro tho... Luv.
Thanks Kimberly :)
Most instructive, thanks!
Thanks David!
Amazing! This video really shows how you feel and understand Pat's music. Thank you very much for your work.
Thanks, buddy!
Thanks so much for the analysis. I loved the song but never realized the deeper structures underlying it
Thank you :)
Great explanation of this. I'll be listening to this one later tonight. One of Pat's best tunes, and one that should be a standard. The original version of this tune from 1981 had an intro section and an interlude, which I usually appreciate about PMG tunes, but it detracts from this tune's wonderful circular motion that you talk about. That want to play it (or listen to it) over and over again is what makes it such a happy tune.
Yeah, I remember that atrocious Brazilian intro :) I thought it was not really in the flow of the song :)
Thanks for this, Guy! Another example of the group's ability to write beautiful melodies over great chord progressions. The "altered" chords at the end of the sentences as you pointed out make it special.
Thank you :) The music may be complicated but never at the expense of clarity. Have you heard the new track from Pat?
@@dr.guyshkolnik_composer Not yet... :)
To me personally, this piece seems very sad, I perceive a lot of nostalgia in certain chords and resolutions, it is like being at a carnival party with a caipirinha in hand, maintaining a smile but being nostalgic and sad inside, an opinion of my own, Every time I hear this song it leaves me a little depressed, Pat Metheny is a genius
It's that mix of emotions in this tune... I love it.
This is a fantastic topic, Guy ... "beginning, middle, end" thankfully does *not* always mean "strictly limited variations of tonic, something else, tonic", in *so* many different and wonderful ways.
Also, that is a *wonderful* layered acoustic and electric (tines) piano patch that you are using! :-)
You're right, Jim. And the way the first part ends on the Gb/F# (before going to the VI and the IV) is miraculous (even if it doesn't sound like home at that point). Later, of course, approaching the tonic becomes more evident. And about the sound, thank you. Let me give you a hint: Burton/Corea :)
This is the song that i've been practicing recently. Thanks for the analysis as always!
Thank you! :)
Beautiful explanation thank you!
Thank you Emilio
This is great as usual, never stopped to think about the pause on the Sus chord...Sus in time too. A round, perfect and fun song. I adore the "road to You" Version of it. Cheers Guy!.
Thanks, Sergio. And the thing with Pat, he has never had anything against 16/32 bar tunes starting with the tonic,
but this one is so dynamic from start to finish!
@@dr.guyshkolnik_composer Yes!. BTW . The other masterful circular tune that comes to mind is Steve Swallow's falling grace .
@@SergioValenzuela Of course!. I say, let's write some circular tunes! Btw, Have you heard the new track from Pat?
@@dr.guyshkolnik_composer haven't had the pleasure , from which album ?.
@@SergioValenzuela Pat just released a new track from a new massive project - Here on his RUclips page
Dr Guy, thanks again. Your ears are Golden and your skill is immense. I wish I had kept going with all my piano lessons but i can still listen while my ears are working. I used to play a bass guitar by ear for pop bands years ago. I used to love it when the bass not was never the route note but part of the chord, a bit like the swing pattern. McCartney was a great player thats true, but he nearly always overdubbed his bass lines after the song was recorded. He never told us that in 1968.
Thanks bob. McCartney was so smart to do that - that was his way of letting the full composer in him do the best job with the bass. Listen and react with his full melodic and harmonic talents.
This lesson yielded immediate results, love what I'm hearing!
Great. Playing this by ear for years. Had thought first chord was an E, (as those are the first 3 notes of the melody played together) , and third chord was Gmaj7, but yours with the third one(A7 sus4) sounds much coser.
Love this song.
Unbelievable man. Thank you
Thanks Matt! Glad you liked it man! 🙏🙏
@@dr.guyshkolnik_composer been learning the chords on piano all morning thanks to you 👏
I just realized that tension movement you point out @4:53 is Pat/Lyle quoting "September Fifteenth" from AFWSFWF! See ruclips.net/video/QxK1Mf6_yBw/видео.html @3:38
Bingo! :) Pat “Imported” even the Eb/F# (the last chord) even though it doesn’t match the harmony the same way it does in Wichita.
Came here on your request. Superinteresting. I guess the secret of life itself Is never "going home", never "closing" things. Plus, jazz itself are variations on variations. But Pat charm Is that each theme Is like a Lot of songs enclosed into one. And your own charm Is explaining it. Thanks for lighting up my coronavirus loneliness in cozy prison at home
Pat Metheny was a child prodigy. His HS music instructor said Pat would always be found in the music lab.
Hi Victoria :) I heard that too about him. And being only 15 y/o - he was already encouraged by older musicians to find his own style.
Hello, Guy! I also discovered Pat is the highest paid guitarist, worth $240,000,000. He's currently touring Europe, South America and Asia. I don't know how he manages to have a personal life. Thank you for sending me a note, my fellow Metheny aficionado. Happy to hear from you any time. Victoria.@@dr.guyshkolnik_composer
Fine description. Thanks!
Thank you, Francis :)
Thanks for your interpretation of this short, quirky instrumental. When I used to play guitar I would approach it from a guitarist's perspective and I acknowledge that some of the chords that you're playing on the keyboard are quite different from the augmented/diminished, suspended 7, 11 what have you, particularly when you can exploit open chords on the guitar. Nonetheless, the notion of not beginning on the tonic and not ending on the tonic is giving a phrase to something that I would do quite naturally, intuitively without putting it into words. What I love about Metheny's instrumental, apart from it's quirky melody is its, as you drew attention to, rhythmic pauses/extensions together with unusual modulation that give the listener a feeling of disorientation. The subtlety of the piece is that it can be quite difficult to pinpoint why this effect is so palpable even when you have identified some of the reasons why and play the piece yourself! It would be far easier to discern changes in counterpoint (perhaps in Bach) and identify that the emotional hue or rhythm had changed and that would account for the difference that you hear. I also enjoy the light, popular feel of the piece, borrowing heavily on South American Pop and Jazz, that seems to oppose the complex and sophisticated structure of the piece. Complexity in Jazz often meant the fast, highly complex, highly developed improvisations of Bebop. Here, Metheny, who is capable of all the convolutions of Bepop, creates music that is accessible, structured and sophisticated.Either Metheny or Metheny/Mayes, that is.
You know, Pat has said in an interview that for him Karen Carpenter singing is no less than Coltrane.I think It explains best this mix you're talking about.The sophistications with this sing-along melody. Thank you!
Just keep getting better and better! fascinating video bro, and your playing and use of sounds are top notch of course :)
Thanks brother!
One of my favorite tunes and your analysis is fantastic, thank you Guy!
Great analysis.
Maravilloso
Always love your video THANK YOU
Thanks Nello.
Brilliance
Really good and helpful harmonic analysis of a complex tune. Even with a jazz degree I had a tough time understanding the ins and outs of this harmony. I would love to see a video on how you would approach improvising on this tune! Thank you sir! 🙏
Thank you! I find more and more that "classical" harmony, coupled with counterpoint often gives the best results in understanding the music. It allows you to see the skeleton level of the music, and see more clearly the unique parts of the music. I try to follow Pat Metheny's philosophy about improvisation: you try representing the original harmony from various angles. It's like telling the audience: "see how beautiful this progression is? let me show it to you again!"
Pat himself sits with a single tune for hours and hours exploring its ins and outs.
Im not a musician but a choir singer ( contralto soprano AND mezzo). My director explained us the power of notes on the listeners spirits AND emotions. Long to explain, but it was weird....As notes go down, we anticipate joy. As they go up, it feels like tragedy. Please explain it better...ha ha
thank you, you help me a lot
I'm glad to hear that man!
Hello Dr. Guy: what's a Nice Pat's music analysis! Better days ahead its one of My favorite. I would like to see and listen Antonia analysis (from the álbum secret story). God bless you Dear Doctor Guy !!
one of my all-time favourite Metheny tunes from the "Brazilian period" PMG.
QUESTION: would you ever consider recording an album of Metheny covers on keyboard? you play amazingly.
Thanks Allan! I love playing these tunes so much (I believe it shows :)), but to me following the spirit of the greats means coming up with my own tunes.
We recorded the album Niogi/Landing in 2016 (on all the platforms), and new ones are coming up in 2020.
Thanks so much for this tutorial!
You're welcome! :)
Superb!
Thanks Derryl.
What a freakin composer! Nice video Guy, which books do you recommend me to learn more about harmonic movement and how interesting movements are made? Thank you so much! :)
Hey Juan Pablo! Thank you! I'm writing a new program specifically about these things. About the harmony in composition - The basic yet profound principals that go very deep, AND can lead to innovation. Are you in my Facebook group?
@@dr.guyshkolnik_composer No! I liked your page but im not on your group, could you post the link so I can join in?
@@juampsmusic Oh good, If you liked the page, you'll see additional stuff I post there, just visit it once or twice so it appears in your feed (it's Dr. Guy shkolnik)
❤
Thank you, Vicky :)
I guess never getting back to the tonic means we have to hope to eventually get there -- when the better days come.
Nice! 😎 I think it creates the hunger to hear it again and again and again...
Impossible to do better :)
Thank you, Maurizio! :)