Pat Metheny's "Have You Heard" Guitar Solo Analysis | PART II
Alright guys, how’s it been going so far with playing Pat Metheny’s solo for Have you Heard?
If you haven’t watched the first part of this, obviously check that out first because it will get really busy.
We are about a third into the solo, so let`s move on and check out the next part.
So the next part is a little difficult to hear on the original recording. So what’s happening here? First of all, we are coming from a Ab/Bb (or Bb7sus4) and are targeting an Gb/Ab chord (or Ab7sus4 chord). Now before we’re going into the Gb/Ab, we are playing a quick approach line from a half step above into the Gb/Ab to spice up the transition a bit more. So he is probably thinking A7 before Ab7. Now again, I will not go into too much detail about the scale and note choices here in this blog, so let’s get back to how to actually play this:
So every time we have a simple major triad like in this case A in bar 28, he would usually play the first notes with two upstrokes. Then Invert your right picking again and then from this moment on we are in Ab Mixolydian territory.
The next phrase in bar 31 is a perfect example where the inverted right-hand picking technique should work like a charm and you really should feel the difference once you’re getting used to this:
So he is probably thinking Ab Mixolydian#11 here before going into the G7b13 since this is similar to a minor blues progression. This is a great phrase you might want to take inspiration from Pat’s play.
And then we have a great phrase over a simple Cm7 chord. This lick is connected to the popular 5th string root Cm7 chord that everybody knows, so add this lick to the inspiration list too.
Now before going into bar 39 you will find another great example of how to combine and mix these little tricks I talked about in my Technique videos of Pat:
I hope at this point you really feel how much easier this feels than doing it the conventional way.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s still difficult and advanced but maybe not as impossible as it might have seemed in the beginning.
And then we are again at the Ab7 going to G7 (bar 41 - 42) and you will enocunter a smiliar phrase as before with the same technique.
For the long stretch of Cm7 and C#m7 you will need to hold your breath maybe for a few seconds. The only thing that you have to watch out for is to always hammer-on from nowhere the lowest note to each note grouping.
Once you exit this long phrase and go into the F#m7 you can relax again and I am pretty sure that Pat switches back everything to upstrokes:
At this point of the solo you shouldn’t really find any new techniques or challenges. You should be fine finishing this guitar solo by yourself if you came this far into the solo. You can find long stretches of upstrokes for melodious passages on the first and second strings. It’s a great contrast to the previous busy guitars licks, so everything will open up at the end:
Great job guys! You made it to the end. As I have mentioned in the previous blog, everything will get a bit easier once you’re getting used to all of these techniques.
Have fun playing this, it is a great guitar solo to get under your belt as a Pat Metheny fan!
You can find my entire guitar transcription of Pat Metheny’s “Have You Heard” right here:
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