So may it secretly begin

still life talking

This is a great beautiful tune by Pat Metheny from one of my all time PM favorite albums.  My goal is to first learn the melody and then learn the solo. Secondly , I want to somehow clobber it into a Logic project i.e. come up with an adequate groove track, forget the piano solo , but put it all together into something that can make sense.

The best way for me to learn the head to a tune is to internalize it by trying to sing it back. Once I nail it by vocalizing it then I can proceed to the guitar.

Here’s my first crack at it, don’t have the full melody line down and frankly I think that some of the notes are beyond my range but perhaps for going into a falsetto.

2 thoughts on “So may it secretly begin

  1. jon

    You’re a brave soul:) It is indeed a great tune and your approach to learning this seems right. Pat’s tunes generally (even the more complex ones) are very melodic and singable so that reinforces the whole learning loop.

    One thing I might suggest though is that you record with a metronome clicking. The one wrinkle in this tune is that the melody is displaced an eighth note (I think starting on the “and” of one?). There is the danger of turning the beat around if you’re not concentrating. Do you have the capability of recording with metronome on-the-go (i.e. on mobile)?

  2. Charles Post author

    well I wouldn’t record on the go :) and though there are metronome apps on Android and iOS I don’t know if they are setup to both record from a the mic and a system source.

    I can though record with a click track on my headphone mix. I would much rather get that shaker type latin instrument groove forget what they call it.

    Anyhow, the melody has a relationship to itself and sure it has a relationship in the context of the groove its in but the melody lives in of itself , once you know that melody where you start will make for a different relationship to its context. Sure , it has to start in the upbeat , that what makes this tune groove. Once I learn the full melody that would be my next step , laying some sort of click or groove track and singing over it then the guitar over it.

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