Books · Nos. 8–14
Transcriptions and scores
Hal Leonard’s note-for-note transcriptions and published scores let you read along with specific records. Each folio below is matched to its album page on this site. The Guitar Recorded Versions books are written in standard notation with tablature. The two complete scores are for composers and arrangers more than guitarists.
No. 8 · Transcriptions
Pat Metheny: Bright Size Life (Guitar Recorded Versions)
Hal Leonard, 2003 · Softcover with tablature (HL 00690562) · ISBN 9780634046445
The 1976 debut that started everything, recorded with Jaco Pastorius and Bob Moses and now in the National Recording Registry. This folio transcribes the album note for note, which makes it the natural first stop for guitarists who want to hear how a 21-year-old Pat phrased over that trio. It pairs with Mervyn Cooke’s ECM study.
No. 9 · Transcriptions
Pat Metheny: Question and Answer (Guitar Recorded Versions)
Hal Leonard, 2003 · Softcover with tablature, 144 pages (HL 00690559) · ISBN 9780634046131
The 1990 trio record with Dave Holland and Roy Haynes is where many players go to study Pat’s bebop vocabulary, and transcriptions make that vocabulary readable. If your interest is improvisation over standards and straight-ahead forms rather than the Group’s orchestral writing, this is the folio to start with.
No. 10 · Transcriptions
Pat Metheny: One Quiet Night (Guitar Recorded Versions)
Hal Leonard, 2005 · Softcover with tablature, 88 pages (HL 00690646) · ISBN 9780634066634
One Quiet Night is solo baritone guitar: intimate and harmonically rich. Transcribed, it shows how Pat voices chords and melody together on a single instrument, which is useful for guitarists and instructive for any composer who writes for solo instruments. It’s a short book at 88 pages.
No. 11 · Transcriptions
Pat Metheny: What’s It All About (Guitar Recorded Versions)
Hal Leonard, 2013 · Softcover with tablature, 92 pages (HL 00102590) · ISBN 9781476813745
Another solo baritone record, this time an album of other people’s songs, including “The Sound of Silence” and “Pipeline,” with the Pikasso guitar alongside the baritone. The folio shows how Pat reharmonizes and reshapes familiar melodies, a skill worth studying apart from his own writing.
No. 12 · Transcriptions
Pat Metheny with Christian McBride & Antonio Sanchez: Day Trip / Tokyo Day Trip Live (Guitar Recorded Versions)
Hal Leonard, 2011 · Softcover with tablature (HL 00691073) · ISBN 9781617805424
Transcriptions from the trio with Christian McBride and Antonio Sanchez, covering the studio album Day Trip and the live Tokyo Day Trip EP. It’s a niche book, but a good one for guitarists who like Pat’s trio playing at full tilt, with plenty of interplay to study on the page.
No. 13 · Score
Pat Metheny: Road to the Sun, The Complete Scores
Hal Leonard, 2021 · Softcover score (HL 00368667) · ISBN 9781705141748
Road to the Sun features Pat’s compositions for classical guitar, played by Jason Vieaux and the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet. These are complete scores rather than guitar transcriptions, so they’re aimed at composers, arrangers and classical players. They show another side of Pat the composer, one this site’s essays care about a great deal.
No. 14 · Score
Pat Metheny: Orchestrion, The Complete Score
Hal Leonard, 2010 · Score, 280 pages (HL 00001339) · ISBN 9781423476030
The original scores for the five Orchestrion pieces, the 2010 project in which Pat led a band of mechanically controlled instruments. It’s a curiosity for deep fans and composers. The Atlantic’s article on algorithmic music, discussed in this site’s journal, is a good companion read.