Pat Metheny Songbook

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book - Just watch out for the errors!
Review: This comprehensive book has nearly every Pat Metheny tune recorded in his entire career. You will really appreciate his genius as a composer as you play through these tunes. It should be noted that there are a few errors in the book. I just wish a pre-release version could have been sent out to some of Pat's musician fans to check for mistakes. Perhaps there will be a second edition sometime soon.

Rating:
Summary: It's Good and I Liked it
Review: This is really a no brainer: if you play jazz or are learning to play jazz and you are a fan of Pat's music, this is a great reference. It's well produced in every respect and defintely well worth the price. An added bonus are Pat's comments on the tunes and his thoughtful quotes regarding improvisation. Seeing that much of Pat's music in one place gives you new respect for the range, quantity and quality of his compositions. A few minor quibbles- I wish the book had been arranged alphabetically- the way it is, you have to look eveything up in the index first- no big thing but mildly annoying. Also some complex charts have been rendered as simple lead sheets making casual performances unlikely unless one is familiar with (and willing to transcribe from) the original recordings. That aside, I can't think of a reason that anyone wouldn't like this book. I should really give this 4 and a half stars for the little flaws, but since Amazon won't let me, I'll round up just because Pat writes such great tunes.
Highly recommended!

Rating:
Summary: It's a long time in coming
Review: We long time admirers of Pat Metheny and group have been waiting a long time for this great compendium of his music. This contains everything he has written since 1975 to 2000, including solo material, those co written with Lyle Mays and others. It's great to be able sit down and play through these tunes presented in chart format (melody and chords). Bass and keyboard parts are written out if they are nessesary. Every once in a while I run across an error or a place where an important musical figure, mostly orchesral, was left out to save space. Overall this is a book with hundreds of of pages of material to improvise on and have fun doing it. Hopfully Lyle will have a book soon to contain the tunes acredited to him. A must for all jazz players!

Rating:
Summary: An amazing and invaluable material
Review: Well, for anyone intersted in pat metheny music, this is it.. no need to search anymore, the book has some biographical information, discography and a list of pat participation in other bands, and then all the partitures in a very nice printing. it really worth it's price