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SUBJECT:	Dear Pat Back to Subjects
major7thsharp5 Jan 22 2018 at 1:11 PM	Pat what the #!! is going on? I am so upset right now. Seattle is a crazy town right now. This crap going on is completely ridiculous. You know what Pat I love being a musician and have. Wow I’ve put in so much time to make myself into an excellent guitarist. i’m really good you should hear me play. Now i’m dealing with these &percent#s out here acting like you’ve got to do something else besides be a great musician to actually become a musician. It’s really wrong, infuriating, and demeaning to the world of music. You know what Pat? I watched an interview where you said people say to you at clinics and such that they would like to be a musician. You said that you tell them not to becasue it shouldn’t be something that you just want to do but it should be something that you have to do like an obsession or something. I actually completely related to you saying that becasue that’s how I actually feel. I feel like this is my calling like music is not just some fad I want to do but what I was meant to do, like my calling, like the reason i was put on this giant rock. It’s so frustrating becasue people act like I’m supposed to be into all the dumb frivolous stuff (well to me that’s what it seems like) that they’re into. Sure some of it’s okay but really I don;t care about that stuff. I’m a musician and in a way all I care about is music. It’s all I want all I think about, I love it Pat. It’s not just some superficial thing with me about fame or fortune even or getting girls. It’s much deeper than that it’s about love. it really is it’s about love of the art form love for the instrument and the endless possibilities it and music itself present. That being said I know with everything that given the opportunity I could create something musically that would bring all that other stuff. Still the driving force behind it is that love not the superficial quest for the material trappings. I’m really good now actually gifted with it to some degree but have put in the copious time to hone the talent and refine it and make it something special. To non musicians it probably sounds ludicrous but I feel confident that at least some of the best musicians, like yourself Pat, will understand what i;m trying to convey, and also understand that in ALL OF LANGUAGE the word love is the only word big enough to describe the way some of us musicians feel about being a musician. I write this and then sit here for a moment wondering if you can relate? I just know without a doubt that if a get around some other great musicians who are into the kind of music I’m into that I can do something really worthy musically with this guitar. Not only that I want to get as good as a possibly can on my instrument the guitar. I want to learn everything I possibly can about music and I’ll gladly enthusiastically put in the time to assimilate that knowledge as quickly as possible. I’m just upset right now Pat becasue sometimes it seems like this crazy town of Seattle acts like you gotta do "this thing or that thing" that have absolutely NOTHING to do with music in order to be a musician. It’s like they know that can’t compete with me on that front so let’s try to make it about this other thing. What a bunch of crap? NO! I’m a musician and what I need to be doing is music that’s what we, musicians, do. Well I sincerely hope that somehow you end up reading this Pat and further that you can relate to what I’m trying to convey in these paragraphs. I say that becasue I have the utmost respect and admiration for what you’ve been able to accomplish through your amazing outstanding musicianship and music. W
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molesoulsandal Feb 11 2018 at 4:20 AM	it’s like louis armstrong said when he was asked what jazz was: ’ . . . if you have to ask, you’ll never know . . .’
DSOP Feb 10 2018 at 9:53 PM	What is "this other thing" that you keep referring to?
molesoulsandal Feb 10 2018 at 8:37 AM	pat said something a while back concerning beginning musicians wondering ’if they will ever be heard’, and i’ve tried to go back and find it so that i could quote him verbatim, but i couldn’t locate it. so anyway, the kernel of it was that pat said that he totally believes that if a musician truly has ’something to say’, and something to offer, no matter how little public exposure he/she has at the moment, that if she/he works devotedly on the craft, that he/she will eventually be heard. i believe that, too. again, i wish i could find pat’s exact quote because i’m not saying it as well as he did, but i hope this suffices.
franksexton Feb 07 2018 at 10:28 AM	I work with a guy who has studied with Adam Rogers and plays a mean guitar in his own right. works 60 hours a week paying the bills and then fills the rest of his time working on his craft.
patsfan Feb 04 2018 at 8:08 PM	Well, I’m not a musician but somehow Jazz infected me seriously and I’m forever grateful for this connection. Returning to a theme I’ve brought up previously ..... only a few percent of the population will connect with even the best jazz artist . Pat has been doing an untold number of albums for 45+ years, has done many hundreds of performances around the world, etc etc etc. ... and my observation is that a few percent of the population genuinely appreciate him . It takes that long. But Pat has stated repeatedly he doesn’t really care who appreciates his music. ... it’s solely his thing
jimnyc Feb 04 2018 at 11:41 AM	Ok dude. First, I have empathy for your screed here. So let me get this..."Ya wanna play and the world is or has conspired to disallow your artistic expression to be heard." right? As I said; sure, I have empathy and a small level of respect that playing guitar is all that matters to you. Cool. But my guess is that you’re under 30, your brain is still growing and what is getting in your way is this self aggrandizing air of entitlement. Like, Who T F do you think you are, huh? You really think/ believe that the decades of age and life experience that Metheny or Clapton or Lukather or Carlton or....yadda yadda yadda...have on you, deems you, without humility mind you; deserving of the same level of respect and success? It takes decades of work to be in that sphere of one of the worlds great guitarists. 10 years makes up 1 decade. So like add some 20 or 30 years to mastering your skull on the instrument. And then perform in Seattle and live in LA, then spend a winter in minneapolis, and arrive in Manhattan in springtime and get an apartment in Far Rockaway, take the subway 2 hours into the city, play 10 minutes at 1 in the morning and do the damn thing again and again and again....Suffer, be hungry, sweat on how you’re gonna pay next month’s rent, and play and play and play. Replace whining with relentless action and then...maybe...maybe...maybe...there may be someday that one of those crappy 1am 10 minutes might place someone in the audience who might offer to get you to the next level. Or maybe just take a barista job at starbucks...because right now today you are owed less than nothing; You have to earn a life and work to get it...Dude...get smart huh?
hman01 Feb 01 2018 at 2:16 PM	Be like really intelligent...be a stable genius
molesoulsandal Feb 01 2018 at 1:21 PM	legend has it (in reality, it is NOT ’legend’, as airto moreira told me this story in 1974) that when airto joined miles davis’ group in the early 1970s, he didn’t quite know what, or when, to play and he asked miles, and miles said to him: ’listen - then add’ . . . . . . that’s all anyone ever needs to know about having ’the musical conversation’. it has zero to do w/imitating another musician’s playing or writing. quite the opposite. actually, if someone DID court the unfortunate misguidance of attempting to emulate, say, wes montgomery’s playing, if they were actually ’listening’ they STILL would have a shot at being ’vital’ because of their ’true-ness’ - because they would still be ’listening’ . . . . the humble & respectful act of ’listening’ weeds out a lot of the artifice - pretty much defeats it, and that’s what we’re supposed to be striving for anyway, eh? innocence, lasting a lifetime.
patsfan Jan 31 2018 at 7:02 PM	Mole. ... I know that Pat listened to Wes Montgomery, the icon guitarist..... but realized that he had to be his own man. He didn’t ’add on’ on to Wes, and Pat’s music is totally unique, even today .. No one invented the synth, the Scat, etc etc like Pat and his bands .... or simply listening to his solo guitar. To me Pat is totally unique and a musical genius. There must be thousands of guitarists trying to be like Pat, or inspired to find that very rare magic.
molesoulsandal Jan 28 2018 at 7:26 AM	they say that the best way to ’become a musician’ is to listen. then add.
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