How to get good at guitar | Rick Beato and Lex Fridman

uh Joe Pass and uh Bbop. You were you were funny enough talking about uh what is Bbop jazz and and uh people like Joe Pass and in your own life your dad was somehow listening >> to that kind of incredibly complex and sophisticated music >> but wasn't a musician which is weird. I we never my I have six siblings and we could never figure out why dad liked really sophisticated jazz. >> We just took it for granted at that time. >> Yeah, we just took it for granted. And my dad passed away in 2004 and we never really talked about that, but he and I used to listen to music together all the time. He'd put we'd put on a record. I'd sit on one side of the room, he'd sit on the other and not say a word, listen through the whole side A. I'd go flip it over, listen to side B, never say a word. and then get up and go do stuff. And we did that all the time. >> And so the first time you impressed your dad was with your pass song, right? >> And by the way, we have to go to this song cuz uh people must have forgot cuz uh [laughter] people just think you're uh um like a good communicator or something. They they don't realize how good you are at guitar, how good you are actually a lot of instruments, but guitar especially. And there's this video, the greatest guitar solo period. [laughter] Uh, can you give me some context for this particular intricate complicated solo? Who's Joe Pass? >> Joe Pass was a guitarist. He lived from 1929 to 1994. And he was one of the greatest Bbop players and solo guitar players. So he made a record that this is off of called Virtuoso in 1973 that my dad gave me for Christmas when I was in 10th grade. And he said, and this is not like my dad. My dad worked for the railroad. He was very, you know, few words spoken. Born in 1919, he said, "If you ever learn to play guitar like this, you've accomplished something with your life." And I was like, "What?" So this record state was unopened until about March after Christmas. And one day I was like, okay, I'll open it up and I put it on. I start listening to it. [gasps] And uh [clears throat] I was like, whoa, this is kind of cool. >> And so I said, I think I can figure out some of this stuff. So I figured out this thing. >> Is it by by ear mostly? >> Yeah, just by ear. I didn't know any of the chords or anything. >> If you can listen to a little bit here. >> You go back to that brother to brother Gino Vanelli thing with Carlos Rios playing. That stuff is incredibly hard. This I'm starting I don't know any of these chords. So, I start out I don't even know what that chord is, but I figured it out. I I just And it's weird. I mean, look at that weird bar. >> So, you're just finding um like playing around with putting your fingers on the various positions, >> right? Trying every combination of fingers. I never played that chord. That's a weird looking chord. >> Yeah. >> And but I kept I moved my fingers around till I heard to where it sounded like, "Oh, that's it." Definitely. And I was looked at my hand. I was like, "What is that?" had no idea what it was. >> So you were connected to the you were really connected to the music >> and so that that's why you can hear it's not necessarily Did you even you you didn't have perfect pitch and not even relative pitch? >> No, I did not. >> Yeah. >> No, I didn't know anything about intervals. I didn't know anything about music theory, anything. This is all just >> you're just like playing around with different shapes. That's amazing. >> I mean, look at that weird bar there. But then you get into these things. [music] So that stuff there I could figure out. And then this [music] that stuff I could figure out. And then these things here, [music] those are just inversions of an but I didn't know that. I had heard Joe play that on the record. This is the last song out there. I listen to a bunch of times and I start >> So you just replay over and over and over and over and you're like trying to replicate it. >> Yes. And I'm memorizing every different chord shape. All chord shapes that I had never played before. >> Would you recommend people do something like that on a really complicated song? >> Yeah, but there's so many YouTube videos that you can go and just learn it without having to Yes, I would recommend. >> I feel like the struggle the struggle is where it's at. >> This is true for education in general. people like there's all these educators that try to make learning easier and more fun and all that kind of stuff. Great. Wonderful. But part of the thing is the struggle. Absolutely. But yeah, let's uh >> start hearing there's [music] You're nuts. [music] I heard licks like that all over this. So I knew that that was and then these licks here. He plays a lot of ideas like that. That's basically a C9 chord in the top notes of it. So all these are just inversions of of the same chord. So if I could play that then it's just figuring out the single notes. Okay. So, [music] [music] okay. So, if you just take this first part here when he goes, so this this intro part, >> you make it sound so simple when you break it down. And and by the way, Joe Bass, incredible guitar player, like this is obvious. And he improvised all this. >> He could have played it like this. >> But you know the first [music] >> was the individual notes. >> Oh, that's hard. Maybe he's playing like that. That sounds more more realistic. [music] The amount of different genres that you're able to replicate is just incredible. This is just taking the needle, moving it there, then going back a little. Oh, there. And then by the end, the record was so scratched. [laughter] It was uh um But it was worth it. When I played it for my dad, >> he couldn't believe. I mean, he didn't say that's amazing. He was just like, "Pretty [clears throat] good.

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