Rick Beato: Greatest Guitarists of All Time, History & Future of Music | Lex Fridman Podcast #492

Rick Beato argues all children are born with perfect pitch and lose it at 9 months, and reveals Miles Davis’ band never rehearsed or knew they were being recorded.

• Beato’s son Dylan identified complex poly-chords (e.g. C augmented over D flat augmented) at age 8; the video hit ~80M views on Facebook.
• Beato’s theory: every child is born with perfect pitch and loses it around 9 months as they become culturally bound listeners.
• Ron Carter told Beato: Miles Davis’ band never rehearsed, never listened to playbacks, and often didn’t know they were being recorded until a record appeared.
• Ron Carter played bass on approximately 2,200 famous recordings.
• Elton John writes full melodies to Bernie Taupin’s pre-written lyrics in roughly 15 minutes; they recorded two albums a year on that workflow.
• The Beatles released Help!, Rubber Soul, and Revolver — three 14-song albums — within a single 365-day span (Aug 1965–Aug 1966).
• Django Reinhardt performed his fastest lines using only two fingers after a fire fused his ring finger and pinky.
• David Gilmour recorded some solos through a 1990s Zoom 9030 modeler, not through his famous amp rig, when working alone in Pro Tools.

Guests: Rick Beato — music educator, producer, YouTube creator (Rick Beato channel) · 2026-03-01 · Watch on YouTube