# Quotes about music



## Doug Gifford

Some years ago I started spending online nothing-better-to-do time collecting quotes/aphorisms. Some were about music. Here are two as a starter… if you have some to add, that would make an interesting thread. Discussion is welcome.

***

I have learned throughout my life as a composer chiefly through my mistakes and pursuits of false assumptions, not by my exposure to founts of wisdom and knowledge. _Igor Stravinsky (1882 - 1971)_

My music is best understood by children and animals. _Igor Stravinsky_


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## Doug Gifford

And then there are quotes that are not about music but are applicable. Like this one:

Furious activity is no substitute for understanding._ H. H. Williams_


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## bw66

One of my favourites: 

"Music is the next best thing to silence." 

I first heard it from Harry Manx, but apparently it is an Eastern proverb.


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## Doug Gifford

bw66 said:


> One of my favourites:
> 
> "Music is the next best thing to silence."
> 
> I first heard it from Harry Manx, but apparently it is an Eastern proverb.


True silence in the modern world is very rare. If you stop and listen carefully, you will almost always be assaulted by mechanical noise.

I dream of a bar, restaurant or public place that did _not_ have background music on all the time. What's with that, anyway?


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## Permanent Waves

"The advantage (of the open-G tuning) is that you can get certain drone notes going. It's an open-G tuning, with the low E-string removed and there's really only three notes you use. My favorite phrase about this style of playing is that all you need to play it is five strings, two notes, two fingers and one asshole."

- Keith Richards


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## Rollin Hand

"Rock and roll is the art of being creative at being derivative." -- Chris DeGarmo

"If we'd have known we were going to be The Beatles, we'd have tried harder." -- George Harrison

"If it sounds good, it is good." -- Duke Ellington


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## Paul Running

Your neighbours listen to some excellent music, whether they like it or not.


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## KapnKrunch

bw66 said:


> One of my favourites:
> 
> "Music is the next best thing to silence."
> 
> I first heard it from Harry Manx, but apparently it is an Eastern proverb.


Although I live in a village of only 100 people, when I go to my cabin, I am startled by the silence of the lake and forest.

[When the weekend comes the activity (noise) of the other campers is entertaining. Starting with arrivals on Friday afternoon - excitement! All day Saturday is a frenzy infernal combustion -- boats, quads, sea-doo, dirt bike, chainsaws, tractors. Sunday morning is family time -- conversation and laughter. By Sunday afternoon -- garden of Eden again.]


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## KapnKrunch

Doug Gifford said:


> place that did _not_ have background music on all the time


No shit. And between sets with live music.


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## KapnKrunch

"People wouldn't know good music if it bit them on the ass." -- Zappa. 

"What good is a pop song without irony?" -- KapnKrunch


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## Doug Gifford

Style is the stuff you can’t help doing. _Jerry Garcia_

You do not merely want to be considered the best of the best. You want to be considered the only ones that do what you do. _Jerry Garcia_


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## Doug Gifford

KapnKrunch said:


> No shit. And between sets with live music.


And if no-one switches the muzak back on, the manager gets all weird and antsy. But often no-one will think to switch it _off_ when the band starts up again.


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## isoneedacoffee

"If you hit a wrong note, hit it again!" - Miles Davis


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## Doug Gifford

I don't think there's a rap artist that has more songs about killing somebody than Johnny Cash does. _Pharrell Williams_


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## Mark Brown

I think my two favorites are rather well know, simple but say anything better than I could

"Where words fail, music speaks" - Hans Christian Andersen 

"Music is life itself" - Armstrong


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## Doug Gifford

Brunz said:


> I think my two favorites are rather well know, simple but say anything better than I could
> 
> "Where words fail, music speaks" - Hans Christian Andersen
> 
> "Music is life itself" - Armstrong


Nice! I didn't know those.

A counter for the first one: "Anything too stupid to be spoken is sung." _Pierre de Beaumarchais_
I believe he was writing about Opera…


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## laristotle




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## Mark Brown

Doug Gifford said:


> "Anything too stupid to be spoken is sung." _Pierre de Beaumarchais_


I like that one, and I can write out some song lyrics that would definitely make sure it rings true.


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## Mark Brown

laristotle said:


> View attachment 406814


That was the quote on my old songbook/journal.
To be fair, that same journal had about 3 full pages of "No woman, no cry" written over and over again.


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## Doug Gifford

You can't be the best. You can just be a good 'un. _Muddy Waters_


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## SWLABR

A painter fills a canvas
A writer fills reams of paper
A musician fills silence. 

Keef!


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## SWLABR

Tom Morello:


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## Kenmac

I've always liked this songwriting advice quote from John Lennon: "Tell the truth, make it rhyme."

This other quote is one I used to use as my signature quote here a number of years ago. A writer from Guitar Player magazine back in 1967 asked Pete Townshend why he preferred Gibson guitars over Fender. HIs reply: "Gibsons are easier to break".


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## SWLABR

Kenmac said:


> A writer from Guitar Player magazine back in 1967 asked Pete Townshend why he preferred Gibson guitars over Fender. HIs reply: "Gibsons are easier to break".


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## Mark Brown

You are not familiar with the Gibson Stratocaster I see... it's a custom shop thing


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## laristotle




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## Doug Gifford

I've been through three wives. To me a guitar is kind of like a woman. You don't know why you like 'em but you do. _Waylon Jennings on his Telecaster_


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## Kenmac

SWLABR said:


> View attachment 406995
> View attachment 406996
> View attachment 406997
> View attachment 406998
> View attachment 406999
> View attachment 407000


As I said, he was asked in 1967 why he preferred Gibsons. These photos were taken after that time. I guess he changed his mind.


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## Mark Brown

Kenmac said:


> As I said, he was asked in 1967 why he preferred Gibsons. These photos were taken after that time. I guess he changed his mind.


Everyone comes to their sense eventually


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## Mark Brown

Heard a good one on the CBC today, I cannot remember it verbatim but it was more or less

"Making bad art is still excellent therapy"

I will have to listen to the archived episode of whatever it was I was listening to to get it correct, but I really liked it.


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## SWLABR

Kenmac said:


> As I said, he was asked in 1967 why he preferred Gibsons. These photos were taken after that time. I guess he changed his mind.


I know, and I looked for some pics other than his geriatric phase, and well... none. He obviously made the switch when he stopped smashing things. 

I was just having fun.


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## Rene Asologuitar

Doug Gifford said:


> Some years ago I started spending online nothing-better-to-do time collecting quotes/aphorisms. Some were about music. Here are two as a starter… if you have some to add, that would make an interesting thread. Discussion is welcome.
> 
> ***
> 
> I have learned throughout my life as a composer chiefly through my mistakes and pursuits of false assumptions, not by my exposure to founts of wisdom and knowledge. _Igor Stravinsky (1882 - 1971)_
> 
> My music is best understood by children and animals. _Igor Stravinsky_


Love your thread.
Very interesting, and informative as well.
Thank you.
Rene


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## Doug Gifford

Rene Asologuitar said:


> Love your thread.
> Very interesting, and informative as well.
> Thank you.
> Rene


Thank you!

Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others. _Cicero_


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## KapnKrunch

"I am always trying something different, that's why I make so many mistakes." -- Hendrix 

"There are only two types of music: sincere and insincere." -- KapnKrunch


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## Doug Gifford

KapnKrunch said:


> "I am always trying something different, that's why I make so many mistakes." -- Hendrix
> 
> "There are only two types of music: sincere and insincere." -- KapnKrunch


Yeah but he made great mistakes.

Nice one KapnKrunch!
same general thrust as: No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. _Robert Frost_


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## Doug Gifford

The indefatigable pursuit of an unattainable perfection, even though it consists in nothing more than the pounding of an old piano, is what alone gives meaning to our life on this unavailing star. _Logan Pearsall Smith (1865 - 1946)_


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## Mark Brown

Doug Gifford said:


> The indefatigable pursuit of an unattainable perfection, even though it consists in nothing more than the pounding of an old piano, is what alone gives meaning to our life on this unavailing star. _Logan Pearsall Smith (1865 - 1946)_


That fellow speaks like my brain thinks!


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## Doug Gifford

These talking machines are going to ruin the artistic development of music in this country. When I was a boy... in front of every house in the summer evenings, you would find young people together singing the songs of the day or old songs. Today you hear these infernal machines going night and day. We will not have a vocal cord left. The vocal cord will be eliminated by a process of evolution, as was the tail of man when he came from the ape. 
_John Philip Sousa_


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## SWLABR

Sharon Osbourne:
(from memory)
"I'm resigning from managing the band Smashing Pumpkins for health reasons. Billy Corgan makes me sick".

Or something like that


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## Doug Gifford

Some played harder and some played smarter but nobody played like me. _Bob Bossin “Daddy was a Ballplayer”_


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## Paul Running




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## Doug Gifford

If you develop an ear for sounds that are musical it is like developing an ego. You begin to refuse sounds that are not musical and that way cut yourself off from a good deal of experience. _John Cage (1912 - 1992)_


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## diyfabtone

"Anything too stupid to be spoken is sung." _Pierre de Beaumarchais_
I believe he was writing about Opera…
[/QUOTE]

He was referring to Italian Opera and I believe and he's right. Even the stupidest shite sounds ok in a language you don't understand.


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## m7flat5

When criticized that all his solos sounded the same, B.B. King said, "Playing music is like telling the truth. You never have to worry about repeating yourself as long as you tell the truth.







"


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## Doug Gifford

m7flat5 said:


> When criticized that all his solos sounded the same, B.B. King said, "Playing music is like telling the truth. You never have to worry about repeating yourself as long as you tell the truth."


Interesting quote. I'm not sure how a guitar solo can be "telling the truth" (although it _can_ be bullshitting, so maybe…) and I have enough relatives to know that the truth often repeated is only a little less irritating than lies often repeated. But anyway, B.B's solos _don't_ all sound the same so the criticism is misplaced.


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## Doug Gifford

Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it. _C. S. Lewis_


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## zontar

Not sure who this originated with--btu I heard it as advice years ago--and it's great advice

"Play it like you mean it"


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## Doug Gifford

zontar said:


> Not sure who this originated with--btu I heard it as advice years ago--and it's great advice
> 
> "Play it like you mean it"


My organ teacher told me this anecdote: "Famous organist was playing a radio broadcast when the speaker needed a break and asked him 'Can you just noodle for awhile?' Famous organist anwered 'Can you just mumble for awhile?'"


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## Mark Brown

Doug Gifford said:


> My organ teacher told me this anecdote: "Famous organist was playing a radio broadcast when the speaker needed a break and asked him 'Can you just noodle for awhile?' Famous organist anwered 'Can you just mumble for awhile?'"


That would be the best gig for me!!!


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## zontar

Doug Gifford said:


> My organ teacher told me this anecdote: "Famous organist was playing a radio broadcast when the speaker needed a break and asked him 'Can you just noodle for awhile?' Famous organist anwered 'Can you just mumble for awhile?'"


Although I do like noodling


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## Mark Brown

Without music, life would be a mistake
-Nietzsche


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## Doug Gifford

You've got to know much more than just the technicalities of notes; you've got to know what goes between the notes. _Jimi Hendrix (1942 - 1970)_


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## Doug Gifford

Mark Brown said:


> Without music, life would be a mistake
> -Nietzsche


Music is essentially useless, as life is. _George Santayana_


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## Mark Brown

Doug Gifford said:


> Music is essentially useless, as life is. _George Santayana_


Sure... if you want to be all nihilistic about it


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## Mooh




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## Mooh




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## cbg1

bw66 said:


> One of my favourites:
> 
> "Music is the next best thing to silence."
> 
> I first heard it from Harry Manx, but apparently it is an Eastern proverb.


" Silence....music's original alternative "

From Todd Sniders song, Talking Seattle Grunge Blues

I also like the line " along came this band that wasn't even together,now that's alternative "


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## Mooh

From the book: Everything I Need To Know I Learned From Led Zeppelin.


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## Mooh

The frontispiece from this book:










I'm kind of a hopeless geek.


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## Mooh

"I used to be reckoned a good singer before these here tunes came in." within the paragraph above by the editors
of the book below.


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## Mark Brown

That's why I sound so shitty.... it isnt that I am bad at singing, it is just that everyone is better than me!

Thanks Mooh, now I know.


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## Mooh

Mark Brown said:


> That's why I sound so shitty.... it isnt that I am bad at singing, it is just that everyone is better than me!
> 
> Thanks Mooh, now I know.


You can count on me.


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## Mooh

I think I got this Confucius quote from on of those Zen Guitar books, and though it's not specifically about guitar, I find it's helpful in persuading people to actually learn the names of things:

"All wisdom is rooted in learning to call things by the right name. When things are properly identified, they fall into natural categories and understanding becomes orderly." (Confucius)


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## Mooh

"First you learn your instrument, then you learn the music, and then you forget all that shit and just play" Charlie Parker.

(I might add that you can't skip a step.)


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## bw66

"... you can't skip a step." -- @Mooh 

My new favourite music quote!


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## Mooh

Ron Carter, reportedly.


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## Doug Gifford

Charge less, but charge. Otherwise, you will not be taken seriously, and you do your fellow artists no favours if you undercut the market. _Elizabeth Aston, The True Darcy Spirit, 2006_


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## Wardo

There are only two kinds of songs; there’s the blues and there’s zip-a-dee-doo-dah.


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## bw66

A friend pointed this one out to me last night:

"Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent." -- Victor Hugo


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## Mooh

"Things turn out better by accident sometimes. But you can't organize accidents." Jeff Beck


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## SWLABR

EVH: _“Put it this way: I’d rather bomb with my own songs than make it with someone else’s. I don’t buy the philosophy of 'If you redo a proven hit, you’re halfway there.' That way, you’re not there. I’ve played enough cover tunes.“_ 

I luv ya Ed, but you sure about that?? You've done pretty well jacking up other peoples tunes.


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## KapnKrunch

"Art is making something out of nothing and selling it for money." - Zappa 

C'mon Frank, not one of yer best... 

"Art is any communication that means more than the sum of its parts." -- KapnKrunch


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## Swervin55

Doug Gifford said:


> True silence in the modern world is very rare. If you stop and listen carefully, you will almost always be assaulted by mechanical noise.


When I stop and listen carefully, all I hear is this constant squealing in my ears from my unprotected younger days....


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## Doug Gifford

After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music. _Aldous Huxley_


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## Doug Gifford

A writer is a writer not because she writes well and easily, because she has amazing talent, because everything she does is golden. In my view, a writer is a writer because even when there is no hope, even when nothing you do shows any sign of promise, you keep writing anyway. _Junot Diaz_


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## zontar

By far the most astonishing guitar player ever has got to be Django Reinhardt ... Django was quite superhuman, There's nothing normal about him as a person or a player.

-Jeff Beck


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## KapnKrunch

When everything was "Alternative", we were playing accordians and singing about macaroni. So what was really "Alternative"? 

--_ Bare Naked Ladies_


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## Doug Gifford

KapnKrunch said:


> When everything was "Alternative", we were playing accordians and singing about macaroni. So what was really "Alternative"?
> 
> --_ Bare Naked Ladies_


Macaroni? Damn! I did record a piece called "Macaroni and Cheese" but forgot to include the accordion. A friend lent me one but it was almost immediately obvious that I didn't have the lifetime left to learn it.


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## Doug Gifford

It's always helpful to learn from your mistakes because then your mistakes seem worthwhile. _Garry Marshall, 'Wake Me When It's Funny'_


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## Doug Gifford

On the pentatonic scale: "I think one of its virtues is that there’s not enough there that you have to practice it much." @Wardo


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## Doug Gifford

"Sometimes it is more important to discover what one cannot do, than what one can do." _Lin Yutang_


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## zontar

Make your own mistakes 

-Gus G


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## Doug Gifford




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## Doug Gifford

People are fond of spouting out the old cliché about how Van Gogh never sold a painting in his lifetime. Somehow his example serves to justify to us, decades later, that there is somehow merit in utter failure. Perhaps, but the man did commit suicide. _Hugh Macleod, How To Be Creative: 29, 08-22-0_


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## Doug Gifford

Mastery of the musical spoons is simple: put them away.
_Me_


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## SmoggyTwinkles

"I just listen to whatever my ears like" -Lenny Kravitz getting grilled in an interview on Much Music about what he's currently listening to (you'll all remember the way they really wanted to know what current music the interviewee thought was good)

That has always stuck with me.


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## zontar

My playing is fairly straightforward, really, and everything's pretty much standard no frills or special effects.

-Mark Knopfler


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## zontar

Unless you never record or never play with other musicians, unless you only do solo gigs, you will need to learn the art of listening.

-Glenn Kaiser


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## JBFairthorne

Amen brother. It always amazes me how many “musicians” I meet with terrible listening skills.


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## Doug Gifford

The test of a vocation is the love of the drudgery it involves.
_Logan Pearsall Smith_


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## KapnKrunch

Bandmate: "Frank, why don't you play & sing that part?" 

Zappa: "If I could play & sing at the same time, I would have a _*real*_ career."


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## Doug Gifford

If you develop an ear for sounds that are musical it is like developing an ego. You begin to refuse sounds that are not musical and that way cut yourself off from a good deal of experience. _John Cage_


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## zontar

What do you think of Smoke on the Water ? Smoke on the Water ? Thank you for the gift! 

-Steve Vai


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## Doug Gifford

I say in speeches that a plausible mission of artists is to make people appreciate being alive at least a little bit. I am then asked if I know of any artists who pulled that off. I reply, 'The Beatles did'. 
_Kurt Vonnegut (1922 - 2007), Timequake, 1997_


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## Doug Gifford

Musical training is a more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul, on which they mightily fasten imparting grace. _Plato_


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## Guitar101

Doug Gifford said:


> If you develop an ear for sounds that are musical it is like developing an ego. You begin to refuse sounds that are not musical and that way cut yourself off from a good deal of experience. _John Cage_


Is that like the sounds of Rap music?


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## Doug Gifford

Guitar101 said:


> Is that like the sounds of Rap music?


Like that. Or any sounds at all, really.


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## Dru Edwards

"these go to eleven"... Nigel Tufnel (Spinal Tap). It's the serious expression on his face that makes the quote.


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## Doug Gifford

Dru Edwards said:


> "these go to eleven"... Nigel Tufnel (Spinal Tap). It's the serious expression on his face that makes the quote.


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## zontar

I don't see myself as such an important guitarist.

-Ritchie Blackmore


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## Doug Gifford

Honest criticism is hard to take, particularly from a relative, a friend, an acquaintance, or a stranger. _Franklin P. Jones_


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## Doug Gifford

Without music, life would be a mistake. _Friedrich Nietzsche_


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## Doug Gifford

What a blessing it would be if we could open and shut our ears as easily as we open and shut our eyes! _Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742 - 1799)_


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## KapnKrunch

Losers copy, winners steal. -- _J. Geils_


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## Alan Small

"Music is the wine which fills the glass of silence.." Robert Fripp


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## Dru Edwards

Alan Small said:


> "Music is the wine which fills the glass of silence.." Robert Fripp


I like that. It actually made me reflect!


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## Alan Small

Dru Edwards said:


> I like that. It actually made me reflect!


Plus he has a nutty hot wife


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## Mooh

I get a kick out of Fripp's home videos, having previously thought of him as dead serious all the time. I imagine she keeps him happy. ;-)


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## Doug Gifford

Life is a long lesson in humility. _James M. Barrie_


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## Doug Gifford

Well done is better than well said. _Ben Franklin_


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## tonewoody

Possibly my favorite art/music quote...

_"Take your best shot and paint the target around it"_
~ Brian Eno


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## zontar

I wanted something very dense, something that would sustain long and more pieces of wood that would be soft, sweet, for more of a mellow sound.

Les Paul


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## SWLABR

zontar said:


> I don't see myself as such an important guitarist.
> 
> -Ritchie Blackmore


He says that so that everyone says: "No!! That's not true. Ritchie, you are an integral part to the foundation of Rock guitar!"

The "humble brag". 

Classic!


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## Doug Gifford

SWLABR said:


> He says that so that everyone says: "No!! That's not true. Ritchie, you are an integral part to the foundation of Rock guitar!"
> 
> The "humble brag".
> 
> Classic!


Be modest! It is the kind of pride least likely to offend. _Jules Renard_


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## KapnKrunch

SWLABR said:


> He says that so that everyone says: "No!! That's not true. Ritchie, you are an integral part to the foundation of Rock guitar!"
> 
> The "humble brag".
> 
> Classic!


On the other hand, I seriously have no idea who he is. I know the name. What band was he in? Does he have a famous song? Chances are I will recognize them, but I agree with his self-assessment... he's not important.

"Humble brag" maybe "realistic"???


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## SWLABR

KapnKrunch said:


> On the other hand, I seriously have no idea who he is. I know the name. What band was he in? Does he have a famous song? Chances are I will recognize them, but I agree with his self-assessment... he's not important.
> 
> "Humble brag" maybe "realistic"???


Ritchie was the guitarist in the “classic” Deep Purple lineup. 
Left Purple to form Rainbow with RJD. Does mostly solo virtuoso stuff now. 
He really is a great player though. I just doubt he actually feels insignificant.


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## KapnKrunch

SWLABR said:


> Ritchie was the guitarist in the “classic” Deep Purple lineup.
> Left Purple to form Rainbow with RJD. Does mostly solo virtuoso stuff now.
> He really is a great player though. I just doubt he actually feels insignificant.


_Smoke on the Water! _Holy smokes, how could I not know?! Thanks @SWLABR.


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## Doug Gifford

To play a wrong note is insignificant. To play without passion is inexcusable.
Ludwig Van Beethoven


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## SWLABR

This isn’t a “quote” so much as a passage of reading, that I really like.
For context, years ago, on another forum far, far away I posted a “Name your Super-Group”. The only caveat was you could not pick anyone from the same band, cause then everyone would basically recreate Led Zeppelin.
Well, that is an actual readers poll event.

_Planet Rock_ held a survey asking for their audience to vote for their favourite singer, guitarist, bassist and drummer. The supergroup that this fantasy poll created already existed, they were called Led Zeppelin, each member winning their respective category.

Well, ya!!! Duh!


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## Doug Gifford

Some played harder and some played smarter but nobody played like me. 
_Bob Bossin “Daddy was a Ballplayer”_


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## zontar

SWLABR said:


> He says that so that everyone says: "No!! That's not true. Ritchie, you are an integral part to the foundation of Rock guitar!"
> 
> The "humble brag".
> 
> Classic!


Could be the case--it does come across that way.

Now if I said that
("I don't see myself as such an important guitarist.")--yeah--it wouldn't be a humble brag--it would be true.


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## zontar

Why would I retire? Sit at home and watch TV? No thanks. I'd rather be out playing.

-Paul McCartney


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## Doug Gifford

Feeling special is the worst kind of cage a person can build for himself. _Paolo Giordano,_


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## zontar

> As a roadie for the Jimi Hendrix Experience, I learned that I should give up being a guitar player.
> -Lemmy


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## Doug Gifford

I heard someone from the music business saying they are no longer looking for talent, they want people with a certain look and a willingness to cooperate. I thought, that’s interesting, because I believe a total unwillingness to cooperate is what is necessary to be an artist — not for perverse reasons, but to protect your vision. The considerations of a corporation, especially now, have nothing to do with art or music. That’s why I spend my time now painting. _Joni Mitchell_


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## Dru Edwards

Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden vocalist) said 4 years ago that "..._I actually think the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame is an utter and complete load of bollocks, to be honest with you. It’s run by a bunch of sanctimonious bloody Americans who wouldn’t know rock and roll if it hit them in the face. ...". _


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## Doug Gifford

It's been through three wives. To me a guitar is kind of like a woman. You don't know why you like 'em but you do. _Waylon Jennings on his Telecaster








_


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## leftysg

"It ain't how many notes you can play, it's what you can do with them" Freddie King


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## SWLABR

I can't find the actual quote, but I remember a guy in high school doing a report on Steve Vai. It was something like: 

_"Most guitarists bet they can play faster, but I fast to play better"_


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## Granny Gremlin




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## Granny Gremlin

"Looking for a song
About 3-30 long
A song that I can sing
It don't need no complicated thing

It ain't as easy as it looks
Coming up with all these hooks
Remember that it has to swing 
It don't need no complicated thing.

Do you feel what you play
Well if you do then that's OK
Maybe add a little strings
It don't need no complicated thing

We're going over this bridge
Quite fast like we always do
Somewhere at about the middle of the last
After chorus two
Here we got the drums bass and guitars
And some keyboards too
And we're going to a town near you"

Mick Jones with Big Audio Dynamite


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## Doug Gifford

Sell your soul to the company
Who are waiting there to sell plastic ware
_Chris Hillman, Roger McGuinn: "*So You Want To Be A Rock'N'Roll Star"*_


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## Granny Gremlin

"One chord is fine. Two chords are pushing it. Three chords and you're into jazz. "

Lou Reid


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## bw66

"If you act like a bar singer, you'll be singing in bars for the rest of your life" 

-- Kathleen Edwards (something Colin Cripps apparently told her, once upon a time)


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## zontar

I'm not a collector, however, and I have no desire to own 50 or 60 guitars.

-Mark Knopfler


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## Doug Gifford

bw66 said:


> "If you act like a bar singer, you'll be singing in bars for the rest of your life"
> 
> -- Kathleen Edwards (something Colin Cripps apparently told her, once upon a time)


Performing in a small place where no-one is listening is excellent training for performing in small places where no-one is listening.


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## zontar

As a guitar player, playing instrumental music is a blast.

-John Petrucci


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## Doug Gifford

Practice like it means everything in the world to you. Perform like you don't give a damn. 
Jascha Heifetz


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## Doug Gifford

We must beat the iron while it is hot, but we may polish it at leisure. _John Dryden (1631 - 1700)_


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## Doug Gifford

Painting is not done to decorate apartments. It is an instrument of war. _Pablo Picasso_


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## bw66

“And now the guy who could play so fast, who played all the licks that have been copied for generations, can’t bend his fingers. But it’s okay because I’ve compensated by learning the value of a single note.” --Les Paul


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## Speck_WFTR

" ... Love comes to you, and you follow ... " (Jon Anderson)
Says it all.


Here's a few that resonate deeply with me:

"music is not about me, it's about _what happens_."
(not sure I said that, hahaha)

"musicianship is much more than just technique. It demands an attitude of humility in the face of great natural gifts. And at the same time it demands the confidence to do what is necessary to make the music come alive."
-- Bernard Purdie

"staying behind the beat. let go, don't try to control everything. let the beat happen, don't try to be the beat. divide the rhythm in your head, so that you are syncing up to it, and then just relax and play behind it.
-- Ron Bumblefoot Thal (The Most Important Guitar Lesson - "Don't Be The Beat")

"The word 'inspiration' usually means something that mentally stimulates you. But 'inspiration' also means to breathe in. The meanings poetically combine when you think of yourself breathing in thoughts, filling your body with ideas. But don’t forget to breathe out."
(someone here said it, forget who)

"My personal revelation here was that inspiration is really always there, the mistake is to expect it to descend towards us when the opportunity is always there to pull ourselves up towards it."
--Tim Gerwing


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## SmoggyTwinkles

I don't know if I can find it anywhere but:

I will never forget Lenny Kravitz being grilled in an interview (and he seemed annoyed?) on MuchMusic way back when..early 90's.

Interviewer: "So what are you listening to currently? Like, up and coming artists blah blah blah"

Kravitz: I just listen to whatever my ears like. 

Nice and simple, that's what everyone should listen to. Whatever their ears like.

Favourite non-music quote of all time:

If God didn't exist Man would create him.


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