To be prepared against surprise is to be trained. To be prepared for surprise is to be educated.Robert Carse
Nothing in music is hard, just unfamiliar.Kenny Werner
If you're going to sweep the floor, sweep it better than anybody in town.
And if you're going to play the guitar, really, really, really get in it, and don't be jivin'.Carlos Santana
No one is able to make music actually, but some have learned how to make it happen.Lorenz Weiler
No artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a strange, divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.Martha Graham
Use what talents you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best.Henry Van Dyke
There's nothing worse than a brilliant beginning.Pablo Picasso
I try to be prepared for the moment, through understanding and being warmed up, knowing all about chords and scales, so I don't even have to think and I can get right to what it is I want to say.Pat Metheny
You have to persist, and out of the sheer frustration of what you've been doing or haven't been doing, you just come out the other side.
Of course, when you come to the other side, you find that there's an even bigger hill to climb than the last one.Allan Holdsworth
"Hollywoodization": This is the process where things are evened out, rationalized, nicely lit from all sides, carefully balanced, studiously tested against all known formulae, referred to several committees, and finally made triumphantly unnoticeable.Brian Eno
The practice of scales solves the greatest number of technical problems in the shortest amount of time.Andres Segovia
Institutions treat us as parts of a machine. They assign us ranks and place considerable pressure on us to fulfill our defined roles. We need something to help us restore our lost or distorted humanity.
Each of us has suppressed feelings that have built up, a voiceless cry in the depths of our souls, waiting for expression. Art, both in practice and appreciation, gives those feelings voice and form.Daisaku Ikeda
"Yeeeeah," he says, fingering the valves, "when she gets broken in, a few weeks down the road, this is going to be a nice horn."
"Sounds like she blows real easy, Diz."
He fixes me with a stagey stare. "Sheeeeeet. Ain't none of them blow easy."Dizzy Gillespie
How you play a note is just as important as what note that is.Henry Kaiser
Creativity is making mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.Scott Adams
There are two golden rules for an orchestra: start together and finish together. The public doesn't give a damn what goes on in between.Sir Thomas Beecham
It doesn't matter if you're the greatest guitar player in the world. If you're not enlightened, forget it.George Harrison
All a musician can do is to get closer to the sources of nature, and so feel that he is in communion with the natural laws.John Coltrane
My chops were not as fast, but I just learned more on what was in my mind than what was in my chops.
I learned a long time ago that one note can go a long way if it's the right one, and it will probably whip the guy with twenty notes.Les Paul
They just said, "Roll the tape." No rehearsal or nothing.
Muddy Waters didn't come in and say, "I wanna rehearse." He used to look at me and say, "Let's just play the blues. That's all you need to do."Buddy Guy
The music has generated all the techniques I use.
When I sit down to learn to play something it is not because I want to master a technique. It is because I want to hear what an idea sounds like.Pat Martino
I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.Pablo Picasso
The general attitude is, "I want it, and I want it now!"
But it really takes years if you're going to do it right, and a lot of kids just don't want to take the time to work on it and see where it's all going, and what it means, and where it comes from, and how they should apply it and use it in playing their songs.
It doesn't make any difference how technically good you are or fast you are or how many notes you know. You just can't do it in two years.Johnny Winter
Practice makes perfect. But on-the-fly makes art.Danielle Egnew
Only play what you hear. If you don't hear anything, don't play anything.Chick Corea
It takes a lot of discipline to be very proficient on your instrument.
You really have to exercise your willpower - reach down really deep within and pull out stuff you never knew you had, strength you ever bothered to find before.Steve Vai
The fruit takes a long time to ripen, but it falls suddenly.proverb
Once you get to a certain level of craftmanship, then inspiration becomes your key. Eric Klein
I've done a drum clinic in L.A. Nice kids but they all asked the same question. "How did you work out that fill?"
I told them, "I don't know." I don't know! I feel it, it's that particular day, who knows?
Just play. Let your personality come out.Manu Katche
The moment we believe that success is determined by an ingrained level of ability as opposed to resilience and hard work, we will be brittle in the face of adversity.Josh Waitzkin
If you learn music, you'll learn most all there is to know.Edgar Cayce
(On Practice:) It takes a lot of devotion and work, or maybe I should say play, because if you love it, that's what it amounts to.
I haven't found any shortcuts, and I've been looking for a long time.Chet Atkins
Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten.B. F. Skinner
I'll play it first and tell you what it is later.Miles Davis
Approach your guitar intelligently, and if there are limits, don't deny them.
Work within your restrictions. Somethings you can do better than others, some things you can't do as well.