The soul of rock 'n' roll is mistakes, and making mistakes work for you.
The people who shy away from mistakes and play it safe have no business playing rock 'n' roll.
Paul WesterbergIf a song's about something I've experienced or that could've happened to me it's good.
But if it's alien to me, I couldn't lend anything to it. Because that's what soul is all about.
Aretha FranklinWhen I sing, trouble can sit right on my shoulder and I don't even notice.
Sarah VaughanYou're gonna have to learn to get out there in front of those cameras and hold your head up. Take charge when you're singing.
Patsy ClineI don't try to sound like anyone but me anymore. If something is out of my element, I try to avoid it.
Norah JonesWe rely more on enthusiasm than actual skill. Whatever you do, do it enthusiastically and people will like it more.
Chris Martin from ColdplayCreativity is making mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.
Scott AdamsThe rest of the band will follow me down any dark alley. Sometimes there's a light at the end of the alley, and sometimes there's a black hole.
You don't get an adventure in music unless you're willing to take chances.
Jerry GarciaIf you don't make a mistake, you're not trying hard enough.
Charlie ParkerPlay the music, not the instrument.
proverbPlay what you don't know.
Miles DavisPlay with your eyes open.
Steven Page of Barenaked LadiesThe notes, I handle no better than many pianists.
But the pauses between the notes, that is where the art resides.
Artur SchnabelI play guitar because it lets me dream out loud.
Michael HedgesA good performer jumps on stage, looks out at the audience, and thinks, "Here I am!"
A great performer jumps on stage, looks out at the audience, and thinks, "There you are!"
Steve RapsonIt was when I found out I could make mistakes that I knew I was on to something.
Ornette ColemanSometimes it is the artist's task to find out how much music you can still make with what you have left.
Itzhak PerlmanIt's not what you play, it's how you play it.
Mary Lou WilliamsPerformance is a vehicle for entering different worlds of experiencing.
Robert FrippJazz has always been a man telling the truth about himself.
Quincy JonesOn stage I make love to 25,000 people. Then I go home alone.
Janis JoplinI'll play it first and tell you what it is later.
Miles DavisPeople who make no noise are dangerous.
Jean delaFontaineAll my concerts had no sounds in them; they were completely silent. People had to make up their own music in their minds!
Yoko OnoYou've got a song you're singing from your gut, you want that audience to feel it in their gut. And you've got to make them think that you're one of them sitting out there with them too. They've got to be able to relate to what you're doing.
Johnny CashSinging is a trick to get people to listen to music for longer than they would ordinarily.
David ByrneDo not fear mistakes. There are none.
Miles DavisNo one is able to make music actually, but some have learned how to make it happen.
Lorenz WeilerBlues is easy to play, but hard to feel.
Jimi HendrixJazz is a very democratic musical form. It comes out of a communal experience. We take our respective instruments and collectively create a thing of beauty.
Max RoachI realized by using the high notes of the chords as a melodic line, and by the right harmonic progression, I could play what I heard inside me. That's when I was born.
Charlie ParkerThere 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 BeechamAfter about three lessons, my voice teacher said, "Don't take voice lessons. Do it your way. You're a song stylist. Always do it your way."
Johnny CashMusic is the art of thinking with sounds.
Jules CombarieuI only want to get lost now, lost in music.
John McLaughlinOnly play what you hear. If you don't hear anything, don't play anything.
Chick CoreaGive the people what they want, and they will give you what you want.
William BallesterThe hardest thing in the world to do in this business is start a band nobody's heard of.
Tom Whalley, Interscope RecordsAnybody that forms a group, writes songs and releases records and says they don't care if people like them are complete liars.
James Dean BradfieldThe Blues is about making a lot of other people feel bad, and making money while you're at it.
Bleeding-Gums MurphyBand playing is like cooking, you need to mix a little bit of everything and balance the ingredients to make it taste better.
Cenon Mallari Jr.I always thought Jaco's talent was a curse, in a way. Because no matter how fucked up he got on the bandstand, he could still play. The same thing happened with Bird. Their great talent enabled both of them to continue doing drugs and getting away with it, because they kept getting encouragement from people around them who told them how great they sounded. Jaco would play a great solo, and he'd be sitting on top of the world again, feeling invincible, with an attitude like, "There's nothing wrong with me." Jaco's talent was like a double edged sword-it made it impossible for him to see how terrible things really were becoming.
Mike SternAn audience is like a dame. If it ain't sincere, it's over.
Frank SinatraThe difference between a good performance and a great performance is a nap.
George BurnsDon't push it. Just let it fall.
Duke EllingtonI would advise you to keep your overhead down, avoid a major drug habit, play every day, and take it in front of other people.
They need to hear it, and you need them to hear it.
James TaylorTrained vocalists have an amazing way of cracking crystal. Passionate vocalists have an amazing way of cracking hearts.
Danielle EgnewPractice makes perfect. But on-the-fly makes art.
Danielle EgnewFuck the fiddley bits.
Joe StrummerI lose myself at some point during almost every musical performance.
There's some point of struggle and super self-consciousness, but I always get lost at some point.
While I'm playing, there's a patten of struggling through something and then cracking through it by a weird combination of willpower and letting go.
That's the most enjoyable thing for me: "Uh-oh, he's gone!"
David TornI'll go for things that I know are going to be wrong, with a vengeance.
Neil YoungYou've got to be able to hold a lot of contradictory ideas in your mind without going nuts.
I feel like to do my job right, when I walk out onstage I've got to feel like it's the most important thing in the world. I've also got to feel like, well, it's only rock and roll.
Somehow you've got to believe both of those things.
Bruce SpringsteenThe most important thing I look for in a musician is whether he knows how to listen.
Duke EllingtonI tried to play in front of the beat in a way that didn't rush it, or behind the beat n a way that didn't drag it.
Rick DankoI asked Miles after the gig, "Miles, what am I supposed to be doing up there?"
He said, "When they play fast, you play slow. When they play slow, you play fast."
Miles DavisWhen I've played from my mind I get in trouble.
Stevie Ray VaughanI've practiced my tone for almost 50 years, and if I can't hear my tone, I can't play. If I can't play, then I won't get paid. If I don't get paid, then I lose the house, you know?
It's like a chain reaction. If I lose my tone, I can't fuck, can't make love, can't do nothin'. I'll just walk into the ocean and die, if I lose my tone.
Miles DavisEvery guitarist has a special quality of sound.
The best ones will use a good ear, much sensitivity, and a thorough knowledge of music to prepare the nuances and colors of sound.
Andres SegoviaHow you play a note is just as important as what note that is.
Henry KaiserYou might not feel like playing pretty all the time. Instead you might want to play something nasty. You might want to play something out of context with the tune. It might be a note that creates so much tension it becomes unpleasant, but you want it to sound that way.
George BensonWhen the chord changes, you should change.
Joe PassI 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 MethenyIf it does right by the song, you've made the right choice.
Robbie RobertsonThe question is, "What are you saying with the guitar?" - Not "Can you play this link?" or "What's your speed like?"
It's, "What are you saying with your instrument? What is being communicated in this song?"
The EdgeI don't think about the meaning of it all.
I say, just plug in your damn guitar and make some noise.
Paul WesterbergI remember coming to a concert where they had a big catered meal set out for everyone.
I went and said, "Miles, man, you gotta see all this food they got here."
And Miles said, "I didn't come here to eat."
(told by Gary Bartz)
Miles DavisFor me, I think the only danger is being too much in love with guitar playing.
The MUSIC is the most important thing, and the guitar is only the instrument.
Jerry GarciaMy 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 PaulIf 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 SantanaIf I can get out of the way, if I can be pure enough, if I can be selfless enough, and if I can be generous and loving and caring enough to abandon what I have and my own preconceived, silly notions of what I think I am - and become truly who in fact I am, which is really just another child of God - then the music can really use me.
And therein lies my fulfillment. That's when the music starts to happen.
John McLaughlinI like to play with people who can play simple and are not threatened by other musicians thinking they can't play. So that eliminates 99 percent of all musicians.
Neil YoungApproach 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.
So accentuate the positive.
Chet AtkinsIf you hit a wrong note, then make it right by what you play afterwards.
Joe PassI'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 KatcheThe 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 MartinoThe focus of my playing is the groove, and every time I find a new rhythm, I find I can write a bunch of new songs.
Learning how to dance, or drum, or to swing my body in a new way is the fundamental way I find a new riff. Because when you learn to swing your body in a new way, you begin to swing with your instrument differently.
Stone Gossard"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 GillespieA non-musician is thrilled to be doing music - quite happy to sit there and plunk one note all day- and is very alert to the effect of that.
Nonmusicians really LISTEN sometimes, because that's the only thing they have available to them.
Brian EnoIf you pick up a guitar and it says, "Take me! I'm yours!" - then that's the one for you.
Frank ZappaWhenever I start working on a song, I immediately try to forget everything, to empty my hands and head of anything that may be hanging over from another song or album.
I try to approach it like this is the first time I've ever played guitar. What am I going to do?
The EdgeMy own thing is in my head. I hear sounds and if I don't get them together, nobody else will.
Jimi HendrixRecording represents the future. The concert hall represents the past.
Glenn GouldWe should imagine we're making hypothetical film soundtracks, not making songs.
This is always a very liberating idea, because a film soundtrack doesn't have to have a center - the film itself is the center. It allows you to make music that is pure atmosphere.
Brian EnoThe poem the reader reads may be better than that which the writer wrote.
Try to make things that can become better than what you thought you were doing.
Brian EnoPeople are hearing a lot more context than music, so perhaps I accept that I am now primarily a context maker.
My art is not just what comes out of the end of my trumpet or appears on a record, but a larger experience which is intimately connected to who I appear to be, to my life and charisma.
The 'music', the sonic bit, could end up being quite a small part of the whole experience.
Developing the context- the package, the delivery system, the buzz, the spin, the story - might itself become the art. Like perfume...
Brian EnoWhen you listen to Miles Davis, how much of what you hear is music, and how much is context?
Context is everything that isn't physically contained in the grooves of the record. It includes your knowledge that everyone else says he's great: that must modify the way you hear him. That he was a handsome and imposing man, a member of a romantic minority, that he played with Charlie Parker, that he spans generations, that he underwent various addictions, that he married Cicely Tyson, that he dressed well, that Jean-Luc Godard liked him, that he wore shades and was very cool, that he himself said little about his work, and so on.
Surely all that affects how you hear him: I mean, could it possibly have felt the same if he'd been an overweight heating engineer from Oslo?
When you listen to music, aren't you also 'listening' to all the stuff around it, too?
Brian EnoSingers are like Arabs. They abhor a vacuum. And a vacuum is defined as "when I'm not singing".
Brian EnoAfter making a rough mix, Bono listens to and studies this comp over the next few days, changes a word or a line or a verse, rephrases and re-sings, and the process takes place again. In this way, he begins to hone in on a performance, an attitude, a persona. He discovers who is singing the song, and what kind of world that person inhabits.
Brian Eno"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 EnoIf you're working with electronic media in the recording studio, judgment becomes a very important issue and skill becomes a less important issue.
Brian EnoRepetition doesn't really exist.
As far as your mind is concerned, nothing happens the same twice, even if in every technical sense, the thing is identical. Your perception is constantly shifting. It doesn't stay in one place.
Brian EnoI love bass guitar, because it has so little to do, yet it's so important.
Brian EnoAs soon as you externalize an idea you see facets of it that weren't clear when it was just floating around in your head.
Brian EnoHaving no silence in music is like having no black or white in a painting.
Brian EnoI remember being with my wife's family, who are are quite shy. We started playing Charades, and within 10 minutes people are singing the theme from such-and-such with all the acting that goes with it.
Because they're now in a frame which says, "You're not yourself, you're not responsible." I thought, that's not a bad philosophy of life.
Brian EnoA friend of mine says that modern music is a form of space travel, because either you're going out into space with the music, into weird new sounds and weird new impossible landscapes. Modern composers...create psychoacoustic spaces that actually don't exist in nature.
So that's one kind of space travel, going outwards. But the other kind, of course, is inner space travel, travelling into the strange new psychological spaces in our souls.
Brian Eno