Music Quotes of Note....

The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits. ~ Albert Einstein
Surely, we are not human beings having a spiritual experience, but spiritual beings having a human experience. ~ Pierre Teilhard De Chardin
If it's above high C and you over shoot the note ...you're still right. ~ Max Greer
It's better to play sharp than out of tune. ~ Max Greer
Jazz music has got to have that thing. You have to be born with it. You can't even buy it. If you could buy it, they'd have it at the next Newport festival. ~ Miles Davis
I don't care too much about music. What I like is sounds. ~ Dizzy Gillespie
Good jazz is when the leader jumps on the piano, waves his arms, and yells. Fine jazz is when a tenorman lifts his foot in the air. Great jazz is when he heaves a piercing note for 32 bars and collapses on his hands and knees. A pure genius of jazz is manifested when he and the rest of the orchestra runaround the room while the rhythm section grimaces and dances around their instruments. ~ Charlie Mingus
Anyone can make the simple complicated. Creativity is making the complicated simple. ~ Charlie Mingus
Most of the soloists at Birdland had to wait for Parker's next record in order to find out what to play next. What will they do now? ~ Charlie Mingus
They’re singing your praises while stealing your phrases. ~ Charlie Mingus
I'm too busy playing. When I'm playing I don't pay attention to who's listening. When I was listening I listened to symphony orchestras, Beethoven, Bach, Brahms, Stravinsky. You don't listen to one instrument; you listen to music. ~ Charlie Mingus
I try to listen attentively to musical sounds around me. You can think of the sounds of daily life as being musical. So I try to absorb the intricacies of the sounds as I would if I were listening to a piece of music. I try to see the beauty in everything. ~ Tom Harrel
Jazz is not dead, it just smells funny. ~ Frank Zappa
You can't play nothing on modern trumpet that doesn't come from him, not even modern shit. I can't even remember a time when he sounded bad playing the trumpet. Never. Not even one time. He had great feeling up in his playing and he always played on the beat. I just loved the way he played and sang. (On Louis Armstrong) ~ Miles Davis
As long as I've been playing, they never say I done anything. They always say that some white guy did it. ~ Miles Davis
I don't like to hear someone put down dixieland. Those people who say there's no music but bop are just stupid; it shows how much they don't know. ~ Miles Davis
Monk was a gentle person, gentle and beautiful, but he was strong as an ox. And if I had ever said something about punching Monk out in front of his face - and I never did - then somebody should have just come and got me and taken me to the madhouse, because Monk could have just picked my little ass up and thrown me through a wall. ~ Miles Davis
We're not going to play the blues anymore. Let the white folks play the blues. They got 'em, so they can keep 'em. ~ Miles Davis
I don't care if a dude is purple with green breath as long as he can swing. ~ Miles Davis
So what? ~ Miles Davis
I still got my Ferrari. ~ Miles Davis
A legend is an old man with a cane known for what he used to do. I'm still doing it. ~ Miles Davis
When you're creating your own shit, man, even the sky ain't the limit. ~ Miles Davis
If they act too hip, you know they can't play shit. ~ Miles Davis
Those songs to me don't exist, you know? So What or Kind of Blue, I'm not going to play that shit, those things are there. They were done in that era, the right hour, the right day, and it happened. It's over; it's on the record. ~ Miles Davis
Keith [Jarrett] played so nice I had to give him two pianos. I'd say Keith, how does it feel to be a genius? ~ Miles Davis
In Europe, they like everything you do. The mistakes and everything. That's a little bit too much. ~ Miles Davis
I never thought that the music called jazz was ever meant to reach just a small group of people, or become a museum thing locked under glass like all the other dead things that were once considered artistic. ~ Miles Davis
I really liked Wynton [Marsalis] when I first met him. He's still a nice young man, only confused. ~ Miles Davis
If you got up on the bandstand at Minton's and couldn't play, you were not only going to be embarrassed by the people ignoring you or booing you, you might get your ass kicked. ~ Miles Davis
Nothing is out of the question for me. I'm always thinking about creating. My future starts when I wake up in the morning and see the light ...Then I'm grateful. ~ Miles Davis
Don't play what's there, play what's not there. ~ Miles Davis
You know why I quit playing ballads? Cause I love playing ballads. ~ Miles Davis
Coltrane, you can't play everything at once! ~ Miles Davis
Do not fear mistakes. There are none. ~ Miles Davis
Always look ahead, but never look back. ~ Miles Davis
At least one day out of the year all musicans should just put their instruments down, and give thanks too Duke Ellington. ~ Miles Davis
Jazz is the big brother of Revolution. Revolution follows it around. ~ Miles Davis
Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life. ~ Red Auerbach
Don't play what's there, play what's not there. ~ Miles Davis
Music, the greatest good that mortals know, And all of heaven we have below. ~ Joseph Addison
A song will outlive all sermons in the memory. ~ Henry Giles
Opera is when a guy gets stabbed in the back and instead of bleeding he sings. ~ Edward Gardner
Music hath the charm to soothe a savage beast, but I'd try a revolver first. ~ Josh Billings
The Irish gave the bagpipes to the Scotts as a joke, but the Scotts haven't seen the joke yet. ~ Oliver Herford
The English may not like music, but they absolutely love the noise it makes. ~ Sir Thomas Beecham
Wagner's music is better than it sounds. ~ Bill Nye
There once was a brainy baboon who always breathed down a bassoon for he said, It appears that in billions of years I shall certainly hit on a tune. ~ Ezra Pound
It's easy to play any musical instrument: all you have to do is touch the right key at the right time and the instrument will play itself. ~ J.S. Bach
There is two kinds of music, the good and bad. I play the good kind. ~ Louis Armstrong
You don't need any brains to listen to music. ~ Luciano Pavarotti
Only the pure in heart can make a good soup. ~ Ludwig Van Beethoven
I've come to realize that life is not a musical comedy, its a Greek tragedy. ~ Billy Joel
Talent works, genius creates. ~ Robert Schumann
Too many pieces of music finish too long after the end. ~ Igor Stravinsky
I don't know anything about music. In my line you don't have to. ~ Elvis Presley
All music is folk music. I ain't never heard no horse sing a song. ~ Louis Armstrong
Give me a laundry list and I'll set it to music. ~ Gioacchino Antonio Rossini
I was a veteran before I was a teenager. ~ Michael Jackson
Like a boxer in a title fight, you have to walk in that ring alone. ~ Billy Joel
Rituals are important. Nowadays its hip not to be married. Im not interested in being hip. ~ John Lennon
Music is spiritual. The music business is not. ~ Van Morrison
Beethoven can write music, thank God, but he can do nothing else on earth. ~ Ludwi Van Beethoven
The notes I handle no better than many pianists. But the pauses between the notes --ah, that is where the art resides. ~ Artur Schnabel
We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out. ~ Decca Recording Company rejecting the Beatles, 1962
It occurred to me by intuition, and music was the driving force behind that intuition. My discovery was the result of musical perception. (When asked about his theory of relativity) ~ Albert Einstein
Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn. They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art. ~ Charlie "YardBird" Parker
There are more love songs than anything else. If songs could make you do something we'd all love one another. ~ Frank Zappa
Just as Jesus created wine from water, we humans are capable on transmuting emotion into music. ~ Carlos Santana
DIZZ FOR PRES. - A bumper sticker seen in 1956 during the U.S. Presidential Election when Dizzy Gillespie decided to run for president.
When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace. ~ Jimi Hendrix
Wes Montgomery played impossible things on the guitar because it was never pointed out to him that they were impossible. ~ Ronnie Scott
Regardless of what you play, the biggest thing is keeping the feel going. ~ Wes Montgomery
Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy. Music is the electrical soil in which the spirit lives, thinks and invents. ~ Ludwig Van Beethoven
The whole problem can be stated quite simply by asking, Is there a meaning to music? My answer would be, Yes. And Can you state in so many words what the meaning is? My answer to that would be, No. ~ Aaron Copland
Guitarists should be able to pick up the guitar and play music on it for an hour, without a rhythm section or anything. ~ Joe Pass
I don't want you to play me a riff that's going to impress Joe Satriani; give me a riff that makes a kid want to go out and buy a guitar and learn to play. ~ Ozzy Osbourne
Without music, life would be a mistake. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche
Music makes one feel so romantic - at least it always gets on ones nerves - which is the same thing nowadays. ~ Oscar Wilde
You're talking to someone who really understands rock music. ~ Tipper Gore
The elephant smoked too much.(explaining why the keys of his piano were so yellow) ~ Victor Borge
If music be the food of love, play on: give me excess of it... ~ William Shakespeare
Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band was a musical fragmentation grenade, exploding with a force that is still being felt ... it changed the entire nature of the recording game - for keeps. ~ George Martin
Music is given to us with the sole purpose of establishing an order in things, including, and particularly, the coordination between man and time. ~ Igor Stravinsky
We all have idols. Play like anyone you care about but try to be yourself while you're doing so. ~ B. B. King
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. ~ Albert Einstein
If you have to ask what jazz is, you'll never know. ~ Louis Armstrong
In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's mind there are few. ~ Shunryu Suzuki
How can you think and hit at the same time. ~ Yogi Berra
Learn the rules well, and then forget them. ~ Basho
Nothing is as feared as fear. ~ Thoreau
I write [music] as a sow piddles. ~ Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
The one who is good at shooting does not hit the center of the target. ~ Zen saying
But the Emperor has nothing on at all! ...cried the child. ~ Hans Christian Anderson
There is nothing neither good or bad but thinking makes it so. ~ William Shakespeare
All our knowledge has its origins in our perceptions. ~ Leonardo da Vinci
I'll play it first and tell you what it is later. ~ Miles Davis
HOW TO PLAY LEAD TRUMPET: Go to a Greek restaurant. Order a large anchovy pizza and a bottle of Svatz Gatz wine (a cheap German table wine that has a little plastic black cat tied to the neck of the bottle). Eat the entire pizza. Drink the entire bottle of wine. Take the plastic cat off of the wine bottle and tie it to your lead pipe. Go to the gig! ~ Max Greer
Understand it, practice it, forget it. ~ Jerry Franks
There's always room at the top. ~ Bill Adam
I would never read a book if it were possible for me to talk a half an hour with the man who wrote it. ~ Woodrow Wilson
Talent cannot be learned, it can only be developed. ~ Rush Limbaugh
Our life is frittered away by detail ...Simplify, simplify. ~ Thoreau
We are more curious about the meaning of dreams than about things we see when awake. ~ Diogene
Well, if I could play like Wynton (Marsalis), I wouldn't play like Wynton. ~ Chet Baker
Well, I'm too old to pimp, and too young to die, so I'm just gonna keep playin'. ~ Clark Terry
Men have died for this music. You can't get more serious than that. ~ Dizzy Gillespie
They're not particular about whether you're playing a flatted fifth or a ruptured 129th as long as they can dance to it. ~ Dizzy Gillespie
How do I know why Miles walks off the stage? Why don't you ask him? And besides, maybe we'd all like to be like Miles, and just haven't got the guts. ~ Dizzy Gillespie
Miles got a mysticque about him — plus he's at the top of his profession. And he's got way, way, way more money. ~ Dizzy Gillespie
It's taken me all my life to learn what not to play. ~ Dizzy Gillespie
Change is always happening. That's one of the wonderful things about jazz music. ~ Maynard Ferguson
I remember the night when I was playing at Birdland, and Duke Ellington walked in wearing that cap of his and with all his elegance. The Duke then came backstage, and I was there with my band. That's the one thing I miss. ~ Maynard Ferguson
The day of the great jazz improviser who doesn't know how to read music is over. ~ Maynard Ferguson
When I'm home, I practice four or five hours a day...I warm up for an hour before a gig. ~ Art Farmer
I have to play every day in order to keep absolute control over my form. ~ Arturo Sandoval
Blow your life through your horn. ~ Arturo Sandoval
To rise above the crowd, you must discipline yourself unceasingly to the strict demand and realities of your ambition. ~ Arturo Sandoval
I know that I haven't invented anything myself, that I am only a mixture of countless influences, and thanks to that I am able to find my own style of playing. ~ Arturo Sandoval
It's so important to listen to music, to listen again and again. ~ Arturo Sandoval
Eat, sleep and drink music. ~ Arturo Sandoval
I believe that regardless of how many people you've listened to or emulated over the years, your sound is you and what you really feel inside. ~ Clark Terry
In my early years, I had weak chops. One thing I did to build them up was to hold my lip muscles as tight as possible for as long as possible until they ached. I would rest and then repeat this many times, I did this wherever I was, even driving the car. ~ Bill Chase
The most important factor in developing the high register is desire, the patience to wait, and the necessary time to acquire it. ~ Bud Brisbois
Be in competition with yourself. Only when you decide to be as good as you can be will you make real progress. ~ Lew Soloff
The hardest part of playing the trumpet is the physical act of making the sound. ~ Tom Harrel