Best 1187 quotes in «musician quotes» category

In order to function and pay our bills and our taxes and feed our families and stuff, musicians have to make a living. It's not about being a millionaire. It's about being able to survive. When there are people constantly stealing from you, it's quite frustrating. It's a matter of changing the public's option about doing it.

Interplay and interaction are the integral parts of music - they're as important as the notes.

In the hierarchy of instruments, if you're a harpist, you're considered someone with a brain much more than if you're a singer. Even though singers, particularly singers who can play piano... If you go to the office of career development, you can get a gig much easier. Still, musicians tend to look down on you. I think they've got some nerve, because if they could sing, they would do it, but most of them can't.

I only choose musicians who I think will emerge, can emerge, with their own character, while still going along with the tune in question.

I once painted a concert singer and on the chestnut frame I carved the opening bars of Mendelssohn's Rest in the Lord. It was ornamental unobtrusive and to musicians I think it emphasized the expression of the face and pose of the figure.

I only say this because a lot of people seem to think that if you're a musician you want to be a celebrity. But most musicians in the world aren't celebrities, and pretty much everything about the concept of 'celebrity' is a complete load of bollocks anyhow.

I play classical music almost exclusively. I never mastered jazz or gospel in the way that my mother did. She was a fine improvisational musician. I pretty much have to stick to what's written on the page.

In other words, musicians know that going back to the Spoonful, what we were doing was not copying.

In theory, I'd like to work in a group. But the group I'd like to work in, all the musicians in them are long since dead.

I prefer live musicians whenever possible. And I tailor the ensemble to what is appropriate for the film and the score I'm writing.

I put my name on that Occupy Musicians list because someone wrote to me and said, "Would you do this?" I said, "Yeah sure, I support this." What artist wouldn't support that? What's the big deal? But then people wrote to me, "Wow! You're on that list!" And I'm like, "Who isn't on that list?" That would be more shocking.

I read an interview with a Japanese freestyle jazz musician once, and he said something like, "Everything I'm going to tell you is not going to be true." He's not saying, "I'm trying to lie to you." But he's kind of saying that you can never say what something really is.

I realized pretty soon that I have to do more than just play bass in the background way. So, I developed a kind of playing which only a handful of musicians accepted.

I really didn't intend to be a musician when I left Japan.

I read to learn, tech myself stuff and teach myself math and do complex formulas, and it's very, very tough, but I enjoy doing that and keeping my mind active. It definitely comes in handy, I feel I have a pretty good grasp, at more than a lot of musicians, of the business and finance world.

I resent the implication that I'm less of a musician and a worse person for not appreciating certain works.

I said to myself a long time ago that I didn't want to be that hanging-on-for-too-long, aging-rock-musician guy, and that's why I sort of got away from music.

I speak my mind and come from a place of conscience, as well as have fun as a musician.

I regard myself as a true American musician, and I play every style that is my heritage.

I started getting into Internet technologies and computers. I wasn't especially interested in being a musician, but I wound up finding my way back to being interested in music through computers.

I really like Katy Perry and the music she does. She's an amazing musician and it's an honour to be opening for her in London.

I still don't understand the music industry that much. Everything I learned was from hanging out with rock musicians in studios. I certainly have respect for those who make music their livelihood.

I suppose I would still be a communicator, maybe a musician.

I still have a fantasy of being a musician when I grow up.

I talk to people who are musicians, and they go, Oh this is hell. And I go, Are you kidding me? You never put tar paper on a roof, did ya?

It can be difficult to mediate a compromise between what I have in my head and what the musician has in mind, which is often 180° different when it comes to the finished product, so it requires that element of trust from somewhere. The point I make to them is "You've seen what I do, so just trust me and we will come up with something exciting.

I started to listen to Japanese jazz musicians when I went to high school. Some people I listened to were Yosuke Yamashita, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Sadao Watanabe.

I think Bach is equally a romantic composer because he laid the seeds harmonically for people like Chopin and the great Romantics, Brahms, so its difficult to you know all this like labelling and putting - I think Bach is attractive to musicians because he supersedes the labels.

I think filmmakers all secretly wanna be musicians and all musicians secretly wanna be filmmakers.

I think all musicians should understand that you have chosen not to be a soldier but a musician.

I think every touring musician sacrifices aspects of their life to do it.

I think it's a shame when you come across young actors and musicians who haven't had the time to learn their craft. It doesn't matter if it's acting or music, you really have to learn how to do it from the bottom up because unless you have a great work ethic... fame is a terrible thing to have.

I think a lot of actors, especially actors with a theater background, have a musical ear. A lot of actors just want to be musicians anyway, and a lot of musicians want to be actors.

I think for a classical musician the goal is the same as an electronic musician. A very good professional classical musician must not think about technique.

I think it was that we were really seasoned musicians. We had serious roots that spanned different cultures, obviously the blues.

I think one of the great things about being a musician is that you never stop learning.

I think people don't realize how many hours of practice goes into becoming a musician and getting better.

I think musicians are always supportive of each other because they want the groove to keep going on. They just basically want to play music.

I think musicians like me are drawn to those older desks, not just because they're legend and lore but also because they do something really specific that is hard to emulate or re-create digitally.

I think musicians should stay off television generally. I get asked all the time. Those shows are just promoting insipid comedies. Who watches those shows? And whoever does I don't think my music would speak to those people. I don't even want those people to hear what I'm doing.

I think Phil Collins is one of the most underrated musicians, singers, performers - he is absolutely amazing, I think, and I think he's probably got a bit of a rough ride occasionally because he became so mainstream and so popular.

I think some musicians can almost forget that the stage is something to do something on, even if that thing is standing still.

I think performers are all show-offs anyway, especially musicians. Unless you show off, you're not going to get noticed.

I think that my past stands me in good stead in that it does have a certain strength for musicians.

I think that's the graveyard of musicians, playing cabaret. I think I'd rather be dead than work in cabaret. It's just so depressing.

I think that what trips up a lot of great musicians is that they become involved with too many things that aren't where their strengths lie.

I think the best thing an artist can do is not hang out with other artists. I really dislike hanging out with musicians, for the most part, except for a few select friends, because I don't like to talk about music all the time.

I think the most important thing about what musicians do is the music. You can be as big an arsehole as you want but if you're not making good music, you won't get away with it.

I think there's a difference between the type of folk music that people put into the box of "folk music" and then there's the kind of folk music that I aspire to and am in awe of, and that is the kind of folk music where it's very limited tools - in most cases a guitar, in a self-taught style that is idiosyncratic and particular to that musician.

I think the world is very much embracing this whole concept of musicians going out and playing their instruments and playing music for music as opposed to music that has something to do with some form of image or imagery.