Quotes About Skill

I was improvising before I was reading music. I was just trying to play things on the clarinet by ear. I think my ear is one of my greatest assets.

Master your instrument. Master the music. And then forget all that bullshit and just play.

If I don't practice one day, I know it; two days, the critics know it; three days, the public knows it.

I practice my saxophone three hours a day. I'm not saying I'm particularly special, but if you do something three hours a day for forty years, you get pretty good at it.

You've got to learn your instrument. Then, you practice, practice, practice. And then, when you finally get up there on the bandstand, forget all that and just wail.

Music comes from the musician, not the instrument.

Over the years I hope I've become more of a musican and less of a guitarist.

I like to be one of those drummers who actually add to the music, not one of those guys who sit in a room 24/7 trying to outwit or outplay another drummer.

I can tell whether a person can play just by the way he stands.

My music is not modern, it is merely badly played

A lot of people think that if they learn to read music they are gonna lose their feel or their groove or something. It's the stupidest thing I have ever heard.

As long as you've got your horn in your mouth, you're developing.

You know, people can't fall in love with me just because I'm good at what I do.

I tell you before God, and as an honest man, your son (W A Mozart)is the greatest composer known to me by person and repute, he has taste and what is more the greatest skill in composition.

Guitarists should be able to pick up the guitar and play music on it for an hour, without a rhythm section or anything.

We consider that any man who can fiddle all through one of those Virginia Reels without losing his grip may be depended upon in any kind of musical emergency.

I did all you can do with a clarinet. Any more would have been less.

Talent is only the starting point.

A good player can make any guitar sound good.

In music, if you hit a wrong note, people forgive you. In magic when something goes wrong, the entire art is destroyed.

Well-crafted things inspire me, whether it's pottery or art or music.

I believe my most important skill is an ability to perceive patterns in the market. I think this aptitude for pattern recognition is probably related to my heavy involvement with music.

I can play all I know in eight bars.

Real talent doesn't always win championships, like real music doesn't always win Grammys.