Chords Quotes - Page 8

• I'd been getting bored with the stereotyped changes (harmonies) that were being used all the time. I found that by using the higher intervals of a chord as a melody line and backing them with appropriately related changes I could play the thing I'd been hearing. I came alive.

  Charlie Parker

  Play, Bored, Lines

  "Hear Me Talkin' to Ya". Book by Nat Shapiro, p. 354, 1955.

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• The band and I were leading at a Youth Specialties convention. We were asked to back up Matt Maher for one of the sessions. Matt handed us the chord charts and, with less than 5 minutes of practice, we were playing it live. I fell in love with this song immediately. You can't hear the message of God's sufficient grace too many times. Matt is a great lead worshiper and is a part of Life Teen, a growing worship movement in the Catholic Church.

  Chris Tomlin

  Song, Practice, Catholic

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• It’s really strange, but they speak to me — the notes and the chords. So when I hear other people’s music, I can feel the composer. Whoever created that, I can see in their soul.

  Yanni

  People, Soul, Strange

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• Let no one pray that they know not sorrow,
  Let no soul ask to be free from pain,
  For the gall of to-day is the sweet of to-morrow,
  And the moment's loss is the lifetime's gain.
  Through want of a thing does its worth redouble,
  Through hunger's pangs does the feast content,
  And only the heart that has harboured trouble
  Can fully rejoice when joy is sent.
  Let no one shrink from the bitter tonics
  Of grief, and yearning, and need, and strife,
  For the rarest chords in the soul's harmonics
  Are found in the minor strains of life.

  Ella Wheeler Wilcox

  Sweet, Pain, Grief

  Ella Wheeler Wilcox, “Life's Harmonies”

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• This is our grace: To be a note
  In the exact chord that animates creation.

  Deena Metzger

  Grace, Creation, Notes

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• Even an ordinary broken chord is made to disclose rare beauties; we are reminded of the fairies' hazelnuts in which diamonds were concealed but you could break the shell only if your hands were blessed.

  Neville Cardus

  Blessed, Rare Beauty, Hands

  The Manchester Guardian, 1939.

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• I just scribbled away and eventually a C-major chord was there. I didn't ever decide I was going to be a composer. It was like being tall. It's what I was. It's what I did.

  Richard Rodney Bennett

  Composer, Tall, Majors

  "A life in music: Richard Rodney Bennett". Interview with Nicholas Wroe, www.theguardian.com. July 22, 2011.

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• Soft as Memnon's harp at morning, To the inward ear devout, Touched by light, with heavenly warning Your transporting chords ring out. Every leaf in every nook, Every wave in every brook, Chanting with a solemn voice Minds us of our better choice.

  John Keble

  Morning, Voice, Light

  John Keble (1829). “The Christian year, thoughts in verse for the Sundays and holydays throughout the year [by J. Keble].”, p.52

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• Now, I don't want to give you the impression that I'm a great musicologist, but I'm a lot better than what I was described as for a long, long time; you know, people said I only knew three chords when I knew five.

  Leonard Cohen

  Long, People, Giving

  BBC Radio 1FM Interview, 1994.

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• The music comes first, like, 99 percent of the time. I come up with the basic chord structure and the melody first and then I get really obsessed with arranging, adding, and subtracting parts. The last step of the process, for me, is finding words that fit into that structure and figuring out exactly what I want to talk about.

  Mikal Cronin

  Want, Lasts, Firsts

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• You think it's all written, but it's not. There's always another way to twist those three chords around.

  Joe Perry

  Thinking, Twists, Three

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• Over the years I have become convinced that we learn best - and change - from hearing stories that strike a chord within us ... Those in leadership positions who fail to grasp or use the power of stories risk failure for their companies and for themselves.

  John P. Kotter

  Years, Risk, Stories

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• Chris (Anderson) is risking his life with every chord, that's how much it means to him. He has such a reverence for beauty, he plays like an angel.

  Charlie Haden

  Mean, Angel, Play

  FaceBook post by Charlie Haden from Mar 19, 2012

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• I still feel like if I can get a song to work with, say, a basic beat, a rhythm, some chord changes, and a melody, a vocal melody - if it works with that, then I feel it's written and there's something there.

  David Byrne

  Song, Beats, Rhythm

  Interview with Chris Dahlen, pitchfork.com. July 17, 2006.

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• It's just rock and roll. A lot of times we get criticized for it. A lot of music papers come out with: 'When are they going to stop playing these three chords?' If you believe you shouldn't play just three chords it's pretty silly on their part. To us, the simpler a song is, the better, 'cause it's more in line with what the person on the street is.

  Angus Young

  Song, Believe, Silly

  Atlanta Gazette Interview, May 1979.

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• Love--what a volume in a word, an ocean in a tear, A seventh heaven in a glance, a whirlwind in a sigh, The lightning in a touch, a millennium in a moment, What concentrated joy or woe in blest or blighted love! For it is that native poetry springing up indigenous to Mind, The heart's own-country music thrilling all its chords, The story without an end that angels throng to hear, The word, the king of words, carved on Jehovah's heart!

  Martin Farquhar Tupper

  Love, Country, Kings

  Martin Farquhar Tupper (1849). “Proverbial philosophy: a book of thoughts and arguments, originally treated”, p.115, Philadelphia, E. H. Butler & co.

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• How light the touches are that kiss the music from the chords of life!

  Coventry Patmore

  Music, Kissing, Light

  Coventry Patmore (1863). “The betrothal. The espousals”, p.301

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• Indeed, there is a moment on the first CD - the electrifying opening to "I Got Loaded," which sounds like an R&B standard but isn't - when you might find yourself asking whether anyone who has ever been smitten by pop music can fail to have his heart stopped by the chords, the swing, and, once again, Steve Berlin's wonderfully greasy sax.

  Nick Hornby

  Heart, Swings, Cds

  Nick Hornby (2003). “Songbook”, p.186, Penguin

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• Before too long I was playing badly out in some bars around Memphis, but as soon as I learned a few chords I started writing my own stuff.

  Bryan Hayes

  Writing, Long, Bars

  "Bryan Hayes To Play At Sweet T Market". Interview With Linley Stringer, maroonweekly.com. December 2, 2015.

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• Vanity is easily forgiven, for we are all vain, and even as we laugh at the weakness of others we feel that their vanity has touched the responding chord of our own.

  Arthur Lynch

  Vanity, Laughing, Weakness

  Arthur Lynch (1921). “Moods of Life: Popular Psychological Studies of Affairs of Every Day”

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• I don't like no fancy chords. Just the boogie. The drive. The feeling. A lot of people play fancy but they don't have no style. It's a deep feeling-you just can't stop listening to that sad blues sound. My sound.

  John Lee Hooker

  Play, People, Feelings

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• Past dreams of bliss our lives contain, And slight the chords that still retain A heart estranged to joys again, To scenes by memory's silver chain Close-linked, and ever yet apart, That like the vine, whose tendrils young Around some fostering branch have clung, Grown with its growth, as tho' it sprung From one united heart.

  Alan Cooper

  Dream, Memories, Heart

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• I like men who have known the best and the worst, whose life has been anything but a smooth trip. Storms have battered them, they have lain, sometimes for months on end, becalmed. There is a residue even if they fail. It has not been all tinkling; there have been grand chords.

  James Salter

  Men, Storm, Months

  "Ali? Laver? Best? No, the Williams sisters" by Will Buckley, www.theguardian.com. September 15, 2007.

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• I like really sparse electronics, lush arrangements, and interesting chord structures.

  Josh Klinghoffer

  Interesting, Electronics, Structure

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• No man can force the harp of his own individuality into the people's heart; but every man may play upon the chords of the people's heart, who draws his inspiration from the people's instinct.

  Lajos Kossuth

  Sympathy, Inspiration, Heart

  Lajos Kossuth (1852). “Kossuth in New England: A Full Account of the Hungarian Governor's Visit to Massachusetts ; with Speeches, and the Addresses that Were Made to Him ...”, p.89

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