Musician Quotes - Page 12

• Everybody now who's playing in Unicorn band is deeply schooled in music. I'm the only one who's self-taught, which I think is a bit hilarious because I'm leading the band and writing the songs, but I'm surrounded by such overwhelmingly competent musicians.

  Nicholas Thorburn

  Song, Writing, Thinking

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• Christina Aguilera is an incredible musician and singer.

  Debbie Harry

  Singers, Incredibles, Christina

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• We have oral traditions in Mali, and songs are passed down and around this way. I think in the US you can play all the time in your own room and never see another musician your whole life. We can't understand that in Mali.

  Vieux Farka Toure

  Song, Thinking, Play

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• I never have been a musician; I'm not actually capable. Because I can't even pretend to acquire the gift, all of my first feelings about art are still attached to music. I look at it yearningly, I look at it wonderingly. I behold it from afar, as something unattainable, something outside of myself, from which I can take nourishment, but I can't domesticate and master.

  Jonathan Lethem

  Art, Feelings, Looks

  "Music, Influence, and 'Deeply Unnecessary' Art". Interview with Ben Arthur, logger.believermag.com. March 17, 2015.

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• A musician knows hit material. It has to feel right. Everything has to feel in place. It fulfills you and it makes you feel good. You know it when you hear it.

  Michael Jackson

  Feel Good, Feels Right, Materials

  FaceBook post by Michael Jackson from Sep 03, 2015

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• I am a composer first and foremost, and have always believed that being able to write memorable melodies is what sets musicians apart.

  Bradley Joseph

  Memorable, Writing, Firsts

  Official Bio from bradleyjoseph.com,

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• I like to work with different musicians and producers to change the feels of every release.

  Lindi Ortega

  Different, Release, Producers

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• Musicians burn through more cash than the Federal Reserve.

  Shawn Amos

  Cash, Federal Reserve, Reserves

  "'How Do You Expect Me to Live on $10 Million a Year?': Famous Musician Bankruptcies" by Shawn Amos, www.foxnews.com. June 15, 2009.

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• You may be perfect in playing the piano, and not be creative; you may play the piano most brilliantly, and not be a musician. You may be able to handle color, to put paint on canvas most cleverly, and not be a creative painter. You may create a face, an image out of a stone, because you have learned the technique, and not be a master creator. Creation comes first, not technique.

  Jiddu Krishnamurti

  Color, Play, Piano

  Jiddu Krishnamurti (1991). “The Collected Works of J. Krishnamurti: 1948-1949, Choiceless awareness”, Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company

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• It's hard to put into words the impact of the perfect lyric, melody or contagious beat that moves you in an unexpected way. Authors, composers and artists have tried - and here we've rounded up our favorite quotes that help to begin forming structure around such an unspoken universal force. Which are most meaningful to you? If you had to sum up the power of music and sound in one sentence, what would you say?"A painter paints pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence."

  Leopold Stokowski

  Meaningful, Moving, Artist

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• As a composer you want to tell musicians two completely contradictory things. You want to say, "Play exactly what I wrote, but bring your own thing to it." In a lot of ways they feel like opposites, but in a sense, my job is to cajole or encourage decisions that I approve of.

  Nico Muhly

  Jobs, Opposites, Play

  Interview with Sean Michaels, believermag.com. October 1, 2008.

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• I worked really hard to develop me as an artist and as a musician. I have so many different influences and play so many different instruments, I don't think anyone knew what to do with me!

  Elle King

  Artist, Thinking, Play

  Source: www.glamour.com

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• Auschwitz was one of the wealthiest places in the world. Everyone who was deported there had been in such a hurry that they were only able to take along the things they loved the most. Well, of course, a musician would take along her instrument. But then they would take these precious possessions away from the prisoners once they arrived. All these things were kept in a part of the camp the prisoners called "Canada." It was like a giant warehouse.

  Anita Lasker-Wallfisch

  Giants, Precious Possessions, World

  Source: www.spiegel.de

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• 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.

  Linda Ronstadt

  Thinking, Play, Supportive

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• Being a musician - it's easier for me to date an athlete. There's too much competition [with a musician]. There's too much know-it-all pop star.

  Jessica Simpson

  Stars, Athlete, Competition

  Source: www.glamour.com

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• I wanted to be a musician but I didn't have the talent for it, so I decided I wanted to be famous, so I became an actor.

  Anthony Hopkins

  Actors, Talent, Wanted

  "Actor Sir Anthony Hopkins". The Tavis Smiley Show, www.pbs.org. January 27, 2011.

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• An element I love about the blues is jamming with other musicians.

  Gary Hoey

  Elements

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• The jazz and blues clubs are like the jazz and blues musicians - they're disappearing.

  Buddy Guy

  Clubs, Jazz, Disappear

  "Blues guitarist Buddy Guy". "Tavis Smiley Show", www.pbs.org. June 7, 2012.

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• Blues musicians don't retire. They drop.

  Buddy Guy

  Retiring, Blues Music

  "Buddy Guy: ‘Blues Musicians Don’t Retire, They Drop’". "PBS NewsHour" with Jeffrey Brown, www.pbs.org. April 6, 2012.

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• I get so much from having the opportunity to interface with the younger people and to bring information to them and to represent our culture and our way of life. The feeling and the warmth and the love, it's unbelievable. The type of exchange that goes on between students and teachers or visiting people who are doing master classes, and not just when they're musicians. Even general classes, when the students are not necessarily musicians.

  Wynton Marsalis

  Teacher, Opportunity, Class

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• Reading and writing music is a wonderful way of getting ideas in your head down to someone else who reads and writes, but if you don't read and write, and the other musician you're playing with are trying to express something who doesn't read and write, than it's a question of "I wrote" so that you must learn from listening and from understanding where that's coming from.

  Ronnie Montrose

  Reading, Writing, Ideas

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• When the film and music industries declined in the wake of increasingly conservative Muslim laws and social customs in Pakistan, many of these musicians found themselves out of work. They were brought together at Sachal Studios by Izzat Majeed, who built the studio in order to preserve these musical traditions.

  Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy

  Order, Law, Musical

  Source: blogs.indiewire.com

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• I think the majority of musicians are interested in truth.

  John Coltrane

  Thinking, Majority

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• When I was a little bitty kid, my aunt showed me how to play a little boogie. It took me years. I had to play the left-hand part with two hands, because my hands was so little. Then as I grew up and I learned how to play the left-hand part with one hand, she showed me how to play the right-hand part, and et cetera. My Uncle Joe showed me how to play a little bit different boogie stuff. I had people in my family that was professional musicians, but I just wasn't interested in what they did. I wasn't very open-minded to a lot of music that I'd be more open to today.

  Dr. John

  Uncles, Kids, Aunt

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• Verbal communication about music is impossible except among musicians.

  Virgil Thomson

  Communication, Impossible, Music Is

  Virgil Thomson (2016). “The State of Music: A Library of America E-Book Classic”, p.21, Library of America

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