# Music Quotes From Notable Musicians



## 3DC (Jul 18, 2022)

As you can see from my signature I love quotes from notable people. They have huge inspirational and educational value. Share some quotes you like or know from music world or famous musicians. 

I just found this one: 

“To listen is an effort, and just to hear is no merit. A duck hears also.”
― Igor Stravinsky


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## Maarten (Jul 18, 2022)

“None of us wanted to be the bass player. In our minds, he was the fat guy who always played at the back.”
- Paul McCartney


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## SergeD (Jul 18, 2022)

Maarten said:


> “None of us wanted to be the bass player. In our minds, he was the fat guy who always played at the back.”
> - Paul McCartney


At that time jazz rock wasn't born yet


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## doctoremmet (Jul 19, 2022)

“Words cannot express quite a lot of feelings, whereas a noise or tone or drone or sound, an accordion falling down a staircase, can somehow capture an emotion much better.”

—John Lydon


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## Marcus Millfield (Jul 19, 2022)

*"YOU CAN NEVER HAVE ENOUGH STRINGS LIBRARIES"*

@muziksculp


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## wahey73 (Jul 19, 2022)

"Without music, life would be a mistake" - Friedrich Nietzsche


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## doctoremmet (Jul 19, 2022)

Marcus Millfield said:


> Editted to the exact quote in matching colorscheme (and capitals off course).


It should be blue though, shouldn’t it?


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## b_elliott (Jul 19, 2022)

"A composer's job involves the decoration of fragments of time. Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid." - Frank Zappa


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## Marcus Millfield (Jul 19, 2022)

doctoremmet said:


> It should be blue though, shouldn’t it?


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## doctoremmet (Jul 19, 2022)

Marcus Millfield said:


>


Gotcha!!


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## Zedcars (Jul 19, 2022)

“I think quotes are very dangerous things.”

— Kate Bush


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## Roger Newton (Jul 19, 2022)

'If you don't like it, you can go and get fucked'

Ozzy Osbourne (Black Sabbath).


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## Roger Newton (Jul 19, 2022)

'Your views are as narrow as your tie'

Bernard Herrmann.


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## mikeh-375 (Jul 19, 2022)

“Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire.” ...
Mahler.


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## Double Helix (Jul 19, 2022)

"Before I compose a piece, I walk around it several times, accompanied by myself"
Erik Satie

"A composer is a guy who goes around forcing his will on unsuspecting air molecules, often with the assistance of unsuspecting musicians"
Frank Zappa

"It is better to make a piece of music than to perform one, better to perform one than to listen to one, better to listen to one than to misuse it as a mean of distraction, entertainment, or acquisition of 'culture' "
John Cage

"I'm only here for the beer"
slogan on Rick Wakeman's t-shirt


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## NekujaK (Jul 19, 2022)

"There are two kinds of music: the blues and zippety doo-dah."
- Townes van Zandt


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## NoamL (Jul 19, 2022)

"One can either enjoy Bruckner, or music" - Igor Stravinsky


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## RogiervG (Jul 19, 2022)

"In music, you're basically having a conversation. " - Hans Zimmer (@Rctec)


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## NekujaK (Jul 19, 2022)

One of my favorite quotes of all time, this originally had nothing to do with music, yet it perfectly describes how I feel when listening to the inspiring work of brilliant composers and musicians:

Ille Nastase, 1970s tennis champion, commenting on Born Borg's amazing abilities: "We're all playing tennis. He's playing something else."


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## chillbot (Jul 19, 2022)

Some of my favorites I used to use on an old website:



Aldous Huxley said:


> After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.





G. K. Chesterton said:


> Music with dinner is an insult both to the cook and the violinist.





Igor Stravinsky said:


> My music is best understood by children and animals.





Virgil Thompson said:


> The way to write American music is simple. All you have to do is be an American and then write any kind of music you wish.





Ed Gardner said:


> Opera is when a guy gets stabbed in the back and, instead of bleeding, he sings.





Ella Wheeler Wilcox said:


> Good music is wine turned to sound.





Margueritte Harmon Bro said:


> It is our job only to make the music. The audience that should hear it will be brought to our music at the right time.


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## Zedcars (Jul 19, 2022)

RogiervG said:


> "In music, you're basically having a conversation. " - Hans Zimmer (@Rctec)


As opposed to music forums, where you’re basically having an argument about music.


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## Marcus Millfield (Jul 19, 2022)

Zedcars said:


> As opposed to music forums, where you’re basically having an argument about music.


You mean legato?


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## doctoremmet (Jul 19, 2022)

“Muzak + legato = Music”

—doctoremmet


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## NekujaK (Jul 19, 2022)

Some gems from Tom Waits:

"Writing songs is like capturing birds without killing them. Sometimes you end up with nothing but a mouthful of feathers."

"A gentleman is someone who can play the accordion, but doesn't."

"If you're in the middle of the ocean with no flippers and no life preserver and you hear a helicopter, this is music. You have to adjust to your needs at the moment."

"The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering."

"They say that I have no hits and that I'm difficult to work with. And they say that like it's a bad thing."


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## Living Fossil (Jul 19, 2022)

"Well, it's one louder, isn't it?"

(Nigel Tufnel)


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## szczaw (Jul 19, 2022)

How can less be more ? More is more ! - Y. Malmsteen


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## szczaw (Jul 19, 2022)

I wanted to make noise, not study theory. - James Hetfield


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## Zedcars (Jul 19, 2022)

szczaw said:


> How can less be more ? More is more ! - Y. Malmsteen


I guess it’s rhetorical but my OCD compels me to respond; less of thing x = more of thing y, but by being vague about exactly what is “less” and what is “more” it sounds clever. But really it’s just vagueness. If you spelt it out for clarity then it would just sound rather banal:

I.e. Less typing s*** on VI-C = More time to compose your masterpiece.


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## szczaw (Jul 19, 2022)

Zedcars said:


> I guess it’s rhetorical but my OCD compels me to respond; less of thing x = more of thing y, but by being vague about exactly what is “less” and what is “more” it sounds clever. But really it’s just vagueness. If you spelt it out for clarity then it would just sound rather banal:
> 
> I.e. Less typing s*** on VI-C = More time to compose your masterpiece.


The context is music. Someone asked Malmsteen what is his take on 'less is more', for Malmsteen there's no such thing as 'less is more', because more is more !


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## Technostica (Jul 19, 2022)

On being told by John Coltrane that he took such long solos because he didn’t know how to end them, Miles Davis replied with “Take the horn out of your mouth”.


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## PeterN (Jul 19, 2022)

Martin Luther B. B King Jr. — 'Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still buy a string library today'


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## nolotrippen (Jul 19, 2022)

Bernard Herrmann- I don’t write on a piano. I write my music down on paper in full score, and when we get to a recording studio, they play it.


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## nolotrippen (Jul 19, 2022)

Richard Rodney Bennett -- people think writing film music is similar to painting a house


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## Zedcars (Jul 19, 2022)

szczaw said:


> The context is music. Someone asked Malmsteen what is his take on 'less is more', for Malmsteen there's no such thing as 'less is more', because more is more !


I was guilty of being vague myself as I was really referring to the phrase “less is more”, rather than your quote. Sorry. I do like Malmsteen’s quote though.


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## Thundercat (Jul 19, 2022)

If your music cannot improve upon silence, then it needs work.


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## Zedcars (Jul 19, 2022)

Thundercat said:


> If your music cannot improve upon silence, then it needs work.


Unless it’s 4’33”.


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## Loïc D (Jul 19, 2022)

What ? 38 posts and still no Noel Gallagher ?

Ok, my contribution:
“First, booze, then compoose” (Loïc D)


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## JJP (Jul 19, 2022)

"Remember you are making music not to amuse yourself but to delight the audience"
- Richard Strauss


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## timprebble (Jul 19, 2022)

A few favourites (not all composers, but relevant)

"Anyone can make the simple complicated, creativity is making the complicated simple'
Charles Mingus

"The notes I handle no better than many pianists. But the pauses between the notes - ah, that is where the art resides!"
Artur Schnabel

"Wes Montgomery played impossible things on the guitar because it was never pointed out to him that they were impossible"
Ronnie Scott

"Use the talents you possess, for the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except the best'
Henry Van Dyke

"To achieve great things, two things are needed. A plan and not quite enough time"
Leonard Bernstein

"Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as the headlights but you can make the whole trip that way'
E L Doctrow

"Imagination grows by exercise and contrary to common belief, is more powerful in the mature than the young"
W Somerset Maugham.

"I have learned throughout my life as a composer chiefly through my mistakes and pursuits of false assumptions, not by my exposure to founts of wisdom and knowledge"
Igor Stravinsky

"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the men of old. Seek what they sought"
Matsuo Basho


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## Alchemedia (Jul 19, 2022)

doctoremmet said:


> “Words cannot express quite a lot of feelings, whereas a noise or tone or drone or sound, an accordion falling down a staircase, can somehow capture an emotion much better.”
> 
> —John Lydon



"We're not a band. We're a company of accordions falling down the staircase."


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## MusiquedeReve (Jul 20, 2022)

"The stage is but a platform shoe" - Bono


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## MusicIstheBest (Jul 20, 2022)

"I did not hit him, it's not true. It's bullshit! I did not hit him. I did not. Oh, hi Mark!" - Antonio Salieri when confronted on his roof about assaulting Mozart.


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## Zedcars (Jul 20, 2022)

Not specifically about music, although they very well could be:

"A lot of people approach risk as if it's the enemy when it's really fortune's accomplice."

—Sting

"It takes a man to suffer ignorance and smile,
Be yourself no matter what they say"

—Sting (referring to Quentin Crisp)


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## EanS (Jul 20, 2022)

"Less is More?? More is More!!!"

Yngwie Johann Malmsteen 

(after purchasing his 100th Strat and 5th Ferrari)


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## mikeh-375 (Jul 21, 2022)

​"You goddamn sissy... when you hear strong masculine music like this, get up and use your ears like a man!"
Charles Ives to a booing audience not used to anything beyond the usual tonal fare.


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## Futchibon (Jul 21, 2022)

The most important thing when learning the drums is ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................timing!


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## Roger Newton (Jul 21, 2022)

WHAT!!!!!!! WHAT WAS THAT YOU SAID??????


Ludwig Van Beethoven.


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## Roger Newton (Jul 21, 2022)

You want me to put a viola in there?? You've got to be fucking kidding me!


Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in discussion with the King of Austria. (1788)


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## Zedcars (Jul 21, 2022)

Roger Newton said:


> You want me to put a viola in there?? You've got to be fucking kidding me!
> 
> 
> Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in discussion with the King of Austria. (1788)


Now I'm wondering exactly where the King of Austria wanted him to insert the viola!


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## mikeh-375 (Jul 21, 2022)

Schoenberg: "I am convinced that a mind trained in musical logic will not fail even if it is not conscious of everything it does."

Brahms...
"Without craftsmanship, inspiration is a mere reed shaken in the wind"


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## person (Aug 13, 2022)

Don't sing if you want to live long
They have no use for your song
You're dead, you're dead, you're dead
You're dead and out of this world
- Norma Tanega


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## LatinXCombo (Aug 13, 2022)

I know you believe you understand what you think I said, but I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant."

- Alan Greenspan


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## Kyle Preston (Aug 13, 2022)

“Shit in your bed and make it burst”

— Mozart


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## AudioLoco (Aug 14, 2022)

Once a very accomplished and expert EMI A&R executive and scout told me:

"The truth is that actually nobody knows nothing about anything"


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