Buddy Rich Quotes

#1. I mean, I think I liked every band I ever played in because each band was different, each band had a different concept, and each band leader was different ... different personalities and musical tastes.

Buddy Rich

#2. So, to come In with a set routine it's something I've never believed in. It should depend on how you feel, because you play what you feel.

Buddy Rich

#3. A great musician is just a thief who doesn't get caught

Buddy Rich

#4. You either swing a band or don't swing a band and that's what's lacking today.. There aren't any guys who get back there and play with any kind of guts.

Buddy Rich

#5. Well, I never really practiced because I never had the opportunity to practice.

Buddy Rich

#6. So, practice, particularly after you've attained a job, any kind of job, like playing with a four piece band, that's ... an opportunity to develop.

Buddy Rich

#7. But primarily, the drummer's supposed to sit back there and swing the band.

Buddy Rich

#8. They're simply following what was laid down in front and they play the same thing. So, there's no great challenge In being a classical drummer.

Buddy Rich

#9. Every drummer that had a name, had a name because of his individual playing. He didn't sound like anybody else, So everybody that I ever listened to, in some form, influenced my taste.

Buddy Rich

#10. There are only two types of music.good and bad.

Buddy Rich

#11. As far as music school goes, I walked through Berkelee one time.

Buddy Rich

#12. You only get better by playing.

Buddy Rich

#13. It takes us about four or five days to get an album out.

Buddy Rich

#14. If you think you stink, you probably do.

Buddy Rich

#15. Almost everything I've done, I've done through my own creativity. I don't think I ever had to listen to anyone else to learn how to play drums. I wish I could say that for about ten thousand other drummers.

Buddy Rich

#16. Average band with a great drummer sounds great, great band with an average drummer sounds average.

Buddy Rich

#17. No, I don't like recording. It's a bore.

Buddy Rich

#18. I can't sit down long enough to absorb any kind of learning.

Buddy Rich

#19. If you have any requests. keep them to yourselves. we don't play requests!

Buddy Rich

#20. I think it's a fallacy that the harder you practice the better you get.

Buddy Rich

#21. If you can play, you can play anything. I don't like classifications.

Buddy Rich

#22. But, when you have to resort to turntables, trick lights, flashing lights, fire and all that, you're actually saying, I need this because what I do is not all that together.

Buddy Rich

#23. I can think of a lot better things to do with my hands than to cut them up on the rim of a drum.

Buddy Rich

#24. I consider every drummer that ever played before me an influence, in every way.

Buddy Rich

#25. But, I don't think any arranger should ever write a drum part for a drummer because if a drummer can't create his own Interpretation of the chart and he plays everything that's written, he becomes mechanical; he has no freedom.

Buddy Rich

#26. I think the drummer should sit back there and play some drums, and never mind about the tunes. Just get up there and wail behind whoever is sitting up there playing the solo. And this is what is lacking, definitely lacking in music today.

Buddy Rich

#27. But I think that any young drummer starting out today should get himself a great teacher and learn all there is to know about the instrument that he wants to play.

Buddy Rich

#28. And, you know, I think the original recording of Ravel's Bolero, probably whoever played percussion on that, will never have It played better than that.

Buddy Rich

#29. If he's a true symphony artist, he knows better than that because he knows that the only truly creative musician is the jazz musician.

Buddy Rich

#30. To have everything written for you ... It's not really creating. That's why I think symphony drummers are so limited. They 're limited to exactly what was played a hundred years before them by a thousand other drummers.

Buddy Rich

#31. I think at one time every drummer wanted to play like Krupa or wanted to win a Gene Krupa drum contest. This is the big inspiration for drummers and naturally it has to be the same way for me.

Buddy Rich

#32. I play a percussion instrument, not a musical saw; it needs no amplification. Where it's needed, they put a microphone in front of the bass drum. But, I don't think it's necessary to play that way every night.

Buddy Rich

#33. And, well of course, Count Basie, and I think all of the black bands of the late thirties and early forties, bands with real players. They had an influence on everybody, not just drummers.

Buddy Rich

#34. There were so many individual styles thirty or forty years ago.

Buddy Rich