Top 26 Charlie Parker Quotes

#1. Any musician who says he is playing better either on tea, the needle, or when he is juiced, is a plain, straight liar. When I get too much to drink, I can't even finger well, let alone play decent ideas ... You can miss the most important years of your life, the years of possible creation.

Charlie Parker

Charlie Parker Quotes #103676
#2. I look at melody as rhythm.

Charlie Parker

Charlie Parker Quotes #136911
#3. 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.

Charlie Parker

Charlie Parker Quotes #160008
#4. I can play all I know in eight bars.

Charlie Parker

Charlie Parker Quotes #210526
#5. It's just music. It's playing clean and looking for the pretty notes.

Charlie Parker

Charlie Parker Quotes #265591
#6. Music is your own experience, your thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn. They teach you that music has boundaries. But, man, there's no boundary line to art.

Charlie Parker

Charlie Parker Quotes #275288
#7. Bop is no love-child of jazz.

Charlie Parker

Charlie Parker Quotes #363559
#8. I kept thinking there's bound to be something else? I could hear it sometimes, but I couldn't play it.

Charlie Parker

Charlie Parker Quotes #367302
#9. Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom.

Charlie Parker

Charlie Parker Quotes #461436
#10. First you learn the instrument, then you learn the music, then you forget all that s**t and just play.

Charlie Parker

Charlie Parker Quotes #720412
#11. If you don't live it, it won't come out your horn.

Charlie Parker

Charlie Parker Quotes #786880
#12. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn.

Charlie Parker

Charlie Parker Quotes #790862
#13. Some guys said 'Here's bop!' Wham! They said, 'Here's something we can make money on!' Wham! 'Here's a comedian!' Wham! Here's a guy who talks funny talk!'

Charlie Parker

Charlie Parker Quotes #822959
#14. I'm very glad to have met you. I like your playing very much.

Charlie Parker

Charlie Parker Quotes #849937
#15. Man, there's no boundary line to art!

Charlie Parker

Charlie Parker Quotes #885066
#16. Learn the changes, then forget them.

Charlie Parker

Charlie Parker Quotes #901344
#17. Don't play the saxophone, let the saxophone play you.

Charlie Parker

Charlie Parker Quotes #1049491
#18. Don't play the saxophone. Let it play you.

Charlie Parker

Charlie Parker Quotes #1081111
#19. Hear with your eyes, see with your ears

Charlie Parker

Charlie Parker Quotes #1154891
#20. Don't be afraid, just play the music.

Charlie Parker

Charlie Parker Quotes #1179266
#21. 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

Charlie Parker Quotes #1303921
#22. Master your instrument. Master the music. And then forget all that bullshit and just play.

Charlie Parker

Charlie Parker Quotes #1319649
#23. You've got to learn your instrument.

Charlie Parker

Charlie Parker Quotes #1336863
#24. It's just music. It's trying to play clean and looking for the pretty notes. The beat in a bop band is with the music, against it, behind it. It pushes it. It helps it. Help is the big thing. It has no continuity of beat, no steady chug-chug. Jazz has, and that's why bop is more flexible.

Charlie Parker

Charlie Parker Quotes #1477164
#25. When I first heard music, I thought it should be very clean, very precise. Something that people could understand, something that was beautiful.

Charlie Parker

Charlie Parker Quotes #1620102
#26. I realized by using the high notes of the chords as a melodic line, and by the right harmonic progression, I could play what I heard inside me. That's when I was born.

Charlie Parker

Charlie Parker Quotes #1800731

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