Music Playing Quotes

#1. Personally, I've found that the kind of thing that I like is going into somebody else's area and not playing their music but doing whatever I do in their area.

Derek Bailey

#2. I'm not supposed to be playing, the music is supposed to be playing me. I'm just supposed to be standing there with the horn, moving my fingers. The music is supposed to be coming through me; that's when it's really happening.

Sonny Rollins

#3. My eyes locked on his and I seemed to get caught in his gaze. We didn't speak, I just looked at his handsome face and memorized every inch of it. The music playing in the background, the stars shining down on us, the solitude, all of it was perfect and almost magical.

Kirsty Moseley

#4. The Tinted Windows shows were very fun but it's very different for me as a performer. I'm not playing music - I'm just singing and I missed that. I miss rocking out on keys, drums, guitar ... whatever it is.

Taylor Hanson

#5. Music herself should be silent when Nicholas speaks. (on why he had stopped playing during a performance with Tsar Nicholas I in attendance)

Franz Liszt

#6. It's too bad music can't be like movies. For me, playing music and listening to music and creating music is very environmental. It creates a certain environment; it sets a specific mood.

Avey Tare

#7. My interest in his new toy, the Theremin, isn't very big. It simply does not fit into my way of playing music. I do not want to fiddle around with my hands in the air.

Klaus Schulze

#8. I have the ability to go back to the old days with the boys and remember what it was like playing music. I have that real connection to the feeling of playing music as a young man. I do. I can almost touch it.

Joel Plaskett

#9. When you start playing music when you're quite young, it's easy to stay young. And then you're touring, and you see people who've been on the road for 10 or 15 years and they just haven't grown up at all.

Charlie Fink

#10. I didn't try out for bands when I was younger. I got into guitars intensely a couple of years into playing so much by the time I was graduating high school I was accepted into Berklee College of Music.

John Petrucci

#11. I'm a self-taught musician so how I read music is kind of very weak and I kind of read my own version of tablature, I write my own crappy reminders on what I'm playing.

Jason Mraz

#12. Most of all, it was the wild music that impressed Matt. It did the same thing that playing the piano had done when he was frightened and lonely. It took him into another world where only beauty existed and where he was sage from hatred and disappointment and death.

Nancy Farmer

#13. The funny thing is, because I was doing a lot of theater when I was a kid, and a lot of that was musical theater, as I got older I became more interested in acting as a separate entity and music as a separate entity, like songwriting and production and recording and playing music.

Guy Pearce

#14. It's weird - the cab driver is playing very loud dance music and yet it doesn't really feel like a party.

Eugene Mirman

#15. You've got to be original, or there will be nothing distinctive or interesting about your playing

Liona Boyd

#16. Death is never more than a breath away from the act of playing music. Each note on a guitar represents a small curve: birth, life, and death-and then you start over.

Andy Summers

#17. I knew I wanted to be in music, but I didn't know my role, so I did everything from interning at Rolling Stone to writing heavy metal fanzines to playing in a high-school band, and I think all those things probably helped in a way.

Mark Ronson

#18. I remember when we kissed. I still feel it on my lips. The time you danced with me with no music playing. I remember the simple things. I remember till I cry. But the one thing I wish I'd forget, the memory I wanna forget is goodbye.

Miley Cyrus

#19. We were playing popular music, but we were doing our own arrangements because we were too lazy to sit down and figure out the originals.

Tommy Shaw

#20. The best thing about being on the road in general is just playing every single night in front of people that are genuinely fans of your music.

Ed Sheeran

#21. Yes, she's playing silent music for invisible beings. Perhaps they need it.

Paulo Coelho

#22. I started off with classical music, and I got into jazz when I was about 14 years old. And I've been playing jazz ever since.

Herbie Hancock

#23. Fashion and music have always played off each other and certainly do for me; I love both so much. But there are definitely those moments when you're playing the right song at the right time in the right place, and it feels like the best job in the world.

Harley Viera-Newton

#24. Can you appreciate music without playing it? Yes, you can. You can appreciate baseball without playing it. Many people attend a football game merely for the crowd, the excitement, the color.

Jascha Heifetz

#25. The No. 1 thing the people I have spent time with in my life have done for fun is playing music.

Ezra Miller

#26. I can understand how some people might resent me for having the audacity to continue playing music, but it'd take a lot more than that to stop me from doing it. I started Foo Fighters because I didn't want to retreat.

Dave Grohl

#27. I learned so much about music by playing this little, miniature songwriting machine [ukulele], especially about melody. The motto is less strings more melody.

Eddie Vedder

#28. People don't understand what music really is. I've been a musician since I was 6 years old. I got my first piano, was playing recitals at 8, 10 I picked up a guitar, 12 I picked up my first Pearl Master drum set. I was an artist before I was an 'artist.'

Mitchel Musso

#29. I felt frustrated by the limitations of rock and the lifestyle of touring around on a bus and playing the same songs over and over. So I went back to school to study music, and one of the things I got into was the Italian opera composer Puccini.

Rivers Cuomo

#30. I went to school in Gainesville because it was a huge punk and folk town. So I went to class twice a week, and then I went to shows and wrote. I did a lot of music writing before I actually started playing music.

Benjamin Booker

#31. A cough is the basic sign of inattention. Musicians never, in my experience, cough when playing in public.

Charles Rosen

#32. There's such a cynicism about the phrase 'I laughed all the way to the bank.' It's as though money is what you're doing, rather than playing music. If you're playing a money game, why not get into banking?

Artie Shaw

#33. I suppose because I have a good ear, I could pick out harmonies and learn by ear. I still think that you have to have an ear for music to really be able to feel and understand what you're playing. You can learn by watching and listening to other people.

Mick Taylor

#34. Life is all about dancing freely while the music is still playing, but remaining optimistic about the next song. If you're lucky, someone will expectantly join in and mimic your moves in perfect timing as if the two of you had been dancing together all of your live.

Carl Henegan

#35. Truly, all that was missing was Mission Impossible theme music, and if I was being honest, it was playing in my head anyway.

Shelly Crane

#36. You see, to me, the art of music is listening to it, not playing it. The real art of it is hearing it.

Keith Richards

#37. When I'm not writing music, I'm playing guitar, or reading philosophy. So all I have left is just an hour or two for Claudia Schiffer.

Richard Pinhas

#38. My mother told me when I was a toddler and in the crib that they would have music playing, and the thing when I lit up was boogie-woogie or something out of the Louie Jordan period of sometimes big bands, and then all kinds of things.

Robbie Robertson

#39. I've been through the entire gamut of the music industry - I've been playing in clubs since I was 14, and I've been on Warner Bros, on Sony - I've had lots of successes and some serious times of struggle.

Vonda Shepard

#40. We're in this band, the Foo Fighters, making music for the love of music. We all came from bands that had disbanded, and we were drawn to each other because we missed playing.

Dave Grohl

#41. Writing more and more to the sound of music, writing more and more like music. Sitting in my studio tonight, playing record after record, writing, music a stimulant of the highest order, far more potent than wine.

Anais Nin

#42. Well, I think the first piece of music I ever heard that I really loved was 'Salome's Dances' by Richard Strauss. I played that 12-inch, 78 record, and I stood up on an ottoman to play it on a big Victrola and I'd just keep playing it and playing it.

Mike Stoller

#43. So I think it was a good thing It was a little surreal watching Leo scream 'I'm not going to die today!' with our music playing - that was the last thing on my mind when I wrote the song.

Jon Crosby

#44. Playing music has always felt very natural. You know, you do try to do other things, and you do learn lessons that way, but, eventually - well ... if your dad is a plumber, you become a plumber. It's the family business, and I felt like I was taking over the family business.

Dhani Harrison

#45. Just as there is a difference between playing a musical piece well and making music, there is a difference between knowing about regular expressions and really understanding them.

Jeffrey E.F. Friedl

#46. When I use weed creatively, I'm much better at drawing or making something or playing music. But what I do for a living is mostly performing as an actor or writing, and for those things I need to have my faculties sharp.

Nick Offerman

#47. I would have loved to record with Paul McCartney on some of his early solo recordings, wonderful music. Playing some lovely organ, perhaps. I would have loved to record with John Lennon. He was a dear friend. I had lunch with him just two days before he died.

Rick Wakeman

#48. Life's a show and we all play a part
And when the music starts
We open up our hearts

Joss Whedon

#49. When you play music with someone who has a heart rather than playing with someone who is just doing it for money or is cynical it makes all the difference.

Greg Lake

#50. I love to act and put on a show, but you're playing a character all the time. For music, it's really just me being myself.

Tinashe

#51. I can't imagine being sixty years of age and playing music I wrote when I was in my twenties. I would rather sail the sea of consequence to new lands. Laps around the shallow end of the pool, not for me.

Henry Rollins

#52. Too bad people can't always be playing music, maybe then there wouldn't be any more wars.

Margot Benary-Isbert

#53. I started playing piano when I was 6. And I knew that wanted to be involved in that form of expression, whether it was through music, or acting, or dancing, or painting, or writing.

Alanis Morissette

#54. I compose my own stuff. I've been writing songs with words. I've been playing more on the keyboard because I can transpose it to sheet music on the computer.

Alicia Witt

#55. I've discovered all kinds of music and done all kinds of music over the past 40 years, from playing tango with Piazzolla to all the different bands I've had.

Gary Burton

#56. The Flutie Bowl is a great event that brings together people who really care about the autism community. We always have a great time bowling and playing music.

Doug Flutie

#57. Usually, I'll just sit down at a piano or with a guitar, and I'll just be relaxed and playing music. Because that's what relaxes your subconscious. That's why everyone from animals to humans love music.

Cat Power

#58. Now, one can often get away with playing music by ear when it is not being recorded, but writing is another matter; its mistakes are not forgotten because they are still there to confuse us.

Albert Murray

#59. I had a radio show at the local college and I got kicked off the air and banished forever for playing music from the Rocky Horror Picture Show, Alice Cooper, and David Bowie because (quote-unquote) "They were gay." So, things have changed quite a bit.

Anne Boleyn

#60. Playing on the streets of Iraq, or in Israel or the Gaza strip, I'd sing angry protest songs against war. People would say, 'Make us clap, make us dance, and laugh and sing.' It really made me think about the importance of happy music.

Michael Franti

#61. I grew up in a house that was always happy, and my family was always music, music. I started playing percussion very young, because I had some uncles who were musicians and all my aunts were singers.

Ronaldinho

#62. You don't have to set aside a time for meditation. You can do it while you're driving your car,while you're at work, while you're playing music. Just be aware of yourself, of who you really are,and realize the rest is a projection of your mind.

Robert Adams

#63. Jerry Bruckheimer is the most hands-on producer that I've worked with. Jerry's very involved in the music, and he's such a fan of film. When you watch him playing back the cues to the picture, he's like a kid in a candy store.

Trevor Rabin

#64. When I was in school, you could pick any instrument you want, and they'd teach you how to play it. That changed my life. I loved playing music in school, and it sent me on my path as a musician.

Flea

#65. Irish folk is probably the biggest influence musically that I've ever had. My mother's Irish. And when I was very young, both my brothers were very into traditional music, English and Irish. They were always playing music, so I was always brought up with it.

Kate Bush

#66. I play piano all the time. I'm always at my piano, playing music.

Brian Wilson

#67. Doing things like playing music, something that's so natural and basic to human function, running around in nature, eating delicious food. These things are intrinsic in basic, primordial to human beings, so that's sort of a way to return to a blank canvas, allowing my true personality to return.

Ezra Miller

#68. Music wasn't forced on me [in my childhood]. It was something I wanted to do. And ever since, I've never stopped, I've never stopped playing music.

John Legend

#69. God is the Supreme Musician. It is He who is playing with us, on us and in us. We cannot separate God from His music. The universal Consciousness is constantly being played by the Supreme Himself, and is constantly growing into the Supreme Music.

Sri Chinmoy

#70. We're not a band because we're trying to be the Mother Teresas of the music industry, out to serve everybody. We're a band first and foremost because we love playing pop music.

Alice Nutter

#71. When playing big festivals, I tend to play big, over the top techno tracks, like hands in the air songs that make sense being played in front of 30,000 people. I steer away from subtlety in the interests of big bombastic dance music.

Moby

#72. I have been playing acoustic music for a very long time, and it's something that I am very comfortable doing, so if I made a record, it would probably be a mixture of that and some other things that I'm interested in.

Oscar Isaac

#73. If it hadn't worked out professionally, I would be teaching music theory and composition in a small college somewhere and playing drums in a jazz trio at the Holiday Inn on weekends, and I'd be happy there, too.

J. D. Souther

#74. I never thought I was playing black music. I was just playing music, the stuff I liked. I sang blues at parties and things when I was a kid.

Mose Allison

#75. I'm one of those artists that doesn't actually hate my old hits. I love Boston music. I really like 'More than a Feeling.' After playing it to myself in a basement for such a long time, I'm happy to do it out on stage.

Tom Scholz

#76. If you can imagine a man having a vasectomy without anesthetic to the sound of frantic sitar-playing, you will have some idea of what popular Turkish music is like.

Bill Bryson

#77. God's signature is not just in the cell, it's in all of creation. God is as necessary to the universe as a band is to music. Once the band stops playing, the music is over.

Frank Turek

#78. I tried practicing for a few weeks and ended up playing too fast.

Paul Desmond

#79. What I love about Sonny's playing is that he is so inventive within the mainstream Jazz vernacular. Because he knows so many ways to deal with musical material, he is never repetitive and hasn't had to invent a new language. Also, he never asked me to do anything but swing!

Pete La Roca

#80. I first started writing music when I was 15 and at 16, I was playing in different cities in Australia. When I was 18, I was voted number one DJ in Australia.

TyDi

#81. When we dance, the journey itself is the point, as when we play music the playing itself is the point.

Alan Watts

#82. I had wanted to play drums since the age of 9 when I saw a drum set in the window of a music store for the first time. We took lessons at a local music school and began playing together after about 6-9 months of lessons.

Jack Irons

#83. This is going to sound crazy, but I can hear music in my head. I can imagine a piano or a guitar playing, and I can sort of think out ...

Ryan Adams

#84. I've been playing music since I was born.

Chord Overstreet

#85. Everybody started calling my music rock and roll, but it wasn't anything but the same rhythm and blues I'd been playing down in New Orleans.

Fats Domino

#86. Film music should have the same relationship to the film drama that somebody's piano playing in my living room has to the book I am reading.

Igor Stravinsky

#87. I spend a lot of time doing watercolors and playing music in my apartment.

Lola Kirke

#88. When I started DJ'ing, it was no big thing. There was no money in DJ'ing, and you did it purely for the love of playing music.

Paul Oakenfold

#89. For a short while she considered the idea of orchestral courtesy. Certainly one should avoid giving political offence: German orchestras, of course, used to be careful about playing Wagner abroad, at least in some countries, choosing instead German composers who were somewhat more ... apologetic.

Alexander McCall Smith

#90. I grew up playing music and enjoying good food, friends and family in my own backyard.

Rodney Atkins

#91. Why do you have to retire at 65? Why can't you start at 70? You know, like wine. Why can't music be that way? My new band, we're playing stuff that's never been done before.

Herbie Mann

#92. Texas people are really strong in their roots. I started writing and playing guitar at 17. I've always loved music, and my dad is a singer-songwriter.

Miranda Lambert

#93. That's why I love playing shows, you've got thousands of people sharing their personal passion for the music with each other, it's such a wonderful thing to be able to curate.

Colin Greenwood

#94. I've been in the studio experimenting on making a CD of my own. I'm trying out different producers, styles, sounds. With music, as opposed to acting, you are not playing a character. You are showing people who you are. I really want to have my spirit in it.

Emmy Rossum

#95. A classical LP was playing ...
... Jealous and sweet, this music was, sobbing and gorgeous, muddy and crystal.
But if the right words existed
the music wouldn't need to.

David Mitchell

#96. I too once belived in the heavier gauge string as a superior tone source. However, thanks to the graciousness of B.B. King I learned that a lighter-gauge string offers superior playing comfort ... try it, you may like it ...

Billy Gibbons

#97. I love playing music. And that's what it's all about.

Jason Aldean

#98. As your relationship with the music gets stronger, so does your motivation for playing it and finding different sounds. If you have the idea that you can find a colour that is better for one composer or another, even if it's an illusion, this generates enormous pleasure.

Maurizio Pollini

#99. When you're playing music, say for instance, you're playing a part of the band and you're looking at your music, your horn is down into the stand. This way, it's up and it goes right on out to the audience, you know?

Billy Eckstine

#100. I was into playing American music, especially the blues.

Mark Knopfler