Quotes About The Guitar

#1. The reason I put make-up on or wear the costume is to try and find my own style. It's like my guitar style - I'm just trying to be an original artist.

Miyavi

#2. Since I first picked up the violin, I've been very interested in tone and texture: I would have very visceral reactions to the texture of a snare drum or a pedal steel guitar or a violin.

Andrew Bird

#3. I would prefer it if people thought that I didn't work hard, that I just played the guitar for three minutes a week and was like, 'Check out this song - what do you think?' That would be ideal. I would prefer telling people that I'm just truly talented.

Julian Casablancas

#4. Of the whole bunch of guys who play hollow body guitar, I think Herb Ellis has the most drive

Les Paul

#5. Making music is a lifestyle; go to the studio and sit in front of your computer, drum machine or guitar for 10 hours a day. The good stuff will come.

Mark Ronson

#6. We actually added an extra electric guitar to beef up 'Need You Now', but we haven't changed any of this 'Own The Night' record at all for the international releases.

Dave Haywood

#7. When I was 14 years old, I had the opportunity to meet Buddy Holly. I asked him how he got that big, powerful sound out of his guitar amp. He said, 'I blew a speaker and decided not to get it fixed.'

Robbie Robertson

#8. If you mean do I use the guitar when I'm sitting at home writing stuff, then basically no, never. All I would ever write would be stuff that my fingers easily fall into.

Fred Frith

#9. Catfish is not playing guitar no more, he's doing like a home-front thing. He had been in the business around ten years before I got in it, so I guess he's had enough of it.

Bootsy Collins

#10. You can't change people. You know that. You can't make them stop hating each other, or longing to blow up the world, not by walking through the rain and singing to a small guitar. Most you can do for them is pull them out of the womb, thump them on the backside and let them get on with it.

John Mortimer

#11. I'd rather people interpret the songs and get whatever they can out of them instead of thinking about me crying in a room with a guitar.

Angel Olsen

#12. I did a song, "Court and Spark," for a Joni Mitchell tribute album that's yet to see the light of day. So she's someone I'd like to do something with, sure. I worked with the great guitar player Bill Frisell on Phantom Moon - that was fun. I'm such a fan; he's amazing.

Duncan Sheik

#13. I keep a guitar around while writing and will improvise music. I do this for several reasons, such as that it's fun, and sometimes it helps me with the meter.

Jack Prelutsky

#14. Every one of the songs was based around picking an acoustic guitar. That was part of the concept from the beginning, that the tempos were going to go from slow to almost mid-tempo.

Jules Shear

#15. My father was in a dance band, and I wanted to do what he did, play the saxophone, but I couldn't blow a note, so he suggested the guitar. Chromatic harmonica was actually my first instrument, and I got very good at it - not quite Stevie Wonder, but very good.

Pete Townshend

#16. I've been in a band, so I understand the politics. Sometimes the bass player doesn't like what the guitar player is doing, and you have to sort of even that out.

Ric Ocasek

#17. With the guitar I've suffered a great deal, but when I've had a good time, the suffering seemed worthwhile,

Paco De Lucia

#18. A guitar twanged from the far-off radio. Country music. Damn. They'd resorted to torture already.

Kelley Armstrong

#19. I decided the world was filled with plenty of good guitar players, many of them my match or better, but how many good songwriters were there?

Bruce Springsteen

#20. All the really good guitar players - Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, or even Bert Jansch or John Martin - I love all those people. But I didn't start out thinking that I would be a guitar player. In the beginning, I played the guitar so I could sing. I mainly concentrated on my voice.

James Vincent McMorrow

#21. Guitar is the most expressive instrument in the world. I don't play much any more. Maybe a bit in private.

John Nettles

#22. If it works for the piece of music, I'm going to use it. I don't want to be limited any more than [Bob] Dylan wanted to be limited by not using an electric guitar.

Linda Perhacs

#23. I play guitar because I like to make loud noises. And the guitar is the coolest way to make a loud noise.

Kim Thayil

#24. When I lived in a little flat in Pimlico in 1981, I'd write in the hallway. As you walked in, there was a tiny little recess type thing, hardly a hallway, really, and I'd sit there writing songs with my guitar.

Paul Weller

#25. Her skirt it swayed as the guitar played
her mouth it was watery and yet ...

Bob Dylan

#26. That's all I wanted to do as a kid. Play a guitar properly and jump around. But too many people got in the way.

Syd Barrett

#27. An electronic instrument is just harboring a natural element the same way that a guitar is harboring an acoustic element. It's all nature, really.

Patrick Wolf

#28. I enjoy the song writing process more than anything. It's what I like the most, just sitting in my room with guitar or at the piano or something. Just making something up, something that's not there, that suddenly is there.

Bernard Fanning

#29. My guitar is like my best friend. My guitar can get me through anything. If I can sit down and write an amazing song with my guitar about what's going on in life, then that's the greatest therapy for me.

Miley Cyrus

#30. I like the guitar-driven music of Nirvana at its peak. At that point, I thought there was a lot of really exciting music coming out.

Al Yankovic

#31. The [guitar is the] instrument most complete and richest in its harmonic and polyphonic possibilities.

Manuel De Falla

#32. I do the protest stuff. I do country and western. I play both acoustic and electric guitar in a lot of different styles, from loud, psychedelic stuff to quiet finger-picking.

Eugene Chadbourne

#33. I grew up in the '60s, which was a creative time, so it wasn't that big of a stretch to go from a baseball bat to a guitar to a film camera.

Abel Ferrara

#34. Say your heart out.. work that dream out.. for the time won't be back again.

Vikrmn

#35. I honestly believe that you have to be able to play the guitar hard if you want to be able to get the whole spectrum of tones out of it. Since I normally play so hard, when I start picking a bit softer my tone changes completely, and that's really useful sometimes for creating a more laid-back feel.

Angus Young

#36. The musings are the same I believe the fire to create burns so heavily that I am never far from a guitar or a fountain pen.

Shelby Lynne

#37. My first love was the sound of guitar.

Boz Scaggs

#38. That happens every time I get behind a guitar, regardless of what I'm saying, 'cause music is freedom and being free is the closest I've ever felt to being spiritual.

Ben Harper

#39. There's one piece of advice my dad gave me when he dropped me off at college. He said, "You've got the talent. You can sing and play guitar. That doesn't make you any better than anyone else.".

John Denver

#40. The jam stuff doesn't appeal to me in general. My newfound love for the Dead came from Robert Hunter and Jerry Garcia's songwriting, not the elaborate guitar solos. I'm a song person. Once it starts to break out of that structure and become loopy, it's uninteresting to me.

Colin Meloy

#41. Johnny Depp already seen how alcohol and drugs can get in the way of a career. And you have to remember one thing: Johnny was a guitar player and a rock-and-roller way before he was an actor. When he came to Los Angeles, he came with his band.

Alice Cooper

#42. It was my love for the guitar that first got me into music and singing.

Ed Sheeran

#43. There comes a point with any collaboration like that where you start having other interests creatively. I was moving in one direction musically, and as a guitar player, Mark wanted to move in another direction. That was essentially the reason we broke up.

Scott Stapp

#44. On acoustic guitar I tend to stay in the key of D for some reason. On electric guitar I keep basic: C, G, D, and A. The key of D minor is also real good for me.

Tommy Shaw

#45. My guitar is my torch, my soul carries the flame. Make no mistake, I'm a true blues man.

Big Bill Morganfield

#46. A guitar for me is pretty much strictly in the context of writing songs for my band, coming up with ideas with my band, and then being able to perform those songs as best as I can on stage - that's what the guitar for me has always been.

Scott Ian

#47. Too bad that Paul Ryan confessed to being a fan of Rage Against The Machine. By doing so, he not only begged for a bucketing by many of their fans but actually got one from the band's guitar player, Tom Morello.

Henry Rollins

#48. Writing used to be my hobby, but now that it's my job, I have no hobby - except watching TV and laying around the pool reading 'U.S. Weekly.' I have tried many hobbies, such as knitting, Pilates, ballet, yoga, and guitar, but none of them have taken.

Meg Cabot

#49. In recording, you're trying to make something work sonically - getting the right inflection on the right guitar sound - and maybe a part that would be musically great doesn't sound as cool.

Beck

#50. Since I left Chicago, I'm a lone wolf. I put on the record player and sit and try to play on the guitar. I've got five guitars here and can't play them, but I'm always whompin' around.

James Cotton

#51. I still believe in the need for guitars and drums and desperate poetry.

Frank Turner

#52. I'm basically a keyboard player, so if it's got a keyboard on it, I'll give it a shot. I played a lot of organ in the early days. I can make a few chords on guitar, but that's about it.

Ray Stevens

#53. I understand the rock star deal having been one and still going out strapping my guitar on and performing. Now, I probably do 30 or 40 dates a year and I get to relive how I felt at 19 when I played in some really bad bands.

David Cassidy

#54. I'm not that fluid when it comes to scales and modes. I just pick up the guitar and play. It's all about exploration: just tune the guitar any way you want and start playing.

Alex Lifeson

#55. Of course there is school and sports, but I also like X-Box 360. 'Black Ops 3' is one of my favorites. I also like to play the guitar and piano.

Chandler Canterbury

#56. We had a wonderful time with this kind of grunge awareness, where suddenly rock was cool again. People wanted to head loud guitars. It was a great time, and I'm glad we were there. But the gimmick part has worn off.

Billy Corgan

#57. We dragged English guitar music out of the gutter.

Noel Gallagher

#58. I started writing songs when I was 10. It was a natural way to express myself as a kid. It wasn't until I started listening to jazz, joined the choir and picked up a guitar that my little hobby became something far more serious.

Kimbra

#59. I didn't even write the lyrics down. I got in the booth, I put down a little guitar riff and the idea I had was it was going to be really simple, I just want it to be all about the lyrics and I just literally sang the lyrics.

Benji Madden

#60. I'm really interested in trying to learn how to play the guitar since I've got two of them! I can kind of mess around on the piano, but I'm going to start learning how to play the guitar.

Danielle Bradbery

#61. There's so much that can be done on the guitar. And that's what is so good about the guitar - everyone can really enjoy themselves on it and have a good time, which is what it's all about.

Jimmy Page

#62. When I picked up the guitar for the first time, it opened up a whole new world for me. I became obsessed with writing and playing.

Drake Bell

#63. COURAGE is the only currency; more you spend, richer you become; by earning the RESPECT.

Vikrmn

#64. I like jazz, but I could never play it. You just sit there with a guitar the size of a Chevy on your chest, wearing a stupid hat, playing the same solo for an hour.

Dave Mustaine

#65. When I want to be popular, I pull on a guitar and sing a song. Pras did not affect me because, in the realm of politics, he has never stood up for anything.

Wyclef Jean

#66. And oh my God, who brought that goddamn guitar? I want to kill them. Do you know how you can tell who the douche bag is at the party? It's the guy who starts playing the acoustic guitar.

Robin Benway

#67. What I wanted to do was play the guitar but I don't like instrumental rock. I think it is tripe.

Andy Summers

#68. I come home from work, and depending on the day or depending on what was going on, if I needed to adjust, I'd just meditate or play guitar or watch some 'Monty Python.'

Brent Sexton

#69. The guitar is a small orchestra. It is polyphonic. Every string is a different color, a different voice.

Andres Segovia

#70. I wanted to be heard myself, which is hard in a household of people who were very showy. It forced me to find myself and define a personality and a way of being different, and that's a thing that's going to help me to survive in a world of many people playing the guitar.

Martha Wainwright

#71. The thing about guitar players is we're all like a brotherhood or sisterhood. We don't care if you're great, good, bad, in between or whatever. As long as you love it, then we're all going to help each other.

Tommy Emmanuel

#72. I got my first real bass guitar in my hands when I was 14 - a 1957 Fender Precision, which is still hanging on the wall in my front room. I loved the heaviness of it and the feel of the wood. I still do.

Suzi Quatro

#73. and I learned more at the hands of Carl Wilson than I learned from anybody else. He taught me a fuck of a lot of guitar playing. That man is a good guitar player.

Holly George-Warren

#74. I did pick up a guitar once, but the strings hurt my fingers so I put it down again.

Bill Nighy

#75. I try to become a singer. The guitar has always been abused with distortion units and funny sorts of effects, but when you don't do that and just let the genuine sound come through, there's a whole magic there.

Jeff Beck

#76. I enjoy listening to Olla Bell. There is also this young guitar player, John Duke Lippincott, he sometimes goes by Johnny Duke. He is the most brilliant guitar player from right here in Wilmington, DE.

David Bromberg

#77. What people don't realize is that the so-called Seattle grunge scene grew out of several close-knit gourmet supper clubs - we would only pick up guitars to pass the time while our dishes were simmering, baking, boiling, etc.

Kurt Cobain

#78. Hendrix was the bass player for Little Richard. We were both left-handed, but we would use a right-handed guitar held upside down and backwards. He developed my slides and my riffs. In fact he used to say, and this is documented, 'I patterned my style after Dick Dale.'

Dick Dale

#79. It's quite similar to guitar solos, only with programming you have to use your brain. The most important thing is that it should have some emotional effect on me, rather than just, 'Oh, that's really clever.'

Richard D. James

#80. This isn't a mass-produced ... instrument. Mike Lull Custom Guitars makes each bass right here in the NW. Over 20 years of collaborating, designing, and building basses has gone into my model.

Jeff Ament

#81. The very day I purchased it, I christened my guitar as my monophonic symphony, six string orchestra.

Harry Chapin

#82. I learned guitar solely for the purpose of meeting women. I'd heard it's a great lady-catcher.

Tony Revolori

#83. When you've got insane drums and a lot of guitar, it's really hard to mix the vocals, to mix it all well.

Marnie Stern

#84. The Lounge Lizards were relating with a tradition and it was like I was playing within a musical context. The guitar playing stood out as being different in some way. That was a real education for me.

Arto Lindsay

#85. In England, people had been loudly proclaiming the death of the guitar and the birth of the synthesizer, but Sonic Youth and other American guitar bands started to create a buzz.

Kim Gordon

#86. People ask me to describe how I play, and the most obvious answer is that I'm a jazz influenced guitar player. But I'm not a jazz guitar player. Wes Montgomery was a jazz guitarist, Joe Pass was a jazz guitarist (laughs).

Larry Carlton

#87. I'm a guitar player first. So my first hero was Angus Young from AC/DC. I used to copy every move that he did, play every lick that he would. I knew I wanted to be some kind of a rocker, back in the day.

Phillip Phillips

#88. I'm the oracle in my chest,
Let the guitar scream like a fascist,
Sweat it out, shut your mouth,
Free love on the streets, but
In the alley and I ain't that cheap, now

Fall Out Boy

#89. I always use the same guitar; I got this guitar years and years ago for nine pounds. It's still got the same strings on it.

Brian Eno

#90. May your P&L account of deeds for humanity be in profits; for you have to present the your Balance Sheet on the Judgment Day.

Vikrmn

#91. I love Neil Young. His songs were the first songs I learned to play, and I recommend anyone who is starting guitar to learn Neil Young songs first.

Jesse Harris

#92. I'll always do the guitar parts since it's my main instrument.

Trevor Rabin

#93. I never bothered with cars. I was probably one of the few kids in school who didn't run around with hot-rod magazines. As I would be at home fiddling with my guitar, they would be fiddling with a car engine.

Angus Young

#94. The best thing is I can say 'I'm working' when I'm having a cup of tea and a cigarette and fiddling on the guitar.

Ben Howard

#95. Setting the guitar down, I stood and took a step forward to close the gap she'd created. "You need to get used to it. I don't want to be just someone to you. I want to be the only one. And I promise you, Maggie Malone, if you let me, I'll earn all of the pieces of you before I take a single one.

Pamela Sparkman

#96. I'm working on my music a lot, like folk singing, guitar. It's sort of rocky, folky, alty, angsty. I'm putting a lot of energy into that. I write pretty much all the time.

Jamie Campbell Bower

#97. The more I got into playing guitar, the more I enjoyed music, and the broader my listening became. The instrument itself became important to me, and I started messing around with classical guitar and took classical lessons.

Alex Lifeson

#98. She was married for seven years to a concrete castle king. She said she wanted to learn to play the guitar and to hear her children sing. So I'd show up about once a week in my faded tight-legged jeans with a backlog full of hobo stories and dilapidated dreams.

Harry Chapin

#99. As a youngster, I used to try to pick up any bits of wisdom about the guitar I could. It's not like now where you have books and books about every aspect of anything. Any little pearl of wisdom was welcome back then.

Johnny Marr

#100. What Guitar Hero has done is to turn music inside out. Whereas the iPod made music very personal, very singular - you put your ear-buds in and you listen to it - Guitar Hero turned it around and made it very social. So it is fun to play. It's fun to play against people.

Dan Rosensweig