Soloing Quotes

#1. There are two kinds of taste in the appreciation of imaginative literature: the taste for emotions of surprise and the taste for emotions of recognition.

Henry James

#2. Soloing is serious business, because you can be seriously dead.

John Bachar

#3. When I was young, I had one of those Yamaha drum machines, and I used to practice to that quite a bit, just to practice soloing and being in time and completing all my phrases.

John Otto

#4. Soloing was pretty easy for me because it was probably the first thing I've ever done.

Angus Young

#5. I have a journal of everything I've ever climbed since 2005. For the entry about free soloing Half Dome, I put a frowny face and added some little notes about what I should have done better, and then underlined it. Turns out that is one of my biggest climbing achievements.

Alex Honnold

#6. I love my climbing shoes. Virtually all of my big solos have been in the TC Pros. They are the most important thing when I'm soloing.

Alex Honnold

#7. To me, drum soloing is like doing a marathon and solving equations at the same time.

Neil Peart

#8. The problem that I have is with the music business. For some reason it seems almost impossible to get anything, any music, released which includes improvisation or soloing.

Jan Hammer

#9. When you have 13 horns, and one is soloing, you have 12 people to play the richest, fullest chord you could ever imagine behind that solo.

Carla Bley

#10. To be clear, I normally climb with a rope and partner. Free-soloing makes up only a small percentage of my total climbing. But when I do solo, I manage the risk through careful preparation. I don't solo anything unless I'm sure I can do it.

Alex Honnold

#11. I generally don't climb something if it makes me feel fear. The beauty of soloing is that there's no pressure - no one's telling me to do it. So if something seems scary, I don't have any obligation to do it. I can prepare further or just walk away entirely.

Alex Honnold

#12. I snorted. I could write a doctoral dissertation on his 'charitable spirit.

Vicki Pettersson

#13. No people have risen who thought only of rights. Only those did so who thought of duties.

Mahatma Gandhi

#14. Soloing is the most beautiful way of climbing; no material constrains, just you and the rock, the sun, nature; a kind of school for courage, willpower and self-confidence.

Alain Robert

#15. Anything called the Teflon Corner is not sweet for free-soloing.

Alex Honnold

#16. Hypocrisy is the outward acknowledgment of inward shame.

Norm MacDonald

#17. I'm not entirely certain who arranged to have the lighting in the Rooks' offices and quarters hooked up to the Panic Lines, but it has taught me to flinch violently when a lightbulb ceases to work.

Daniel O'Malley

#18. Free soloing is almost as old as climbing itself, with roots in the 19th century. Climbers are continuing to push the boundaries. There are certainly better technical climbers than me. But if I have a particular gift, it's a mental one - the ability to keep it together where others might freak out.

Alex Honnold

#19. In soloing - as in other activities - it is far easier to start something than it is to finish it.

Amelia Earhart

#20. I've done routes where I've climbed 200 feet off the ground and just been, like, 'What am I doing?' I then just climbed back down and went home. Discretion is the better part of valor. Some days are just not your day. That's the big thing with free soloing: when to call it.

Alex Honnold

#21. I think a solo moves forward the way a song does, because it's reflective of the chords that I'm considering as I'm soloing, and at the same time I'm going as much out on a limb as Frank Zappa used to, in terms of just going crazy on the instrument.

John Frusciante

#22. You have to listen to what someone is doing and help them get to where they want to go, musically speaking. I play a supporting role if someone else is soloing, and a guitarist will do the same for me while I am soloing.

McCoy Tyner

#23. Everybody free-solos. When you walk to the store, you're free-soloing. It's just a matter of the difficulty of the route.

John Bachar

#24. The whole idea of jazz came about was the interpretation of the human dialogue, trading fours. When someone's soloing and someone picks up the solo and plays it back at 'em, it was the imitation of the human dialogue. It was how people spoke, through music.

Wendell Pierce

#25. There's individual turntable setups devoted to piano, bass, drums and a set for soloing as well. We like to try and explore the gamut of what a turntable can do.

Eric San

#26. The most beautiful experiences I've had climbing are when everything is simplified. Free soloing is the simplest thing, until you learn to fly or to walk on air - which I feel is all possible.

Dean Potter

#27. No one ever died with too much money.

Ben Feldman

#28. I like the simplicity of soloing. You've got no gear, no partner. You never climb better than when you free-solo.

Alex Honnold

#29. The climbing and soloing aren't worth dying for, but they are worth risking dying for.

Todd Skinner

#30. I'm more of a rhythmic player. My soloing is pretty much limited to playing slide guitar.

George Thorogood

#31. Any guitar solo should reflect the music that it's soloing over and not just be existing in its own sort of little world.

John Frusciante

#32. I love horns, and the bigger the band, the better it sounds to my ear.

Levon Helm

#33. We sailed to Italy on the Andrea Doria, a year before it sank, and Zoot (Sims) and I played a lot of ping-pong on deck during that trip. Zoot sparked that [Gerry Mulligan's] sextet in an extraordinary way, soloing with joyous abandon and infusing the ensemble parts with his special brand of swing.

Bill Crow