Does anyone know any good quotes about music?

Question

I'm doing a project, and I'd like to start it off with a quote. Like a saying from someone important. Maybe a saying from a famous musician or jazz artist. It has to be related or somewhat related to music in anyway. Also, give the person who said it.

Answer 1

"Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn. They teach you there’s a boundary line to music. But, man, there’s no boundary line to art."
-Charlie Parker, "Children of Albion: Poetry of the Underground"

Charles "Bird" Parker, Jr. (August 29, 1920 – March 12, 1955) was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Early in his career Parker was dubbed "Yardbird" (there are many contradictory stories of the name's origin). It was later shortened to "Bird" and remained Parker's nickname for the rest of his life and inspiration for the titles of his works, such as "Yardbird Suite" and "Bird Feathers".

Parker was one of the most prominent and inspirational musical minds and American intellectuals of the 20th century.

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There`s a few more, but I like the first one better, that`s why I elaboated on that ;-)


"We all do 'do, re, mi', but you have to find the other notes yourself."
- Louis Armstrong

"I'll play it first and tell you what it is later."
-Miles Davis

"I hate straight singing. I have to change a tune to my own way of doing it. That's all I know."
-- Billie Holiday

"One of the things I like about jazz, kid, is I don't know what's going to happen next. Do you?"
-- Bix Beiderbecke

"If you have to ask what jazz is, you'll never know."
-- Louis Armstrong

"I don't know anything about music. In my line you don't have to."
-- Elvis Presley

"Music is the one incorporeal entrance into the higher world of knowledge which comprehends mankind but which mankind cannot comprehend."
-- Ludwig van Beethoven, quoted by Bettina von Arnin, letter to Goethe, 1810

"Music is a safe type of high. It's more the way it was supposed to be. That's where highness came, I guess, from anyway. It's nothing but rhythm and motion."
-- Jimi Hendrix

Answer 2

Goerge Bernard Shaw (the Irish playright) went to a classical concert in Boston as he was a freelance reviewer also. His brilliant line was: "Last night the Boston Quartet played Brahms. Brahms lost."

Answer 3

I'm not sure who said it. It goes " It is a poor musician who blames his instrument." It will work for plenty of situations.

Answer 4

Music is where emotions and talent colide.
(EJ Kierstein, an obscure jazz singer)

Answer 5

Best one I know of comes from the man himself, Bob Dylan.
"Come mothers and fathers throughout the land, and don't criticize what you can't understand. Your sons and daughters are beyond your command. Your old road is rapidly aging, please get out of the new one if you can't lend your hand, for the times they are a'changin."

Answer 6

I always liked Mark Twain's "I have been assured that Wagner's music is a lot better than it sounds."

Answer 7

...... Compare music to drink ..... some is like a strong brandy, some is like a fine wine ....... The music you're playing sounds like Diet Coke ..... !!!!!