Best Musicianship Quotes

"I think people have kind of misinterpreted what it takes to be not only a musician but also a businesswoman."

"I didn't become a musician to become a mediocre musician and just half-ass my job. I wanted to be the best musician I could be."

"I do very much remember being a broke musician."

"Thrash was the speed and the aggression, just how concise it all was. It was so focused, it was being good at your instrument, being fast and just kicking ass."

"The more you let go of your jealousy of others and other success, the more room you have in your own life to focus really just on making yourself the best musician and best human you can be."

"If there's one thing that I really wish is that people would understand that... a lot of the stuff on the content creation side... everything is based on something."

"Rest assured that underneath this guy who's playing these incredibly blood simple parts, I do sit around in a practice room practicing insane modulation."

"Nine out of 10 players become bass players from one of two reasons: they either failed as a guitar player or no one needed a guitar player."

"There's a real interest in musicianship right now."

"I think part of being a session player is more than your proficiency on the instrument. It's what you hear and what you can contribute in serving the song."

"You always want to be the worst musician in the room so you can rise to their level rather than being the best."

"Take care of your vocal health, that's your instrument."

"The whole point of being a musician is us standing up on stage crying like please love me."

"It's how you shape a line that makes you a musician."

"It's interesting as a musician to play another musician because that's essentially what we're doing."

"To be a truly great musician, it's about much more than just music."

"I think nowadays I'm confident enough to decide at Point whether I'm able to or not sometimes I still miss these notes and I'm really feel ashamed then."

"We were quite good live performers... knew how to play to an audience really well."

"Real bass players play with whatever sounds best for the song."

"Being a great drummer is definitely a lot of practice, a lot of heart, a lot of soul, and dedication."

"Phrases that work with an upstroke escape motion are those where the final note on the string is an upstroke."

"The Chili Peppers, whether John or Josh or H back in the day or Jack or Chad, they're just such a unit."

"...this song is so beautiful and it's being played by world-class musicians."

"I felt like each member was playing at 100."

"...hair metal was very arguably the peak of metal musicianship..."

"Musicians are solid right off the bat."

"Robbie Krieger is still... he's a unicorn. Legend playing with that level of musicianship, you know, that just blew me away."

"Musicians don't get hired only because of their amazing talent; they also get hired because people want them in the room with them."

"Most guitar players have a disconnect between their lead playing and their rhythm playing."

"Being a musician is not just about to play beautiful music but also to make a living and to somehow to get by."

"That's a more sophisticated and mature group of musicians, at the height of their power, than even the stuff that they've done before that."

"I'd like you to be able to play all songs in every key, or at least all songs in a couple of keys. That really makes you a versatile musician."

"The level of musicianship now is off the charts."

"Brent was really a very talented and soulful player. Some musicians, I believe, play from a very technical background and it's not always synonymous with soulfulness. Brent had both."

"Through his band came such talents as Brent Mason, Red Volkart, Johnny Highland, Guthrie Trap, JD Simo, Daniel Donato, and many, many others."

"I just developed a skill set, you know, as getting older, working in TV, learning the language of storytelling because that's essentially, for me, that's what musicianship is. It's all story."

"Musicians know this, musicians understand the idea of um, playing around with the tension and the resolution that's afforded by our, ability to um, have these expectancies, that are either met, that are fulfilled, or that are not fulfilled."

"What makes you a good musician what makes you a great musician is the ability to hear these things and play them"

"The artists that I respect the most for the artists that have all three talents they can sing they write and they play their own music."

"they treated us with respect as fellow musicians that's priceless and that goes deep within the roots of any band"

"It's rare to find a bass player that's not just a failed guitarist."

"We aren't necessarily technically the most skilled musicians or know the most about gear... My value for what I was bringing was the songs that we were writing."

"That's the best that you can ask for is to be in a band in the modern day and be happy because I feel that's rare for many musicians."

"We just wanted to show the people out there that we're musicians, that we know what we're doing and that we are able to put that in different genres."

"wow we finally found an honest guitar player"

"When Eddie gets on it and the band and Dave just does what Dave does, it was instantly cool. It's Van Halen."

"I think we live in the Golden Age of guitar. I mean, in my opinion, I don't think it's ever been a better time to be a guitar player."

"And there's some famous people that can, like, for me, Nuno... that snap is good. Yeah, he's good. I'm talking about his... his control on his solos and his precise circulation, the articulation. Yeah, yeah, it's like, dang dude, you're definitely... yeah."

"Mick Mars had honed his guitar skills and his ear and he would be able to nail complex tunes."

"It's wild to think about anybody else back there, I mean, you know, Chris Slade's good and Simon Wright's good, but they're no Phil Rudd."

"The musicianship was just on a whole nother level."

"Playing with other musicians is the most important building block when it comes to improvisation."

"Understanding the history of drumming can make you a better player, whether you're into older music or modern genres."

"T's legacy is marked by his technical prowess and innovative play, which continued to resonate with audiences around the world, influencing generations of musicians."

"He knows how to write a song, he knows how to play the guitar."

"That mindset will severely improve your timing, your feel, and your pocket."

"The reason why drummers get rehired on a continuous basis, it's not so much because they got all these chops. What makes a great musician is their decision-making. They just make good decisions."

"It's a great time to be a guitar player because these things sound so unbelievably good."

"The brain of a professional musician is firing and wiring together very complicated sequences from reading music to the complex series of muscle movements and breath control they require."

"When you're a guitarist you want those... if it makes any sense anyone wanting to talk to you about your gear means that somebody somewhere cares about it."

"Know your music and your musicians."

"It's a common thread you see with musicians in general, all instrumentalists, and artists, and I mean, what we do takes a toll on our physical health, our time, our mental health."

"When you become a guitar player, a drummer, a comedian, an artist, you become a different category of human being."

"The mark of true musicianship is having no fear to try new things, to venture out and try things maybe other people haven't or just that you haven't yourself."

"He's a great musician, yes, he would have utilized it in a musical way."

"One of the great musicians of the 20th century."

"Real musicians don't care about stuff like this. Real musicians just want to play, even if it's to an empty auditorium with three cats listening."

"Jazz musicians are people who make stuff up on the spot."

"The skill of playing along and messing up and recovery skills and the give and take that is playing with other people is a very, very important skill to learn."

"Your finger can't keep up with your brain why is that because you don't practice practice people say practice."

"I was a massive sponge. I think many musicians and many creative people and many people who wish to learn naturally learn."

"Playing an instrument can be a very individual experience but it can also be part of like a team."

"Every musician has the personal pride of you want to go in there and you want to play good even if it never sees the light of day."

"It takes a lot of work to put in to be a good musician."

"That doesn't make you any less of a musician, and just keep rocking it out."

"There's no amount of gear that's going to be able to make your studio better than you as a musician."

"Your musicianship and your unique voice on whatever instrument or whatever producing you're doing, that's always more valuable than the gear you have."

"Improving the ability of your guitar to stay in tune is a matter of controlling variables, and the biggest variable is you, the player."

"Train yourself to tune by ear; treat your ear like a muscle and exercise it."

"If you don't fall in love with the thing that sucks about playing an instrument, which is practicing, you're never gonna make it."

"The reason I play bass the way I do is because to me it's an instrument, and it makes music."

"Listening chops to me are something that I hope becomes something that's like sought after."

"Learning things like that will help you in the rest of your playing; it's going to increase your dexterity no matter what type of playing you want to be doing."

"Always tried to surround myself with better musicians."

"He makes everything sound great and he knows all the tunes."

"When you're playing in a band, your number one goal should be finding your space in the music."

"Playing with good drummers helps keep my strength and stamina up."

"You're there to serve the song, you're there to support the other musicians."

"One of the things I could choose to do for my career someday would be to be a musician."

"I'm always trying to really serve the song."

"Always trying to arc the tune, always trying to serve the song."

"...it's like a drum feature but he like doesn't... it's like the anti chops, you know? It's just like, here's the feature, you know? It's he's doing nothing except just laying down just the perfect groove, the perfect time..."

"We're musicians; we can't improvise and you can't sort of get the same feeling from a machine that you do from a person."

"Being a musician trains you for almost every aspect of your business and personal life."

"With Freddy's flamboyant persona, Brian's searing guitar solos, Roger's dynamic drumming, and John's melodic baselines, the band had all the makings of legends."

"Breathing: orchestral players have to breathe."

"It's more than just about playing guitar... it's going to be someone that's a great guy, a great team player, a great guitar player."

"The goal is not to learn a musical instrument, the goal is to become a musician."

"It could be just the thing that's needed to accurately nail the chord changes when playing or composing over diminished chords or dominant seventh chords."

"Musicians, jazz musicians are brilliant because they know all the chords, they know all the notes."

"Every song is a great, just rock-solid anthem with great hooks, great keyboards, great guitar work, fantastic vocals, atmosphere."

"Learning to record yourself is pretty essential if you happen to be into songwriting."

"Progressive rock musicians tend to see the album as a statement as a whole."

"You've got to be in tune, you've got to have great tone, and you have to have really good timing."

"Timing and tuning are what separate good players from great players."

"You're out there to play for the people, not to try and impress other musicians."

"That's actually a more of a nod to musicianship with a whole live band."

"If you play something that is a clunker and you hear it, you have to have the confidence to go 'okay, but how can I fix that?'"

"In order to counteract that as guitarists, we need to have exercises that show us where certain structures exist in multiple places on the fretboard."

"From subtle boosts and tone tweaking to fuzz-light cranked console saturation, these pedals enhance anything that passes through the circuit."

"Stick articulation is the first requirement, and then if you can have air or breath underneath it, that's the whole package."

"Our job as musicians is to expose ourselves in a way that people are afraid to do."

"The inconsistencies in people's playing attract me to them and allow them to play stuff that's from another universe."

"Playing correctly allows you to get the full dynamic range out of your instruments."

"I find if you make the guitar almost impossible to play, then you're going to be forced to play something meaningful."

"Bebop Deluxe is redeemed by the brilliance of the band's playing, and particularly Nelson's guitar playing."

"The chop chord is a chord that you can turn off with your left hand; you can turn it on with the strum and then you can stop it with that hand."

"The better you know your instrument, the more free you can be as a player."

"This is what I love about musicianship."

"So what a crazy thing, right? He's like, 'Okay, these musicians, they think that I am asking too much of them. Well, let me write a piece just to see what I could ask of them and can they do it?'"

"Being able to work with people is a whole other skill along with playing your instrument."

"Jazz isn't just an oral language, it absolutely needs to be part of any jazz musician's practice routine."

"A really good guitar player... they're never going to try to impress you, they're just going to try to serve the song."

"It's more about your time and your attitude you put in your playing."

"It's the guys with attitude that stand out."

"You have to learn how to use your instrument."

"When you're a singer, you really got to know how to use that instrument."

"Learn how to tune; if your strings aren't tuned correctly, nothing you play will sound right."

"These guitars are everything that you would need to play as a professional musician."

"I've been fortunate enough to be around phenomenal musicians because I work with jazz guys and they're the best musicians you're going to find."

"A lot of us musicians from my era had no choice but to memorize all the music that they played."

"As long as you know how to play your goddamn instrument, as long as your band knows how to kick ass live and can handle a lot of endless non-stop touring, then you're always going to be okay."

"Take responsibility, take good condition of your instrument."

"He's honestly one of the most humble and intelligent musicians I've talked to on this channel or otherwise."

"I think most players should be able to maintain their guitars on a very simple, easy way."

"It's fun because as bass players we're holding down the lower end of the spectrum and the rhythmic groove section."

"I think there's always this yearning for us bass players to wanna be melodic players."

"It's less about the instrument and more about who's playing it."

"To be a successful side man, you have to kind of take yourself out of the equation."

"You can't get enough of Band-Maid; all members are amazing musicians."

"I really enjoy using a compressor whenever I'm doing a lot of legato-based stuff; it just tends to kind of even out the volume and tone of all those notes that are going by."

"I wasn't going to deal with anybody's hot temper because Randy Rhoads, the best guitar player I ever played with, didn't have a hot temper."

"I regret my life more now than ever because so many great people I got to play music with over the years."

"I love playing with great musicians, and I got to play with so many great musicians."

"What makes an intermediate guitar player is not just the skills under their belt, but the concepts they understand."

"This is all you need to hear yourself and that's the point of this, you want to hear your vocals so that you can perform better."

"It's comfortable, it plays well, neck to me feels a bit chunky, but I like that."

"You have to have really good rhythm to be a drum player."

"I feel like this year was proof that most of these aging 80s thrash metal musicians can still kick your ass."

"We can become better overall musicians with more creative control regardless of the genre."

"It's not the guitar or the amp, it's the fingers."

"It's a great time to be a guitar player and a guitar collector."

"We still play with our top guitars."

"To develop good technique you really need to understand what one of the main goals of it is and that is to play without excess tension."

"If you're not your own favorite bass player, then why do you do it?"

"If the instrument is playing with you, you're probably going to play at your best or even better than you've played before."

"Play with the other guy ain't playing."

"When you're going to play a solo, if you sing it, it's definitely going to be melodic."

"Having a proper setup is paramount to being able to be in tune as well as you can."

"Being a musician's like riding a bicycle; you never forget."

"Every guitar player should try to have unique things like this in their collection."

"There's been a lot said about Tommy, his musicianship, his friendship, his all-around awesomeness."

"Respect your instrument; you're a musician now."

"The absolute best musicians are the best musicians because they know that there's always so much more to learn."

"But today, I want to do the complete opposite of that and really talk about players that have amazing tone that never used any pedals at all."

"That's the big difference between a good musician and a great musician."

"I just think that it's important to be as good a musician as you can be, not just be a good drummer but be a good musician."

"I think the big lesson for everyone is there's a lot more to playing the drums than playing the drums."

"If you are a serious drummer who's trying to improve every time you practice... you've got to be practicing on a serious practice kit that can translate to the real kit."

"It feels like it has virtuoso musicianship but just with feeling and emotion."

"We need this right hand consistent movement."

"We're drummers, but on stage, we're also music producers in real-time, because what we do affects everybody."

"It excels at producing the high gain crunch and lead tones that have made the Ecstasy line a go-to for countless guitarists all over the world."

"Working with David is fun because he's a great musician."

"Nothing can beat the time you put on the instrument."

"I help drummers become the musicians other people want to jam with and have in their bands."

"You can make serious progress and become that musical drummer that you know you're meant to be."

"Being able to play very softly and very loudly is a very important skill for a good musician."

"It's a player's guitar and it's good value for money."

"When you are a musician, you know what the main goal is: not to become an adult, I mean just playing all the time."

"I think a lot of guitar players, whether or not we've met each other before, have this kind of kindred spirit and connection to each other."

"Focus on musicianship, focus on being a creative arranger, a creative composer, and a creative producer."

"You're only as good as your drummer."

"To be true to your music and to be kind to people, to be a good person on the road."

"The relationship between a guitar player, a guitar, and an amplifier is unmatched by any digital technology."

"If you're serious about guitar playing, you really need to understand that relationship, and I think it's critical for you to own at least one tube amp."

"Musicians absolutely adore each other because of how they play, because of their music."

"It's perfect for just about any gigging musician."

"The great thing about all them studio musicians here is they're all so egoless, humble, just nice guys."

"Work on becoming the best possible musician you can be; work on coming up with a great idea."

"You have to be able to play your instrument before you can get into jazz."

"They get a chart from the producer, listen to a demo, make notes, and talk about the song."

"What really makes a musician desirable to have on a track is their mind."

"The power and the finesse that they both had as talented musicians was amazing to watch."

"We really try to learn the records and play them the way we think they were initially intended to be played."

"So sharp, they're so in tune with each other as a band."

"Musicians are at their most dangerous in a good way when your back is up against a brick wall."

"This has been five years of our lives that we've just spent on the road touring."

"You cannot deny just the unbelievable, unbelievable musicianship."

"Musicians need repetition, and nobody else likes it, so don't practice in front of anybody, particularly your family."