Being A Musician Quotes & Sayings

If you strive to become a good human being with the qualities of generosity, humility and having reverence for life ... just maybe you'll become a great musician. — Charlie Haden

I don't know what makes a writer's voice. It's dozens of things. There are people who write who don't have it. They're tone-deaf, even though they're very fluent. It's an ability, like anything else, being a doctor or a veterinarian, or a musician. — Paula Fox

Being a musician since I was a teen, Guitar Center is the staple. You need anything to create, it's there. You need a Guitar Center. You gotta give it homage. It's a tool shed, and without the tool shed, it's hard to create. — Steve Aoki

Being a musician is to live, not to survive. Surviving is going to work every day and giving up your liberty and your time. When you do music, it's a free life. — Richard Pinhas

I am not fundamentally a musician, I am fundamentally a human being. — Herbie Hancock

I think some of the musicians are more like punk rock musicians. It's like an art as opposed to being a musician. It's definitely more radical psychedelic bands, more than anything. — Wayne Coyne

That's one of the things about being married to a couple of musicians, I have got great iPods. That's what I was left with
an iPod each. — Pamela Anderson

You can expect nothing in being a musician, and you have to be just very thankful every time it goes positively for you. — Halsey

The beauty of being a musician is writing songs. That's the best part. It's therapeutic and honest and private. — Gin Wigmore

I love being a musician. I love the lifestyle. But I think it's probably as difficult and frustrating as anything. — Trevor Dunn

I don't view myself as a musician anymore - I view myself as a human being that functions as a musician when I'm functioning as a musician, but that's not 24 hours a day. That's really opened me up to even more perspectives because now I look at music, not from the standpoint of being a musician, but from the standpoint of being a human being. — Herbie Hancock

I'm having fun just being a musician as well as an artist at this point. — Peabo Bryson

I wasn't really that good at being a musician. And then I tried being a standup. I was an actor. I was a photographer. I tried everything. Nothing was particularly working for me, but then, as a musician, I wrote jokes for comics. And they started to buy my jokes, and that's where I thought maybe that might work — Garry Marshall

A lot of people say, "What's the worst part about being an actor?" And the worst part is that you're not a musician. — Paul Rudd

I want to live in a world where Miley (or any female musician) can twerk wildly at 20, wear a full-cover floral hippie mumu at 37, show up at 47 in see-through latex, and pose semi-naked, like Keith & co, on the cover of Rolling Stone at 57 and be APPLAUDED for being so comfortable with her body. — Amanda Palmer

Because I have sixty years of being a professional composer, conductor, musician, whatever, and you develop a lot of friendships and you get involved with a lot of sort of long-term commitments and obligations. — Gunther Schuller

I don't spend a lot of time thinking of what they'll do musically, I try to imagine being locked into a windowless room with this person for twelve hours at a time. If you can look at that and think it might be fun then maybe you've got the right musician. — Leo Kottke

Maybe the idea of being a rockstar or being the one who's recording or playing, sort of doesn't really matter as much anymore, when you're surrounded by great musicians who bring their spirit, their own talent. — Adrian Grenier

Being a musician is a job - it is just a really fun one! — Colbie Caillat

Interestingly, I matured as a musician and as an artist before I matured as a man. What I mean by that is, I was ready to be completely vulnerable and honest with myself and unapologetic when it comes to how I express myself in my medium. But I wasn't as secure in doing that when it came to just being myself. — Miguel

I'd actually say that every musician is a human being, and that not everybody likes being social. But with music, there are all these ingredients to the business that have nothing to do with writing songs or playing an instrument. — Amanda Palmer

Of course, I would be depressed sometimes, and my Mom would be worried about me because I would just sleep to escape. Cause I was so scared of being a musician or artist, or whatever you want to call it. — Chantal Kreviazuk

That's right," Holly had said. "I bet there were, but I bet they didn't work as well as a plastic bag," and then she turned the radio on to NPR, where some popular musician Holly had never heard of was being interviewed at length about his influences, which included, but were not limited to, the sound of ticking clocks and flushing toilets. — Laura Kasischke

I met my manager when I was 17, when I didn't have enough money to buy a set of guitar strings. There are not very many people who are looking out for you and being in business with you when you're at that stage. And it's not in my nature to think that success as a musician makes you any different from anybody else. — Johnny Marr

I'd always meant to become a musician. I'd just never gotten around to it. And my daughter being born, I was like, Okay, this is seriously the last chance. And also: Do you really want to be a dad who never did what he wanted to do? You've got to set an example now. You've got to do this. — Jonathan Coulton

I went to university (Brown), I worked as a designer, I competed in Olympic sport (rowing) ... and I ended up being a musician. It's in the DNA, I guess. — Dhani Harrison

I like being a musician that's also a fly on the wall. I like people coming in the room and doing what they do and then leaving. I like attention, but it actually gives me a little less to work with as a performer if people are editing themselves and not being them. — Travis Morrison

We are concerned, not with the development of just one capacity, such as that of a mathematician, or a scientist, or a musician, but with the total development of the student as a human
being. — Jiddu Krishnamurti

Kenny G is extremely talented and resourceful and a powerful force to be reckoned with ... Mr. G might not seem evil, but I fear him more than any other human being. — Matthew Quick

If being a gangster were a prerequisite to being a musician, there'd be a lot less cello music, for example. — Greg Giraldo

I think that there are a lot of things that come along with being a musician, but I don't want to whine about them. I don't want to complain about my job. — Tift Merritt

When I discovered music - when I discovered the craft of shaping a song - my being fell into place. — Charlotte Eriksson

Being a musician, especially at the major label where you work for so long, it becomes a cycle. Write a record, make a record, tour. It's just this cycle, and I don't think there's any life built into it with time to assimilate what's going on in front of you and what's going on in your head. — Art Alexakis

Anybody who'd expend energy preventing people from hearing music seems not to understand the basic principal of making music in the first place. It's so antithetical to being a musician. — Jeff Tweedy

Being an artist and a musician, I have witnessed the previous generation taking the art form, not as a way of making a living, but as a belief, an almost maniacal, sometimes insane devotion and commitment to communication. — David Finckel

I think a valid approach to being a musician is to take all of the experience of your life and filter it through your personality and send it back out there, and that's what art is. — David Sanborn

Being a musician, people ask you a lot about what musicians inspire you, and there's plenty of musicians that I love and respect, but I think that I'm the most inspired by cinema. — Halsey

When I lived in New York, there wasn't as much TV or film around. I got asked to do a couple of indie films, just based on me being from The Smashing Pumpkins and A Perfect Circle. I did a couple of indie movies from Japan and one from Canada, and I thought it was an exciting, fun thing to do. I had a great time doing it, it was just that, in New York, there really wasn't as much. My studio in New York closed, so I moved out to L.A. and just started looking into composing as another thing to do, as a musician. I like it a lot. It's fun and it's a different way of thinking about music. — James Iha

I know my own weaknesses as a human being, and as a musician, as a singer and as a woman. — Amy Grant

There's no feeling as a musician better than being on stage, sharing music with strangers. People you have never met, singing along, and making that connection with somebody is so awesome. — Mike Fontenot

So Nemerov showed us this picture, which is of Apollo flaying Marcius. You don't think of Apollo as being the sort of person who would skin someone alive. But the story behind it was that there was this guy who was a really great musician, and all the women loved him, and people started saying he was the best musician in the world, so Apollo got jealous and he challenged this guy to a musical dual. They would each play a song and the muses would judge who was the better musician. — Larkin Grimm

I'm not trying to stay away from being a celebrity, I'm not saying, 'I'm sooo not famous,' I'm trying to continue being a musician in a time when everyone is very celebrity-led. — Amy Winehouse

My job of being a musician in a recording studio has nothing to do with being a musician being on tour performing. — Moby

What do you think an artist is An imbecile who has only his eyes if he is a painter, or his ears if he is a musician, or a lyre at every level of his heart if he is a poet, or, if he is merely a boxer, only his muscle On the contrary, he is at the same time a political being, constantly alert to the heartrending, burning, or happy events in the world, molding himself in their likeness. — Pablo Picasso

As a musician, I don't have one thing that's "my thing." I like to create, and have a lot of outlets for it. Dustin Hoffman is one of the guys that sets a model for me, because of how good he is at being such different characters. Every time you see DeNiro, he's pretty much DeNiro - great, but DeNiro. Hoffman is different every time, depending on his character. That's how I see myself as a performer. — Chick Corea

Everything that I do is limitation and complete intuition. I'm a human being. I'm not a musician. I'm not an entertainer. I don't know anything! — Willis Earl Beal

Touring is my favorite part of being a musician. All the places I've traveled and lived affect me in many different ways. Good and bad. — Elle King

I ask myself what making it really means. I know I want to make my living solely as a musician, but I also want to be recognized as someone unique, defined by my voice, by my abilities as a songwriter, to have the world know my songs and my melodies just as they had known and acknowledged the songs of the Beatles. I want to do this on my own terms, I want to be singular, and if that means being marginalized, then so be it. I will become stronger, and even if no one else knows who I am, I shall know myself. — Sting

I've sort of had an investigatory relationship with being a musician. I really wasn't sure what I wanted to do. I felt I had had my run - I had done Jane's and I wasn't particularly interested in music anymore. — Eric Avery

Your development as a musician will come to an eventual standtill if you do not develop yourself as a human being. Only by having a creative, expansive and inspiring life can you create creative, expansive and inspiring music. — Carl Orr

I realized, that the life of a musician, even of a very lucky, very successful musician, wasn't really the life I wanted: I hate travel, I hate living out of suitcases, I hate the constant anxiety of being on stage. — Garth Greenwell

Any saxophone player will have those influences come through in their music in a very different way. I can listen to the same 10 sax players as someone else for my entire life, and we'll both play completely differently. That's the beauty of being a musician. — Kenny G

Being a musician is a noble profession. — Paul Weller

I'm better at producing than I am at being a songwriter, but it doesn't change the fact that I still have a desire to play and write songs. I've never wanted to be a career musician. But I still love to play and write. It's a big part of who I am. — John Congleton

I never minded being thought of as a pop star. People have always thought I wanted to be seen as a serious musician, but I didn't, I just wanted people to know that I was absolutely serious about pop music. — George Michael

I wouldn't recommend being a musician to anyone. It's not glamorous. It's a lot of being dirty, not eating, playing for five people and one of them is the bartender. — Dan Reynolds

I am very self-critical, but that's a good thing because it keeps me growing as a human being and as a musician. — Ray Lamontagne

I like acting and being a musician. It's like comparing apples and oranges. But I really like my day job. I've always played music since I was 12, and I guess I always will. — Dennis Quaid

The ... arguments against photography ever being considered a fine art are: the element of chance which enters in, finding things ready-made for a machine to record, and of course the mechanics of the medium ... I say that chance enters into all branches of art: a chance word or phrase starts a new trend of thought in a writer, a chance sound may bring a new melody to a musician, a chance combination of lines, new composition to a painter ... Chance - which in reality is not chance - but being ready, attuned to one's surroundings - and grasp my opportunity ... — Edward Weston

This writer, he was going on about the lyrics to "Champagne Supernova", and he actually said to me: 'You know, the one thing that's stopping it being a classic is the ridiculous lyrics.' And I went: 'What do you mean by that?' And he said: 'Well, Slowly walking down the hall, faster than a cannonball - what's that mean?' And I went: 'I don't fucking know. But are you telling me, when you've got 60,000 people singing it, they don't know what it means? It means something different to every one of them. — Noel Gallagher

If you're going to be a musician's girlfriend, you have to know that your man will always love his bandmates in a way you can't even touch, because they are the guys who help him create music. You can only help him create a living human being, with your dumb uterus. — Julie Klausner

Being as versatile as I am, I take offense to the notion that no serious musician would not be doing a late night talk show gig. One has to be open enough in other areas to be able to contribute to a show like this. — Kevin Eubanks

I never dreamt of being a musician for my livelihood. I certainly never would have wanted to be in the business that I'm in, meaning the fame and the glory, the glitter, the rock star, the famous part. — Eddie Van Halen

Acting is a growing tick muscle. I really believe that it's similar to being a musician in that the more you practice it in any capacity, as much as you practice doing it every day, the better you get. — Katie Lowes

Well, being a jazz musician is not a rose garden! — Toots Thielemans

I grew up in a time when being a musician and learning to be a musician was actually very wonderful. — Bobby McFerrin

I am a writer - that is what I am before being a performer or musician. I love waking up in the morning and then going to sleep that night with something that did not exist. — Brian McKnight

I can feel the love I'm a part of surrounding me and flowing through me; I'm near home and I'm standing hand in hand with those I love, past and present, in the sun, on the outskirts of something that feels almost like... being free. — Bruce Springsteen

Ultimately, musicians of the world must come realise the potential of their calling.
Like the shamans, we may serve as healers, metaphysicians, inciters, exciters,
spiritual guides and sources of inspiration.
If the musician is illuminated from within,
he becomes a lamp that lights other lamps.
Then he is serving planet and its people,
healing what ails us. Such music is truly important.
It is said that "only one who obeys can truly command."
When the artist is immersed in a services,
giving himself up over and over again, another paradox occurs:
He is being seen by all others as a master. — Kenny Werner

I love writing songs and being a musician, but you can't really buy the feeling of connecting with people. — Michael Kiwanuka

Growing up listening to rap music, you almost feel like you should have haters. That's an important part of being a successful musician. It's a good thing, I guess. — Ezra Koenig

Being a professional musician doesn't mean you spend 12 hours a day playing music. It means you spend up to 12 hours a day taking care of business, dealing with litigation, with the various characters who've stolen your interests, or fending off hostile lawsuits from former members of the band. — Robert Fripp

Being a musician is what I do, but it's not what I am. — Herbie Hancock

It might be something as simple as saying the right word to the right person at the right time-and that could change the course of history. You never really know. But the whole thing is to work at the process of being in sync with the universe, so that everything will align at the proper time so that you can deliver that which is your life mission. And that's why we're here as individuals. And then there's our contribution to the collective. It makes a lot of sense, doesn't it? — Herbie Hancock

It's taken me other places, but it was the impulse to write that led me to singing. I'm not a musician. I never thought of performing in a rock n' roll band. I was just drawn in. It was like being called to duty - I was called to duty, and I did my duty as best as I could. — Patti Smith

Playing drums or music, being a musician, is inside of you. So you would always see me tapping on something, playing on tables ... I never felt the need to pull out drums. — Eric Hernandez

I get to focus on being a musician sometimes, and I get to focus on being a vocalist sometimes. — Britt Daniel

It's a great thing about being a musician; you don't stop until the day you die, you can improve. So it's a wonderful thing to do. — Marcus Miller

I love being a drummer but I love being a musician in general and I love the Foo fighters. — Dave Grohl

Being a musician is a given for me-I didn't have much choice in the matter. — Tom Morello

Music is a matter of taste. Bitching at someone for liking a certain style of music is like yelling at someone for liking broccoli with melted cheese (which, might I add, is awesome). I don't understand why there are so many snobs out there who deem it necessary to force-feed their opinions to others, and claim that their experience i ... n the matter makes their statement any more credible than the next, when, as I said before, its all a matter of taste. If you dig it, awesome. If you don't, awesome. Its just another plate being served at the world's biggest (in this case musical) buffet. Don't make some kid feel guilty for listening to what he / she enjoys. — Alex Gaskarth

When I grew up, the thing boys would do during the summer is work tobacco because it was a cheap product back then. I didn't want to do that. From an early, early, early age, I was like, 'I like music. This performing thing comes easy.' And perhaps that's how I ended up doing what I'm doing today. Being a musician. — Maceo Parker

My whole purpose of being a musician is to not follow the rules, so if I set rules for myself, I've already failed. — Lotic

I've never known a musician who regretted being one. Whatever deceptions life may have in store for you, music itself is not going to let you down. — Virgil Thomson

I hate fame. There's this assumption that everyone wants it - that by being a musician, I've signed up for it at some point. But personally, what I signed up for is sharing my music. I've always said I'd rather have four No. 10 songs than one No. 1 hit. — Chet Faker

I can feel my father's spirit within me. I can feel similarities within us from the artistic perspective from being a musician. We have a lot of similarities. — Ziggy Marley

I could never overstate the importance of a musician's need to develop his or her ear. Actually, I believe that developing a good 'inner ear' - the art of being able to decipher musical components solely through listening - is the most important element in becoming a good musician. — Steve Vai

Naw, I wasn't going to sell my principles for them. I wanted to be accepted as a good musician and that didn't call for no grinning, but just being able to play the horn good. And that's what I did then and now. Critics can take that or leave it. — Miles Davis

Being a musician is very easy. My house is full of musical instruments. There's a lot of music, always. — Bjork

Dude, if you want to be a great musician, you have to try heroin. You'll see. It's like being back in the womb. — Dave Mustaine

I won't complain about touring, because I really do believe that a public-figure musician complaining about being a public-figure musician is just absurd. Like, 'Boo hoo hoo! I have to stand on stage and people pay attention to me!' — Moby

I still have a fantasy of being a musician when I grow up. — Maya Rudolph

Love is infectious. You know, God is infectious-God flowing through us and us being little-baby creators and s
. But His energy and His love and what He wants us to have as people and the way He wants us to love each other, that is infectious. Like they said in Step Brothers: Never lose your dinosaur. This is the ultimate example of a person never losing his dinosaur. Meaning that even as I grew in cultural awareness and respect and was put higher in the class system in some way for being this musician, I never lost my dinosaur. — Kanye West

I made a conscious decision that I was not going to have children. I didn't want others raising them, and looking after them myself would get in the way of being a musician and writer. — Stevie Nicks

I started singing Folksongs with my mother when I was 6 years old. We sang at Folk festivals and concerts and schools. There was always music being played either on record, Jazz and Folk, by musician friends of my mother. I took to singing very early, I believe it has been a Gift I was born with. — Vicki Sue Robinson

I enjoy doing different kinds of things. I just enjoy being not tied too much. I feel that I'm tied to myself as a kind of traditional musician and a singer, and the history that I have ties me down. — Mick Jagger

The age of 18 seemed the right time to try something different in my life. Moving to the U.K. was a risk, and I was never confident that I could ever make a full-time living being a musician, but I had to try. Initially, I worked as a jazz musician in pubs or with bands. — Manfred Mann

Being an actor is a much more structured life than being a musician. — Grant-Lee Phillips

When you commit to being a musician, I don't think you're really sure or care about when you're going to pay the bills. I don't think you care about that as much as you care about playing music. — Adam Levine

[We] have a tendency during meetings to let our minds run wild and cycle through a plethora of thoughts about the past and the future, destroying any aspirations for Zen-like calm and preventing us from being in the here and now: Did I turn off the stove? What will I do for lunch? When do I need to leave here in order to get to where I need to be next?
What if you could rely on others in your life to handle these things and you could narrow your attentional filter to that which is right before you, happening right now? ... A professional musician friend ... describes this state as "happily lost." He doesn't need to look at his calendar more than a day in advance, allowing each day to be filled with wonder and possibility. — Daniel J. Levitin