“I was born in love with music. My mother is a singer, many of my aunts and uncles on my mother's side are musical, my grandparents sang and played blues piano. It's literally in my blood. My mother wrote an original song to teach me the days of the week.” MotherSongSidesBornTeachBloodWeekOriginalsMusicalSingersPianoUnclesGrandparentAuntDays Of The WeekAunts And Uncles Author:India.Arie
“I never knew I'd be in a musical, let alone win an award for one.” WinningMusicalAwards Author:Nicole Kidman
“Barry White is my musical hero. He was the guy who you danced to in the club and then when you took your lady home to the bedroom, you listened to him there, too! That's who I always wanted to be - the guy who was always there.” HomeGuyHeroMusicalBedroom Author:Mayer Hawthorne
“I don't listen to much rap, really. I can rarely listen to a whole record of it, because musically, it's very formulaic, and oftentimes it doesn't have the best hooks on every track. I like my music to be very musical.” MusicalTrackRapHook Author:Nellie McKay
“I think a lot about writing and I try to read a lot. Being a musician, I don't take the words lightly; they are very, very important to me. At the same time, the words have to be musical and have to fit.” ThinkingWritingTryingImportantFitMusicianMusical Author:Steve Gunn
“If I can quote myself, I explained whatever it is I'm doing once for No Tell Motel, and I still think it's the clearest I've ever been about this: "I don't write free verse poems - mostly because I can't. But I am interested in the musical effects achievable with free verse."” ThinkingWritingMusicalVerses Author:Shane McCrae
“I am a very, very fortunate and blessed guitar player to always be surrounded by musical monsters, so my life has been a nonstop jam session. I crave the musical adventure of sonic creativity and am powerfully inspired everytime I grab a guitar.” CreativityPlayerAdventureBlessedInspiredMusicalGuitar Player Author:Ted Nugent
“We're living in a time when pretty much anything can happen in the music world. There are a lot of musical languages in which people work. When I think of common practice I think back to the time I was studying the flute, where I learned that in the Baroque period many things were not notated, since they were understood - that was because of common practice.” PeopleThinkingWorldLanguageCommonStudyMusicalAnything Can HappenBaroque Author:Jennifer Higdon
“I would only listen to certain things, like a lot of teenagers do. But the Tragically Hip is a ribbon that's been with me pretty much my entire musical life. Every mix tape I ever made had at least one Hip song on it. Right from the outset I feel like Gord Downie built so much room into his songs. There was so much space in them that he created. He made me think of songwriting as full of boundless possibilities in a way that - well, that a lot of songwriters do, but that was the first time I thought a song could really contain multitudes.” ThinkingSongPossibilityFirst TimeMusicalTeenagerSongwriting Author:John K. Samson
“I try to keep my eyes and ears open all the time for the bones of my next song: things people say, melodies I hear in my head, and little musical parts I may stumble across. I write them down or record them on my phone. Whatever I need to do to keep the idea for later when I have the time to sit down with it. So writing for me is a 24/7 pursuit.” PeopleWritingTryingEyeSongMusicalBonesMelody Author:Will Kimbrough
“Most of us do know we have no immortality. And when you've found a genius, someone who has already purchased his immortality in musical or literary terms, it's maddening.” TermGeniusMusicalImmortality Author:Dan Simmons
“Commercial record has never interested me. It's amazing I was in a band like The Police that had such phenomenal commercial success. Part of what made The Police what it was was that we didn't all come in with obvious mainstream musical tastes. We were a rock band and somehow we had to make rock music, but it was informed by a lot of things outside of the mainstream for sure.” PoliceMusicalObviousPhenomenalRock Music Author:Andy Summers
“It's nice for me to have a ballet as a kind of platform for creativity, because unlike modern dance or contemporary dance or downtown dance, ballet is formalized, and there's something orthodox about it that I like. I like that there's less emphasis on subversion and innovation. I actually think that my musical vernacular or my musical voice is also less inclined toward innovation and subversion. I think I'm a traditionalist.” ThinkingKindCreativityNiceModernInnovationMusicalOrthodoxBallet Author:Sufjan Stevens
“We worked very hard on that untitled record to do something different and that we were proud of and to try a bunch of different ideas. It was like this gigantic musical laboratory that we were going to every day. I love that record, I think that's one of the high watermarks of us as a band.” ThinkingTryingDifferentProudMusicalLaboratory Author:Mark Hoppus
“Michael Jackson changed the format and history of music. His videos were films. He was the first who floated on the stage and changed the concept of a musical performance. He created something that's still the basis of a lot of what's done today.” DoneTodayFilmChangedMusical Author:Nicky Jam
“I should mention that I took piano lessons beginning when I was four. My mother was my first teacher, and it was a wonderful way to bond with her. She was a terrific supporter of my musical career. I knew I wanted to be in music since I began lessons, and I enjoy the various facets that my career has led me.” MotherEnjoyTeacherWonderfulMusicalVariousSupporter Author:Barbara Harbach
“It's kind of like being a writer in the sense that you always hear other writers say, 'Well, the best way to start writing is to just start writing.' The same goes for improvisation. You want to start improvising, just start playing notes. And the more you do that, the more comfortable - or not comfortable - but I guess how you're able to adapt to situations. You become more familiar with your instrument. As soon as you have a musical thought, you can go ahead and add to that musical thought and know your way around.” WritingKindSituationMusicalFamiliarImprovisation Author:Jherek Bischoff
“The amazing thing about the cistern is that, if you're improvising in a dead room, you play your note and then you're left with your thoughts and you have to be really quick on your feet and be able to move through many different musical thoughts seamlessly. Improvising there is just, like, you play a note and then you had at least ten seconds to think, "What would be the perfect accompanying note to that?" And then you could add that note. You can just build this puzzle that was really amazing.” ThinkingDifferentMovingPerfectLike YouMusicalPuzzlesReally Amazing Author:Jherek Bischoff
“In my own musical existence I don't feel that being a guitar player is like the best thing on earth to be. I would rather be a balanced musician. Playing in a group, I'm tending to think more about the music and less about the guitar. That's just me getting older. I'm not interested in being a virtuoso guitar player or anything like that.” ThinkingEarthExistencePlayerMusicianMusicalNot InterestedGetting OldGetting OlderGuitar Player Author:Jerry Garcia
“I think any musical has so many moving parts and the challenge is unifying all the moving parts in particular because you have the camera and now it's all about adaptation and what works in one medium doesn't necessarily work in another so the challenge is to stay as true as you can to the material and yet not be afraid to step out of it and add elements to make it satisfying cinematically.” ThinkingMovingChallengesMusicalAdaptation Author:Marc E. Platt
“I'm very happy with the things I do. Maybe I'm just lucky I like to do so many things. I don't remember any musical job that I did only for the money. Even when I worked as a music supervisor on cruise ships I did it for romantic reasons. When I work for TV it's because I want to.” ReasonRememberLuckyMusicalVery HappyCruise Author:Gregor Schwellenbach
“I've always thought that I'm not really a guitar player, but I just practised so much that I developed into a kind of a bit of a musician, but I've often doubted my musical ear. If someone sings me a melody, I have to improvise on that melody, because I can't retain the information they've given me. That's why I still practise today, I suppose, because I still feel inadequate.” KindTodayPlayerMusicianMusicalMelodyInadequateDoubtedGuitar Player Author:Ritchie Blackmore
“You can be born into a musical family and have an ear for music but being technically gifted, be it playing an instrument or songwriting, takes years to get good at. So for me, I'm excited to start over, and yeah, I have a few talents I can build off of. But I see this as a long process; it's a marathon.” LongTalentMusicalExcitedSongwritingMarathonStarting Over Author:Barry Zito
“Whether it's animated, whether it's live-action, whether it's Broadway, whether it's television, a musical is a musical is a musical. So, pretty much you approach the songs in pretty much the same way. The difference might be that in a film you have a close up. On stage you don't. So there are more songs on the stage because the songs are kind of the close up.” KindFilmSongMusicalAnimated Author:Alan Menken
“The best thing I ever bought will always be the next piece of musical equipment. I'm always interested in new techniques and there seems to be a never ending supply of great equipment to play, and to play with. My studio is a bit of a playroom.” Musical Author:Richard Norris
“The thing that interests me far more than anything is creating music, songwriting and arranging, and in that context drumming itself is a means to an end. I think it's really easy to forget that - I'd sooner play something musical than flash, and as I can't play anything flash, I try to be musical. Drums can set a mood, create an impression, as much as anything else.” ThinkingTryingMeanEasyInterestForgetMusicalMoodImpressionSongwriting Author:Al Murray
“It's a video world now, you know? It's not a musical world. It's a video world. I can watch videos. I see videos, you know, Britney Spears, she's sexy. I like to watch her videos. It's not like the music is what I'm hearing. It's different now. But it's not my world. It's the world of young people and they have what they want and they have what the technology and the society produces as a result of all these advancements that have occurred. And the in the future we'll have something else. Maybe we'll have holograms and, you know, all kinds of stuff.” PeopleWorldKindDifferentTechnologyMusic IsMusicalSexyAll Kinds Author:Don McLean
“I'm not the kind of guy who walks around with a notebook writing lyrics. For me, melody and song structure come first and foremost. Unless the melody gets stuck in my head, I'll move on. Once I have the musical idea pretty firm, I just try to write words that are incredibly honest and relate to my life on that given night. I'll sit with the music on my headphones and pen and paper all night long until it's done.” WritingTryingKindLongDoneMovingNightGuySongHonestMusicalStuckFirmMelodyPensNotebook Author:Cary Brothers
“Everything has to be intrinsic plot-wise in the same way, to use the Linda Williams analogy but to move it on a bit, as musicals - in old musicals, like in an old Cole Porter musical, you get the action, then they do a song, which reflects a moment - everything stops while that is being sung - and then you restart. These days in most musicals, the plot keeps moving through the song. I think it would be nice if someone constructed some pornography where the sex continues to propel you through the story.” ThinkingMomentsActionMovingSongNiceMusicalBeing NicePornographyKeep Moving Author:Neil Gaiman
“Mike Nicholls saw me in the musical of The Full Monty and brought me in to audition for Angels in America for HBO. And that opened a lot of doors because you could go to LA and say: "Well, I'm starring opposite Al Pacino and Meryl Streep..."” AngelMusicalMonty Author:Patrick Wilson
“Another way of working is setting deliberate constraints that aren't musical ones - like saying, "Well, this piece is going to be three minutes and nineteen seconds long and it's going to have changes here, here and here, and there's going to be a convolution of events here, and there's going to be a very fast rhythm here with a very slow moving part over the top of it." Those are the sort of visual ideas that I can draw out on graph paper. I've done a lot of film music this way.” LongDoneFilmMovingMusicalRhythm Author:Brian Eno
“In fact, quite a lot of what I do has to do with sound texture, and, you can't notate that. You can't notate the sound of "St. Elmo's Fire." There's no way of writing that down. That's because musical notation arose at a time when sound textures were limited. If you said violins and woodwind that defined the sound texture; if I say synthesizer and guitar it means nothing - you're talking about 28,000 variables.” WritingMeanMusical Author:Brian Eno
“The society that produced The Who, The Stones, Dylan, Paul McCartney and later on people, like myself, is over. The materialistic society that produces these kinds of bombastic performances that don't have any value or musical meaning, is very conspicuous, look at me, I'm rich, dig my brand. That's what missing, Bob Dylan made us feel worthy, I try to do the same thing. Respect for the audience with music that is meaningful and soulful. Go for what moves you and not necessarily what you think will be commercial.” PeopleThinkingTryingKindMovingValuesAudienceRichMissingMusicalWorthyMeaningfulLook At MeDylanMaterialisticSoulful Author:Don McLean
“It's such hard work doing a musical. I did my first musical last year, performing in The Producers, and it was a big part to suddenly be doing Leo Bloom in that. It's such hard work. It's a proper slog. It became like clocking in. And it's a big factory - you go in, everyone's got their little plot, people are taking in and out of it if they have days off or holidays, and it's just a jigsaw that all works. It always amazes me that this product would happen every night and it was just all these elements coming together in a big machine.” PeopleTogetherNightHard WorkMusicalProducersPerformingHolidayJigsaw Author:Reece Shearsmith
“Sometimes to get in the "musical mood," I'll just turn on music really loud, or go drive around and listen to music, or learn a song that I really like on guitar or piano. That gets me in the right frame of mind to proceed.” MindSometimesSongMusicalMoodListening To Music Author:John Britt Daniel
“A dream role is a role that you can't even picture for yourself. Everything I've ever played I never pictured I would get a chance to play. It [has] gone beyond my wildest dreams. One thing I would love to do in my lifetime is a movie musical. I've wanted to do that since I was a kid. That's what made me interested in acting in the first place. I would do any type of musical, but I love the Harlem Renaissance era. I think a dream role in something that I probably can't see and I don't know when it's going to come.” ThinkingDreamKidsChanceActingLifetimeMusical Author:Cynthia Addai-Robinson
“I'm glad I can do both full-band electric and solo acoustic performances. It's nice to have contrast, so if you get fed up with one, you can just switch to the other one. It's great to go to a town and play an acoustic show, and then you can come back a year later and play electric, and the show's really fairly different. The repertoire will be 50 percent different. The musical energy is completely different.” DifferentEnergyNiceMusicalGladContrastElectricFed Up Author:Richard Thompson
“I grew up in an extremely musical atmosphere. There was a lot of music and singing around. I never really thought about one not singing, as a person. I've always sung and made music, it was just self-understood.” SingingMusicalAtmosphere Author:Thomas Hampson
“Every opera, because every opera is a unique slice of a particular perspective, historical perspective and psychological perspective if not musical style, and so forth, they all present different challenges. Some can be musically very challenging, some can be psychologically more challenging. There is always something that requires a pretty specific amount of energy and attention.” DifferentEnergyChallengesAttentionStylePerspectiveUniqueHistoricalMusicalPsychological Author:Thomas Hampson
“And Paul Moravec, not being a theater person, would always trust me when I said things that I am like, "you're going to need another 10 seconds of music year to get them across the stage." But I always knew that the people were going to be coming to hear his music of which my words are going to be a part. It was clear that he wanted to go and direction A., and I wanted to go and direction B. We would've gone and direction A. That's the most important piece of advice I can give to anybody who finds themselves in an opera, or musical comedy situation like that.” PeopleGivingImportantSituationComedyAdviceLike YouMusicalTrust Me Author:Terry Teachout
“I was the dork in high school who sang musical numbers up and down the hallways.” SchoolNumbersHigh SchoolMusicalUp And DownHallwaysDork Author:Amy Adams
“I think it's silly when people try compartmentalize musical genres. That was always my problem with the chillwave thing - people were trying to make it into some kind of musical movement, when it was not a movement. A couple dudes had a couple songs for a couple months. It's going to be a disparate onslaught of people throwing ideas at the wall.” PeopleThinkingTryingKindProblemSongWallCoupleMusicalSilly Author:Memory Tapes
“I had no inkling I was going to run into this kind of luck I experienced. It's all happened and it's all turned my life around overnight; opportunities have knocked on my door and I'm just making use of them. I don't want to do anything and everything. I want to be a brand that every time I leverage my name I want people to feel sure that it's going to be something good - so whether it be my movies, my perfume, my restaurant, my musical, it'll be good work, good food and good everything.” PeopleKindRunningOpportunityLuckMusicalBe GoodGood WorkGood Food Author:Shilpa Shetty
“I wish I could go out farther from my musical history. I didn't realize how hard it was until I tried to do it. All the basic tracks on Romanian Names were done in my basement, alone, without any of the self-consciousness that comes with being in the studio. It was a completely different process. And those two things definitely made the record sound different. But you want this quantum leap from record to record, and maybe if I did make a quantum leap I'd make an unlistenable album. So maybe I'm lucky that I can't pull it off.” DifferentDoneWishRealizingLuckyMusicalTrackLeap Author:John Vanderslice
“There are so many millions of records out there, you should always be playing old and new together. This way, people can respect what the early elders of certain musical tastes have given to what we are now, and where we're going in the future. I don't care if it's rap, metal, whatever. You still should play Beatles records mixed with Limp Bizkit mixed with Foghat mixed with Creedence Clearwater Revival, stuff like that.” PeopleCareTogetherMusicalRapMetalsRevival Author:Afrika Bambaataa
“Literature belongs first and foremost to the language in which it is being written. The very same book, even if it is translated very accurately, let's say from Hebrew into English or from English into Hebrew, becomes a different book because language is a musical instrument.” BookDifferentLiteratureLanguageMusicalHebrew Author:Amos Oz
“Of course my books are translated into many languages. I have here, in my home, translations on my shelf of my books into forty-five different languages. Almost none of them I can read. I can read only the English editions. But, I know that a translation of a work of literature is like playing a violin concerto on the piano. You can do this. You can do this very successfully on one strict condition: never try to force the piano to produce the sounds of the violin. This will be grotesque. So, different musical instruments provide for different music.” TryingBookDifferentHomeLiteratureLanguageMusicalTranslationsI Can Read Author:Amos Oz
“My musical instrument is Hebrew and, to me, this is the most important fact about my writing. I write in words. I don write in sounds or in shapes or in flavors. I write in words. And my words are Hebrew words.” WritingImportantMusicalHebrew Author:Amos Oz
“Vocals are not central to what I do, and I've never liked singing live. I've always been more inspired by rhythm, texture, harmony than vocal melodies and lyrics. Plus, for me, I can better express my musical ideas through instrumental music than vocal music, the emotional interpretation of which can easily supersede the actual musical content or aim.” EmotionalSingingHarmonyAimInspiredMusicalRhythmMelody Author:Laurel Halo
“I think that's one of the problems with downloading mps these days. You never really get a chance to attune to a different logic, a different musical logic. If you hear a song and don't like it, you'll just delete it off your hard drive.” ThinkingDifferentProblemSongChanceLogicMusical Author:Alasdair MacLean