Best Piano Playing Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“It so happened that Lucy, who found daily life rather chaotic, entered a more solid world when she opened the piano. She was then no longer either differential or patronizing; no longer either a rebel or a slave. The kingdom of music is not the kingdom of this world; it will accept those whom breeding and intellect and culture have alike rejected. The commonplace person begins to play, and shoots into the empyrean without effort, whilst we look up, marveling how he has escaped us, and thinking how we could worship him and love him, would he but translate his visions into human words, and his experiences into human actions. Perhaps he cannot; certainly he does not, or does so very seldom. Lucy had done so never. . . . She was no dazzling executante; her runs were not at all like strings of pearls, and she struck no more right notes than was suitable for one of her age and situation. Nor was she the passionate young lady, who performs so tragically on a summer's evening with the window open . . . And she was tragical only in the sense that she was great, for she loved to play on the side of Victory. Victory of what and over what - that is more than the words of daily life can tell us. But that some sonatas of Beethoven are written tragic no one can gainsay; yet they can triumph or despair as the player decides, and Lucy decided that they should triumph.”

Music Musician Piano Playing P 28

Book:A Room with a View

Source: A Room with a View

“Writing is like anything - baseball playing, piano playing, sewing, hammering nails. The more you work on it, the better you get. But it seems to take a longer time to get better at writing than hammering nails.”

Writing Seems Baseball Piano Get Better Nails Sewing Playing Piano Piano Playing

Author:Betsy Byars

“One encounters very capable fathers abashed by their piano-playing daughters. Three measures of Schumann make them red with embarrassment.”

Culture Three Father Capable Daughter Red Piano Encounters Embarrassment Piano Playing Schumann

Author:Alfred Doblin

“Please do not shoot the pianist. He is doing his best.”

Funny Please Piano Sarcasm Pianist Piano Lesson Saloons Playing Piano Piano Music Piano Playing

Author:Oscar Wilde

“Piano playing consists of common sense, heart and technical resources. All three should be equally developed. Without common sense you are a fiasco, without technique an amateur, without heart a machine. The profession does have its hazards.”

Should Heart Doe Three Common Resources Machines Profession Technique Common Sense Piano Hazards Fiasco Piano Playing

Author:Vladimir Horowitz

“When she started to play, Steinway came down personally and rubbed his name off the piano.”

Play Names Music Comedy Piano Playing Music One Liner Playing Piano Piano Music Piano Playing Steinway Steinway Piano

Author:Bob Hope

“Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.”

Source: William Shakespeare

“I got to sing solo in the junior choir when I was 10 or 11 and won a competition, and my sister's piano playing improved to a certain level. One time my sister and I worked together. The first song we ever sang in High School was Rags to Riches by Tony Bennett.”

Firsts School Together Certain Song Levels High School Competition Riches Piano My Sister One Time Solo Juniors Rags Choir Piano Playing Rags To Riches

Author:Gordon Lightfoot

“In terms of how the music developed, it was my normal process, which I would say is really a hybrid process of sketching on bits of paper, playing the piano, playing synthesisers, using the computer, staring out of the window, finding things I'd forgotten about, happy accidents, failed plans, best intentions, equipment failures. It is a multidimensional process incorporating a lot of planning and intention and a lot of randomness. Ultimately I just follow the material where it wants to go a lot of the time.”

“When I did get signed and I was going around letting people know what I was about, that's exactly how I did it: me on the piano, playing a couple of songs I'd written and talking to the people in between. That's how I got my performance chops up.”

People Knows Song Talking Written Couple Performances Piano Piano Playing

Author:Alicia Keys

“In college I had a weekend gig at a restaurant, a solo thing that was the best practice I could have ever had. That's where I learned to coordinate my singing and my piano playing.”

Practice College Singing Piano Restaurants Weekend Solo Gigs Coordinates Best Practices Piano Playing

Author:Norah Jones

“Piano playing is a dying art. I love the fact that I can be one guy with one instrument evoking an emotional and musical experience.”

Art I Can Facts Guy Dying Emotional Instruments Musical Piano Piano Playing Musical Experience

Author:Jon Bon Jovi

“In the last workshop I taught, a woman flew in from Thailand. She's a medical doctor in Bangkok. I asked her in her one-on-one session where she wanted photography to be in her life.Did she want a second career? Was it about earning money? Or was it art? And she said "None of those. I want photography to be serious in my life." It would be like someone wanting music, like piano playing, to be a richer, deeper, and maybe even harder experience.”

“You can't be different if you look at it. Being gifted is different. I had that in my piano playing. I'm very thankful for that. I'm very aware of that. The style and what I fed is just me. I never worked at it. It just happened.”

Ifs Looks Different Happened Style Piano Feds Gifted Very Thankful Piano Playing

Author:Nina Simone

“I notice guys playing the piano playing a part up here and a part down there, and I wandered why couldn't I do that on the guitar?”

Guy Guitar Piano Piano Playing

Author:Steve Young

“Life is like a piano. What you get out of it depends on how you play it.”

Life Play Life Is Music Depends Piano Life Is Like Playing Music Pianist Piano Lesson Playing Piano Piano Music Piano Playing Piano Keys Player Piano Piano Teachers Keyboard Players

Author:Tom Lehrer

“Film music should have the same relationship to the film drama that somebody's piano playing in my living room has on the book I am reading.”

Should Book Film Reading Rooms Relationship Drama Should Have Piano Living Room Piano Playing Film Music

Author:Igor Stravinsky

“The piano has been drinking, not me.”

Has Beens Music Drinking Piano Playing Music Drugs And Alcohol Funny Music Playing Piano Piano Music Piano Playing

Author:Tom Waits

“I play piano all the time. I'm always at my piano, playing music.”

Play Piano Playing Music Piano Playing

Author:Brian Wilson

“I have these big piano-playing hands. I feel like I should be picking potatoes.”

Feels Should Hands Bigs Piano Potatoes Piano Playing

Author:Sandra Bullock

“When you play, never mind who listens to you.”

Mind Play Music Experience Piano Playing Music Pianist Inspirational Music Piano Lesson Playing Piano Piano Music Piano Playing Player Piano Piano Teachers Keyboard Players

Book:Advice to Young Musicians

Source: Advice to Young Musicians

“I mean you're given all these lessons for the unimportant things--piano-playing, typing. You're given years and years of lessons in how to balance equations, which Lord knows you will never have to do in normal life. But how about parenthood? Or marriage, either, come to think of it. Before you can drive a car you need a state-approved course of instruction, but driving a car is nothing, nothing, compared to living day in and day out with a husband and raising up a new human being.”

“Simplicity is the final achievement. After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art.”

“I never had much interest in the piano until I realized that every time I played, a girl would appear on the piano bench to my left and another to my right.”

Funny Girl Left Interest Music Jazz I Realized Piano Jazz Music Benches Playing Music Jazz Musician Funny Music Playing Piano Playing Jazz Piano Music Piano Playing

Author:Duke Ellington

“PIANO, n. A parlor utensil for subduing the impenitent visitor. It is operated by depressing the keys of the machine and the spirits of the audience.”

Funny Spirit Music Audience Keys Machines Piano Visitors Parlor Playing Piano Piano Playing Utensils Piano Keys

Book:The Devil's Dictionary: Easyread Large Bold Edition

Source: The Devil's Dictionary: Easyread Large Bold Edition

“No other acoustic instrument can match the piano's expressive range, and no electric instrument can match its mystery.”

Music Mystery Instruments Range Piano Electric Acoustics Expressive Playing Piano Piano Music Piano Playing

Author:Kenneth R. Miller

“I see the player piano as the grandfather of the computer, the ancestor of the entire nightmare we live in, the birth of the binary world where there is no option other than yes or no and where there is no refuge.”

World Player Birth Computer Piano Nightmare Ancestor Grandfather Refuge Binary Yes Or No Playing Piano Piano Music Piano Playing Player Piano

Author:William Gaddis

“The piano is the social instrument par excellence... drawing-room furniture, a sign of bourgeois prosperity, the most massive of the devices by which the young are tortured in the name of education and the grown-up in the name of entertainment.”

Young Names Social Rooms Music Instruments Excellence Prosperity Entertainment Drawing Piano Massive Devices Furniture Bourgeois Playing Piano Piano Music Piano Playing

Book:Critical Questions: On Music and Letters, Culture and Biography, 1940-1980

Source: Critical Questions: On Music and Letters, Culture and Biography, 1940-1980

“The piano is able to communicate the subtlest universal truths by means of wood, metal and vibrating air.”

Mean Able Music Air Universal Communicate Woods Piano Metals Universal Truth Playing Piano Piano Music Piano Playing

Author:Kenneth R. Miller

“A lawyer's relationship to justice and wisdom is on a par with a piano tuner's relationship to a concert. He neither composes the music, nor interprets it-he merely keeps the machinery running.”

Running Justice Music Lawyer Piano Concerts Machinery Piano Playing

Book:Introducing C. B. Greenfield

Source: Introducing C. B. Greenfield

“I always make sure that the lid over the keyboard is open before I start to play.”

Play Music Piano Keyboards Funny Music Playing Piano Piano Music Piano Playing

Author:Artur Schnabel

“I insist on a Steinway for my recordings, my concerts and my home. It is the only piano I want to hear my music played on.”

Want Home Piano Concerts Piano Playing Steinway Steinway Piano

Author:Michel Legrand

“Bud Powell's probably the biggest influence on my piano playing.”

Influence Piano Bud Piano Playing

Author:Matthew Shipp

“Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.”

“The piano is a monster that screams when you touch its teeth.”

Music Monsters Teeth Piano Scream Classic Music Playing Piano Piano Music Piano Playing

Author:Andres Segovia

“Piano playing is more difficult than statesmanship. It is harder to awake emotions in ivory keys than it is in human beings.”

Inspirational Humans Difficult Human Beings Emotion Keys Harder Piano Awake Ivory Statesmanship Piano Playing

Author:Ignacy Jan Paderewski

“Conducting has more to do with singing and breathing than with piano-playing.”

Singing Breathing Piano Conducting Piano Playing

Author:Colin Davis

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Piano Playing Quotes