But then there was Hendrix, man. Jimi was really the last cat to freak me. Jimi was playing all the stuff I had in my head. I couldn’t believe it, when I first heard him. Man, no one can ever do what he did with a guitar. No one can ever take his place.
I remember I took a music course in junior year of high school, and some girl brought in ‘Teardrops On My Guitar,’ and she was like, ‘Isn’t this song great?’ And everyone was like, ‘Who’s Taylor Swift?’ And now, every time I listen to Taylor Swift, I remember that moment.
I always hated jazz guitar. I loved jazz saxophone but I hated jazz guitar. If I would buy an organ trio record I would make sure I’d buy one that did not have a guitar player on it. The sound was awful!
I love classical music, but I hated classical guitar. But I like flamenco, because there was something else there going on. It wasn’t just the notes being thrown at you. And there were certain kinds of jazz that I really liked and other kinds that just went right over my head.
The music of Hendrix wakes people up to their possibilities. It’s more than just dreaming about being a guitar hero.
I started teaching myself guitar because I loved singing so much. Then one day kind of out of the blue I found I was writing a song. It just happened organically.
If I wake up in the middle of the night and have an idea, I want to go to my computer and be able to do it. So I hired someone at Guitar Center to come over to my house and teach me Logic music program, and I learned it over a couple months.
For ‘Narrow Stairs’, the majority of the songs I brought in were guitar songs – songs we could sit in a room and just play. I can honestly say I had more fun and felt more inspired on this record than anything that we had done in a long time.
He is the king. If it hadn’t been for Link Wray and ‘Rumble’, I would have never picked up a guitar.
The bass is just the crayon that I picked out of the box. I’d probably be writing similar stuff if I played guitar or trumpet. The pictures I want to draw I do with this crayon I chose, which is the bass.
I was on the road with my buddy Alex – he’s my guitar player – and we watched the movie ‘Click’ by Adam Sandler. And I don’t know why, but me and him just got in our feelings. And then we ended up calling our girls, and we were like, ‘We’re so sorry. We wish you were here!’
I played guitar when I was young and never really considered it as a way to make a living.
I was just learning to play guitar when Tracy Chapman came out. She wrote these songs, she played them by herself and I so admired her for that.
Up till now I wrote the songs on my acoustic guitar alone with the Lord. Then I would take the song and share it with my family and then we all would figure out instrumentation together.
When all your stuff gets smashed, everybody gives you new stuff. And when you’ve been playing the same guitar since you were like 12, that’s a lot like dancing with somebody else’s wife.
I just like simplicity. I like simple songs, I like simple chords, simple vocals, simple lead guitar. I just like simplicity. That’s just the way I like it.
I play the sax, piano, guitar, bass… I started as a kid with piano lessons.
I like jazz, but I could never play it. You just sit there with a guitar the size of a Chevy on your chest, wearing a stupid hat, playing the same solo for an hour.
But my role is to just apply the skills I’ve learned over the years: you listen to the guitar, you listen to the vocal melodies, you listen to the rhythm, and you come up with something that helps you take the song somewhere.
My sunglasses are like my guitar.
Some people are drawn naturally – there are natural guitarists, and there are natural piano players, and I think guitar implies travel, a sort of footloose gypsy existence. You grab your bag and you go to the next town.
Guitar players in the nineties seem to be reacting against the technique oriented eighties.
Chet Atkins… is probably the best guitar player who ever lived.
I always loved rock guitar. I just never put it together that that’s what I’d end up doing.
I taught myself how to play guitar – pretty badly, but I knew enough about music to start to figure it out.
When I was growing up, there were two things that were unpopular in my house. One was me, and the other was my guitar.
It’s hilarious, because my guitar has what’s known as a tremolo bar or a whammy bar. And the whammy bar is probably the most alien thing on my guitar that could possibly relate to a classical guitar.
I had no aspirations to be a musician, but I picked up a guitar for two seconds and haven’t put it down since.
I’m trying to make music that I like, and I love hip-hop. At the same time, I love guitar. I love rock and everything.
There was just no way I could leave this little Martin guitar in my apartment overnight or even in the afternoon, and expect to find it there when I got back.
I call myself a blues singer, but you ain’t never heard me call myself a blues guitar man.
Greg Ginn was certainly a huge influence on my guitar playing. I put him up there with people like Eddie Van Halen. Eddie Van Halen changed everything; I don’t necessarily like everything he did, but he definitely changed everything.
From 1962 to 1965, the guitar became this icon of youth culture, thanks mostly to the Beatles.
My guitar is not a thing. It is an extension of myself. It is who I am.
I’ve learned to take care of myself. You know, I try to stay conscious of whatever my energy is at all times, really. I mean, I come home from work, and, depending on the day or depending on what was going on, if I needed to adjust, I’d just meditate, or play guitar, or watch some ‘Monty Python.’
I suppose my father was more influential in my starting to play the guitar.
With Pearl Jam, everybody is so good at what they do, it’s hard to get up the courage to say, Can I sing this part, or, I want to play guitar. I feel like I have more courage to do that.
I play a little guitar, write a few tunes, make a few movies, but none of that’s really me. The real me is something else.
There is no finer sonic-producing weapon for a guitar slayer than a hand crafter Gibson masterpiece.
I’m stoked because no one’s really even seen Bo yet. It took me half the season to get used to not having a guitar wrapped around my neck. So I’m anxious for the fans to see what Bo’s really about.
I have a piano and a guitar, and I tend to switch back and forth between those two instruments to help me get inspired.
I don’t think anything can touch the expressive range of the guitar.
Marc Bolan had inspired so many people to pick up a guitar and join a band.
With a guitar I would be able to express the things I felt in sounds.
I usually sit around with the guitar in reach and grab it when I get an idea. Sometimes it lasts five minutes, and sometimes it lasts all day.
Running my hands really fast up and down the fretboard… I mean, anybody can do that. It’s the Guitar Olympics, and I can’t think of anything more pointless.
Until I was around 12 or 13, I only listened to classical music, mostly Tchaikovsky. But around that age, I started listening to Iron Maiden, and that’s when I purchased my first guitar, a pearl-white Westone.
I started out writing poems before I figured to put melodies to them and play the guitar. Somewhere, there’s a book out there on all those early songs and poems. I hope no one ever finds it. I don’t think it’s my finest work.
I loved the guitar, and I had all of this music in my head. My passion for the guitar and the ideas for what I could create musically were equal. So that’s where I was.
I suppose my little Martin acoustic guitar is quickly becoming a prize possession. It’s a lovely guitar. I bought it at the Cambridge Folk Festival in 2001 before I had cleaned up.
I didn’t know that you were supposed to tune the guitar to an open chord, and I learned to play slide with a normal tuning. I think it’s a little more melodic that way and doesn’t sound so bluesy. Of course, if I could play like David Lindley or Ry Cooder, I’d be a happy man!
I own a guitar, a piano, a bass.
If you can play guitar and sing, you can probably get a gig down the road playing at a restaurant, but don’t throw your life away chasing something that is so elusive it will only lead you to regret and may turn you bitter.
I played a guitar with a file, and a synthesizer.
Owning a handgun doesn’t make you armed any more than owning a guitar makes you a musician.
I told my father I wanted to play the banjo, and so he saved the money and got ready to give me a banjo for my next birthday, and between that time and my birthday, I lost interest in the banjo and was playing guitar.
I think often times if a guitar riff is centered around the chorus or if it follows the chorus, then it often times turns into the actual hook.
When I was younger, and Iron Maiden and Def Leppard and all that stuff was coming out, I was learning all those songs and trying to play guitar and develop my chops. I was a big fan.
I’d love to be an artist that’s multifaceted. At the moment, I am not. But wouldn’t that be cool if I was like, ‘Yeah, let me pull out my guitar and play you a song.’ I would adore that. I am so far not gifted in that way. But I am a very hard worker and a very determined person, so who knows?
