Top 99 Guitarist Quotes

I’m a self-taught guitarist, but I have a classical music background.

Every guitarist I would cross paths with would tell me that I should have a flashy guitar, whatever the latest fashion model was, and I used to say, ‘Why? Mine works, doesn’t it? It’s a piece of wood and six strings, and it works.’

It’s part of our nature. As much as I love (brother and guitarist Eddie), if you put us in a room with no one else for 15 minutes, we’d be at each other’s throats.

Eric Clapton is my dream guitarist.

Pete Townshend is one of my greatest influences. More than any other guitarist, he taught me how to play rhythm guitar and demonstrated its importance, particularly in a three-piece band.

Jimi Hendrix came from the blues, like me. We understood each other right away because of that. He was a great blues guitarist.

The pianist Cecil Taylor is extremely melodic; the guitarist Derek Bailey is extremely melodic, and Ornette Coleman.

I’m no fan of jam bands. You can take your Gov’t Mule, your Phish, your Rusted Root. But Derek Trucks is a special musician – perhaps the greatest slide guitarist who ever lived.

I’m not a really good classical guitarist by any means, but what I learned from this is a way of working very slowly on solo pieces and I enjoyed working on these pieces of John’s. They were not written for solo guitar but a lot of them were easy to adapt.

Although I’m a lead guitarist, I’d say that a good 95 percent of my time onstage is spent playing rhythm.

Who I am as a guitarist is defined by my failure to become Jimi Hendrix.

I set myself up to be a bass guitarist and bass players get a lot more work than people like me.

I’m a crap guitarist and I find it really hard writing on my own.

My dad was a really good classical guitarist. He took lessons with a student of Andre Segovia.

‘Underrated.’ That is the word that best describes Prince, the Guitarist. Why? Because his phenomenal guitar-playing was just one arrow in a quiver full of remarkable talents.

I can turn on some jazz guitarist, and he won’t do a thing for me, if he’s not playing electrically. But Jeff Beck’s great to listen to.

Reading a book about management isn’t going to make you a good manager any more than a book about guitar will make you a good guitarist, but it can get you thinking about the most important concepts.

One of the main things I look for in a guitarist is in the sound itself. I go for a certain sound, and I think it’s an important thing for making a player more identifiable in the big giant pool of musicians out there. You want a sound that people will recognise just as much as your playing.

Growing up, when I was at live shows, I was always hoping someone would come out on stage and say, ‘The guitarist is sick and couldn’t make it… does anybody know how to play all the songs?’ That was always my little dream. It was a massively inspiring thing to be in a space with live shows.

There’s only one Sabbath guitarist and he is the architect for everything, Tony Iommi.

Even Angus says that Malcolm is a better guitarist than he is. He makes the drummer’s job so easy, he’s a metronome.

Who I am as a guitarist is defined by my failure to become Jimi Hendrix.

I wanted to be the greatest woman guitarist alive. I had fantasies about being a female Jimi Hendrix.

I’ve always been a fan of Buddy Guy as a guitarist, as well as Stevie Ray Vaughan and those blues guys. I’d say those are pretty big influences on me.

We’ve got the pretty-boy lead singer and the fat, dumpy drummer, and I’m the zany guitarist. Sure, we’ve played up the image at times. But it’s the music that matters most.

I was training to be a lawyer… I was president of the law society at Glasgow University, and my bass guitarist was my secretary of my law society; the lead guitarist and writer worked at the law firm that I worked.

I’m no fan of jam bands. You can take your Gov’t Mule, your Phish, your Rusted Root. But Derek Trucks is a special musician – perhaps the greatest slide guitarist who ever lived.

I am a self-taught guitarist. I just try to piece together passages that have some melodic value!

Corinne Bailey Rae I listen to a lot, and I’ll hear Desert Island Discs and quickly write down the name of a song, and it will open up a new area of music for me. I discovered an Argentinian guitarist, Jose Luis Bieito, on Classic FM.

Ben was more improvisational, and relied less on methodology, and basically is a guitarist who switched to bass, whereas Jeff has a more traditional approach to playing bass in a band, and has a great sense of what his band sounds like, and we lock up nicely.

Having pop sensibilities from my past and also being a lead blues and sort of rock guitarist allowed me to bring that kind of beachy rock groove.

I’m definitely not a super great guitarist. Ultimately, I just write a lot of love songs.

I’ve never been much of a guitarist. I mean, I’ve played forever, but I was always more of a rhythm kind of guy. I don’t read music.

My father kind of had hopes that I was going to become an artist like him – the typical thing. Of course I could play guitar better than him when I was about 12. But I couldn’t paint better than him. So I went, ‘I’m going to be the guitarist of the house, not the painter.’

It’s part of our nature. As much as I love (brother and guitarist Eddie), if you put us in a room with no one else for 15 minutes, we’d be at each other’s throats.

I had the Slash ‘How to Play Guitar’ DVD. I just wanted to be the best guitarist, like, ever. My brother played guitar, and he taught me ‘Smoke on the Water,’ and I played it over and over again for ages.

I’ve never been much of a guitarist. I mean, I’ve played forever, but I was always more of a rhythm kind of guy. I don’t read music.

I know about the sweet home. I went to school with ’em boys, what became Lynyrd Skynyrd; I knew Allen Collins, the skinny girl-beautiful guitarist. I put Allen Collins in every travel piece I do. Travel writing is harrowing, going to Bermuda with a banjo on my knee.

I play a PRS Custom 22. I learned on a Custom 24. It was set for a country guitarist, so it had a really high action.

Life is so mundane, isn’t it? It’s great to hear a guitarist getting into it and the rhythmic section blasting, even if it’s all meaningless.

I’ve always wanted to be the best guitarist in the world, ever since I was eight years old.

I would say I am an amateur guitarist.

I remember in the ’80s, people would literally have arguments over the best guitarist.

I trained as a classical guitarist but that was it.

I find it quite easy to play chords, and, you know, that was all I ever did. I never wanted to be a lead guitarist.

Songs that are just a vehicle for a guitar solo are very empty, just an excuse for a guitarist to show what scales he practiced last month.

I’m a mad fan of American guitarist Ry Cooder and he made a record using Mexican musicians, but with American soul singers doing the backing. It opened my eyes to the fact that the Mexicans played very differently.

I think Wes Montgomery is the greatest jazz guitarist that ever lived.

There’s only one Sabbath guitarist and he is the architect for everything, Tony Iommi.

I got a lot from my uncle who is a really good ska guitarist. Very ragged makeshift rhythms and intricate lines.

Of any guitarist, Jimmy Page was my biggest influence. I wanted to look, think and play like him. Zeppelin had a heavy influence on Rush during our early days. Page’s loose style of playing showed an immense confidence, and there are no rules to his playing.

I carry my iPod everywhere. My favorite group is the John Butler Trio, an Australian jam band. The lead singer and guitarist writes amazing lyrics.

Every guitarist I would cross paths with would tell me that I should have a flashy guitar, whatever the latest fashion model was, and I used to say, ‘Why? Mine works, doesn’t it? It’s a piece of wood and six strings, and it works.’

I’m not a great guitarist, but I do bits and bobs. I’m mainly a songwriter and a composer. I’ve done a lot of scoring and some stuff for British pop music that did pretty well, but I’ve mainly been working on my own stuff with Duncan Sheik.

I played with a band, and the lead singer would always introduce me as ‘the 13-year-old lead guitarist.’ I didn’t want to be a novelty, like ‘Oh, she has three arms! Check her out.’ But I’ve learned to accept it as more of a compliment.

I think people must wonder how a white girl like me became a blues guitarist. The truth is, I never intended to do this for a living.

I wanted to be a musician, either a guitarist or a drummer. I guess my dreams were in the entertainment industry, and I landed somewhere along there.

My body is an object of work. That’s why I think to be an actor is one of the most violent jobs. If you’re a pianist, you have your piano. If you’re a guitarist, you have your guitar. But if you’re a dancer, or you’re an actor – your instrument is your body.

I’ve always been a fan of Buddy Guy as a guitarist, as well as Stevie Ray Vaughan and those blues guys. I’d say those are pretty big influences on me.

I’m not particularly good at anything. I’m not an incredible guitarist or piano player or songwriter. I think what I do is, when I notice someone is really good at something, I try to get that out of them.

My band’s motto is ‘Yngwie or the highway.’ Do you think Leonardo Da Vinci allowed someone who came later to add to his paintings? It’s impossible. That’s the whole issue. I’m not a typical rock n’ roll guitarist nor a simple band member.

Being a guitarist was scary, honestly, as a girl in Nashville. It just felt like no one was gonna ask me to be in a band and play guitar, like I never was gonna get asked to do that.

It wasn’t a class system where I was the better guy and he was the second-rate guy. That was his role and my role was to play the solos. But he took great pride in his technique as a rhythm guitarist.

Got two kids; one’s a record producer who lives just up the road from me – great guitarist and piano player, too.

Of any guitarist, Jimmy Page was my biggest influence. I wanted to look, think and play like him. Zeppelin had a heavy influence on Rush during our early days. Page’s loose style of playing showed an immense confidence, and there are no rules to his playing.

I’m always writing and learning. It’s about growth. So I’m growing as a musician, as a guitarist.

Frederico Pena is an amazing talented guitarist and producer.

I’m definitely not a super great guitarist. Ultimately, I just write a lot of love songs.

I started out as a guitarist in the early ’80s.

I first started actually playing guitar when I was eleven years old. I had some neighborhood friends who told me they were starting a band and needed a guitarist. I told my folks, and by the next day I had a guitar lesson set up with a local teacher.

I think that the more that you play and the more instruments you play and the better you get at them, then you will be better off for it as a guitarist.

I really consider myself more of a rhythm guitarist than a soloist.

Adele was introduced to me by a guitarist named Mike Hartnett that plays for a band called Rehab. We was just riding around, and he was like, ‘Man have you heard this soul singer Adele?’ and I was like ‘Nah!’ and we just rode to the whole CD, and it got to ‘Hometown Glory,’ and I was like, ‘Man I have to sample that!’

The pianist Cecil Taylor is extremely melodic; the guitarist Derek Bailey is extremely melodic, and Ornette Coleman.

Corinne Bailey Rae I listen to a lot, and I’ll hear Desert Island Discs and quickly write down the name of a song, and it will open up a new area of music for me. I discovered an Argentinian guitarist, Jose Luis Bieito, on Classic FM.

I was training to be a lawyer… I was president of the law society at Glasgow University, and my bass guitarist was my secretary of my law society; the lead guitarist and writer worked at the law firm that I worked.

I’d rather be known as a songwriter than a guitarist, although I love to play the guitar.

Steve Van Zandt, the poor guy, doesn’t get to play enough as it is with me hogging a lot of the solos. Steve has always been a fabulous guitarist. Back from the day when we were both teenagers together, he led his band and played lead and was always a hot guitar player.

Of all the things that can frustrate a guitarist the most, it’s the nagging feeling that he’s not reaching a certain level of proficiency as quickly as he should.

My band’s motto is ‘Yngwie or the highway.’ Do you think Leonardo Da Vinci allowed someone who came later to add to his paintings? It’s impossible. That’s the whole issue. I’m not a typical rock n’ roll guitarist nor a simple band member.

My interests are guitars, cars, and vacation. I’ve been playing guitar all my life. My dad was a professional guitarist, but I’m terrible, which lets me off the hook, so I just play for myself.

I started out as a guitarist in the early ’80s.

I was not a great guitarist, so I sold my 1960 Fender Stratocaster in exchange for a Shure Microphone, made in Chicago, and a flute.

My mum didn’t want me to really pursue music in the beginning, but I’m a classically trained guitarist because of her.

If I could sing, I wouldn’t be a guitarist.

Richie Kotzen is such an unbelievable talent as a vocalist, guitarist, and songwriter.

I’m not a ‘guitarist.’ I’m trying to be a bassist.

Growing up, when I was at live shows, I was always hoping someone would come out on stage and say, ‘The guitarist is sick and couldn’t make it… does anybody know how to play all the songs?’ That was always my little dream. It was a massively inspiring thing to be in a space with live shows.

I used to be totally into Steve Vai and Joe Satriani and other shredders, and I tried to emulate what they did and really grow as a guitarist.

Jimi Hendrix came from the blues, like me. We understood each other right away because of that. He was a great blues guitarist.

In jazz, you listen to what the bass player is doing and what the drummer is doing, what the pianist and the guitarist is doing, and then you play something that compliments that, so you are thinking simultaneously and thinking ahead.

Eric Clapton is my dream guitarist.

I’m not committed to putting myself up for a blues guitarist, even though I love playing the blues.

When a guitarist can evoke a certain mood through his playing, that’s what’s most important to me.

I’m a self-taught guitarist, but I have a classical music background.

My dad is actually an amazing guitarist, and he always had an incredible record collection, which is how I discovered things like Jimi Hendrix and Santana. I’ll always be grateful for that.

I get plastic nails done in the salon. When I was younger, they were stronger, but now I get my nails built up. Then I can dance over the strings. I say, ‘Okay, I need four nails; I’m a guitarist.’ Sometimes if I’m in a strange place, the girl says, ‘Yeah, all the guys say that.’

Adele was introduced to me by a guitarist named Mike Hartnett that plays for a band called Rehab. We was just riding around, and he was like, ‘Man have you heard this soul singer Adele?’ and I was like ‘Nah!’ and we just rode to the whole CD, and it got to ‘Hometown Glory,’ and I was like, ‘Man I have to sample that!’

Steve Van Zandt, the poor guy, doesn’t get to play enough as it is with me hogging a lot of the solos. Steve has always been a fabulous guitarist. Back from the day when we were both teenagers together, he led his band and played lead and was always a hot guitar player.