"A jazz musician is a juggler who uses harmonies instead of oranges."

- Benny Green

"(I was) my own teacher and pupil, and thanks to the efforts of both, they were not discontented with each other."

- Andres Segovia

"I respond to those musicians who explore creatively rather than critically. That is inspirational."
- Carlos Barbosa-Lima

"The advice I am giving always to all my students is above all to study the music profoundly... music is like the ocean, and the instruments are little or bigger islands, very beautiful for the flowers and trees."
- Andre Segovia

"Originality is one of the most important things in Art and yet most of us are afraid to be original."
- Kevin Gallagher

“Enthusiasm is everything. It must be taut and vibrating like a guitar string.”
- Pele

"All music is folk music. I ain't never heard no horse sing a song."
- Louis Armstrong

"Why do you have to put any more notes in? There are plenty notes already!"
- Elliot Fisk, at a recent Masterclass, on the subject of transcribing Bach's violin pieces for the guitar.

Contributed by Mark Greenberg

"Entertainment is that which you receive without effort. Art is something where you must make some kind of effort, and you get more than you had before."
- Composer Charles Wuorinen (New York Times, March 27, 2005)

Contributed by guitarist John Olson

"A turntable is NOT A MUSICAL INSTRUMENT, you morons! It's an APPLIANCE, like a toaster oven! Or an accordion!"

- Dave Barry, Humorist, April 25, 1999

Contributed by Carlos Barrientos, Composer/Guitarist

"Nothing can come in between the guitarist's hand and the string that emits the sound...that plucking you hear comes directly from my hand, my body, and my heart."

- Alirio Diaz

Contributed by Julia Hickman, Festival Manager of the London International Guitar Festival

"Who is sitting in that empty chair?"

- Maestro Eugene Ormandy, during his years as Music Director of the Philadelphia Orchestra

Contributed by Bruce Galbraith

"Guitar playing is ... all about energy, transferring your spirit to a hungry crowd through six strings and a wall of amps. You can't help sharing what you feel with a look, whether it's serious or maybe a little silly."

- Les Campbell, recording engineer, who was voted to have the best amateur "guitar face" from his days as a heavy metal player. The best "guitar face" in history was determined to be Jimi Hendrix.

Contributed by Vincea McClelland, http://perso.wanadoo.fr/mcclelland.couste

"Is it not strange that sheep's guts should hale souls out of men's bodies?"
- William Shakespeare

Contributed by Robert Trent, Director of Guitar and Lute Studies, Radford University

"Listening to Bach now and then is good, if only for hygienic reasons."
- Sviatoslav Richter (in Bruno Monsaingeon's film 'Richter: The Enigma')

Contributed by Colin Cooper, Editorial Consultant for Classical Guitar Magazine

"There are two ways of disliking art. One is to dislike it. The other, to like it rationally."
- Oscar Wilde

Contributed by guitarist and composer Terry Champlin

"Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love."
- Hamilton Wright Mabi

"If anyone has conducted a Beethoven performance, and then doesn't have to go to an osteopath, then there's something wrong."
- Simon Rattle

"A painter paints his pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence. We provide the music, and you provide the silence."
- Leopold Stokowski, reprimanding a talkative audience

Contributed by John Olson

"Amateurs do it [ie. perform their best] when they want; Professionals do it every day."
- Ryan Walter, a former NHL player with the Montreal Canadiens

Contributed by Jeff Hanlon

"The only legitimate reason to be nervous is if you're not prepared...all other reasons are just psychological trash"
- Roger Hudson

"There's no reason to be nervous...people just want to hear some music."
- Roger Hudson

"Some people just come out to a concert to see if I'm going to make a mistake...I figure I'll throw 'em one every once in a while."
- Attributed to Chet Atkins (paraphrased)

Contributed by Roger Hudson

"...playing music produces a feeling more exquisite than the sweetest nectar this world has to offer. It is the sound, smell and taste of grace."
- Kenny Werner, from Effortless Mastery

Contributed by Deena Berke

"We all have fantasies. But Mozart's were numbered."

- Anon.

Contributed by Guitarist Roland Dyens

"Keep in your soul images of magnificence."

- Robert Edmond Jones

Contributed by John Healey, Artistic Director of the Theater at Lime Kiln

"Sindo" Garay was Cuba's most prolific composer...who played the guitar strictly by ear...but never learned to read or write standard notation. As he lived to the age of 100, he saw many of his compositions published...yet, when shown the notation said 'I don't know anything about those frijolitos negros (black beans.)'


In his own words, the loves of his life were '...my guitar, beautiful women, children and rum.'


- From Music of Latin America for Acoustic Guitar by Elias Barreiro

Contributed by Mark Greenberg

"When you're creating your own s--t, man, even the sky ain't the limit."
- Miles Davis

Contributed by guitarist Paul Smith

"Today I worked on my symphony. This morning I added an eighth note, and this afternoon I took it out."
- Johannes Brahms, when asked by a friend what he had done one day.

Contributed by guitarist Daniel Corr

"Music is the soul suddenly speaking its own language in a foreign tongue"
- Peter Altenberg (1859-1919)

Contributed by Robert Rund, Executive Director of the Community Arts Partnership at the Peddie School

"Contests are for race horses."
- Bela Bartok, upon losing a piano competition.

Contributed by Larry Cooperman, New Millennium Guitar

"Sound has the power to transform us"
- From Music course at Siddha Yoga retreat in Montreux, Switzerland, Easter 2001.

Contributed by Marianthi Cassidy

"Music is God's flow of Love"
- From Music course at Siddha Yoga retreat in Montreux, Switzerland, Easter 2001.

Contributed by Marianthi Cassidy

"Chamber music is a conversation between friends."
- Catherine Dinker Bowen

Contributed by Fredda Hyman, Director of Music in the Loft

"Remember when performing for the public, it's not the steak, but the sizzle that sells"
- Anonymous

Contributed by Gerry Saulter

"You (artists) must learn to love the art in yourself rather than yourself in the art."
- Constantin Stanislavsky

Contributed by Peter Lesnik, Executive Director of the Carpenter Performing Arts Center, CSULB

"I think music in itself is healing. It's an explosive expression of humanity. It's something we are all touched by. No matter what culture we're from, everyone loves music."
- Billy Joel

"Life is too short to play second or third-rate music."
- Fabio Zanon

"Your guitar is a dog that thinks it's a cat."
- Ben Verdery

Q: What do you call a guitar player without a girlfriend?
A: Homeless.

"I grew up in a family of jazz musicians, and I was jokingly referred to as the �white sheep� because I played classical."
- Chris McGuire

"Recording is God's way of telling you that you suck."
- Bob Brozman

"I learned to play the guitar because I can't sing."
- David Russell, who plays so well he doesn�t need to sing.

"People should play music because they really love that music and want to play it."
- John Williams, who has loved music for a long and prosperous career

"Shut up and play yer guitar"
- Frank Zappa, who did.

"Coffee and guitar is not a bad way to start the day."
- David Spelman, director of the New York Guitar Festival

"I had a James Brown record when I was five, and I was actually kind of frightened of it."
- Jason Vieaux

"Oh, the life of a freelance musician! Freezing in New York one minute, on a Carribean cruise the next!"
Michael Newman, who regularly concertizes with his wife on Cruise lines.

�Man, that guy is a shot of espresso!�
- Bill Kannegeiser, commenting on Ben Verdery�s enthusiasm.

�It should be a requirement for composition majors to listen to Radiohead.�
- Ben Verdery, while listening to their latest album.

�Everyone should have a wife that can play guitar.�
- Cuban guitarist Rene Izquierdo, who does have one.

�I would actually go on record as not having anything bad to say about Barney.�
- Guitarist Dan Zane, who just released a new CD of children�s music