Paul Gilbert Quotes

I'm an intuitive musician. I have no real technical skills. I can only play six chords on the guitar.

I cannot say what I think is right about music. I only know the rightness of it.

Basically, I try to treat the electric guitar like an acoustic guitar. What you have to do is attack the instrument and know that your feelings aren't controlled by the controls of your guitar.

I was born understanding the language of music.

Not being able to play makes one be able to listen and receive better. The constant noodling on guitar can be great, but also distracting to the universal music inside you.

My head works in music, so there's always music there.

Experimenting with different sounds is great, but when it comes down to it, you're still playing a guitar.

You've got to learn your instrument. Then, you practice, practice, practice. And then, when you finally get up there on the bandstand, forget all that and just wail.

I can think and play stuff in classical music that possibly violinists who didn't have access to other types of music could never do. It means I'm more flexible within classical music, to be a servant to the composer.

Either your understanding of the meaning of music is there from the beginning or it is not.

People have taught me not to look for intelligence in rockmusic.

I never think about rhythm versus melody; I've always just played to what's in my head.

I don't think so, in so far as I always aspired to play the way I do now but just couldn't get the sounds out always due to technical limitations - now I can pretty much play what I hear in realtime.

Music is subjective to everyone's unique experience.

I never learned to verbalize an abstract musical concept. No thank you. The whole point of being a serious musician is to avoid verbalization whenever you can.

I don't read music. I don't write it. So I wander around on the guitar until something starts to present itself.

If I try to write a song, I will completely fail to write a song. But if I'm just holding my guitar and I just start humming, then I'll have a song in an hour.

As a guitar player, it's harder for me to impress somebody than it is to write a song that they like.

Composers are the only people who can hear good music above bad sounds.

I have a very difficult time describing my music.

I've always loved the guitar. You see Jimi Hendrix playing the guitar with his teeth, and OK, you know you're never going to be able to do that, but I always wanted to play an instrument of some sort.

No, improvising is wonderful. But, the thing is that you cannot improvise unless you know exactly what you're doing.

I can't play any instrument for the life of me, but I know what I want to hear.

Whatever I hear in my head is what I play.

I do read music, but I prefer playing from the heart.