Paul Gilbert Quotes

I discovered early on that I was more of a strummer than a picker.

I think the way I play the guitar is very percussive. I play a lot of rhythm chops as though I were playing congas or something.

I've always thought that the act of playing the guitar was the act of trying to make a point of playing the guitar.

I just want to be a better guitar player, really.

When you break out the acoustic guitar, the words are the focal point unless you're the Jimi Hendrix of the acoustic guitar. So the words have to have meaning.

When you watch your favorite guitarists play, notice how little their hands and fingers move sometimes. The economy of motion can't be overemphasized.

It's so satisfying as a guitar player to play stuff that's related to the blues.

Some people play steel string beautifully, but I'm not exactly a world-class picker.

When I picked up the guitar for the first time, it opened up a whole new world for me. I became obsessed with writing and playing.

I've always dabbled on guitar, but never took lessons.

I'll always do the guitar parts since it's my main instrument.

As a youngster, I used to try to pick up any bits of wisdom about the guitar I could. It's not like now where you have books and books about every aspect of anything. Any little pearl of wisdom was welcome back then.

I can do the old hand vibrato just fine, but I like attacking the strings.

I noticed a lot of guitar players neglected the rhythm part of rhythm guitar and decided I would try to focus in that.

After a while I thought it didn't make any sense to use a pick. It's kind of like typing with one finger on each hand instead of using all your fingers.

What drew me to the violin was mastering the instrument technically, which I'm continuing to do.

I started doing up-and-down strumming, basically to keep time and to play fast. As time went on, I started realizing other guitar players couldn't do it. I always went against the grain.

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.

In high school, I decided I wanted to learn guitar, so I picked it up and starting teaching myself some basic chords and started playing with friends. Guitar inherently lends itself to be guitar music, especially when you're not good at guitar.

I noticed a lot of guitar players neglected the rhythm part of rhythm guitar and decided I would try to focus in that. As my skill and knowledge of the instrument grew, I found lead started to come naturally. Sometimes I play guitar like a frustrated drummer. Ha ha!

Guitar playing is both extremely easy for me and extremely difficult for me at the same time.

I play the guitar a little bit.

I play the real instruments. I don't waste my time with anything else.

I have no guitar technique.

I've got my own style on the guitar, sure, and I play rhythm in a certain way, and I use certain inflections. People have said that to me, and I understand it.