George Gershwin Quotes

Basically, if you work hard and practice an instrument every day, you'll learn how to play like a professional. You'll get better and better each day. And that's how it works for me. I wasn't magically inclined to play. I had to keep practicing and practicing to train my fingers.

Anybody can be a rapper, but not anybody can be a classical artist.

I really practiced hard and got to a certain level of technical proficiency. I overcame some of my limitations. I was a hard-working, dedicated bassoonist, but I have to say I'm not a natural musician.

I promise you, if you look at YouTube and see some of my first covers, you will hear that I don't sound good. But I was so obsessed with it and wanted so much to be good at it that I forced myself to figure out what sounds right and what sounds wrong.

If I had spent a quarter of the time that I spent manipulating my sexuality in front of a piano instead, I would be the most gifted piano player of my lifetime.

I played the clarinet, and my sister played the violin... If we'd had the discipline and the passion, maybe we could have been good.

I don't think I'm the most talented musician or the best singer, but I work really, really hard.

Either you have the ability to hit or not. But I also think you have to work at it.

I'm not good enough, technically, to be a classic musician. I lack discipline.

To stay a great singer or guitar player, you've got to do it 24/7. That's what I do.

I played piano for about two years when I was a kid. I didn't play long enough to be really great.

The older I get, the more I believe in practice and work over natural talent and ability.

There's no such thing as talent; you just have to work hard enough.

You can work hard to sharpen your talent, to get better at whatever it is that you do, and I think that's what it comes back to.

When I was younger, studying classical music, I really had to put in the time. Three hours a day is not even nice - you have to put in six.

To become a singer requires work, work, and again, work! It need not be in any special corner of the earth; there is no one spot that will do more for you than other places. It doesn't matter so much where you are if you have intelligence and a good ear.

Music was the first thing I did where I was naturally talented.

I wish I played an instrument, but I could never decide which one, and I ended up playing nothing.

The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work.

I will never be good at the oboe. No matter what happens, I will never be good at it because I just don't have that much time on my hands. I don't have the gift of going back to being a child and having my brain develop around this instrument.

You have to hone your craft, but you also have to be born with a certain amount of talent, and I never took the talent for granted - I've always worked really hard to be as good as I could be.

It is not necessary that the scion of a singing family, even if he sings, can excel in it. In order to reach his peak he has to work very, very hard.

I took piano lessons and dancing lessons. I was very good at piano.

I feel lucky. I feel blessed. If you get blessed with some ability, I think you have to work hard at it. Michael Jordan was a great basketball player, but he wasn't the best shooter, even though he had the skill, and he had to work and work at it.

One of the great regrets of my life is that I don't play piano.