Tracy Chapman Quotes

Learning how to improvise really awakened my interest in music.

When I was a teenager, I learned to play the trumpet. Music became my passion.

When I graduated high school, I bought a guitar and, at first, didn't really think I'd get into the songwriting thing as much as I did. But after learning a few songs of other people's to play on the guitar, I got bored with that and just started writing songs on my own, and that's kinda how it came about.

My first instrument was a little blue ukele.

A friend of mine, that I had known for some time, came up one day with an old guitar. I don't know where he got it, I don't know how long he'd had it, but he knew about two chords on it. He proceeded to teach them to me, and then we proceeded to go crazy over music.

So, for instance, if you came to me, I'd ask, 'Do you want to write? Do you want to improvise? Why do you want to play this instrument? What do you want to do?'

I enjoy making music more than anything in the world. It's the only thing that it's felt the same since I was like 15.

I remember that I started playing brass - not so much because I had a calling but because I thought it looked cool.

Music is my soul and I can easily say, it is the secret of my youth.

I learned so much about music by playing this little, miniature songwriting machine [ukulele], especially about melody. The motto is less strings more melody.

This little flute of a reed thou hast carried over hills and dales, and hast breathed through it melodies eternally new.

When it comes to music, it's my clothes, it's my guitar, it's my voice, it's my song.

My dad bought me a guitar when I was very young, and I never looked back.

Singing and playing have always gone hand-in-hand with me. I love 'em both equally.

I had a good guitar, and I was a young, young kid.

It was my love for the guitar that first got me into music and singing.

I still picture myself as a student of the music. I'm always trying to learn new things. Music is just what makes me tick.

Music is a really great creative tool for me, for different roles.

When you're talking about your own music every day, listening to bands, going to festivals, you can kind of lose sight of your initial connection with music. Instrumental music - especially jazz - helps me refocus.

I started playing the drums when I was 10 years old, I think because it was fun. And then when I hit adolescence around 14, I sorta liked girls, so drums became more of a passion, and I started playing in bands.

Making music is fantastic.

I started playing guitar when I was 6 or 7 years old, and I think that, within a week of getting my first guitar, I started writing music. I just love it.

I'm never gonna be a Carlos Santana - an instrumentalist. I just like songs. It's three minutes of something that can be very powerful.

I play the ukulele. Is that quirky?

I feel it's my job to continue being a student of music if I want to continue being an artist and a producer of other artists. You have to keep filling your mind with other music. You have to be ahead of the curve.