Les Claypool Quotes

I have a very difficult time describing my music. Because I run into people in the hardware store and they go, 'Oh, you're a musician. So what kind of music do you play?' And I go, 'Uh, I've been doin' this for many years - I don't know what to call it.'

The value of music is to be able to play one note at the right time in the right way.

Music is its own language - if you don't speak it, it's hard to say what you're trying to do.

All music has to speak in some form or other.

I'm not an intellectual composer.

The hardest of all the arts to speak of is music, because music has no meaning to speak of.

I can't really describe my sound.

You might lose your spontaneity and, instead of composing first-rate Gershwin, end up with second rate Ravel.

Aaron Copland was a man that had a very specific point of view about what music should be which was that, he felt that new music should have the composer should show a personality in his music.

I can take any series of numbers and turn it into music, from Bach to bebop, Herbie Hancock to hip-hop.

I found a certain kind of music congenial to me; it never occurred to me to write music that was academically acceptable.

Your own music comes out of your head and emotions, but it's not etched in your system.

I'm playing with music and working on different types of music. But I've realised that I can't really stray from what is my marker.

Some people think I'm a rock 'n' roll musician and some think I'm a jazz musician but, for me, there is no difference.

Arranging is the way I put my stamp on my music as much as my guitar playing.

Conductors' careers are made for the most part with 'Romantic' music. 'Classic' music eliminates the conductor; we do not remember him in it.

I play piano and guitar and I do write my own stuff so to a certain extent I know what I want to do in regards to music. But I'm still finding out what kind of music is my favourite kind to listen to, never mind do myself so I've got a lot of time to find out myself and develop myself as an artist.

Trying to describe something musical is like dancing to architecture, it's really difficult.

I was trying to establish an identity in music, and black and white had nothing to do with it.

I love the pioneers like Sam Cooke and Otis Redding, but when I write music, it comes out in my own way.

People are always defining and re-defining music. My style of playing has been characterized as smooth jazz and acid jazz. I listen as I play; I'm not caught up in defining the type of music I play.

I started calling myself the Pied Piper, when I started using the flute sound in my music.

You have to open the music, so to speak, and see what's behind the notes because the notes are the same whether it is the music of Bach or someone else.

As a musician myself, I wouldn't be confident if I received some other composers' song, because I choose to express myself through the music that I make.

Each musical finds its own way.