James Blake Quotes

I started studying music at the age of five and a half. My older sister was taking piano lessons. When her teacher left our apartment, I would get up on the piano bench and start picking out the notes that were part of my sister's lessons.

The thing with music education is that it is good at teaching technique, but not texture. You only learn about that from listening to music and experimenting on your own.

Music is at once the product of feeling and knowledge, for it requires from its disciples, composers and performers alike, not only talent and enthusiasm, but also that knowledge and perception which are the result of protracted study and reflection.

You think it matters to the kids whether they're learning to play on a Steinway or a normal piano?

I'm a natural piano player. So all the practicing I do at this point is in my head. If I don't play for a year, my chops aren't going to get any worse. I've spent my time playing scales, and I don't necessarily want to play any faster than I play. So everything I do at this point is more philosophical.

It's easy to play any musical instrument: all you have to do is touch the right key at the right time and the instrument will play itself.

I played piano, I learned a lot about music.

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 remember learning how to play 'The Fool On The Hill' on piano when I was in maybe fifth grade.

I don't think you can have a calculated approach towards learning music.

I can't play piano well enough without making mistakes.

I didn't have to apply my mind to the aspects of scales and playing, and instead, I focused on creativity. I wrote music, but I didn't 'practice' it. So yeah, you can always get better and improve your technique, but hopefully, that comes through being a musician and composing and being a creative individual.

Until you learn to play what you want to hear, you're barking up the wrong tree.

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

I'm an interpreter of music.

I can't read music. That's not where I come from musically. I come strictly from feeling, and that feeling comes from rock & roll.

I think I love it more as I get older because I keep getting better on drums, vibes and piano.

That's what it is that you rehearse - the making of music, not the playing of notes as abstractions.

My thinking musically has always been more advanced - it is difficult to get it down onto paper sometimes, even now.

The advice I am giving always to all my students is above all to study the music profoundly... music is like the ocean, and the instruments are little or bigger islands, very beautiful for the flowers and trees.

I play a musical instrument a little, but only for my own amazement.

My music is simple stuff. Anybody can sit down, look at a set of symbols and produce sounds the music represents.

I don't think I could have ever had a career as a pianist because I never ever wanted to play the notes the way they were written, I was too sloppy to learn them quite right.

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.

Good taste - that's all you really need when you're playing an instrument.