Beck Quotes

With human beings it could be argued that all music-making is, in essence, grounded in improvisation.

I don't always have to be on what is the newest in music is. I'm slowly educating myself in music. For me, I feel more free in not knowing everything in what I'm doing. You can start making up too many rules for yourself. It should just be love and fun and feeling good.

I learned that music should be fun and should be a way to express yourself - that there aren't really any rules.

Any talk of 'craft' makes me laugh. My music looks outward; it does not gaze upon itself in admiration. Artisanal is for cheesemakers. I don't know anything about music theory. Every time I approach my guitar, it's like the first time. There's no craft in that.

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.

I think it's like music for the sake of music, and a lot of the words stem from liking music a lot, wanting to be a good band and having a good sense of humour, and living in a situation where we're free to pretty much do what we want.

Many times in music, if you are given limitations, it expands the creativity.

The rule is to try and never play the same thing twice when you have the freedom to do that in the song.

I've found that as I've learned to improvise melodically, it seems like I can come up with a bigger variety of stuff. I kind of selfishly enjoy it more, because I'm in the moment so much.

If you're always playing the correct notes, there's something wrong - you're not searching; you're not reaching for anything.

Songs seem to always spring from improvisation.

The musicians in the band, and myself as a performer, love the risks of the unpredictable and the feeling of jumping off cliffs musically.

All of my solos were improvised initially - I would go in and get my bearings and see what I came up with.

I think that you have to bear in mind that music is about escape, and it's not unreasonable to think the music business would be based around escapism.

Don't play the saxophone. Let it play you.

Mainly what I learned from Buddy... was an attitude. He loved music, and he taught me that it shouldn't have any barriers to it.

With Zeppelin, I tried to play something different every night in my solos. I'd play for 20 minutes but the longest ever was 30 minutes. It's a long time, but whenI was playing it seemed to fly by.

Sometimes I feel like a melody doesn't have anything to do with me, but it's just something that comes, is accumulated from me playing on the piano, and then this little creature just appears.

Jazz stands for freedom. It's supposed to be the voice of freedom: Get out there and improvise, and take chances, and don't be a perfectionist - leave that to the classical musicians.

You are the music while the music lasts.

Sometimes it works. Sometimes I feel like playing 'Hospital'. Sometimes I feel like playing 'Pablo Picasso'. I've been playing a lot lately. I do it as long as I feel like it.

We really never know what we're gonna play when we get on stage.

Learning how to improvise really awakened my interest in music.

I've always done very 'composed' music and worked-out solos. But sometimes it's fun not knowing where you're going.

When I was younger, I had a much better connection between words and music. Somewhere along the way, I had kind of an aspiration to disconnect them, to just kind of go into a totally musical world.