Trey Anastasio Quotes

Register is very important. Music sounds best in a certain register.

I listen to everything and find parts about a song in the lyrics/melody/chords/production that I like and can be inspired by when I write my next song.

A scale is just the notes that are in a chord played one at a time instead of together. That's what has allowed me to go through the possible notes that work with a chord and make choices about which ones I like best. I go through by ear; you can do it by theory too, but the best way is to learn by ear.

I believe the term modulation denotes in music the uninterrupted shift from one key to another: I do not know the term for change of rhythm without change of measure.

The baritone can serve functions that the alto and tenor cannot, in orchestral voicing.

I'm not interested in possible complexities. I regard song structure as a graph paper.

There are only twelve tones and they need to be treated carefully.

On acoustic guitar I tend to stay in the key of D for some reason. On electric guitar I keep basic: C, G, D, and A. The key of D minor is also real good for me.

There are certain choices you make as a songwriter, based on vowel sounds and melody and chord changes.

And I've made it a choice on my records that sometimes I leave the breath or the trailing note that sometimes falls into a flat or a sharp.

I like inventive melodies and chord changes, a little bit of creativity.

I don't like drums dictating the song; like when you hear a fill and then you know the chorus is coming up.

I could write a dozen different songs with the same three or four chords, but they'd all be entirely different.

I get to play around with different ideas and beautiful melodies. I don't have to yell in a rock voice. I think you can get an emotional depth in the types of rooms we're playing that you can't find in larger rooms.

To be honest, I don't have a particular recipe, but I normally start with the chord progression and then I build it from there. I listen to a lot of jazz, so the chords are really important to me.

That's one thing I really wanted to work on after 'Dopamine,' my falsetto.

I keep saying if I ever get a good amount of quiet time that I want to learn to play cello. It's a very warm instrument. The tone of the cello and the movement - I don't know what is; I love it so much.

I usually write songs in a guy key because my voice is so husky.

I've really been studying lyrics, printing out lyrics to songs I love and reading them like a letter.

I did classical singing at school. I did exams in that. I'd sing soprano, and we'd sing in German; we'd do Schubert for my pieces, in Latin, French... I really enjoyed that. I kind of miss it.

When I was a student, if you accidentally wrote a triad in a piece of yours, it was just sort of like you were breaking the law! You just couldn't do it. And that just meant you were a bad composer.

Paul Sinha is a very good piano player and singer.

There's only seven chords, so you got to use the same ones over and over. It's all in what you do with them.

We really like having songs where we think the arrangement is just as important as the melodies, even though they're typically not.

I play guitar; I can sing a little bit.