Robbie Robertson Quotes

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

No one should be allowed to make music as if he were made of wood. One must reproduce the musical text exactly, but not play like a stone.

The notes I handle no better than many pianists. But the pauses between the notes ah, that is where the art resides.

Blues and soul and jazz music has so much pain, so much beauty of raw emotion and passion.

I was always pretty decent at fast stick work or doing stuff that seems impressive that's not really; I was pretty tasteful and had good ideas musically. But I had a terrible sense of tempo, which is like being a blind painter. The conductor would just rip into me, and it lasted for years.

I try to get a degree of realism in my music.

No two notes are ever the same volume. With the guitar, you really have to model in your mind this wider thing; you're trying to create the illusion of a bigger dynamic range.

These days I can really get the strings to snap if I want.

Well, rhythm is 90 percent of the interpretation.

Playing guitar is not a beauty contest.

There is a world of difference between a Mahler eighth note and a normal eighth note.

A good interpreter can take a piece of bad music and make it sound pretty decent, while a bad interpreter can take good music and make it sound cheap. I can tell that some people have a bad taste, and unlike on the piano, they smear around a lot, that is bad taste.

Can't you read? The score demands 'con amore', and what are you doing? You are playing it like married men!

All you have to do is play one note. But it needs to be the right note.

The cello is such a versatile instrument. It can rock like the hardest rock guitar, and it can sing like the human voice. We couldn't do what we do without the classical training. It's a hard instrument to play. There are no frets, and it takes finesse and technique to play.

What I really enjoy about writing for orchestras is realizing that - and it's kind of self-evident - but the fact that they are 48 individuals. It's not, you know, a preset on a keyboard. It's all these people who have opinions and who are making decisions about how to play.

I admire Tom Ades: he's a brilliant conductor, and he gets just the right hard, brilliant sound from the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra for Russian music.

The spoken form is in fact a very restrained representation of what is possible in the musical language.

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

The music stuff has been very difficult. It's got to be right, and even then, it better be on key.

If what you do for a living is play drums or bass, then that defines you. You don't want to be some guy missing notes here and there; you want to really speak with it.

The one area where I'll say that Hendrix is underrated was his ability to use chord melodies. He used different inversions of chords and was able to make a three-piece band sound absolutely huge. From the moment Hendrix and the Experience came on the scene, power trios had their work cut out for them.

I want to speak in the tradition of rhythm and blues and soul music, but also push how it's dressed and how it's delivered to the audience. And hopefully that gets embraced by as many people as possible, but the goal isn't necessarily to speak to everyone. The goal is to get it out as exact as it is in my head.

The music of Bach is so timeless, so fulfilling. You don't feel like you have to be in front of it. The music has everything, and you are there to find the balance when you conduct. You don't have to give too much of your individuality. It's Bach, so it's dangerous to get in the way.

Any time you sit out, it could throw off your rhythm a little bit, and I'm kind of a rhythm player.