Anat Cohen Quotes

I'm just beginning to develop callouses on my fingers, because I haven't played a lot.

I understood that if I wanted to work, the saxophone was the main instrument. The clarinet was what we call a double.

I've played the clarinet since I was a kid. I love to sing, but I'm not much of a singer. Let's say that when it comes to vocalizing, I have the soul of Billy Bigelow but the voice of Jigger Cragan.

I can't play guitar well at all, so I had to learn that.

I focused on the saxophone ever since high school. It wasn't until my album 'Poetica,' which I recorded in 2006, that I went back to the clarinet. It felt like it was waiting for me!

Those edges and turns teach control and discipline, just like finger exercises on the piano.

I'm practicing the oboe. But I don't play. Just single notes, not an entire piece of music.

The best shows I play, I almost don't even remember off the stage.

I wanted to play saxophone, but all I could get were a few squeaks.

I am playing the violin, that's all I know, nothing else, no education, no nothing. You just practice every day.

Playin' bass runs and singin' lead vox, is sometimes difficult, but I have three words for you: Practice, practice, practice!

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.

The thing about music is it's not an obscure pursuit, it's a very natural thing for human beings to do. Once you put in the effort, the learning curve is very fast.

I guess by taking lessons early on, and really trying to play all the rudimentary stuff, and try to have it sound as good as my teacher. It took a lot of practice, which I enjoyed, and still do.

I just learned my lyrics and tried not to bump into the trumpet player. That was my philosophy.

When I was four, we had to choose a musical instrument to play at school, and I chose the cello. I played until I was 18, and although I found it nerve-racking to play solo, I loved playing in an orchestra. When I left school I didn't carry on with it, which I regret.

I'd like to be a jazz singer, but I couldn't possibly do it; nobody would want me, anyway.

Harpists spend 90 percent of their lives tuning their harps and 10 percent playing out of tune.

I pestered the hell out of everybody I ran into until I could play the guitar well enough to write and sing with it.

You just can't walk into a venue, sit behind your drums, and expect to play a great show. It'll never happen.

Throughout the years I have tried to hone my skills to gain mastery over the music in my head.

I have to practice to be good at guitar. I have to write 100 songs before you write the first good one.

I played the flute in elementary school, but when I got into high school, they didn't have any flutes; they gave me a clarinet and said, 'Play it in the same way, just hold in a different position.' I really didn't care much for it.

I love Mozart, but I often make a terrible hash of it.

Performing live was something that I had to really work at.