Jim Root Quotes

I am a self-taught guitarist. I just try to piece together passages that have some melodic value!

In order to become a well-rounded musician, you have to master the three major aspects of guitar playing: the technical side, the musical side and the creative side.

All of my acoustic playing came from my songwriting. All of the chords I've learned and all of the voicings I play them in are a direct result of composing.

I've never been much of a guitarist. I mean, I've played forever, but I was always more of a rhythm kind of guy. I don't read music.

I learned how to play guitar by playing along to Jane's Addiction records and Smashing Pumpkins records, things you can totally hear if you listen to my guitar.

The ultimate guitar players can play every scale in the book.

We always had a guitar at home, but it wasn't until I was 14 when I picked it up myself when my father handed me these sheets of music of the Beatles and some other classics. That's where I learned all the chords and learned how to play and sing at the same time.

I haven't learned anything new on guitar since high school. And I think it's time to learn something.

Certainly, as a guitarist, I was aware of descending chromatic lines and arpeggios long before 1968.

I was learning guitar as the band was beginning, at least in terms of being a lead guitar player. I could write songs, but I couldn't really play solos.

After playing for 40 years, I've been able to evolve the way I see the fretboard and how I hear the guitar in my head.

I find it quite easy to play chords, and, you know, that was all I ever did. I never wanted to be a lead guitarist.

When I picked up guitar, it wasn't like, 'OK, I'm going to be Kenny Chesney.' It was like, 'I want to play a chord,' and then it was like, 'I want to play another one, then play a song, then sing while playing the song.'

I started playing guitar because of instrumental guitar music.

You never learn everything on that guitar neck.

I've played the guitar since I was 12, and just taught myself songs chord by chord.

When I got my first guitar, I played along with everything I heard that had guitar in it, like the Ramones, Nirvana and Sublime, as well as whatever hip-hop and R&B stuff was on the radio.

Yes indeed I have gained a lot out of playing scales and etudes.

I was 16 when I started playing. I borrowed a friend's acoustic guitar, and I had a Beatles chord book. I just taught myself that way.

It was more fun trying to figure out I Want To Hold Your Hand than to take lessons. By this time I knew basic chords.

I learned five chords; I thought I knew it all.

I just want to be a better guitar player, really.

I took one guitar lesson, and they wanted me to play 'Mary Had a Little Lamb' or 'Michael Row the Boat Ashore,' and that was the last guitar lesson that I ever took, so I taught myself what I wanted to know.

I play guitar and I'm always trying to find out the latest kinds of riffs.

My advice for someone just learning the ukulele would be to have fun with it and not take anything too seriously. Some songs that I think are great for beginners would be, 'House of Gold,' 'Riptide,' and 'I Don't Know My Name.'