Paul Gilbert Quotes

But actually just yesterday we raised the key of one of my songs two steps up, so my voice is obviously responding. It's a muscle, and the more you use it, the more you use it right, the more you should get out of it. So yes, I sing.

You cannot go wrong by learning classical music because it trains the ear.

The quality of instruction is very high at the Silverlake Conservatory of Music. It's not about being a rock star. It's about the fundamentals of music, theory and technique on a particular instrument, and playing in an ensemble or private setting.

I noticed a lot of guitar players neglected the rhythm part of rhythm guitar and decided I would try to focus in that.

I have never learned to read or write music so I am not a virtuoso musician like the others you mentioned. I am completely unable to play like them because I never learned classical music, I just developed my own crazy style!

I studied music at the most remedial level when I was a kid, through the Los Angeles public schools, with a little private instruction.

I used to try and make up visually for what I couldn't play as a musician. I used to get into very incredible visual things where, in order just to make one chord more lethal, I'd make it a really lethal looking thing, whereas really it's just going to be picked normally.

Well, first I'd want a better vibrato.

Because my musical training has been limited, I've never been restricted by what technical musicians might call a song.

I'm treating country music like it's a sport. I'm looking at where my competition is and realized I needed to work on my songwriting.

You can sightread better if you know your scales and arpeggios.

I didn't know that you were supposed to tune the guitar to an open chord, and I learned to play slide with a normal tuning. I think it's a little more melodic that way and doesn't sound so bluesy. Of course, if I could play like David Lindley or Ry Cooder, I'd be a happy man!

I practice every day and that kind of stuff to maintain my musicianship.

The best slide solo I ever played was on... what's her name? That girl singer who used to be with that all-girl band? ... Belinda Carlisle of the Go-Go's! That's who it was. I played on one of her albums.

I can't deny that Eric Clapton's and Eddie Van Halen's lead stuff has influenced a stack of people, but for me, it's the rhythm thing that's way more impressive and important to a band.

I always feel I sing better if I have been playing a lot of tennis or football.

Part of being in a band is getting better.

You can play slide on any guitar, but to be serious about it you have a tough set of strings, otherwise you don't get the full attack - you can't dig in.

I use a lot of piano riffs in my production, and someone who I was working with said that I played so good that it sound like Beethoven.

I was partnered with the singer Drew Lachey of the popular group 98 Degrees. Drew and I complemented each other with our strengths. I was good at dancing and teaching dance, and he was a good student and a natural-born ham for the cameras.

As far as pedals are concerned, the test for me is if I step on it, do I seem to be playing better?

I've kind of become obsessed with the pedal steel. It's a beautiful sound, and the mechanics of it are so interesting.

I have an ear monitor to block outside noise when I'm performing. It makes it easier. But sometimes I like to take the ear monitor off and listen to the craziness going on.

Blues is a very physical music.

It's so satisfying as a guitar player to play stuff that's related to the blues.