Itzhak Perlman Quotes

Because if you've got the wit, you can make anything into a melody, ultimately.

Jazz is all about improvisation and it's about the moment in time, doing it this way now, and you'll never do it this way twice. I've studied the masters. Why would I want to play ball after the guys who sit on a bench? I want to play like Michael Jordan.

Jazz has a lot to do with being very present. You know the structure, then you flow through it.

Jazz is letting everybody do his or her thing with the music.

Some people wish above all to conform to the rules, I wish only to render what I can hear. There is no theory. You have only to listen. Pleasure is the law.

Through improvisation, jazz teaches you about yourself. And through swing, it teaches you that other people are individuals too. It teaches you how to coordinate with them.

Sometimes I feel like a melody doesn't have anything to do with me, but it's just something that comes, is accumulated from me playing on the piano, and then this little creature just appears.

It's cool to have instruments lying around because they give you different ideas.

You have to know composition to be a good improviser.

I record cello Etudes that are fewer than four minutes long and post them on YouTube. How can one execute fully-formed ideas with utmost perfection, yet stay free enough to allow improvisatory nuance? This has immediate application in almost every area of life, but especially in performance.

There is no such thing as a wrong note.

To me, playing an instrument and singing, all of these different things are just as natural to me as rhyming.

There's art in rhythm playing. Just find it. Make your own art. Find your place, and when it's your time to solo, it's your time to shine.

With solos, I don't like to be too prepared going in - I like to surprise myself.

There is no blood in jazz drumming, and there are no bullies in jazz drumming.

The thing I try to do the most is to play in terms of the song and play in terms of what I'm hearing.

Jazz is rhythm and meaning.

I do read music, but I prefer playing from the heart.

The score is not a bible, and I am never afraid to dare. The music is behind those dots.

He comes in on the beat and plays on top of the beat. I think when Prince makes love, he hears drums instead of Ravel.

I just really need to sing and sing and sing and not worry about writing. Just by singing for pleasure, your voice takes you to what it wants to sing. And that is how the best stuff kind of emerges.

Rhythm is God. I think, without rhythm, you can't create - there is no art.

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

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.

If there was a wrong note, it didn't matter as long as it was rocking.