Synyster Gates Quotes

The early Bon Jovi stuff I can't stand. I just think we didn't have our stylistic voice. But some people love some of that stuff.

Some people think electronic music is cold, but I think that has more to do with the people listening than the actual music itself.

The way Will Moore taught me, and the way I play it, the blues is just something different.

Guitar solos bore the hell out of me. Only a few guitarists interest me, and it's not about the solos they play, it's about the grooves they create.

I think it's always interesting how music means different things to different people, and people who overthink it are looking to in some ways show off with music, versus people who just respond to a song and decide to sing it.

What I wanted to do was play the guitar but I don't like instrumental rock. I think it is tripe.

Just because you know umpteen billion scales, it doesn't mean you have to use them all in a solo.

I'm an intuitive musician. I have no real technical skills. I can only play six chords on the guitar.

I personally do not write highbrow music. If I do, it's by accident.

Some people think I'm a rock 'n' roll musician and some think I'm a jazz musician but, for me, there is no difference.

I love players like Thurston Moore. I mean, you can put notes down on a sheet of paper, and if you practice and get your chops up, you can play like an Eddie Van Halen or a Steve Vai. But nobody can do what Thurston Moore does; he's his own guy. He talks through his instrument in a language that's all his own.

I don't read music. I don't write it. So I wander around on the guitar until something starts to present itself.

If I try to write a song, I will completely fail to write a song. But if I'm just holding my guitar and I just start humming, then I'll have a song in an hour.

No, improvising is wonderful. But, the thing is that you cannot improvise unless you know exactly what you're doing.

I don't think I'll ever want to do pop music. I think I'll only ever want to do classical crossover because it's something that I love, and pop just doesn't work for me.

I don't think I think when I play. I have a photographic memory for chords, and when I'm playing, the right chords appear in my mind like photographs long before I get to them.

I've always been that way. I'm not very good at reading music but I'm pretty quick at picking things up.

I don't really play a lot of slide in general, but it was fun getting into that style and exploring it.

I have been using small teardrop jazz picks since I was, like, 14.

I was never a fan of open tunings, because some people will do that and fumble around. But that's not my jam.

The first song on my first album is not a song - it's a guitar solo! It's called 'Frenzy,' and it's pretty much nonstop maniacal guitar playing. I had just turned 19, and I had some serious muscle then.

Basically, I try to treat the electric guitar like an acoustic guitar. What you have to do is attack the instrument and know that your feelings aren't controlled by the controls of your guitar.

Sound-wise, I'm really limitless in the way I write songs. Whatever comes out, comes out. Every song is completely different.

I listen to all kinds of music and sometimes I try to do something that's referential to an era or a genre, but it still sounds like me.

Thundercat, specifically, is insane. I'm always surprised at the things he comes up with when we're jamming out together. I gotta try to keep up with him and his ideas, be able to respond without speaking, and come through with some more music. He challenges me to keep it musical and not so computer.