Hal Sparks Quotes

I started writing songs when I started learning guitar.

Let me explain something about guitar playing. Everyone's got their own character, and that's the thing that's amazed me about guitar playing since the day I first picked it up. Everyone's approach to what can come out of six strings is different from another person, but it's all valid.

All I'm trying to do is simply play guitar and elicit this creativity from the instrument.

Picking up a guitar - I couldn't imagine doing anything else.

These days I can really get the strings to snap if I want.

I don't play pyrotechnic scales. I play about frustration, patience, anger. Music is an extension of my soul.

Music itself is a great source of relaxation. Parts of it anyway. Working in the studio, that's not relaxing, but playing an instrument that I don't know how to play is unbelievably relaxing, because I don't have any pressure on me.

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

I'm by no means a pianist. I think that's safe to say, but the piano, for me, I would say it's the enabler. It gave me what I needed and gives me what I need in order to write a song. And I think playing or improvising on the piano is where I feel most liberated and sort of less conscious of all my insecurities or inadequacies.

I mean, when it gets down to it I just wanted to play the drums. The rest of it never meant that much to me.

I play guitar and write music, and that's definitely a huge part of my life, but it's my personal thing that I have for me.

I picked Dad's guitar up when I was 8. It hurt to play, so I put it down and picked it back up when I was 15 and dug in. The guitar helped me come out of my shell and kind of gave me an identity at school.

Any talk of 'craft' makes me laugh. My music looks outward; it does not gaze upon itself in admiration. Artisanal is for cheesemakers. I don't know anything about music theory. Every time I approach my guitar, it's like the first time. There's no craft in that.

I miss the physicality of drumming. There's immediateness about it that I'm always striving for in my acting. Maybe I'm in the wrong profession. I certainly wish I could spend more time pursuing music. It feels like a part of me I'm neglecting.

I have music inside me and I'm very lucky to be able to play music and that's the way that I try to do it.

A big part of my upbringing was being with an instrument and kind of figuring myself out through music. So I feel a strong desire in any way that I can to help do that for other kids.

I always say that music is a small drop in the ocean of life. I was told a long time ago that your horn, or whatever instrument you play, is a means to be in the world.

Playing and listening to music gives you a sense of fulfilment because you have to put everything in you at its disposal.

Music is where I started. It's kind of the base of everything.

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.

When I was in the marching band, I used to take my snare drum and turn it over and use my drumstick and scratch on the other side. That was just being creative.

I always dreamed, when I started writing music, to find a way of immersing yourself in it.

I had a band when I was in middle school, but I was the drummer. I kind of thought if I was going to be in a band, I'd be the drummer. I'm innately drawn to rhythm. But we didn't have any shows. We just jammed in our parents' basement.

I just have this real love and connection with what I'm doing when I play music.

I didn't take music seriously in the beginning. It just kind of a hobby to me. It was something that I love doing for fun.