Steve Hackett Quotes

The value of music is to be able to play one note at the right time in the right way.

The one thing I do know is that I'm the best Taylor Hawkins drummer there is, and that is all I can hope to be. And when it comes to music, musicianship and skill, there is no such thing as better or worse because so much is personal opinion, and I can see that now.

A good interpreter can take a piece of bad music and make it sound pretty decent, while a bad interpreter can take good music and make it sound cheap. I can tell that some people have a bad taste, and unlike on the piano, they smear around a lot, that is bad taste.

The cello is such a versatile instrument. It can rock like the hardest rock guitar, and it can sing like the human voice. We couldn't do what we do without the classical training. It's a hard instrument to play. There are no frets, and it takes finesse and technique to play.

I've always thought that the act of playing the guitar was the act of trying to make a point of playing the guitar.

In the last couple of years I've been picking up my guitar again.

The hardest of all the arts to speak of is music, because music has no meaning to speak of.

I've been playing since I was about 7. I never really used a pick very much. I mean, once in a while, if you're in a festive mood, you might draw a little blood, but nothing significant... But my hands aren't abused, really.

I always wanted to be able to show off like the guitar players do. I think I managed that alright!

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.

Gonna wind it up on my guitar. Gonna make that silver sing.

The Rolling Stones are violence. Their music penetrates the raw nerve endings of their listeners and finds its way into the groove marked 'release of frustration.'

No two notes are ever the same volume. With the guitar, you really have to model in your mind this wider thing; you're trying to create the illusion of a bigger dynamic range.

Sometimes I play guitar like a frustrated drummer.

I loved the guitar, and I had all of this music in my head. My passion for the guitar and the ideas for what I could create musically were equal. So that's where I was.

You know, I think music is very interactive. It's a - it's a language.

There are more bad musicians than there is bad music.

Music is its own language - if you don't speak it, it's hard to say what you're trying to do.

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

Especially with music, people want confidence.

All music has to speak in some form or other.

I started in music and that's my forte and that's what I've always done and where I'm heading.

Playing guitar was one of my childhood hobbies, and I had played a little at school and at camp. My parents would drag me out to perform for my family, like all parents do, but it was a hobby - nothing more.

Just, you know, you can't put bread in a cold oven. You know, you've got to take your time. You've got to heat it up. So that's what, that's what I like to do with my music. I like to build it, and build it into a maddening, exciting crescendo.

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