Dimebag Darrell Quotes

Of course the most difficult thing on the violin is always intonation. The second one is rhythm. If you play in tune, in time with a good sound that's already high level. Those three are the main things.

I think the fundamental part of my technique is my vibrato.

It's impossible to play a run with as much feeling as a single note. I've never been so much into runs as making single notes cry.

I honestly believe that you have to be able to play the guitar hard if you want to be able to get the whole spectrum of tones out of it. Since I normally play so hard, when I start picking a bit softer my tone changes completely, and that's really useful sometimes for creating a more laid-back feel.

My original interests and intentions in guitar playing were primarily created on quality of tone, for instance, the way the instrument could be made to echo or simulate the human voice.

The most difficult problem in conducting is intonation. You must know what is wrong and how to correct it.

To make harmonics scream, I first dump my Floyd Rose real quick, hit a harmonic with my left hand while the string is still flapping, and then use the bar to pull it up to the pitch I wanna hit.

A guitar is so tactile, and when you're playing bends - and bending notes is a big part of my style - there are so many notes within the note you're bending from and the note you're bending up to.

I don't have any legato skills; I could never figure out how to roll the notes off.

Conducting has more to do with singing and breathing than with piano-playing.

If you have a great-sounding guitar that's a quality instrument and a good amp, and you know how to make the guitar talk, that's the key. It starts with the guitar and knowing what it should sound and feel like.

I've done a lot of performance practice, Baroque playing, and some of the joy and the challenge of it is figuring out what the composer intended... You have music of the 17th century - it's all whole notes and half notes. But inside of that, there are so many things that one can do, at least according to what we know about performance practice.

Experimenting with different sounds is great, but when it comes down to it, you're still playing a guitar.

I play more rhythmically than I do a lot of notes.

I don't really care about a song or lyrics; I'm really just interested in the way people emphasize words. That's what makes a strong impact on me.

A superb tenor voice, like a silver trumpet muffled in silk.

Greg Ginn was certainly a huge influence on my guitar playing. I put him up there with people like Eddie Van Halen. Eddie Van Halen changed everything; I don't necessarily like everything he did, but he definitely changed everything.

Conservatory training is so much. There's so much emphasis on playing perfectly in tune and being perfect and doing everything as it's written.

If you ask me about vocal technique, I don't know anything. I could never be a teacher. I just know what my teacher told me: 'Always sing with a full voice. When they tell you, less sound, more piano - no.'

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.

Basically, I use hammer-ons and pull-offs.

The most effective instruments do have a vocal quality.

The most important thing is to make a percussive instrument a singing instrument. Teachers should stress this aspect in their instruction, but it seems that very few of them actually do.

Very few guitarists play nylon-string. They don't know how to get the sound out of them. That's something I've spent a lot of time on.

Some of my favorite harmonics are located between frets. There are two really cool ones between the 2nd and 3rd frets that I use a lot.