Julian Bream Quotes

I had to learn chord shapes. I bought books with chord charts. I used to listen to all kinds of pop music.

For me, the most difficult thing is that I am learning melodies on guitar from some songs whose melodies were not meant to be played on guitar. Ever. They were intended mostly for keyboards or melodic percussion.

I was up playing violin at seven and translating that information to play guitar, piano at eight.

There's a humble beauty about listening to period instruments that I like.

I basically taught myself how to sing and play by copying records, and that's just how it was for me. I know that's true for a lot of budding musicians out there - that's the thing that gets them inspired, is trying to learn their favorite songs. I think it's a great way to teach yourself.

I just want to be a better guitar player, really.

I personally am into the minstrel technique - if I hear someone playing a lute or playing a crumhorn, it just moves me. I don't know why.

I was passionately interested in Elizabethan history at school, so it was natural for me as a musician to take interest in the music of that period.

Very old music is, like, 11th century in my mind. That's very old.

What happens is people go, 'I want to play the guitar,' and the first thing they do is hit Google: 'How can I play this?' and the next thing you know, you've learned all these tricks, but you've never learned how to play rhythm guitar with a groove.

I score everything by hand on manuscript paper and then make copies.

My folks bought a baby grand piano and that's where I did the majority of figuring out the songs I heard on the stereo.

Strangely, the thing I listen to 75% of the time, when I'm exercising with my headphones on is English Tudor/Elizabethan music, so music from about 1450 to the early 1600's.

I learned by transcribing songs out of the Library of Congress collection in Washington where I was working. I got a job when I just turned twenty in 1939 and Alan [Lomax] needed some help. I listened to hundreds of records every week.

I am not musically educated yet. I don't read - I make my own language that works for myself. But I play by ear.

It wasn't until after private lessons and learning bass lines that I even noticed bass in the music I was listening to at that age. My ears were blown wide open.

I would love to study guitar or trumpet.

I play piano and guitar. Acoustic guitar. I tried studying classical guitar when I was 16 but it got really hard. I could never play a lead to save my life.

Because we grew up in Australia, to find information about a lot of blues guys, I used to go to the library and find the jazz magazines. They didn't even sell them at the time in news agents and stuff.

I consider descending chromatic lines and arpeggiated chords basic skills learned by any student of the guitar.

Certainly, as a guitarist, I was aware of descending chromatic lines and arpeggios long before 1968.

Basically, everything I've learned on guitar, I've learned from listening to my favorite albums. I never had any formal training. My teachers were Dimebag Darrell and Slash and the guys in Rancid and Slayer.

As the chord changes go by, I don't so much think about a static chord voicing changing. I just see the notes on the neck change.

I started taking vocal lessons, I always loved the challenge of playing my instrument and trying to sing.

One day, I would love to learn how to play piano and guitar.