John Coltrane Quotes

I'm a natural piano player. So all the practicing I do at this point is in my head. If I don't play for a year, my chops aren't going to get any worse. I've spent my time playing scales, and I don't necessarily want to play any faster than I play. So everything I do at this point is more philosophical.

I was a piano player. I love piano playing. I just love all music.

I don't play accurately--any one can play accurately--but I play with wonderful expression. As far as the piano is concerned, sentiment is my forte. I keep science for Life.

I was always very leery of my piano playing. As a young kid, I wanted to be a jazz musician, but my taste was far greater than my ability.

I play piano every day. I enjoy that.

The piano is kind of my second instrument.

I play the piano and write music.

I taught myself to play the piano. I've always been able to play, the minute I could get my hands up. I've always wanted to play the piano. It's the only instrument I've ever really liked, and it's the only one that's ever interested me.

I got a chance to listen to and watch Thelonious Monk and his quartet play two shows a night, for six weeks. It was a great education. There was my university, man.

I played piano as a kid; I still play a little bit.

When I came out of the conservatory, the first thing I did was to go see Thelonious Monk.

I studied piano for seven years and play for my own enjoyment.

Mostly I play with records. I play with my friend Bill Evans.

I wanted to play the piano.

The piano is the instrument I can play the most.

Piano is one of those instruments you don't have to be good at to sound good - you just have to know where to put three little fingers, which is really pretty easy to figure out.

Rock & roll fan that I am, Thelonious Monk is probably my favorite musical artist.

If you hear Thelonious Monk play a run that goes from the top of the piano, OK, he has opened up the Grand Canyon with that. He's the river that's carved this entire space that we call the Grand Canyon. He does that with one run. He lets you know, like, what the possibility of the sound of the piano can do.

Piano playing consists of common sense, heart and technical resources. All three should be equally developed. Without common sense you are a fiasco, without technique an amateur, without heart a machine. The profession does have its hazards.

Have I a secret about playing the piano? It's a very simple one. I sit down on the piano stool and make myself comfortable - and I always make sure that the lid over the keyboard is open before I start to play.

I'm not very good at playing piano, so I usually hit chords with my right hand. And those chords came, and I was just singing a little bit.

Most of the soloists at Birdland had to wait for Parker's next record in order to find out what to play next. What will they do now?

Now, I only play very occasionally, and in fact, more piano than clarinet or sax.

To the engineer, all matter in the universe can be placed into one of two categories: (1) things that need to be fixed, and (2) things that will need to be fixed after you've had a few minutes to play with them. Skill without imagination is craftsmanship and gives us many useful objects such as wickerwork picnic baskets. Imagination without skill gives us modern art.

The pedal is the soul of the piano.