Instrumental Improvisation Quotes

The first time I heard Jack Teagarden on the trombone, I had goose pimples all over.

Duane Allman was the best guitar player I ever heard who didn't read a note.

Frank liked me because I went nuts on the piano using feet, head, whatever I could find to bang on the piano.

I don't dictate the solos and I don't dictate the vocal harmonies.

Generally my songs are just some riffs slung together as an excuse for a guitar solo.

Guitar solos, to me, should be a really articulate way to make fun of guitar solos.

I started realizing that music is the one area where I've always let go. When that saxophone goes into my mouth, I get into a space where I never think about the notes I've already played or anticipate the notes ahead.

The Soft Machine's 'Volume Two' inspired me heavily. That record just feels like it was all done in the same breath. It's genius, and it's silly at times. But I love the fact that every time I listen to it, I listen from the beginning and want to play it out.

That's the way I started playing music: just playing guitar by myself in my room when I was a kid, and exploring the guitar and exploring the space I was in, with no project in mind.

Sometimes I play guitar like a frustrated drummer.

I normally write on acoustic guitar, although piano is the instrument that I actually studied. Occasionally, I'll write on the piano or sometimes with no instrument at all.

I was hearing music in my head and trying to play it on the clarinet, but it didn't match.' Then, literally the first day, it did with the saxophone. I was like, 'Oh man, that's what I've been trying to do; this is what it's supposed to sound like.'

'I'm Broken' was a sound check riff.

I just recorded in studios, you know, people pressed the buttons for me. So I just started recording the bass lines and guitar parts with my voice, covering classical pieces, or just making up melodies so I could learn how to use it.

If I have something inside me that I want to get out, I'll just beat it out on the banjo right then and there.

Anything that broadens your musicality always moves the way you write drum or guitar parts.

There's so much fun you can have with your instruments that no one ever taught you.

But the reality is that we are a folk band.

To me, a sure-fire way to get in a rut is by sitting around playing by yourself for too long. You've gotta get out there and jam, man! You don't have to necessarily be in a band, all you've gotta have are a couple of buds who play too. They don't have to be guitarists either; jamming with a bassist or a drummer is cool.

Rock guitar has been around for decades now, and there are so many strong traditions, and so much of it is just burned into my fingers. So, nine times out of 10, when I pick up the guitar to jam something, it sounds pretty cliche.

If I look at my own recordings, I think generally there is a focal point within the song and often it's the instrumental bridge or a guitar solo where we try to do something unexpected, something beautiful or weird, or beautiful because it is weird. And of course I fail half the time, but yes that is the goal, to create even a few seconds of bliss, or sadness. The electric guitar is a great instrument for doing this because it is capable of surprising you. There are so many different sounds available.