Musical Intuition Quotes

It's such a weird process, songwriting, because you just have to feel it. There's no right or wrong melody or lyric.

I am exceedingly lucky that my voice, along with perfect pitch and perfect rhythm, was given me at birth.

I think it's always interesting how music means different things to different people, and people who overthink it are looking to in some ways show off with music, versus people who just respond to a song and decide to sing it.

Music is not a science any more than poetry is. It is a sublime instinct, like genius of all kinds.

You just have to be yourself and make music you feel from your gut, and hopefully, your audience will respond.

I've always been a spontaneous singer. And all the stuff that you hear on the end of the songs, what they call the ad libs - that just comes out of my head. That's not thought out at all. I have the verses and the choruses, and then after that it's total improvisation.

When I start to write a song, I have the words and I have the melody, and then it's just a matter of making it to the end. I think if I have something that I could identify as a talent, it would be that I can finish a song. I kind of know intuitively where the melody should go.

R. Kelly is different - music is always going through his brain. I remember we'd be having a conversation, and he'd choose a word I said and write a whole song to it.

I'm a guy who doesn't know the name of the chord, but I know that it sounds good.

Usually, the music inspires the lyrics. The lyrics just sort of fall off like a bunch of crumbs from the melody. That's all I want them to be - crumbs. I don't want to work any kind of fabricated message.

I don't compose, actually. I just record. I'm the opposite of a composer in my way of working. I'm more instinctive.

I'm fascinated by musicians who don't completely understand their territory; that's when you do your best work.

I don't think a guy that really has no understanding about people, or has no interest in understanding people would make a good film composer.

If I try to write a song, I will completely fail to write a song. But if I'm just holding my guitar and I just start humming, then I'll have a song in an hour.

If I'm writing the music, and I don't feel like its really connecting inside, then I'll know there's no reason to really put a lyric on it; it's a waste, and I'll throw it.

My talent is definitely a gift. I don't understand where it comes from. I don't play an instrument, and I never went to school for music production, but I know exactly how a song should sound and how to give an artist direction.

I think musicians naturally gravitate toward music that sounds real.

To me, the secret of Eddie Van Halen was Alex Van Halen, because the way Alex played was so loose and the way the two of them locked together… Those two are connected so thoroughly they might as well be one person.

It is easy to write unthinking music.

If a composer could state in words what being a composer means, he would no longer need to be a composer.

I just let the emotion dictate what the arrangement is.

I get into a zone where I'm really in my own world when I make music.

When I think back now to the recording sessions, there is more improvisation than one hears. It's an ideal combination of arrangements and improvisation. Only a few people are able to listen and say what is composed and what is improvised. It's a unit.

There's nothing but spirit in music. That's all it is. Yeah, there's a lot of intellectual elements to it, but no matter how you approach it, it's all spirit.

I don't know where my songs come from... If I knew, I'd know too much, more than we are allowed on this plane.