Musical Voice Quotes

Everyone can write their melodies and chords and pianos and guitars, but what hasn't been discovered yet are tones and textures, and that's very exciting. Probably the No. 1 most important thing in my music is not to sound like anyone else.

Right now, my voice is better than ever. It changed. I have better low notes than I had before.

The thing about doing mashups and covers is it's great, but a part of you never gets to really showcase what your original sound is like or what your writing voice is like.

I don't get in there and create a character. It's more of a voice that I hear living inside the music.

I play a certain style. I'm not willing to compromise that part of me.

I believe every guitar player inherently has something unique about their playing. They just have to identify what makes them different and develop it.

Eventually you get to this point where you understand what you want to do and get across and sound like.

My main horn is a hybrid of a flugelhorn a coronet and a trumpet, but that's really because, for me, each instrument to me had a different voice, and I liked them all, but I didn't like any one of them singularly.

I always recommend to any player to always compose their own music. It's one of the best things you can do to find a road to your own style.

I love the pioneers like Sam Cooke and Otis Redding, but when I write music, it comes out in my own way.

You know, your speaking voice comes back, but your singing voice you use in a different way.

Truth be told, of course, what I enjoy most is reinventing myself and doing new projects where I work in new genres, or I get to find what the voice of a particular musical is.

As a solo artist, my desire is to express myself through my music.

I wanted my voice to be a tenor sax, really.

I'm always gonna have the darker edgy music; it is always in my pocket because it comes so naturally to me.

An operatic voice is like no other.

You know, I really feel a responsibility to the music, and I teach workshops in music sometimes. And folks do come to me and they go, 'How do I make this blues song my own? How do I feel like I'm not an impostor doing this?' And I'm like, 'That's an excellent question.' That's where you should start, where you go, 'How does this speak to me?'

But once you strip that down, you realize it's all about a voice, like a Norah Jones - that's inspiring to me.

My style influences my music and everything around me.

You get to tell your story through your music if you choose to.

Coming up, a lot of people I looked up to had a signature sound, but I came up, and I was always in search of one, trying to find it, trying to create one. I was never really able to have a creative signature sound, you know?

Joy, sorrow, tears, lamentation, laughter -- to all these music gives voice

I focus a lot on my voice because I want it to be an instrument as well. I want my voice to add color.

I found it liberating of necessity to devise my own style and my own tactics and to look for a voice on the instrument because there weren't really any that impacted strongly on me.

It wasn't until Duotones that I felt my true voice come out.