Musician quotes can tingle the eyes and minds of any reader. Since ages have passed and the music industry has changed, some famous musician phrases have risen. Positivity and inspiration — Classical and modern musicians have incorporated these characteristics in their words.
However, each decade has a set of quotes that solidified their built-up legacies. So, to understand the importance of these quotes about music, we must look at the viewpoints of musicians from the classical and more modern ages.
If we want to look at a classic musician quote, Beethoven might be the best example. Like his songs, the quotes he said can only be rivaled by the sayings of the most famous people in history. However, if you are not a fan of Beethoven, Mozart and Bach also said some interesting stuff. Mozart, for example, highlighted the beauty of silence between the notes. Silence can build up tension, which can either destroy or help boost the overall quality of a song.
In modern days, musician phrases focus more on the freedom side of creativity. From John Lennon to Bob Marley, modern-day musicians highlighted that music frees a person. If we enjoy creating music and listening to it while others play it — it’s not wasted time. This train of thought can be applied to almost everything we do, making their quotes rather universal.
Listening to songs is one thing, but dwelling on motivational quotes is another. Below, we have compiled quotes that seem to sound just as good as the musical creations of artists. If some of these music quotes say good to you, upvote them. However, if you have anything to share about the musicians, do so in the comments below.
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"Make mistakes, make mistakes, make mistakes. Just make sure they’re your mistakes." - Fiona Apple
"Music, at its essence, is what gives us memories. And the longer a song has existed in our lives, the more memories we have of it." - Stevie Wonder
Music is a great memory tool. I'm 40, and I still sing the alphabet song when I need to put things in alphabetical order.
"I was born with music inside me. Music was one of my parts. Like my ribs, my kidneys, my liver, my heart. Like my blood. It was a force already within me when I arrived on the scene. It was a necessity for me - like food or water." - Ray Charles
"I would rather write 10,000 notes than a single letter of the alphabet." – Ludwig van Beethoven
"When you're happy, you enjoy the music but when you're sad, you understand the lyrics."
"Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid." — Frank Zappa
"Music is a language that doesn’t speak in particular words. It speaks in emotions, and if it’s in the bones, it’s in the bones." — Keith Richards
"Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy. Music is the electrical soil in which the spirit lives, thinks and invents." - Ludwig van Beethoven
"To some extent I happily don’t know what I’m doing. I feel that it’s an artist’s responsibility to trust that." - David Byrne
"I see music as fluid architecture." - Joni Mitchell
"Softly, deftly, music shall caress you. Hear it, feel it, secretly possess you." — Andrew Lloyd Webber
"Music is forever; music should grow and mature with you, following you right on up until you die." — Paul Simon
You sir, have created music that touches the souls of many, and colors their worlds like no other.
“Music is your own experience, your thoughts, your wisdom. If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn.” — Charlie Parker
"The music is not in the notes, but in the silence between." – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
"I believe musicians have a duty, a responsibility to reach out, to share your love or pain with others." – James Taylor
"If you play music with passion and love and honesty, then it will nourish your soul, heal your wounds and make your life worth living. Music is its own reward." - Sting
"Just don’t give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don’t think you can go wrong." - Ella Fitzgerald
"Until you’re ready to look foolish, you’ll never have the possibility of being great." - Cher
"Don't worry about being a star, worry about doing good work, and all that will come to you." - Ice Cube
"Music doesn't lie. If there is something to be changed in this world, then it can only happen through music." - Jimi Hendrix
"Once you figure out what respect tastes like, it tastes better than attention. But you have to get there." - Pink
"It was my 16th birthday - my mom and dad gave me my Goya classical guitar that day. I sat down, wrote this song, and I just knew that that was the only thing I could ever really do - write songs and sing them to people." - Stevie Nicks
"The devil ain't got no music. All music is God's music." - Mavis Staples
"Music drives you. It wakes you up, it gets you pumping. And, at the end of the day, the correct tune will chill you down." - Dimebag Darrell
“Music has healing power. It has the ability to take people out of themselves for a few hours.” — Elton John
“Music acts like a magic key, to which the most tightly closed heart opens.” ― Maria von Trapp
"The easiest way to avoid wrong notes is to never open your mouth and sing. What a mistake that would be.” — Pete Seeger
"There was no one near to confuse me, so I was forced to become original." – Franz Joseph Haydn
"I decided long ago never to walk in anyone’s shadow; if I fail, or if I succeed at least I did as I believe." – Whitney Houston
"I was obliged to be industrious. Whoever is equally industrious will succeed equally well." - Johann Sebastian Bach
"To send light into the darkness of men's hearts - such is the duty of the artist." - Robert Schumann
"Do the things you believe in, in the name of love. And know that, you aren’t alone. We all have doubts and fear." - Carole King
"Be your own artist, and always be confident in what you’re doing. If you’re not going to be confident, you might as well not be doing it." - Aretha Franklin
Um, many of us spent years not being confident but kept on keeping on. Maybe I'm not understanding her clearly? And is stage fright different? I started performing decades ago, you'd think I'd follow the meaning.
"If you want to be a rock star or just be famous, then run down the street naked, you'll make the news or something. But if you want music to be your livelihood, then play, play, play and play! And eventually you'll get to where you want to be." - Eddie Van Halen
"I don't read music. I don't write it. So I wander around on the guitar until something starts to present itself." - James Taylor
"When I grew up, what was interesting for me was that music was color and life was gray. So music for me has always been more than entertainment." - Pete Townshend
"On the other hand, what I like my music to do to me is awaken the ghosts inside of me. Not the demons, you understand, but the ghosts." - David Bowie
"Music does a lot of things for a lot of people. It’s transporting, for sure. It can take you right back, years back, to the very moment certain things happened in your life. It’s uplifting, it’s encouraging, it’s strengthening." — Aretha Franklin
"People ask me how I make music. I tell them I just step into it. It’s like stepping into a river and joining the flow. Every moment in the river has its song." — Michael Jackson
"Music is powerful. As people listen to it, they can be affected. They respond." — Ray Charles
"Jazz is not just music, it’s a way of life, it’s a way of being, a way of thinking." — Nina Simone
“Music is feeling. You can try to verbalize it. It really just hits you or it doesn’t.” — Gene Simmons
“The true beauty of music is that it connects people. It carries a message, and we, the musicians, are the messengers.” — Roy Ayers
“Can a mere song change a people's minds? I doubt that it is so. But a song can infiltrate your heart and the heart may change your mind.” ― Elvis Costello
“Music kept me off the streets and out of trouble and gave me something that was mine that no one could take away from me.” — Eddie Van Halen
“A painter paints pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence.” — Leopold Stokowski
"Be your own artist, and always be confident in what you’re doing.
If you’re not going to be confident, you might as well not be doing it." – Aretha Franklin
"A musician should only sound like what they do, and no two musicians sound the same. It’s an individual-feel thing, you know?" – Dave Grohl
"The true beauty of music is that it connects people. It carries a message, and we, the musicians, are the messengers." – Roy Ayers
"We’re musicians. We make music for a living. It’s that simple. Nothing else matters." – Eddie Van Halen
"What’s money? A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to
bed at night and in between does what he wants to do." – Bob Dylan
"I think music in itself is healing. It's an explosive expression of humanity. It's something we are all touched by. No matter what culture we're from, everyone loves music." - Billy Joel
"I'm not a rock star. Sure I am, to a certain extent because of the situation, but when kids ask me how it feels to be a rock star, I say leave me alone, I'm not a rock star. I'm not in it for the fame, I'm in it because I like to play." - Eddie Van Halen
"I think you just have to be yourself instead of catering your sound to a specific audience, make the music you want to make, and the audience will find you." - Lewis Capaldi
"That’s one of the great things about music. You can sing a song to 85,000 people and they’ll sing it back for 85,000 different reasons." - Dave Grohl
"Music… is the only real religion that is worth devoting your soul to. It is the last remnant of the primal scream, the funeral dirge, and the wedding march. It is the light that keeps me out of the shadows, and it is the reason my immortal soul is not in dire straits." — Corey Taylor
"If a composer could say what he had to say in words he would not bother trying to say it in music." — Gustav Mahler
"Bach is an astronomer, discovering the most marvelous stars. Beethoven challenges the universe. I only try to express the soul and the heart of man." — Frédéric Chopin
“Music is an agreeable harmony for the honor of God and the permissible delights of the soul.” ― Johann Sebastian Bach
“A great song should lift your heart, warm the soul and make you feel good.” ― Colbie Caillat
“For me, there is something primitively soothing about this music, and it went straight to my nervous system, making me feel ten feet tall.” ― Eric Clapton
"I can’t understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I’m frightened of the old ones." – John Cage
"It's a great thing about being a musician; you don't stop until the day you die, you can improve. So it's a wonderful thing to do." - Marcus Miller
"Never stop fighting no matter what anyone says. If it’s in your gut, your soul, there’s nothing, no worldly possession that should come between you and your expression." - Kanye West
"Embrace what makes you unique, even if it makes others uncomfortable. I didn’t have to become perfect because I’ve learned throughout my journey that perfection is the enemy of greatness." - Janelle Monae
"There’s always that argument to make – that you’re in better company historically if people don’t understand what you’re doing." - Elliott Smith
"Remember the first time you went to a show and saw your favorite band. You wore their shirt, and sang every word. You didn't know anything about scene politics, haircuts, or what was cool. All you knew was that this music made you feel different from anyone you shared a locker with. Someone finally understood you. This is what music is about." - Gerard Way
"Sometimes I wish that I was the weather, you'd bring me up in conversation forever. And when it rained, I'd be the talk of the day." - John Mayer
"I know my lyrics might be weird to some, but they're not like that to me because I know where they come from - I know the secret." - Alex Turner
"Music speaks to people in a way that breaks down boundaries that words and actions sometimes can't." - Dan Reynolds
“I’ve always said music should make you laugh, make you cry or make you think.” — Kenny Rogers
"I’m trying to keep a level head. You have to be careful out in the world. It’s so easy to get turned." – Elvis Presley
"One thing I’ve learned is that I’m not the owner of my talent; I’m the manager of it." – Madonna
"Whenever I felt happy about having discovered something, the first encounter, not only with the public, with other musicians, with specialists, etc, was that they rejected it." - Karlheinz Stockhausen
"I want to sound like an instrument. I want my voice and my words to marry the beat. I go with the rhythm of it and the words start to come to my mind and those words could be based on things that's been on my mind for the past year, the past month, the past week, whatever; I write it." - Nas
"Music is not math. It's science. You keep mixing the stuff up until it blows up on you, or it becomes this incredible potion." - Bruno Mars
"To stop the flow of music would be like the stopping of time itself, incredible and inconceivable." — Aaron Copland
“The best music is essentially there to provide you something to face the world with.” — Bruce Springsteen
"The goal is to try and make the perfect song. Which of course will never happen." – Chris Martin
"You just have to find that thing that's special about you that distinguishes you from all the others, and through true talent, hard work, and passion, anything can happen." - Dr. Dre
"Fans always tell me I'm beautiful, but no one will ever be as beautiful as them." - Niall Horan
