I was a schooled musician. When I made 'Blue Velvet', I told everyone what to do. I was an arranger. I learned music in school I told the band to play this. I told the guitar to do that.
People don't understand what music really is. I've been a musician since I was 6 years old. I got my first piano, was playing recitals at 8, 10 I picked up a guitar, 12 I picked up my first Pearl Master drum set. I was an artist before I was an 'artist.'
If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music.
A jazz musician can improvise based on his knowledge of music. He understands how things go together. For a chef, once you have that basis, that's when cuisine is truly exciting.
I honestly don't class myself as a songwriter. I've got 'musician' written on my passport. That's even funnier.
I want to be treated like a musician.
But, I would be naive not to recognize the number of musicians who tell me they have been influenced by me and sight me - as well as Alex and Neil - as a musician who has been a positive influence on their playing.
I'm very unstable; there's no stability in a musician's life at all. You live on a bus or on the road hand to mouth and you don't know where your money's coming from.
I'm not really one of those people who believes that if you're a musician you can just leave that behind and start getting into politics.
Some people think I'm a rock 'n' roll musician and some think I'm a jazz musician but, for me, there is no difference.
There's still a lot I need to do as a player, as a musician, as a sound creator. I have commissioned 170 pieces: that's still not enough, there are still lots and lots of composers I would like to approach. When I see a composer and I see a performer, I think to combine those forces.
As a musician and a songwriter, it is an act of the ego to believe that other people might be interested in your point of view. But it is usually an empathetic nature that gets you going in the first place.
An intelligent person feels guilty for downloading music without paying the musician, but they use this free-open-culture ideology to cover it.
You don't have to be fearless to do anything; you can be scared out of your mind. I fear that I won't get better and that I won't have time to practice. To be called a 'jazz musician' - it's a big responsibility.
To be honest, I know this probably sounds corny or whatever because I'm a musician, but listening to music really helps me relax and calm down - listening to my favorite songs. Also, laughing and hanging out with my friends.
I'm a self-taught musician aside from what I've been able to pick up from other players.
My musical background is like almost every non classical musician in the world. One day a special record was heard and that was it. I was hooked, started trying to play various instruments and was off to bar land to become a rock star. What else?
My parents had chosen the medical profession for me. I even studied a few semesters at St Xavier's College, but at the back of my mind, I always wanted to be a musician like my father.
I'm not a very creative person, you know? I'm not really an art person. I'm not a great reader or writer or artist or musician.
My brother is the lifelong musician; he made the choice to do that when we were very, very young kids. I remember him playing in bands and listening to the music he was writing in the house - he's nine years older than me.
I had a musician friend once tell me that it's not in the orchestra that you get the true test of the musicians but in the little trios and quintets where you really get to see if they've got the stuff. And the composer.
Billy Joel is an incredible musician. He just feels like one of the guys, you know. I grew up listening to his music.
I've made a life and career as a professional musician.
It's really hard to make a living as a musician. It's almost impossible.
People find it hard to understand how I can risk ruining my career as a musician by injuring myself on the slopes, but I've always been a tomboy.
'Musician' is not a very respected title. I'm not a musician.
I'm not a deaf musician. I'm a musician who happens to be deaf.
You can't just be a musician; you have to be an entertainer and perform and act just to hit the bar.
He has a method that likens the musician to an athlete, so I do physical exercises designed to keep a musician in shape in order to perform the function, which is to play music.
You can never learn it all and I hope to continue my growth as a person and a musician.
When I went to college, I thought I was going to become a professional musician. I was a French horn player, so I went to Yale to study with a very unusual French horn player.
Being jazz-trained, things happen spontaneously. Even though it's funk rock, we still have the instincts of a jazz musician.
Wyclef is a musician that tried to unite as many musicians at once as possible. I am trying to be successful at that. The greatest challenge is that, I just got arrested for protesting in NYC for cutting the school budgets... And I think that it's important to stand up. Schools are important.
I've seen myself do stuff on stage that was pretty amazing. I think that would be true for any athlete. Any top athlete will see something that they are very proud of. All my injuries will attest to the fact that besides being a musician, it comes down to being an athlete.
I always had a great appreciation for jazz, but I'm a very pedestrian musician. I get by. I like to think that my main instrument is vocabulary.
As a jazz musician, you have individual power to create the sound. You also have a responsibility to function in the context of other people who have that power also.
