Life is like playing a violin solo in public and learning the instrument as one goes on.
Samuel Butler

Virtue knows that it is impossible to get on without compromise, and tunes herself, as it were, a trifle sharp to allow for an inevitable fall in playing.
Samuel Butler

I don't put myself on Jeff Beck's level, but I can relate to him when he says he'd rather be working on his car collection than playing the guitar.
Ritchie Blackmore

I was impressed by Hendrix. Not so much by his playing, as his attitude - he wasn't a great player, but everything else about him was brilliant.
Ritchie Blackmore

When you're recording, if you're not really clean in your playing, it sounds like a mess.
Ritchie Blackmore

I can turn on some jazz guitarist, and he won't do a thing for me, if he's not playing electrically. But Jeff Beck's great to listen to.
Ritchie Blackmore

Playing a Fender is an art itself. They're always going out of tune.
Ritchie Blackmore

Now I need to take a piece of wood and make it sound like the railroad track, but I also had to make it beautiful and lovable so that a person playing it would think of it in terms of his mistress, a bartender, his wife, a good psychiatrist - whatever.
Les Paul

For that reason you can't write with music playing, and anyone who says he can is either writing badly, or not listening to the music, or lying. You need to hear what you're writing, and for that you need silence.
Philip Pullman

It's unbelievable how much you don't know about the game you've been playing all your life.
Mickey Mantle

Anyone playing with you is going to change where your direction is.
Charlie Hunter

I don't need to hear Bill to go through a song. I need to hear Keith to go through a song. I know Bill will be playing what I'm playing anyway. I need to hear Keith because it's all there: the time, the chord changes, and all the licks you have to follow.
Charlie Watts

I wanted to play drums because I fell in love with the glitter and the lights, but it wasn't about adulation. It was being up there playing.
Charlie Watts

It's been years and years and years I've been playing the drums, and they're still a challenge. I still enjoy using drumsticks and a snare drum.
Charlie Watts

I didn't know what the hell Charlie Parker was playing... I just liked the way he played.
Charlie Watts

With the money I'm making, I should be playing two positions.
Pete Rose

If life doesn't offer a game worth playing, then invent a new one.
Anthony J. D'Angelo

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.
Geddy Lee

There was a time when fast playing and fretboard pyrotechnics on the bass were important to me and when I am recording a bass track, that is still very important to me.
Geddy Lee

So, my big brother was playing guitar and I figured I'd try it too.
Stevie Ray Vaughan