Top 95 Guitarist Quotes

Actually, I wanted to be a musician, either a guitarist or a drummer. I guess my dreams were in the entertainment industry, and I landed somewhere along there.

Jimi Hendrix came from the blues, like me. We understood each other right away because of that. He was a great blues guitarist.

I was training to be a lawyer… I was president of the law society at Glasgow University, and my bass guitarist was my secretary of my law society; the lead guitarist and writer worked at the law firm that I worked.

I’m no fan of jam bands. You can take your Gov’t Mule, your Phish, your Rusted Root. But Derek Trucks is a special musician – perhaps the greatest slide guitarist who ever lived.

I don’t see myself as such an important guitarist.

You have to be very strong to play my music. The drummer has to be in great shape. Same with the guitarist. You have to be a monster to play with Chubby!

Corinne Bailey Rae I listen to a lot, and I’ll hear Desert Island Discs and quickly write down the name of a song, and it will open up a new area of music for me. I discovered an Argentinian guitarist, Jose Luis Bieito, on Classic FM.

I’m a crap guitarist and I find it really hard writing on my own.

I get plastic nails done in the salon. When I was younger, they were stronger, but now I get my nails built up. Then I can dance over the strings. I say, ‘Okay, I need four nails; I’m a guitarist.’ Sometimes if I’m in a strange place, the girl says, ‘Yeah, all the guys say that.’

Reading a book about management isn’t going to make you a good manager any more than a book about guitar will make you a good guitarist, but it can get you thinking about the most important concepts.

Very unique: I was a singer-songwriter-guitarist. Very unusual in the late Seventies to find a singer-songwriter, and on top of that, a guitarist.

I’m not particularly good at anything. I’m not an incredible guitarist or piano player or songwriter. I think what I do is, when I notice someone is really good at something, I try to get that out of them.

Adele was introduced to me by a guitarist named Mike Hartnett that plays for a band called Rehab. We was just riding around, and he was like, ‘Man have you heard this soul singer Adele?’ and I was like ‘Nah!’ and we just rode to the whole CD, and it got to ‘Hometown Glory,’ and I was like, ‘Man I have to sample that!’

I’m a self-taught guitarist, but I have a classical music background.

My voice is my improvisational instrument, the melody instrument. The guitar is harmonic structure. I’m not a good enough guitarist to improvise on it.

My mum didn’t want me to really pursue music in the beginning, but I’m a classically trained guitarist because of her.

If you’re a guitarist, you should not be intimidated by using your instrument as a synthesizer, but you shouldn’t feel that you have to own one, either.

I used to be totally into Steve Vai and Joe Satriani and other shredders, and I tried to emulate what they did and really grow as a guitarist.

Rush and guitarist Alex Lifeson are among my biggest influences.

It was by listening to Goodman‘s band, that I began to notice the guitarist Charlie Christian, who was one of the first musicians to play solos in a big band set-up.

I wanted to be a musician, either a guitarist or a drummer. I guess my dreams were in the entertainment industry, and I landed somewhere along there.

With every album, I write above my ability, and my job as a guitarist is to catch up and be able to play it live. The thing about practicing is that once you master something, you don’t have to remaster it. You just keep moving forward.

I’m not committed to putting myself up for a blues guitarist, even though I love playing the blues.

My dad is actually an amazing guitarist, and he always had an incredible record collection, which is how I discovered things like Jimi Hendrix and Santana. I’ll always be grateful for that.

I learned mainly by listening to Andres Segovia and that was a great inspiration. And also the gypsy jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt.

Frederico Pena is an amazing talented guitarist and producer.

Corinne Bailey Rae I listen to a lot, and I’ll hear Desert Island Discs and quickly write down the name of a song, and it will open up a new area of music for me. I discovered an Argentinian guitarist, Jose Luis Bieito, on Classic FM.

I’m definitely not a super great guitarist. Ultimately, I just write a lot of love songs.

I’m not a ‘guitarist.’ I’m trying to be a bassist.

I’m not a really good classical guitarist by any means, but what I learned from this is a way of working very slowly on solo pieces and I enjoyed working on these pieces of John‘s. They were not written for solo guitar but a lot of them were easy to adapt.

I was raised by my father, who was a singer, songwriter, guitarist, and bass player. His brothers all did the same thing, so I was kind of always raised around the music.

I started as a guitarist and couldn’t find a decent singer, so I started providing my own vocals.

In jazz, you listen to what the bass player is doing and what the drummer is doing, what the pianist and the guitarist is doing, and then you play something that compliments that, so you are thinking simultaneously and thinking ahead.

My guitarist husband, Mike, and writer me are the old-fashioned kind of bohemians. Not ‘fro-haired hipsters gyrating in iPod ads, but the sort who, starting January 1 of every year, literally don’t know where their next dime is coming from.

If I played something incorrectly, I whipped myself mercilessly. Whenever I made a mistake, I made sure that I would never allow myself to repeat it. Every guitarist wants to play well. But in reality, if good intentions were all it took, then everyone would be great.

Hendrix was a perfect guitarist. And that’s all I wanted to do as a kid. Play a guitar properly and jump around.

I’d rather be known as a songwriter than a guitarist, although I love to play the guitar.

Glenn’s passing was so unexpected and has left me with a very heavy heart filled with sorrow. He was so young and still full of amazing genius. He was an extremely talented songwriter, arranger, leader, singer, guitarist – you name it – and Glenn could do it and create ‘Magic‘ on the spot.

There’s only one Sabbath guitarist and he is the architect for everything, Tony Iommi.

I first started actually playing guitar when I was eleven years old. I had some neighborhood friends who told me they were starting a band and needed a guitarist. I told my folks, and by the next day I had a guitar lesson set up with a local teacher.

Eric Clapton is my dream guitarist.

When I first started, I worked with my father, Alex ‘Little Bill‘ Wallace; he was a guitarist like B.B. King. I was around 13 when I started, and I learned a lot by looking and listening. I learned how to be a bandleader from watching that band work.

Being a guitarist was scary, honestly, as a girl in Nashville. It just felt like no one was gonna ask me to be in a band and play guitar, like I never was gonna get asked to do that.

I decided to build a studio in my house. We built it in my basement kitchen. I had the drummer up by the fish tank. I was in the toilet singing. The bass player was out by the shelves in the living room, and the guitarist was on the couch by the telly.

Reading a book about management isn’t going to make you a good manager any more than a book about guitar will make you a good guitarist, but it can get you thinking about the most important concepts.

I’ve never been much of a guitarist. I mean, I’ve played forever, but I was always more of a rhythm kind of guy. I don’t read music.

I think people must wonder how a white girl like me became a blues guitarist. The truth is, I never intended to do this for a living.

I’m so honored that I got the best guitarist award for the fifth annual Revolver Golden Gods awards.

Pete Townshend is one of my greatest influences. More than any other guitarist, he taught me how to play rhythm guitar and demonstrated its importance, particularly in a three-piece band.

With every album, I write above my ability, and my job as a guitarist is to catch up and be able to play it live. The thing about practicing is that once you master something, you don’t have to remaster it. You just keep moving forward.

I’m a self-taught guitarist, but I have a classical music background.

I learnt fairly quickly that that was what I wanted to be – a guitarist – because it was the first thing I ever done in my life that really felt like it was something that I belonged to. I don’t know… from the moment I picked it up it felt right.

Of all the things that can frustrate a guitarist the most, it’s the nagging feeling that he’s not reaching a certain level of proficiency as quickly as he should.

I started as a guitarist and couldn’t find a decent singer, so I started providing my own vocals.

The guitarist always looks a bit clever because he’s got so many strings and apparently knows what to do with them.

I never felt I had enough personal style to pursue being just a guitarist.

There’s only one Sabbath guitarist and he is the architect for everything, Tony Iommi.

I carry my iPod everywhere. My favorite group is the John Butler Trio, an Australian jam band. The lead singer and guitarist writes amazing lyrics.

If I could sing, I wouldn’t be a guitarist.

In the past, I tried to be more of a typical session guitarist. I wasn’t so concerned with impressing anybody.

Got two kids; one’s a record producer who lives just up the road from me – great guitarist and piano player, too.

I am, and always will be, a blues guitarist.

One of the main things I look for in a guitarist is in the sound itself. I go for a certain sound, and I think it’s an important thing for making a player more identifiable in the big giant pool of musicians out there. You want a sound that people will recognise just as much as your playing.

I am a self-taught guitarist. I just try to piece together passages that have some melodic value!

Steve Van Zandt, the poor guy, doesn’t get to play enough as it is with me hogging a lot of the solos. Steve has always been a fabulous guitarist. Back from the day when we were both teenagers together, he led his band and played lead and was always a hot guitar player.

I’m not particularly good at anything. I’m not an incredible guitarist or piano player or songwriter. I think what I do is, when I notice someone is really good at something, I try to get that out of them.

I’m always writing and learning. It’s about growth. So I’m growing as a musician, as a guitarist.

My body is an object of work. That’s why I think to be an actor is one of the most violent jobs. If you’re a pianist, you have your piano. If you’re a guitarist, you have your guitar. But if you’re a dancer, or you’re an actor – your instrument is your body.

I would say I am an amateur guitarist.

Every guitarist I would cross paths with would tell me that I should have a flashy guitar, whatever the latest fashion model was, and I used to say, ‘Why? Mine works, doesn’t it? It’s a piece of wood and six strings, and it works.’

When a guitarist can evoke a certain mood through his playing, that’s what’s most important to me.

My interests are guitars, cars, and vacation. I’ve been playing guitar all my life. My dad was a professional guitarist, but I’m terrible, which lets me off the hook, so I just play for myself.

I am, and always will be, a blues guitarist.

I’ve always been a fan of Buddy Guy as a guitarist, as well as Stevie Ray Vaughan and those blues guys. I’d say those are pretty big influences on me.

You spend 20 years doing something and when you’re not doing it, it’s hard to figure out what it is you’re made of. Am I the guitarist in Slipknot and that is it, or do I have more dimensions than that?

If I could sing, I wouldn’t be a guitarist.

I play a PRS Custom 22. I learned on a Custom 24. It was set for a country guitarist, so it had a really high action.

I started out as a guitarist in the early ’80s.

I was training to be a lawyer… I was president of the law society at Glasgow University, and my bass guitarist was my secretary of my law society; the lead guitarist and writer worked at the law firm that I worked.

I first started actually playing guitar when I was eleven years old. I had some neighborhood friends who told me they were starting a band and needed a guitarist. I told my folks, and by the next day I had a guitar lesson set up with a local teacher.

I don’t care how famous a guitarist is, he ain’t learned everything. There’s always somewhere to go, something to mash up, but he ain’t found it yet. You never learn everything on that guitar neck.

When I was a kid, I was interested in folk music. But rock represented power, and I became the best rock guitarist in my school.

‘Underrated.’ That is the word that best describes Prince, the Guitarist. Why? Because his phenomenal guitar-playing was just one arrow in a quiver full of remarkable talents.

My body is an object of work. That’s why I think to be an actor is one of the most violent jobs. If you’re a pianist, you have your piano. If you’re a guitarist, you have your guitar. But if you’re a dancer, or you’re an actor – your instrument is your body.

I never considered myself a songwriter, but now since I’ve been working with Nick Lowe, I am contributing to an extent. But I’m the guitarist and he’s not, so we compliment each other in a way.

I’m not a great guitarist, but I do bits and bobs. I’m mainly a songwriter and a composer. I’ve done a lot of scoring and some stuff for British pop music that did pretty well, but I’ve mainly been working on my own stuff with Duncan Sheik.

I really consider myself more of a rhythm guitarist than a soloist.

My ability maps my own writing. I haven‘t spent a whole lot of time biting licks from the really quick masters. That’s why I’m not very good at that sort of super-fast, shreddy sweeping. So I’ve never considered myself a traditionally good, fast-playing guitarist.

It’s part of our nature. As much as I love (brother and guitarist Eddie), if you put us in a room with no one else for 15 minutes, we’d be at each other’s throats.

I started out by myself, but it eventually turned into a trio by the mid-’60s – a conga drum and another guitarist. And that’s been mostly what I’ve worked with most of the time.

The beauty of recording in L.A. is that most of the musicians that are on the record live here, so it was easy to get world class artists like Rick Braun to swing by and play a little trumpet, Everette Harp on sax, guitarist Paul Jackson.

I think Wes Montgomery is the greatest jazz guitarist that ever lived.

I started out as a guitarist in the early ’80s.

We’ve got the pretty-boy lead singer and the fat, dumpy drummer, and I’m the zany guitarist. Sure, we’ve played up the image at times. But it’s the music that matters most.

I wanted to be the greatest woman guitarist alive. I had fantasies about being a female Jimi Hendrix.