Jamie Cullum Quotes

I think I'm a songwriter. I grab an instrument to make my body a song, but I'm not a player as such, maybe a little more on guitar, but certainly not piano.

I began playing drums when I was seven and guitar when I was fourteen, but it wasn't until the early '90s that I took music seriously.

I am so happy that I didn't go to school and I didn't have anyone to tell me how to position my fingers on the piano correctly.

I know what my job is: I write the songs, I sing them, I play them on the piano.

For me it's the instrument. If I want to think of a flute and the state of the arts I hear a vibrato; I don't know what a flute is unless the person plays it for me.

I just sit down at the piano and rattle it off.

I grew up playing classical piano and percussion.

The thing with the piano is, the piano is like percussion almost - well, it is. You have to... not beat on it, but there is more work involved than a Hammond. With a Hammond, you just lay your hands on the keys, man, and you're gone.

I've played guitar and piano for a while, so it's really fun to play music on film.

My father was a guitar player, and I was raised with a super high standard of what good guitar playing was.

I read a lot of autobiographical stories, and I write plays and prose. And I play piano and cello. A lot of my downtime is devoted to that.

I actually write more on guitar than I do on piano.

You need better technique than I have to play jazz, but what you have to do is the same thing, isn't it?

I've played piano and guitar when I was younger.

I was a piano player. I love piano playing. I just love all music.

I agree totally with Metheny regarding the sound influencing the way you play.

I always admired very much the virtuosity in Strauss because, really, he's a master of using the orchestra. And I like virtuosity, I must say, even if the taste of the music is not always mine.

I focused primarily on being an instrumentalist and studying music and on my primary means of expression: composing and playing.

I've been playing since I was about 7. I never really used a pick very much. I mean, once in a while, if you're in a festive mood, you might draw a little blood, but nothing significant... But my hands aren't abused, really.

Most of the time, I'll be conducting the orchestra, but there will be some pieces that I'll be playing an instrument as well, just because I love playing. There's pieces where I want to grab an instrument and play with the rest of the group, like 'The Light of the Seven,' for example; I would love to play the piano for that.

The piano is the instrument I can play the most.

I played the flute in elementary school, but when I got into high school, they didn't have any flutes; they gave me a clarinet and said, 'Play it in the same way, just hold in a different position.' I really didn't care much for it.

I used to aspire to being more of a traditional bass player, to be honest. People say I play it like a guitar - and I was a guitar player when I was growing up. I started learning when I was eight, and that's what I was fascinated with in my teen years.

I love Mozart, but I often make a terrible hash of it.

I think there's a fallacy that's been concocted by the music teachers' profession, to wit: that there's a certain sequence of events necessary in order to have the revealed truth about the way one produces a given effect on a given instrument.