Jim Root Quotes

I'm not the type of player to sit home and practice scales and work on runs.

Whenever I feel my chops are slacking, I'll play some wide-stretch trilling exercises and take them up and down the neck as well as across it.

I can't read a note of music. I just do it all from ear.

I'm learning on the guitar all the time.

I can play just about any keyboard but I can't read or write a note.

Yes indeed I have gained a lot out of playing scales and etudes.

I feel like I'm just learning how to play the guitar. I mean, really learning to play the guitar.

I could never overstate the importance of a musician's need to develop his or her ear. Actually, I believe that developing a good 'inner ear' - the art of being able to decipher musical components solely through listening - is the most important element in becoming a good musician.

I spent a lot of time developing my chops when I was younger. In doing so, I found that one of the hardest things was dealing with what to practice.

I consider myself a part-time worker when it comes to the piano, but you need to play regularly to stay sharp.

Once you've developed some technical facility on the guitar, the musical side (which entails theory, harmony, chord structure, ear training, sight-reading, composition and being able to hear chord progressions and licks) comes into play a lot more.

I'm practicing the oboe. But I don't play. Just single notes, not an entire piece of music.

I learned my profession onstage. I didn't have a musical background. I had no conservatory training. I don't play an instrument.

I didn't take lessons, and I don't know my scales.

You never learn everything on that guitar neck.

I learned when I started to study piano that I could play by ear. I could hear a song on the radio a couple of times and hear the song and the lyrics and sing it for you after a couple of plays.

I don't think I could have ever had a career as a pianist because I never ever wanted to play the notes the way they were written, I was too sloppy to learn them quite right.

I can't read a note. I have lots of discipline, but I can't sit still at any instrument.

I've always considered transcribing to be an invaluable tool in the development of one's musical ear and, over the years, I have spent countless glorious hours transcribing different kinds of music, either guitar-oriented or not.

Another thing that I don't like to do is show too much how it goes. I do it once in a blue moon. Sometimes there are lessons when I don't pick up a violin at all.

All musicians practice ear training constantly, whether or not they are cognizant of it. If, when listening to a piece of music, a musician is envisioning how to play it or is trying to play along, that musician is using his or her 'ear' - the understanding and recognition of musical elements - for guidance.

For years, my actual listening activity has been governed by what I perceived to be good for me as a musician, almost like the way an athlete trains for a given sporting task. I'd listen to something if I felt it would improve my sense of harmony or counterpoint, or whatever I was working on.

In order to become a well-rounded musician, you have to master the three major aspects of guitar playing: the technical side, the musical side and the creative side.

I was learning guitar as the band was beginning, at least in terms of being a lead guitar player. I could write songs, but I couldn't really play solos.

When I practise scales I will play four notes on one string. If I'm playing a C major scale, starting on F, I'll play the F, G, A, and B on one string and the C will be on the A string, etc, etc. Because I found not only was it good for my hands but it was really good for interconnecting things.