George Crumb Quotes

Music deals with time and timing. It's so magical, but when you get into it, every little sound and every little space between the sounds, it's critical, so critical. And if it's not there, it not only feels wrong, but it ruins things.

The heart of a music is its rhythm. The heart of rhythm section music is the rhythm.

Rhythm is sound in motion. It is related to the pulse, the heartbeat, the way we breathe. It rises and falls. It takes us into ourselves; it takes us out of ourselves.

My playing is always just a little on top of the beat. I can't lay down the kind of groove that Brad Wilk can. I'd really have to lay back to do that; it just doesn't feel natural to me.

I have always had a certain rhythmic approach to my work.

Rhythm is something you either have or don't have, but when you have it, you have it all over.

I consider every drummer that ever played before me an influence, in every way.

Rhythm and sounds are born with syllables.

How can you not love a man banging on the drums? He knows how to keep a rhythm.

Playing drums, for me, is like breathing. It's like thinking. It's like eating. It's like walking.

Obviously, I like the drums to be heard. I think they're important.

The main rhythmic loop in 'Alaska' is me just patting on my jeans.

When you use a metronome, you'll start to notice where the notes are falling, if they're on the beat, behind the beat, between the beat, and so on.

Rhythm is the pulse of music.

When I watch drummers, I always want to see energy. It's not about the proficiency of the musicianship; I'm just into the vibe and excitement of it. With drums, it's such a primeval thing.

Rhythm is the life of space of time danced through.

I play more rhythmically than I do a lot of notes.

The golden rule of drums is hands clapping and feet tapping, and when you are in and out of consciousness, you can't do that to best of your ability.

The best way to express rhythm is music.

Music is given to us with the sole purpose of establishing an order in things, including, and particularly, the coordination between man and time.

There's not much music I'll listen to if it doesn't have pretty heavy swing. Rhythm is so important. Punk rock would have more power and feeling if it had swing.

I rely heavily on rhythm when I write. You should tap your foot when you read it, all the way through.

The drums tell me everything. Everything else registers a millisecond later.

Essentially my contribution was to introduce repetition into Western music as the main ingredient without any melody over it, without anything just repeated patterns, musical patterns.

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.