Daniel Levitin Quotes

You can't go to the store and buy a good ear and rhythm.

I have a good ear for music.

I think I can keep a rhythm to a beat, but there are quite a few people who would argue with me.

I was a lucky kid. You could have got 10 kids to be in The Byrds who were better than I was.

Your understanding of music depends on your capacity to perceive it.

God gives different people different gifts, and there are some people that can listen to an instrument and within a fraction of a second tell, you know, where it's off key or what note doesn't resonate correctly.

Everybody on our cast is very musically talented, except for me.

The Doors were never that good as musicians.

I was born, for instance, incapable of appreciating music.

I really don't have an ear for pitch. I can't sing at all, I can't hum melodies and I can't write riffs.

See, I'm not a very good musician.

I know I'm a strong performer. I'm not an evolved musician.

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 know I'm not musically talented.

I would listen to something on the radio and try to tap out the melody, then the harmonies.

The way the mind decodes music is an individual mystery. But the physical circumstances can change the way you listen.

All my children inherited perfect pitch.

The sensitive ear of the musician detects a certain musical note in every city which is different from that of another city. He hears in each little brook a new melody, and to him the sound of wind in the treetops of different forests give a varying sound.

I am exceedingly lucky that my voice, along with perfect pitch and perfect rhythm, was given me at birth.

Although they can do it all the time, you know, they're far better than me, on a musically, on a theoretical music level. You know, they're out of my league.

I can read a chord chart, but I couldn't read a note chart.

I was always good at hearing complete arrangements in my head.

Any time I try to play anything that doesn't come natural, I'm just plain bad.

As soon as I figured out I didn't know anything about music, I was OK. It's when I thought I could learn something that I was in trouble.

I think all kids are creative, so I wouldn't say my kids are geniuses. But they immediately respond to music. And they've got great rhythm!