Luc Ferrari Quotes

Just like using an instrument, a song calls for different things.

There's no performance where I never have to think about setting up a phrase or making a technical adjustment while I'm performing.

Whenever I start to really think about what I'm playing, I may play it better musically, but the feeling isn't there.

You don't go out and play Beethoven's 'Opus 111' without having rethought about it every time you play.

To be honest, I'm one of the least-technical guitar players around. I just want a guitar to feel good and sound good. That's it, period.

One learns how to change gears within a concert repertoire.

Well, rhythm is 90 percent of the interpretation.

If you want me to play only the notes without any specific dynamics, I will never make one mistake.

The notes I handle no better than many pianists. But the pauses between the notes ah, that is where the art resides.

I was always pretty decent at fast stick work or doing stuff that seems impressive that's not really; I was pretty tasteful and had good ideas musically. But I had a terrible sense of tempo, which is like being a blind painter. The conductor would just rip into me, and it lasted for years.

Even though I'll do finger warm-ups that go up and down the neck to build up my chops and dexterity, I never, ever sit around and practice the actual licks I'm gonna play live. If you do, then you'll be all worried about the complexity of getting the fingering right and everything else about it, as opposed to the feel.

To be able to produce many varieties of sound, now that is what I call technique, and that is what I try to do. I don't adhere to any methods, because I simply don't believe in them. I think each pianist must ultimately carve his own way, technically and stylistically.

I play in tune like a cello player and use legitimate vibrato. There are no tricks; it's just all in the hands!

The right notes mean more than 1,000 mph arpeggios.

You've got to know much more than the mere technicalities of notes. You've got to know sounds and what goes between the notes.

Music is all about training in harmony, training to understand and use musical energy for our greater pleasure by attuning to the natural laws of the universe.

Music has no subject beyond the combinations of notes we hear, for music speaks not only by means of sounds, it speaks nothing but sound.

Opera is musical theatre, and the music can teach you so much about the theatre. Very often I use musical terms to think about how I comport myself on stage: I employ 'rubati,' 'ostinati,' 'cadenze.' Finding these parallels is very fascinating for me.

How to play music may be known. At the commencement of the piece, all the parts should sound together. As it proceeds, they should be in harmony while severally distinct and flowing without break, and thus on to the conclusion.

Scales played in the correct musical way are very exciting and rewarding.

No, improvising is wonderful. But, the thing is that you cannot improvise unless you know exactly what you're doing.

The spoken form is in fact a very restrained representation of what is possible in the musical language.

The 'Carousel' overture has always been one of my all-time favorite pieces of music.

The hardest of all the arts to speak of is music, because music has no meaning to speak of.

Mother, being a pianist, told me how to play with my fingers on the piano.