And if they fall into your arms You'll be surprised to find The weight that you can bear - Prefab Sprout, Life's A Miracle, Andromeda Heights, 1997 % If there were no flutes and flageolets, no tympani and trumpets, no harps and hurdygurdys and hammer dulcimers, there would still be the piano. - Freff, Keyboard Magazine % Finding a pianist who can play the notes is cheap. Just as finding a programmer who can write code is cheap. [...] Finding a pianist who is a musician, or finding a coder who is an artist - that is a rare and precious find indeed. - Russell, on Slashdot % You can't get what you want till you know what you want. - Joe Jackson % We don't know what happens when we die, we only know we die too soon. - Joe Jackson % For every dollar a man makes, a woman makes 63 cents. Fifty years ago that was 62 cents. So, with that kind of luck, it'll be the year 3888 before we make a buck. - Laurie Anderson % I know, no one's gonna show me everything We all come and go unknown Each so deep and superficial Between the forceps and the stone - Joni Mitchell, Hejira, 1976 % Italian pop? A very good school for full-of-patterns jazz players! In the end I had to dig into simplicity. - Danilo Rea, Ottobre 2003 % This album is not about synthesizers or computers. It's about Norah being au natural. She doesn't need pitch correction. She's always in tune, and her voice always touches you. - Arif Mardin, producer of Norah Jones' "Feels Like Home" % Plenty of record labels came calling; none had a clue what to do with a young woman [Eva Cassidy] who sounded like Judy Collins, Aretha Franklin, and Diana Krall rolled into one. - Joan Anderman, January 1999 % ...this book does not recommend exercises such as Hanon and Czerny, that are not meant to be memorized and performed; by the same token, the Chopin Etudes are recommended. Practicing something that wasn't meant to be performed is not only a waste of time, but also degrades any sense of music you originally had. - Chuan C. Chang, Fundamentals of Piano Practice, 2nd Edition - http://members.aol.com/chang8828/contents.htm % The most common misunderstanding is that [piano] technique is some inherited finger dexterity. It is not. The innate dexterity of accomplished pianists and ordinary folk are not that different. This means that practically anyone can learn to play the piano well. - Chuan C. Chang, Fundamentals of Piano Practice, 2nd Edition http://members.aol.com/chang8828/contents.htm % But the light has gone, and there is dark - What used to be the sky Is suddenly embarrassing - To the naked eye - Paddy McAloon - - Prefab Sprout, We Let the Stars Go, Jordan: the Comeback, 1990 % We ask for any wrong we've done - The years ahead forgive us We ask for any good we've done - That all of it outlive us - Prefab Sprout, Carnival 2000, Jordan: the Comeback, 1990 % How can I in five minutes shift a lifetime's hidden pain? - Julia Fordham, Girlfriend, Porcelain, 1989 % I went to see a psychic and I paid for good advice He said "Forget a romance 'til you've sorted out your life. Be your own mother and your father and your sister and brother, And even try to crack the art of being your own lover..." - Julia Fordham, Girlfriend, Porcelain, 1989 % When I thought life had some purpose - Then I thought I had some choice (I was running blind) And I made some value judgments - In a self-important voice (I was outa line) But then absurdity came over me - And I longed to lose control (into no mind) Oh all I ever wanted - Was just to come in from the cold - Joni Mitchell, Come in from the cold, Night Ride Home, 1991 % Does it seem like I'm looking for an answer To a question I can't ask - Norah Jones, Nightingale, Come Away with Me, 2001 % Over the endless troubles, over the trying times These are the words of wisdom from a restless mind Don't push the river, don't push the river Don't push the river, let it carry you - Julia Fordham, River, Falling Forward, 1994 % I've looked at life from both sides now From win and lose, and still somehow It's life's illusions I recall I really don't know life at all - Joni Mitchell, Both sides now, Clouds, 1969 % It's ironic because it's lawyers and accountants who run this stuff. They can't keep it together. The music industry is crumbling. A lot of people notice how shitty and disposable music is and it's infesting the whole world. - Shannon McNally, 2005 % To this day I worship at the altar of Miles Davis! He and his bands truly channel the Divine. (And that's the WHOLE point!) - Paula Cole, March 2005 % I can feel your fingers - Feeling my face There are some lines you put there - And some you erase - Joni Mitchell, Offnight Backstreet, Don Juan's Reckless Daughter, 1977 % As for the music factories--a.k.a. the major record companies--what they want is power. They will never accept P2P sharing as long as it remains a way to escape from their power. For their abuses against the people, they deserve to be abolished, and that should be everyone's goal. - Richard Stallman, February 2006 % Loved it, but felt I had to concentrate, which holds you back... you want to let go, not think, let the gig happen to you, but I was strapped by the unfamiliarity of it. Still loved it. - KT Tunstall, January 2006 % The more my parents worried that I wouldn't manage, the harder I played. And the more record companies said I was too old, the harder I played. The more people said I was another whimsical singer-songwriter, the harder I played. - KT Tunstall, February 2006 % Baby, I can tell you there's no easy way out Lost inside of dreams that guide you on Baby, I can tell you there's no easy way out Soon the guiding moonlight will be gone - David Sylvian, Silver Moon, Gone to Earth, 1986 % we do what we're told we do what we're told we do what we're told told to do - Peter Gabriel, We Do What We're Told, So, 1986 % In the '70s I was a huge fan of various bands; now I'm a huge fan of software. I've gone from gazing at record covers to gazing at online help files, which is a little sick, now that I think about it. - Wayne Lytle, March 2006 % oh oh, cavallo, oh oh, cavallo, oh oh, cavallo, oh oh, cavallo, oh oh - Roberto Vecchioni, Samarcanda, 1977 % Integrity, honesty, compassion, loyalty and just plain telling it like it is. [...] You always knew where you stood with Bob. Politically correct? That wasn't a big concern of his. He wasn't trying to win a popularity contest. Letting you know how he felt was a big concern of his. - Ed Howard, eulogy for Bob Berg, December 2002 % Watch the woman's hands, as she talks to the man As he talks down to her, as he tells her He doesn't understand, he doesn't see the fisted hands Clenched tightly, angrily - Paula Cole, Watch the Woman's Hands, Harbinger, 1994 % I need, I need another good friend Like I need, like I need a hole in my head. And I want, I want, I want your loving in my heart And I want, and I want, I want your loving in my bed... - Julia Fordham, Did I Happen to Mention, Porcelain, 1989 % For a hushed sweet moment - Everything made sense And all my misplaced judgements - Were awash with innocence For a hushed sweet moment - It felt like time stood still I only know I love you - And that I always will - Julia Fordham, Alleluia, Concrete Love, 2002 % There's no gentle way to break somebody's heart To say, it's over, it's time for us to part - Prefab Sprout, Love Will Find Someone for You, The Gunman and Other Stories, 2001 % Just being alive, It can really hurt And these moments given, Are a gift from time Just let us try, To give these moments back To those we love, To those who will survive - Kate Bush, Moments Of Pleasure, Red Shoes, 1993 % Come with me now to see my world, where there's beauty beyond your dreams Can you feel the things I feel, right now, with you Take my hand, there's a world I need to know - Phil Collins, Strangers Like Me, Tarzan soundtrack, 1999 % I have a wonderful boyfriend. So how am I going to write a tortured break-up song? My life is really good and I don't want to ruin it just for a good song. - Norah Jones, January 2007 % Layout should be pretty, not only for its own sake, but especially because it helps the reader in his task. For performance material like sheet music, this is doubly important: musicians have a limited amount of attention. The less attention they need for reading, the more they can focus on playing itself. In other words, better typography translates to better performances. - Lilypond engraving essay % If we can't take the time out of our lives to stay a moment and listen to one of the best musicians on Earth play some of the best music ever written; if the surge of modern life so overpowers us that we are deaf and blind to something like that - then what else are we missing? - Gene Weingarten, April 2007 % Love is hate War is peace No is yes And we're all free - Tracy Chapman, Why?, Tracy Chapman, 1988 % I must have seen Joe Jackson [live] nearly 20 times over the last 15 years and there's only been one dud that I can remember. Long may he reign. -- Kirsty on joe-jackson@yahoogroups.com, May 2007 % Whereas a carpenter knows that wood comes from trees, my material is like some sort of Kryptonite from another planet. It's not quite solid, or liquid, or vaporous. When all's said and done, I really don't know *what* [music] is, or how it got here. And the more I think about it, the more ephemeral it seems, as though it were something I'd dreamed. - Joe Jackson, A Cure for Gravity, 1999 % Just as a painter starts from a black canvas, a musician should start from silence; and one of our most essential skills is the ability to simply shut up and listen. - Joe Jackson, A Cure for Gravity, 1999 % There are people who can attain musical ecstasy only with the aid of pre-1960 rhythm-and-blues recorded in St. Louis on the AceTone label, or Monteverdi played on sixteenth-century instruments. Good luck to them, but musical obsessions seem to me to be more about obsession than about music. - Joe Jackson, A Cure for Gravity, 1999 % I was a pilgrim, dedicated to the service of something larger than myself, something that transcended the mundane material world, something that could still fill me with awe. Music was my Christ on the cross, my Wailing Wall, my Mecca. A universe in which music existed could not be evil. - Joe Jackson, A Cure for Gravity, 1999 % The Top 20 [...] shouldn't be taken too seriously. There are all kinds of reasons that one record has sold more, this week, than another. But in the realm of music, there are no winners, and the only losers are those who aren't enjoying themselves. - Joe Jackson, A Cure for Gravity, 1999 % Don't use Madonna as a role model if who you *really* relate to is Joni Mitchell. Or vice versa. Don't mutilate your foot, trying to squeeze it into Cinderella's slipper. I've tried to do some of that myself, but nowadays there's no doubt in my mind: I'm one of the ugly sisters. And *proud* of it. - Joe Jackson, A Cure for Gravity, 1999 % Touring [is] not a bad way to make a living, albeit hard work, and not without its scary moments. Like waking up in an hotel room you don't remember checking into, and not being able to remember what town or even what *country* you're in. Then looking out the window and *still* being none the wiser. It usually turns out to be Belgium. - Joe Jackson, A Cure for Gravity, 1999 % The [Sex] Pistols came not to save rock but to destroy it. Or at least, to take the piss. Their music is a vicious, sneering travesty of rock, and saying that they made the greatest rock album ever is like saying the San Francisco Earthquake was a great day for architecture. - Joe Jackson, A Cure for Gravity, 1999 % In the end, music doesn't *have* to make sense. You just have to believe, and good stuff happens. Through music I've connected to people, to places, to the past, and to the future. And through music (to paraphrase Oscar one more time) I've been able to connect the gutter to the stars. It's been as good a religion as any. - Joe Jackson, A Cure for Gravity, 1999 % People make a big mistake in putting down electronic music. Yes, it's been misused and abused, but that's true of every music. There is nothing wrong with electronic music as long as you're putting some soul behind the technology. - Joe Zawinul, 1986 % Sto pensando a camminare Non m'importa d'arrivare, Non ho un posto, né una meta Una mia stella cometa - Üstmamò, Cosa Conta, Stard'üst, 1998 % Take my love, take my land, take me where I cannot stand I don't care, I'm still free, you can't take the sky from me. Take me out to the black, tell 'em I ain't comin' back, Burn the land and boil the sea, you can't take the sky from me. Have no place I can be since I found Serenity. But you can't take the sky from me. - Joss Whedon, Firefly, 2002 % Time - To eat all your words - Swallow your pride - Open your eyes - Tears for Fears, Sowing the Seeds of Love, 1989 % The music business has always created celebrities. And each celebrity has profited for decades from that fame. Frank Sinatra is dead and he's still profiting. Elvis is still alive and he's certainly still profiting. - Seth Godin, January 2008 % What is called the music business today [...] is not the business of producing music. At some point it became the business of selling CDs in plastic cases, and that business will soon be over. But that's not bad news for music, and it's certainly not bad news for musicians. - David Byrne, December 2007 % Do I know you from somewhere? Why do you leave me wanting more? Why do all the things I say Sound like the stupid things I've said before? - Madonna, Skin, Ray of Light, 1998 % Stand in the sun Shut your eyes and feel the world It's changing every day - Genesis, Open Door, Three Sides Live, 1982 % The girl from all those songs Who made everything feel right She came in like an angel, into your lonely life And filling your world with light Oh, and everybody told you "you're oh so lucky" - Genesis, Evidence of Autumn, Three Sides Live, 1982 % The rhythm section responds to the orchestra in a way that makes it significant for a jazz record [Epiphany]. Having a rhythm section respond to the stimulus of the other players is what jazz is all about. - Vince Mendoza, September 2007 % When Joni [Mitchell]'s Travelogue record came out -when it was released- I sat down and listened to it. I was truly depressed for many months, because I thought, "I cannot do better than this, I should retire." It's so beautiful, and it was done so well, played so well, mixed and balanced so well - every little note that was supposed to happen, happened. - Vince Mendoza, September 2007 % Ma passa per il buio senza paura - Ma passa per l'amore senza paura Ma va per la tua strada senza paura - Ma passa per la morte senza paura - Senza Paura, La voglia la pazzia..., Vanoni-De Moraes-Toquinho, 1976