22 Joe Satriani Quotes on Music

Joe Satriani quotes on music

1. If someone can relate my guitar solo to an exercise in a book ... that's no fun at all.

2. It really sucks when music is so perfect you just don't need to hear it anymore.

6. I write the songs first and in most cases teach myself the technique second.

7. My first [guitar] lessons lasted two weeks and it was 'Jingle Bells.' It didn't make any sense at all. I wanted to know how to play like Hendrix...

8. I've always spent a lot of time on my records with what I think were unique rhythmic approaches ... but no one ever writes about your rhythm playing

   Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.

9. When you hear an instrumental song someone is singing over, you know right away it's wrong.

11. Eee-nee-mee-nee-my-nee-moe

12. I think it's quite painfully obvious when someone's practicing through an amp, as opposed to someone who's really laying down some stuff that just happens to be fast.

    Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.

13. The Squares [his former band] never really fit in. We weren't rock enough. We weren't alternative enough. We weren't new wave enough and we weren't punk enough. Maybe we just weren't the right people for the band.

14. Mozart was a freaky kind of shredder.

15. I assume most guitar players are like me. They're playing, having fun; then they get a magazine in the mail that says 'Shred Is Dead' and they say, 'What the Hell?' They throw it away and keep on playing.

16. When you think about where guitar playing is going today...: it's going everywhere at the same time.

17. I'll tell you one thing: I will always play the sh** out of my guitar.

19. Relax. Be yourself. Play a lot.

20. When these guitar mags bring up that stuff up and say such and such came up with this and that which is pushing the boundaries, I just say, 'let's step back for a minute and admit something: nothing has happened for the last 100 years.' And it's okay. It's not a bad thing ... We're all working with 'tools' that have been in existence for the last 100 years and there hadn't been a new 'tool' for a long long time.

21. Basic anatomy. That has got to be the ongoing frustration: Why can't my fingers do what I want them to do? Not being able to play what I hear in my head - that is the ultimate source of frustration.

22. When you hear something you don't like, don't ever play it again.

23. Satriani's Law: There's at least a 30% chance that someone will print the name Satriani incorrectly

24. Guitars are fun. There are plenty of different kinds to play. They look cool. They sound cool. Don't *you* want to play guitar?

26. Solos I kind of [couldn't] care less about. I know most people probably think that's what I care most about, but it's really the melody playing that is the cornerstone of what I'm working on.

29. When I want to play music, you've got to get me on tape or else it goes.

30. 18th September, 1970; Jimi Hendrix dies. I'm still on the football team when I get the news. So I take my helmet off and confront the coach to tell him I'm quitting the team. In a moment of brilliance he gives me one look and says 'OK'.