180 Guitar Quotes

Following is our list of guitar quotations and slogans full of insightful wisdom and perspective about classical guitar.

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Famous Guitar Quotes

But the guitar, when you think about it, is the most versatile, really. I mean you can pick it up and take it with you wherever you go. — Eric Clapton

The guitar is a wonderful instrument which is understood by few. — Franz Schubert

If you wanna write a song, ask a guitar — Neil Young

Guitar is the best form of self-expression I know. Everything else, and I'm just sort of tripping around, trying to figure my way through life. — Slash

The guitar has a kind of grit and excitement possessed by nothing else. — Brian May

Guitar is easy, all it takes is 5 fingers, 6 strings and 1 a**hole — Keith Richards

The guitar is a small orchestra. It is polyphonic. Every string is a different color, a different voice. — Andres Segovia

With a guitar I would be able to express the things I felt in sounds. — William Christopher Handy

.. the guitar is just a wonderful instrument. It's everything: a bartender, a psychiatrist, a housewife. It's everything, but it's elusive — Les Paul

Nothing is more beautiful than a guitar, except, possibly two. — Frederic Chopin

The guitar is a much more efficient machine than a computer. More responsive. — Colin Greenwood

Guitar is for the head, drums are for the chest, but bass gets you in the groin — Suzi Quatro

There's so much that can be done on the guitar. And that's what is so good about the guitar - everyone can really enjoy themselves on it and have a good time, which is what it's all about. — Jimmy Page

A guitar is more than just a sound box... it is part of your soul. — Manuel Velazquez

I play guitar because it lets me dream out loud. — Michael Hedges

Short Guitar Quotes

  • The guitar is the easiest instrument to play and the hardest to play well. — Andres Segovia
  • Owning a handgun doesn't make you armed any more than owning a guitar makes you a musician. — Jeff Cooper
  • I'm only myself when I have a guitar in my hands. — George Harrison
  • If we replaced guns with guitars, then the world would be a concert — Thomas Ian Nicholas
  • There is geometry in the humming of the strings, there is music in the spacing of the spheres. — Pythagoras
  • Technically, I'm not a guitar player, all I play is truth and emotion. — Jimi Hendrix
  • I practice more than ever ... mostly scales and arpeggios ... and anything I can't do. — Julian Bream
  • Every time you pick up your guitar to play, play as if it's the last time. — Eric Clapton
  • My sunglasses are like my guitar. — Patti Smith
  • My favorite guitar solo of all time was Elliot Randall's on `Reelin' In The Years'. — Jimmy Page

I Love My Guitar Quotes

The time I burned my guitar it was like a sacrifice. You sacrifice the things you love. I love my guitar. — Jimi Hendrix

Jeff Beck is my idol .. sometimes he finds notes that I just do not have on my guitar. Frank Zappa's another one .. I loved Frank Zappa ... I do think Van Halen reinvented the guitar ... he's an excellent musician, a shrewd guitarist and as a person he's wonderful. — Ritchie Blackmore

I went to my friend's house one day, and he had an electric guitar he had just bought with a tiny little amp. I turned the volume up to 10 and I hit one chord, and I said, I'm in love. — Ace Frehley

My dad wanted me to play when I was a kid, so I learned to play the guitar. I pursued a career in music because I love it so much and I enjoy what it does to those who hear it. — Randy Travis

I suppose my little Martin acoustic guitar is quickly becoming a prize possession. It's a lovely guitar. I bought it at the Cambridge Folk Festival in 2001 before I had cleaned up. — Graham Coxon

Looks like my baby dont live here no more...thats alright, ive still got my guitar..I might as well go back over yonder, way back across the hills, if my baby dont love me no more....i know her...sister will — Jimi Hendrix

The Goth character was a difficult thing to get my head round. I'm not really a fan of Goth music. I'm more a piano and guitar man - that's what I love. — Richard Fleeshman

Because I don't play guitar any more, African harmonies and rhythms have been an inspiration to me. I love the raw origin of the sound. It complements my voice and words naturally. — Cat Stevens

As far as guitar goes, it's weird to have such a challenging activity in my life for so long - I love it. It kicks my ass every day. — Vernon Reid

I loved the guitar, and I had all of this music in my head. My passion for the guitar and the ideas for what I could create musically were equal. So that's where I was. — Steve Vai

Classical Guitar Quotes

It was my 16th birthday - my mom and dad gave me my Goya classical guitar that day. I sat down, wrote this song, and I just knew that that was the only thing I could ever really do - write songs and sing them to people. — Stevie Nicks

I'm not a really good classical guitarist by any means, but what I learned from this is a way of working very slowly on solo pieces and I enjoyed working on these pieces of John's. They were not written for solo guitar but a lot of them were easy to adapt. — Marc Ribot

For me it always comes down to what is a good song and I'm very old fashioned in the way that I like to make songs that have something classic about them whether you can play them with an orchestra or an electro synthesizer or an acoustic guitar. — Marc Almond

The classical guitar has a dynamic to it unlike a regular acoustic guitar or an electric guitar. You know, there's times when you should play and there's times when you gotta hold back. It's an extremely dynamic instrument. — Steve Vai

I listened to classical guitar and Spanish guitar, as well as jazz guitar players, rock and roll and blues. All of it. I did the same thing with my voice. — Boz Scaggs

I read and write classical piano and percussion, also guitar. — Suzi Quatro

From the classical guitar right through to the furthest electrical experiments and everything in-between, it's amazing what the guitar can actually do. I mean, when one thinks about sounds. — Jimmy Page

I'm thinking about learning a few new things - like taking classical guitar lessons - and I'd like to bring what I learn into hard rock. — Mick Mars

I am Classic Rock Revisited. I revisit it every waking moment of my life because it has the spirit and the attitude and the fire and the middle finger. I am Rosa Parks with a Gibson guitar. — Ted Nugent

I had a big background in listening to classical music and I started trying to compose, like I was playing the guitar but I heard an orchestra in my head. — John Fahey

Guitar Music Quotes

I never practice my guitar. From time to time I just open the case & throw in a piece of raw meat. — Wes Montgomery

I don't want you to play me a riff that's going to impress Joe Satriani; give me a riff that makes a kid want to go out and buy a guitar and learn to play. — Ozzy Osbourne

I think its so cool that you can pick up the guitar and create something that didn't exist 5 minutes ago. You can write something that no ones ever heard before. You have music at your fingertips. — Michelle Branch

The best music happens when you have a personal connection to it. That same philosophy can extend to the instrument you hold in your hands: if a guitar means something special, you're bound to do great things with it. — Frank Iero

One day you pick up the guitar and you feel like a great master, and the next day you feel like a fool. It’s because we’re different every day, but the guitar is always the same…beautiful. — Tommy Emmanuel

I’m not trying to play the guitar. I’m trying to play music. — Michael Hedges

As far as being a 'player's player,' you've only got to go to Nashville or Argentina and you can forget about it. The world is full of amazing guitar players, and you know it, and I know it...it's a humbling experience. — Mark Knopfler

Regardless of what you play, the biggest thing is keeping the feel going. - Wes Montgomery

Regardless of what you play, the biggest thing is keeping the feel going. — Wes Montgomery

If you don't know the blues... there's no point in picking up the guitar and playing rock and roll or any other form of popular music. — Keith Richards

I don't play a lot of fancy guitar. I don't want to play it. The kind of guitar I want to play is mean, mean licks. — John Lee Hooker

Guitar Player Quotes

I wasn't originally a bass player. I just found out I was needed, because everyone wants to play guitar. — Tina Weymouth

Look what venison does to a goofy guitar player from Detroit? I'm going to be 54 this year and if I had any more energy I'd scare you. — Ted Nugent

I started out playing guitar because Jimi Hendrix was my hero, so my roots were really based on Jimi Hendrix and his style of playing. — Joe Satriani

If you play music for no other reason than actually just because you love it, the skills just kinda creep up on you. — Nuno Bettencourt

I practiced two or three hours, sometimes none, sometimes six. It was very varied. — Julian Bream

I could have probably gone on and still played the part of the guitar player of Limp Bizkit, but musically I was kind of bored. If I was to continue, it would have been about the money and not about the true music, and I don't want to lie to myself, or to them or to fans of Limp Bizkit. — Wes Borland

I have a little history. I met Stone Temple Pilots, and their guitar player was a huge Extreme fan. Somewhere down the road, Extreme made its statement. — Gary Cherone

I always hated jazz guitar. I loved jazz saxophone but I hated jazz guitar. If I would buy an organ trio record I would make sure I'd buy one that did not have a guitar player on it. The sound was awful! — Tom Verlaine

Besides being a guitar player, I'm a big fan of the guitar. I love that damn instrument. — Steve Vai

You can be a singer, and you can be a guitar player, but putting them together is another animal. — Gavin DeGraw

Guitar Instrument Quotes

The ukulele was the first of many instruments they had bought for me. They got me a guitar when I was eleven, which my son Morgan uses until this day. They paid for 3 years of guitar lessons; they bought me a bass fiddle, which I still play. — Tony Visconti

But the reality is when you write a song, you should be able to strip away all the instruments and just have a song right there with an acoustic guitar and a voice, and the song should be good. — Dweezil Zappa

I play, like, 12 instruments. Guitar, piano, harmonica, African drums... I'm working on mastering the accordion. — Lucas Grabeel

I really love that type of music where someone can take a guitar or light instrumentation and a beautiful voice and can send me somewhere. — Mark Lanegan

Write as you like, use the rhythms that come out, try different instruments, sit at the piano, destroy the metric, shout instead of singing, blow your guitar and ring the horn. Hate mathematics, and love eddies. Creation is a bird without a flight plan, that will never fly in a straight line. — Violeta Parra

The guitar is the most unpredictable and least reliable musical instrument in existence...and also the sweetest, the warmest, the most delicate, whose melancholic voice awakes in our soul exquisite reveries. — Andres Segovia

A man can’t have too many guitars or too many shotguns. — Robert Earl Keen

For me, I think the only danger is being too much in love with guitar playing. The MUSIC is the most important thing, and the guitar is only the instrument. — Jerry Garcia

I'm not the kind of guy who deserves to play a vintage guitar because I'm too rough on instruments. — Tommy Shaw

But the guitar is my favorite, first and foremost instrument. — Midge Ure

Guitar Sound Quotes

Your sound is in your hands as much as anything. It's the way you pick, and the way you hold the guitar, more than it is the amp or the guitar you use. — Stevie Ray Vaughan

I don't understand why some people will only accept a guitar if it has an instantly recognizable guitar sound. Finding ways to use the same guitar people have been using for 50 years to make sounds that no one has heard before is truly what gets me off. — Jeff Beck

I think I could walk into any music shop anywhere and with a guitar off the rack, a couple of basic pedals and an amp I could sound just like me. There's no devices, customized or otherwise, that give me my sound. — David Gilmour

I played 'Eruption' two times for the record, and we kept the one that seemed to flow ... there's a mistake at the top end of it whenever I hear it, I always think, Man I could've played it better ... but I like the way it sounds. I'd never heard a guitar sound like that before. — Eddie Van Halen

I mean, the sound of an amplified guitar in a room full of people was so hypnotic and addictive to me, that I could cross any kind of border to get on there. — Eric Clapton

Sometimes it's the mistakes that end up leading you into new territory .. like the guitar solo on 'Peelin' Taters' - I had some speaker problems, but the tone ended up sounding better than if I had new speakers .. it's a 60's Nashville, 'uptown' thing — Junior Brown

My first love was the sound of guitar. — Boz Scaggs

I mainly use Stratocasters. I like a lot of different kinds of guitars, but for what I do, it seems that a Stratocaster is the most versatile. I can pretty much get any sound out of it, and I use stock pickups. — Stevie Ray Vaughan

A good player can make any guitar sound good. — Mike Bloomfield

I'm starting to play all the melodies with kind of keyboard sound but playing it from the bass guitar. — Squarepusher

Guitar Pick Quotes

I'm not the kind of guy who sits around at home and writes songs. Once in a while I'll pick up a guitar and noodle around, but it's rare. — Scott Ian

Guitarists should be able to pick up the guitar and play music on it for an hour, without a rhythm section or anything. — Joe Pass

This guitar is such a pal. It's a psychiatrist. It's a doggone bartender. It's a housewife. This guy is everything. Whenever I find that I've got a problem, I'll go pick my guitar up and play. It's the greatest pal in the whole world. — Les Paul

I had no aspirations to be a musician, but I picked up a guitar for two seconds and haven't put it down since. — Slash

If you pick up a guitar and it says, 'take me, I'm yours,' then that's the one for you — Frank Zappa

I still play that guitar. It's a Martin D-18 with a clear pick guard. I've played that guitar on and off my TV shows for nearly 50 years. — Andy Griffith

When I'm having a bad day, I pick up my guitar. — Michelle Branch

In most places that are rich in guitar culture, everyone uses their fingers, like in Spain or Africa. In Japan there are string instruments played that way. It is not until you get in the States that you find people using picks. — Kevin Eubanks

I do music because I can just pick up my guitar and sing, and completely satisfy, instant gratification. I don't need a script, I don't people, I don't need anything, cameras, I just have myself and my guitar, or keyboard. — Jeremy Renner

That's why I played music; my social skills were limited. I think a lot of people that experience that pick up guitars, because they can't communicate otherwise. — Ryan Adams

Guitar Strings Quotes

Enthusiasm is everything. It must be taut and vibrating like a guitar string. - Pele

Enthusiasm is everything. It must be taut and vibrating like a guitar string. — Pele

I use heavy strings, tune low, play hard, and floor it. Floor it. That's technical talk. — Stevie Ray Vaughan

The Mandolin is the bottom four strings of the guitar, backwards...so a person with dyslexia has no problem learning to play the Mandolin. — Steve Goodman

My guitar only has five strings 'cause the top one broke and I decided not to put it back on: when I play chords I only play bar chords, and the top one always used to cut me there. — Brian Eno

Every guitarist I would cross paths with would tell me that I should have a flashy guitar, whatever the latest fashion model was, and I used to say, 'Why? Mine works, doesn't it? It's a piece of wood and six strings, and it works.' — Angus Young

String Theory describes energy and matter as being composed of tiny, wiggling strands of energy that look like strings. And the pitch of a string's vibration determines the nature of its effect. — Roy H. Williams

I remember when I was coming up, the music stores where you could get guitar strings was where I got my records from. Now the place where you get your records from is where you can get your DJ mats and your mixers. — Jam Master Jay

My only expenses are probably guitar strings and records. — Chris Isaak

If your going to learn to play lead guitar, get an electric guitar .. it doesn't have to be an expensive one .. acoustic guitars aren't good for learning lead, because you can't play up very high on the neck and they take heavier-gauge strings which makes it hard to bend notes — Eddie Van Halen

I like to start by wiggling my fingers on top of guitar strings. — Zacky Vengeance

Acoustic Guitar Quotes

So I played the acoustic guitar and harmonica and stomped my foot and I think I was right in assuming that Greenwich Village would be the best place to perform my own material and possibly get some attention, move on to making records and all. — Steve Forbert

I actually bought a travel guitar, and that guitar is really cool. You can actually fold the guitar, and you can plug headphones into it, but it's acoustic, or semi-acoustic. — Daniel Ek

There' something about universal truths with the simplicity of the acoustic guitar. You can take it anywhere and it helps me reach listeners of all ages and walks of life. — Jim Croce

Playing acoustic guitar is like having sex with your clothes on. I mean you know how to do it, but it’s more difficult. — Dave Mustaine

To stand up on a stage alone with an acoustic guitar requires bravery bordering on heroism. Bordering on insanity. — Richard Thompson

I was interested in the electric guitar even before I knew the difference between electric and acoustic. The electric guitar seemed to be a totally fascinating plank of wood with knobs and switches on it. I just had to have one. — Jeff Beck

One thing I really hate about people who play both acoustic and electric is if they try to play electric style on an acoustic guitar. You must develop it as a totally different thing. — Rory Gallagher

There is far more sensitivity in acoustic guitar players than could ever be compared to any synthesizer. That's a personal point of view but that's the way I see it. I think that's what it's all about. The drive, the fire, the passion - it all comes out on the guitar. — Jimmy Page

I'm not good enough to be playin' much acoustic guitar onstage. Man, you gotta get so right; I mean, the tones, the feel, the sound. Plus, acoustic blues guitar is just that much harder on the fingers. — Johnny Winter

Well, I have been playing electric guitar all these years and acoustic was something new to me. — Gary Moore

Electric Guitar Quotes

I wish they'd had electric guitars in cotton fields back in the good old days. A whole lot of things would've been straightened out. — Jimi Hendrix

Let’s be realistic about this, the guitar can be the single most blasphemous device on the face of the earth. That’s why I like it . . . The disgusting stink of a too-loud electric guitar: now that’s my idea of a good time. — Frank Zappa

Being 16 years old and getting an electric guitar is never going to get old. There's always going to be kids making music. There's always going to be kids in bands. — Dan Auerbach

I heard the Beatles and the Stones, and Mom bought me an electric guitar. I played lead for four years and then switched to bass. One day someone suggested that I should sing, so I sheepishly stepped up to the microphone and the rest is rock history. — Glenn Hughes

The disgusting stink of a too-loud electric guitar; now that's my idea of a good time. — Frank Zappa

Electric guitars are an abomination, whoever heard of an electric violin? An electric cello? Or for that matter an electric singer? — Andres Segovia

Rock & roll is not so much a question of electric guitars as it is striped pants. — David Lee Roth

We play loud electric guitar music, and we'd hope that that doesn't mean you have to act like an asshole. — Ian MacKaye

First of all, who's your A&R? A mountain climber who plays an electric guitar? But he don't know the meaning of dope, When he's lookin for a suit and tie rap That's cleaner than a bar of soap! And I'm the dirtiest thing in sight, Matter of fact, bring out the girls and let's have a mud fight. — GZA

Nobody seems to play Yamaha electrics, but it's the best guitar I own. — Daisy Berkowitz

Bass Guitar Quotes

My mom always told me I should have a Plan B. I said that if I'm not going to play guitar I'm going to play drums. And if I'm not going to play drums, I'm going to play bass. I always just wanted to play music. I was completely obsessed. — Gary Clark, Jr.

If you put a Mars bar in one of Glenn Hughes’ hands and a bass in the other, he’ll choose the Mars bar. — Gary Moore

You can tune a guitar, but you can't tuna fish. Unless of course, you play bass. — Douglas Adams

I used to be a session musician before I was a wrestler. I played bass guitar. I was big pals with Lars Ulrich, and he asked me if I wanted to play bass with Metallica in their early days, but it didn’t work out. — Hulk Hogan

To be a great band it's like you have that telepathy. You know when the bass player's in back of you without even looking. You know when your guitar player's coming up to you to lean up to you and sing into your microphone. You just know these things. You feel it. You feel the energy of it. — Scott Weiland

So by the time I taught myself the bass guitar at the age of 14, my hands were already pretty nimble. — John Entwistle

I play guitar, piano, bass and percussion. — Teena Marie

So I'll set a cycle in motion and pop it into record and I'll lay down a drum pattern, a bass line, a keyboard and guitar part, and once the groove is going I launch into the song and sing my song over the top. — Thomas Dolby

I feel my spot is somewhere between a bass player and a rhythm guitar player. I play with a pick. I play very aggressively. I always have a distortion pedal in line, and I play less melodies and do more stuff against the guitars that create melodies. — Nikki Sixx

I like the guitar better these days. I like the bass, too, but it's hard to fit a bass amp in a small car. — Dee Dee Ramone

People Writing About Guitar

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Read quotes by Eric Clapton

Eric Clapton
quotes on prince, stevie ray vaughan and guitar

90 1197
Read quotes by Andres Segovia

Andres Segovia
quotes on education, art and life

26 521
Read quotes by Jimmy Page

Jimmy Page
quotes on music, life and jeff beck

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Read quotes by Franz Schubert

Franz Schubert
quotes on life, music and friendship

40 594
Read quotes by Neil Young

Neil Young
quotes on life, freedom

268 1549
Read quotes by Slash

Slash
quotes on music, love

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More Guitar Quotes

I just go where the guitar takes me. - Angus Young quote

I just go where the guitar takes me. — Angus Young

My guitars are my umbilical cord. They're directly wired into my head. - Kirk Hammett quote

My guitars are my umbilical cord. They're directly wired into my head. — Kirk Hammett

So, my big brother was playing guitar and I figured I'd try it too. - Stevie Ray Vaughan quote

So, my big brother was playing guitar and I figured I'd try it too. — Stevie Ray Vaughan

Sometimes you want to give up the guitar, you'll hate the guitar. But if you stick with it, you're gonna be rewarded. — Jimi Hendrix

The guitar is your first wings. It's assigned and designed to unfold your vision and imagination. — Carlos Santana

When the intellectual part of guitar playing overrides the spiritual, you don't get to extreme heights. — John Frusciante

I think Blank Generation holds up pretty well. You listen to that with headphones and there's a lot going on there with the guitars- it's the product of a lot of fighting. — Robert Quine

You know, once you've had that guitar up so loud on the stage, where you can lean back and volume will stop you from falling backward, that's a hard drug to kick. — David Gilmour

She would be half a planet away, floating in a turquoise sea, dancing by moonlight to flamenco guitar. — Janet Fitch

I have no fear of death, so I don't think about it. I love the adrenalin kick that danger brings. Others get their kicks bungee jumping from tall buildings. I'm very, very competitive. I want to be the best at everything I do. It's not driving - it's everything - it might be playing my guitar, I try to be the best at it as I possibly can. — Lewis Hamilton

Anyone who used more than three chords is just showing off. — Woody Guthrie

Nothing can duplicate the sheer power and feeling you get from standing in front of your amp and bashing on your guitar. — James Hetfield

I like jazz, but I could never play it. You just sit there with a guitar the size of a Chevy on your chest, wearing a stupid hat, playing the same solo for an hour. — Dave Mustaine

But that guitar is the perfect companion to the human voice. You rest it against your gut, against your heart, and when you strum it the vibrations go outwards for all to hear, but the vibration also hits you on your body. — Jason Mraz

In Conclusion

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