160 Performing Music Quotes

Following is our list of performing music quotations and slogans full of insightful wisdom and perspective about what is music.

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Famous Performing Music Quotes

Music, in performance, is a type of sculpture. The air in the performance is sculpted into something. — Frank Zappa

Music is a gut thing. You're working in a medium which is more in touch with the primal than the modern. A gig is a ritual. There's a congregation. — Siobhan Fahey

Being a musician is a noble profession. — Paul Weller

Mainly I was able to perform with music - I played the French horn, I would sing, and I was a drummer in the pipe band. So I think it was a way to show off. — Ewan McGregor

I have been doing music all my life so everyday when I get up I expect music will be part of it. — George Benson

Performing live is the greatest high in the world. That's why I do what I do — Toni Braxton

For me, performing is the biggest part of being a rapper. There's nothing like the feeling of screaming your story to people. — Chance the Rapper

I just love the thrill of performing on stage. I believe that singing is something I was put here to do. — Lucy Hale

The best thing is being able to perform in front of people and to express my feelings, whatever they may be at the time. Just to be able to make the world a happier place to be. — Tanya Tucker

There is a lot of work just in terms of traveling and logistics and people and gear and all that kind of stuff. But I never really have problems playing music. That never seems like work. — James Iha

Music making is the most joyful activity possible, the most perfect expression of any emotion. — Luciano Pavarotti

My job in this life is to give people spiritual ecstasy through music. In my concerts people cry, laugh, dance. If they climaxed spiritually, I did my job. I did it decently and honestly. — Carlos Santana

Live performance has always been my thing. It’s my purpose to master and capture the moment every time I have you connected. — Usher

Check out the albums, ... Check out the live performances. That's the reality of it all. Music is such an energizing thing. — John Mayall

Music is a communication. It's a two-way street. You need people to play to in order to make that connection complete. That's the way we look at it. — John Petrucci

Performing Music On Stage Quotes

Music makes my heart beat. The more i hear, sing and perform on stage my heart beats stronger than ever. I want to live like this until the day i die. — Junsu

This business is about working. It's really not about glamour. For me, the most glamorous thing about it is to b able to get on stage and perform my music for people. That's the privilege. And that's what all the work leads up to, and that's why it's worth it to me. — Debbie Gibson

Always drawn to the theatric, Bowie also performed in stage productions of "The Elephant Man" and just recently collaborated on "Lazarus," an off-Broadway musical that's a sequel to his 1976 role in the film "The Man Who Fell To Earth." — David Bowie

Performing music quote Life is like a piano, the white keys represent happiness and the black shows sadness, but as you go
Life is like a piano, the white keys represent happiness and the black shows sadness, but as you go through life's journey, remember that the black keys also makes music.

I don't have to perform to stay in the public eye anymore. I really don't. I am who I am and what I do on musical stage these days really makes no difference at all. I already have all the momentum there. I am only doing it because I love to do it. — Neil Young

I grew up in musical theatre and love to perform on stage. — A. J. McLean

Michael Jackson changed the format and history of music. His videos were films. He was the first who floated on the stage and changed the concept of a musical performance. He created something that's still the basis of a lot of what's done today. — Nicky Jam

Performing music quote Behind every girl's favorite song there is an untold story.
Behind every girl's favorite song there is an untold story.

There are performances in which the people who have the best muscle skills and musical history may be on the stage, but it's not  -  like a Dead show is not like a usual sit-down performance; the audience does participate. — Howard Rheingold

It's true that laptop performances can be boring for the audience. The problem is, the organizers of events are still putting us on the classic "rock stage," instead of trying to find new ways to present the music. — Christian Fennesz

Starting in music, where I get a chance to connect with the lyrics of a song, I learned so much about performing on stage and connecting to your audience and to what you're singing about. Singing is very emotional. Every song has its own purpose. — Naturi Naughton

I started performing music about the age of 16. I lived in Brooklyn, New York, and this thing called the Flatbush Fair comes once a year. That was my first time on stage. — Theophilus London

What Is Music Quotes

It's pretty clear now that what looked like it might have been some kind of counterculture is, in reality, just the plain old chaos of undifferentiated weirdness. — Jerry Garcia

I'm not a lyric writer to make statements. What I enjoy doing is making paintings with lyrics, creating colorful images. I think that's more what entertainment and music should be. — Chris Cornell

The vibrations on the air are the breath of God speaking to man's soul. Music is the language of God. We musicians are as close to God as man can be. We hear his voice, we read his lips, we give birth to the children of God, who sing his praise. That's what musicians are. — Ludwig van Beethoven

Performing music quote The earth has music for those who listen.
The earth has music for those who listen.

My music is the spiritual expression of what I am — my faith, my knowledge, my being...When you begin to see the possibilities of music, you desire to do something really good for people, to help humanity free itself from its hangups...I want to speak to their souls. — John Coltrane

My music is the spiritual expression of what I am: my faith, my knowledge, my being. — John Coltrane

The only music minister to whom the Lord will say, 'Well done, thy good and faithful servant,' is the one whose life proves what their lyrics are saying, and to whom music is the least important part of their life. Glorifying the only worthy One has to be a minister's most important goal! — Keith Green

Performing music quote A real leader faces the music, even when he doesn't like the tune.
A real leader faces the music, even when he doesn't like the tune.

Music is a beautiful thing to listen to. It is not a thing to preach to others about, it’s not a cause. It is what it is-and that’s a beautiful artform. — Synyster Gates

I want longevity; I love music, being a musician is the greatest gift in the world to me, and if I were to get signed to a label, my family and team around me are always gonna be there to make sure they want the very best for me. My fans are what it's all about. — Christina Grimmie

The winds that sometimes take something we love, are the same that bring us something we learn to love. Therefore we should not cry about something that was taken from us, but, yes, love what we have been given. Because what is really ours is never gone forever. — Bob Marley

Life isn’t a music player where you choose whats being played, it is a radio where you have to enjoy whats being played. — Zayn Malik

Singing Performance Quotes

Streets crowded with people strolling, or sitting at outdoor cafes. And always, talking, gesturing, singing, laughing. I liked Rome immediately.Everybody was a performer. — Kirk Douglas

We all tried rapping, we all tried singing, we all tried different kinds of styles and performances, so we naturally found our perfect spot. — Lisa Manoban

The truth is, I initially became a singer-songwriter while still in my teens because it was the only way to guarantee that somebody on earth would sing the songs I was writing. Since then, I've performed just about everywhere: rock clubs, concerts halls, arenas, TV. — Rupert Holmes

Performing music quote Art is how we decorate space; Music is how we decorate time.
Art is how we decorate space; Music is how we decorate time.

I've always had mostly women come out to see me perform. That's the reason the guys show up; they know R. Kelly is going to draw the women. Most of the songs I'm singing are catering to women anyway. — R. Kelly

Nothing really goes through my head when I'm performing live, I normally just look out into the crowd and see the fans and it makes me feel really happy - especially when they all sing the lyrics back, it's amazing. — Perrie Edwards

Pure entertainment is not an egotistical lady singing boring songs onstage for two hours and people in tuxes clapping whether they like it or not. It's the real performers on the street who can hold people's attention and keep them from walking away. — Andy Kaufman

Performing music quote A painter paints pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence.
A painter paints pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence.

... we performers are monsters. We are a totally different, far-out race of people. I totally and completely admit, with no qualmsat all, my egomania, my selfishness, coupled with a really magnificent voice. — Leontyne Price

Tell of his wondrous faithfulness, And sound his power abroad; Sing the sweet promise of his grace, And the performing God. — Isaac Watts

I just wanted to perform. I just wanted to perform in whatever capacity, whether it was acting, singing, dancing, comedy - whatever it was, I just loved it and felt at my absolute happiest when I was performing for people. — James Corden

The real self of an artiste lies in art, so when an artiste performs, all the pain, trauma and tension get released through art, be it dancing, painting, singing, writing or even martial arts. — Mrinalini Sarabhai

Musical Performance Quotes

I dare suggest that the composer would do himself and his music an immediate and eventual service by total, resolute and voluntary withdrawal from this public world to one of private performance and electronic media. — Milton Babbitt

Musically I try to connect a common bridge between such exhilarating feelings as performing at the Acropolis, to the emotions each and every one of us feel everyday. In the end, a good melody will always stand the test of time. — Bradley Joseph

For some people, fame kills it and becomes more important than the music or the performance. But for me fame is like rocket fuel. The more my fans like what I'm doing, the more I want to give back to them. And my passion is so strong I can't sleep - I haven'tslept for three days. — Lady Gaga

Performing music quote A problem is a chance for you to do your best.
A problem is a chance for you to do your best.

Music is still the one thing that ties people together. People can come together from all different religions, walks of life, colours, creeds and enjoy the same song. That's still the most incredible thing to me about performing live. — Dave Gahan

I Repent of ever having recorded one single song, and ever having performed one concert, if my Music, and more importantly, my Life has not provoked you into Godly Jealousy or to SELL OUT MORE COMPLETELY TO JESUS! — Keith Green

The feeling you get from playing to a good audience is hard to describe without sounding as though you are talking silly. But reaction is important. You might feel in yourself that you're doing it ok but it's when you get the live reaction that you know you're doing it right. — Tony Iommi

Performing music quote People are like Music, some speak the truth and other are just noise
People are like Music, some speak the truth and other are just noise

Broadway has changed tremendously from the early days when the shows were referred to as musical comedies. Musical Theater is now a more expanded art form. Back then, singer/actors were not the norm. From the 60's to now, it is necessary to do it all to be a consummate Broadway performer. — Betty Buckley

A great piece of music is beautiful regardless of how it is performed. Any prelude or fugue of Bach can be played at any tempo, with or without rhythmic nuances, and it will still be great music. That's how music should be written, so that no-one, no matter how philistine, can ruin it. — Dmitri Shostakovich

The artist must forget the audience, forget the critics, forget the technique, forget everything but love for the music. Then, the music speaks through the performance, and the performer and the listener will walk together with the soul of the composer, and with God. — Mstislav Rostropovich

It is the element I miss in electronic music - no performance, no loving immersion. Maybe that is why I was never particularly drawn to electronic music. — Lukas Foss

Playing Music Quotes

The guitar is the easiest instrument to play and the hardest to play well. — Andres Segovia

It's a dream come true, and with this music, with this Rossini, it's unbelievable how to express the joy and express the joy of the situation and the joy to play this music, to sing this music, it's really fantastic. — Cecilia Bartoli

My choice early in life was either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician. To tell the truth, there's hardly a difference. — Harry S. Truman

Performing music quote Music is the emotional life of most people.
Music is the emotional life of most people.

Music is a spiritual thing, you don't play with music. If you play with music you will die young. You see, because when the higher forces give you the gift of music...musicians hip, it must be well used for the gift of humanity. — Fela Kuti

Life and love go on, let the music play. - Johnny Cash

Life and love go on, let the music play. — Johnny Cash

We are slowed down sound and light waves, a walking bundle of frequencies tuned into the cosmos. We are souls dressed up in sacred biochemical garments and our bodies are the instruments through which our souls play their music. — Albert Einstein

Performing music quote One good thing about music. When it hits you, you feel no pain.
One good thing about music. When it hits you, you feel no pain.

Count your blessings. Once you realize how valuable you are and how much you have going for you, the smiles will return, the sun will break out, the music will play, and you will finally be able to move forward the life that God intended for you with grace, strength, courage, and confidence. — Og Mandino

To play without passion is inexcusable! — Ludwig van Beethoven

Music is enough for a lifetime - but a lifetime is not enough for music. - Sergei Rachmaninoff

Music is enough for a lifetime - but a lifetime is not enough for music. — Sergei Rachmaninoff

It's easy to play any musical instrument: all you have to do is touch the right key at the right time and the instrument will play itself. — Johann Sebastian Bach

Performing Artist Quotes

Bullfighting is the only art in which the artist is in danger of death and in which the degree of brilliance in the performance is left to the fighter's honor. — Ernest Hemingway

The Southern Baptist Church is a specific culture in itself. So, I had to study, talk to people, watch tape and go to performances to see how Gospel artists move compared to secular artists. — Boris Kodjoe

My philosophy is that I'm an artist. I perform an art not with a paint brush or a camera. I perform with bodily movement. Instead of exhibiting my art in a museum or a book or on canvas, I exhibit my art in front of the multitudes. — Steve Prefontaine

Performing music quote Without music, life would be a mistake.
Without music, life would be a mistake.

The creative act is not performed by the artist alone; the spectator brings the work in contact with the external world by deciphering and interpreting its inner qualifications and thus adds his contribution to the creative act. — Marcel Duchamp

If you practice for ten years, you may begin to please yourself, after 20 years you may become a performer and please the audience, after 30 years you may please even your guru, but you must practice for many more years before you finally become a true artist-then you may please even God. — Ali Akbar Khan

It was special with me being from Memphis and knowing the history of the venue, knowing all of the artists who performed in the Orpheum before me. Even having the idea to approach it was ambitious on my part, but I thought they would turn me down at first. — Yo Gotti

I think most artists create out of despair. The very nature of creation is not a performing glory on the outside, it's a painful, difficult search within. — Louise Berliawsky Nevelson

For me, making the show work was getting belly laughs - like most variety artists. But the straight actor believes you fix your performance in rehearsal and that's it. — Ron Moody

I firmly believe that all human beings have access to extraordinary energies and powers. Judging from accounts of mystical experience, heightened creativity, or exceptional performance by athletes and artists, we harbor a greater life than we know. — Jean Houston

Artist refers to a person, willfully enmeshed in a dilemma of categories, who performs as if none of them existed. — Allan Kaprow

Performing Live Quotes

How quickly we forget God's great deliverances in our lives. How easily we take for granted the miracles he performed in our past. — David Wilkerson

The Gospel is a very dangerous idea. We have to see how much of that dangerous idea we can perform in our own lives. There is nothing innocuous or safe about the Gospel. Jesus did not get crucified because he was a nice man. — Walter Brueggemann

I dont crave companionship. It stands in my way. I live for pleasure. There are few persons who can give me as much pleasure as those acts I perform myself. I would rather create pleasure according to my own whim than be subjected to the whims of others. — Anton Szandor LaVey

The success of Yoga does not lie in the ability to perform postures but in how it positively changes the way we live our life and our relationships. — T. K. V. Desikachar

We did sketch comedy, performed live improv, and then we made the transition to TV with 'Impractical Jokers.' — Joe Gatto

I awaken in the morning with confidence, rejoicing in whatever work is given to me to do. Whatever that work is, I do it, not in order to earn a living or in a sense of performing an onerous duty; but, with joy and gladness, I let it unfold as the activity of God's expression through me. — Joel S. Goldsmith

When you use your body for a living, you have one job, and it requires one thing: work hard to stay in peak condition. That’s it. — Tim Grover

If he be really and seriously seeking to live a good life, the first thing from which he will abstain will always be the use of animal food, because ...its use is simply immoral, as it involves the performance of an act which is contrary to the moral feeling - killing. — Leo Tolstoy

Every animator is really an actor performing in slow motion, living the character a drawing at a time. — John Lasseter

Zen opens a man's eyes to the greatest mystery as it is daily and hourly performed; it enlarges the heart to embrace eternity of time and infinity of space in its every palpitation; it makes us live in the world as if walking in the garden of Eden — D.T. Suzuki

Performing Arts Quotes

Posing is a performing art. — Arnold Schwarzenegger

no work of art is ever finished, nothing is ever static, no performance is for keeps. — Uta Hagen

Personality is essential. It is in every work of art. When someone walks on stage for a performance and has charisma, everyone is convinced that he has personality. I find that charisma is merely a form of showmanship. Movie stars usually have it. A politician has to have it. — Lukas Foss

More than in any other performing arts the lack of respect for acting seems to spring from the fact that every layman considers himself a valid critic. — Simone Weil

More than in any other performing arts the lack of respect for acting seems to spring from the fact that every layman considers himself a valid critic. — Uta Hagen

Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. — Aristotle

The old Atlantean sciences from the tribe of enlightenment, of which there are only a few remnants and chards left in this world, were medicine, law, computers, and the performing arts. — Frederick Lenz

An arts education helps build academic skills and increase academic performance, while also providing alternative opportunities to reward the skills of children who learn differently. — Gavin Newsom

Politics with me isn't theater. It's performance art. Sometimes, for its own sake. — Roger Stone

Teaching is a performance art. — Camille Paglia

Performing On Stage Quotes

I want to say it to so many people, 'why you have to be so serious?' And I also want people to think 'this kid has really gone crazy' when they see my performance on the stage. Luckily, I am able to achieve all of these. — G-Dragon

I want to be on stage and perform and win Grammys and help out my family in Bulgaria, because they are struggling, and my mom and dad, too. — Leah LaBelle

When you are on stage you are having an affair with three thousand people. — Gelsey Kirkland

[On Katharine Hepburn's stage performance:] She ran the whole gamut of emotions, from A to B. — Dorothy Parker

Most people go on living their everyday life: half-frightened, half indifferent, they behold the ghostly tragic-comedy that is being performed on the international stage before the eyes and ears of the world. — Albert Einstein

It was also great to have the Backstreet Boys appear on stage with me because I have gotten to know them all a little bit just recently, and not only are they great performers, but they also very hard working professionals and really nice guys. — Elton John

I had this totally impossible dream of being an actress. Trust me, just because I'm lucky enough to be doing this doesn't make any of this less of a pipe dream. And nothing gets my juices flowing like a really great performance. To see someone on stage, I get really excited. — Olivia Thirlby

I love performing on stage the most. It's getting that instant reaction from a live audience. There are no boundaries, you can take your character as far as you want to, you can be the craziest person ever. — Jennifer Ellison

Well the first time I performed, my mom was like how she is now when sees me on stage – all red, smiling from ear to ear. So I don’t want to mess up, [be]cause she’s smiling. Seeing my mom happy is kind of like an overwhelming feeling. — Chris Brown

People think because I can make them laugh on the stage, I'll be able to make them laugh in person. That isn't the case at all. I am essentially a rather quiet, dull person who just happens to be a performer. — Rowan Atkinson

People Writing About Performing Music

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Read quotes by Frank Zappa

Frank Zappa
quotes on censorship, life and music

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Read quotes by Siobhan Fahey

Siobhan Fahey
quotes on love, life and education

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Read quotes by Paul Weller

Paul Weller
quotes on life, music and love

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Read quotes by Ewan McGregor

Ewan McGregor

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Read quotes by George Benson

George Benson
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Read quotes by Toni Braxton

Toni Braxton
quotes on love, life and relationships

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More Performing Music Quotes

A great piece of music is beautiful regardless of how it is performed. — Dmitri Shostakovich

You can fix things with digital technology and there's a temptation to fix everything or make it perfect and what you're losing there is the human performance that may not be perfect but there may be magic in it. You can make it perfect but music doesn't sound good perfect for some reason. — Joe Walsh

I dont really like meetings, I like recording and performing music. I need to set myself up for when the time does come that I need better distribution or just a bigger team behind me. — Chance the Rapper

They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art. — Charlie Parker

The taxpayers cannot be relied upon to support performing arts such as opera. As a taxpayer, I am forced to admit that I would rather undergo a vasectomy via Weed Whacker than attend an opera. — Dave Barry

My mother wasn't rich, and I never seen my father. I was a street performer. I've been shot. And now I'm known around the world, and I've touched a lot of people with my music. That's one of the great testimonies that's gonna go down in history. — R. Kelly

Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. — Charlie Parker

We're not like pop musicians who have to perform the same top ten tunes every night of a tour. — Oscar Peterson

Music is at once the product of feeling and knowledge, for it requires from its disciples, composers and performers alike, not only talent and enthusiasm, but also that knowledge and perception which are the result of protracted study and reflection. — Alban Berg

I don't go to shows because I just want to listen to the music performed live. I want to get to know the person who's performing it. Or I want to, like, take away a sense that I had an experience that nobody else is going to have again, or a unique experience for that moment. — Sia Furler

Man, there's no boundary line to art! — Charlie Parker

SIREN, n. One of several musical prodigies famous for a vain attempt to dissuade Odysseus from a life on the ocean wave. Figuratively, any lady of splendid promise, dissembled purpose and disappointing performance. — Ambrose Bierce

I've been working at performing for five years now. I've been working in Australia and Spain and England. When I was only 15 or 16, 1 was performing in bars; I could have had legal problems, but it's also the only way to get to know what music is all about. — Andy Gibb

I'm hopefully touring with Colin Baker next year in Perfect Strangers. I have performed with Sylvia Simms in poetry and music evenings. I would love to do those for the rest of my career - they are so fun and witty. — Louise Jameson

A well-rounded performer will listen to all kinds of music. I like classical, Middle Eastern, and rock a lot. — Patti LuPone

I love composing and writing music and dancing and performing and conceptualizing creatively for visual mediums. I love to create. — Michael Jackson

The Tinted Windows shows were very fun but it's very different for me as a performer. I'm not playing music - I'm just singing and I missed that. I miss rocking out on keys, drums, guitar... whatever it is. — Taylor Hanson

You don't do background music the way a lot of more conventional films do. The music is often kind of a character in your films to the extent that sometimes you stop and watch someone perform a song. — Wes Anderson

Music therapy, to me, is music performance without the ego. It's not about entertainment as much as its about empathizing. If you can use music to slip past the pain and gather insight into the workings of someone else's mind, you can begin to fix a problem. — Jodi Picoult

I did go to a performing arts school, so that facilitated my creativity, though I ended up going in a more musical direction. — Alycia Debnam Carey

Wine is inspiring and adds greatly to the joy of living. — Napoleon Bonaparte

In Conclusion

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