Charlie Parker Quotes

• Master your instrument. Master the music. And then forget all that bullshit and just play.

  Charlie Parker

  Music, Play, Bullshit

  81 Copy quote
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  Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn. They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art.

  Charlie Parker

  Music, Art, Men

  Quoted in Nat Shapiro and Nat Hentoff, Hear Me Talkin' to Ya (1955)

  76 Copy quote

• You've got to learn your instrument. Then, you practice, practice, practice. And then, when you finally get up there on the bandstand, forget all that and just wail.

  Charlie Parker

  Music, Faith, Practice

  "Acting Is a Job: Real-life Lessons About the Acting Business". Book by Jason Pugatch, p. 73, 2006.

  65 Copy quote

• Don't play the saxophone. Let it play you.

  Charlie Parker

  Motivational, Music, Humorous

  "Words of Wisdom". Book edited by William Safire and Leonard Safir, p. 435, 1990.

  116 Copy quote

• Once I could play what I heard inside me, that's when I was born.

  Charlie Parker

  Music, Play, Jazz

  40 Copy quote

• Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom.

  Charlie Parker

  Music, Jazz And Life, Boundaries

  "Bird: the legend of Charlie Parker". Book by Robert George Reisner, p. 27, 1977.

  25 Copy quote

• Don't be afraid, just play the music.

  Charlie Parker

  Music, Play

  41 Copy quote

• If you don't live it, it won't come out your horn.

  Charlie Parker

  Music, Art, Reality

  Quoted in Nat Shapiro and Nat Hentoff, Hear Me Talkin' to Ya (1955)

  30 Copy quote

• Any musician who says he is playing better either on tea, the needle, or when he is juiced, is a plain, straight liar. When I get too much to drink, I can't even finger well, let alone play decent ideas. You can miss the most important years of your life, the years of possible creation.

  Charlie Parker

  Liars, Years, Play

  "Hear Me Talkin' to Ya: The Story of Jazz As Told by the Men Who Made It". Book edited by by Nat Shapiro and Nat Hentoff, p. 379, 1955.

  27 Copy quote

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

  Charlie Parker

  Music, Art, Men

  Quoted in Nat Shapiro and Nat Hentoff, Hear Me Talkin' to Ya (1955)

  21 Copy quote

• I can play all I know in eight bars.

  Charlie Parker

  Music, Eight, Play

  20 Copy quote

• It's just music. It's trying to play clean and looking for the pretty notes. The beat in a bop band is with the music, against it, behind it. It pushes it. It helps it. Help is the big thing. It has no continuity of beat, no steady chug-chug. Jazz has, and that's why bop is more flexible.

  Charlie Parker

  Play, Trying, Band

  19 Copy quote

• Man, there's no boundary line to art!

  Charlie Parker

  Music, Art, Men

  Quoted in Nat Shapiro and Nat Hentoff, Hear Me Talkin' to Ya (1955)

  19 Copy quote

• I realized by using the high notes of the chords as a melodic line, and by the right harmonic progression, I could play what I heard inside me. That's when I was born.

  Charlie Parker

  Play, Lines, Progression

  26 Copy quote

• I don't care who likes it or buys it. Because if you use that criterion, Mozart would never have written Don Giovanni, Charlie Parker would have never played anything but swing music.

  Charlie Parker

  Swings, Likes, Use

  29 Copy quote

• I look at melody as rhythm.

  Charlie Parker

  Looks, Rhythm, Look At Me

  8 Copy quote

• It's just music. It's playing clean and looking for the pretty notes.

  Charlie Parker

  Clean, Notes

  Mark Voelpel, Charlie Parker (2001). “Charlie Parker for Guitar (Songbook): Note-for-Note Transcriptions and Detailed Performance Notes for 18 Bebop Classics”, p.10, Hal Leonard Corporation

  13 Copy quote

• When I first heard music, I thought it should be very clean, very precise. Something that people could understand, something that was beautiful.

  Charlie Parker

  Beautiful, People, Firsts

  19 Copy quote

• I'd been getting bored with the stereotyped changes (harmonies) that were being used all the time. I found that by using the higher intervals of a chord as a melody line and backing them with appropriately related changes I could play the thing I'd been hearing. I came alive.

  Charlie Parker

  Play, Bored, Lines

  "Hear Me Talkin' to Ya". Book by Nat Shapiro, p. 354, 1955.

  14 Copy quote

• I kept thinking there's bound to be something else? I could hear it sometimes, but I couldn't play it.

  Charlie Parker

  Music, Thinking, Play

  "Hear Me Talkin' to Ya". Book by Nat Shapiro, p. 354, 1955.

  11 Copy quote

• I'm very glad to have met you. I like your playing very much.

  Charlie Parker

  Music, I Like You, Jazz

  11 Copy quote

• Bop is no love-child of jazz.

  Charlie Parker

  Children, Bops, Jazz

  9 Copy quote

• You've got to learn your instrument.

  Charlie Parker

  Jazz, Instruments

  "Acting Is a Job: Real-life Lessons About the Acting Business". Book by Jason Pugatch, p. 73, 2006.

  7 Copy quote

• Some guys said 'Here's bop!' Wham! They said, 'Here's something we can make money on!' Wham! 'Here's a comedian!' Wham! Here's a guy who talks funny talk!'

  Charlie Parker

  Guy, Comedian, Bops

  12 Copy quote

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