Clarinet Quotes

• The ability to play the clarinet is the ability to overcome the imperfections of the instrument. There's no such thing as a perfect clarinet, never was and never will be.

  Jack Brymer

  Funny, Music, Humorous

  106 Copy quote

• Benny Goodman was one of the big influences as a clarinet player. That's why I wanted the clarinet.

  Lee Konitz

  Music, Player, Jazz

  84 Copy quote

• Beauty and fullness of tone can be achieved by having the whole orchestra play with high clarinets and a carefully selected number of piccolos.

  Gustav Mahler

  Play, Numbers, Orchestra

  77 Copy quote

• My eyes are too big, my nose is too flat, my ears stick out, my mouth is too big and my face is too small... my body is thin as a clarinet and my ankles are so skinny that I wear two pairs of bobby socks because I don't want people to see how thin they are.

  Goldie Hawn

  Eye, Two, People

  87 Copy quote

• I understood that if I wanted to work, the saxophone was the main instrument. The clarinet was what we call a double.

  Lee Konitz

  Double Standard, Saxophone, Instruments

  84 Copy quote

• So the ideology was that: use sounds as instruments, as sounds on tape, without the causality. It was no longer a clarinet or a spring or a piano, but a sound with a form, a development, a life of its own.

  Luc Ferrari

  Spring, Piano, Sound

  84 Copy quote

• The soprano has all those other instruments in it. It's got the soprano song voice, flute, violin, clarinet, and tenor elements and can even approach the baritone in intensity.

  Steve Lacy

  Song, Voice, Elements

  88 Copy quote

• I play drums, clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, french horn, piano.

  Norman Wisdom

  Play, Piano, Horny

  "Personal Quotes/ Biography". www.imdb.com.

  84 Copy quote

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• I was improvising before I was reading music. I was just trying to play things on the clarinet by ear. I think my ear is one of my greatest assets.

  Pete Fountain

  Reading, Thinking, Play

  76 Copy quote

• Clarinet n. An instrument of torture operated by a person with cotton in his ears. There are two instruments worse than a clarinet – two clarinets.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Two, Ears, Cotton

  70 Copy quote

• I got in the school band and the school choir. It all hit me like a ton of bricks, everything just came out. I played percussion for a while, and stayed after school forever just tinkering around with different things, the clarinets and the violins.

  Quincy Jones

  School, Forever, Different

  "Grammy Legend Award". The Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. October 28, 2000.

  73 Copy quote

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• Clarinets, like lawyers, have cases, mouthpieces, and they need a constant supply of hot air in order to function.

  Victor Borge

  Funny, Music, Humorous

  59 Copy quote

• No birdcall is the musical equal of a clarinet blown with panache.

  Edward Hoagland

  Musical, Panache, Equal

  Edward Hoagland (2011). “Sex and the River Styx”, p.74, Chelsea Green Publishing

  6 Copy quote

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• That's the clarinet I used to use... but it's just a piece of wood, you know, with holes in it and they put these clumsy keys on it and you're supposed to try to take that and manipulate it with throat muscles and chops... and try to make something happen that never happened before. And when you do, you never forget it. It beats sex, it beats anything.

  Artie Shaw

  Sex, Keys, Trying

  31 Copy quote

• I was not a band geek, per say. But me and my two older sisters played instruments, so I would come home and my sister Dana would be playing the clarinet or playing the piano, and I would play the saxophone, my other sister would be singing, my mom would be singing. I was not afraid to be musical. That was not something that I thought was uncool.

  Miles Teller

  Mom, Home, Play

  Source: www.harpersbazaar.com

  15 Copy quote

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• I did all you can do with a clarinet. Any more would have been less.

  Artie Shaw

  Music, Has Beens, Can Do

  "Personal Quotes/ Biography". www.imdb.com.

  26 Copy quote

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• You can sweat by not practicing or you can pick up your clarinet. There's good sweat and there's bad sweat.

  Eric Maisel

  Sweat, Worry, Picks

  Eric Maisel (2000). “The Creativity Book: A Year's Worth of Inspiration and Guidance”, p.231, Penguin

  5 Copy quote

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• I always imagined music trapped inside my clarinet, not trapped inside of me. But what if music is what escapes when a heart breaks?

  Jandy Nelson

  Heart, What If, Break

  Jandy Nelson (2010). “The Sky Is Everywhere”, p.63, Penguin

  7 Copy quote

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• The oboe sounds like a clarinet with a cold.

  Victor Borge

  Sound, Oboes, Cold

  11 Copy quote

• I started off playing the clarinet, after I was inspired by listening to my dad's Benny Goodman records.

  Alvin Lee

  Dad, Listening, Records

  6 Copy quote

• The clarinet is a musical instrument the only thing worse than which is two.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Two, Musical, Instruments

  4 Copy quote

• I spend a lot of time idly. I go to sporting events, play my clarinet. I practise. But if you work every day, a certain amount on a steady basis, the work accumulates.

  Woody Allen

  Work, Play, Events

  7 Copy quote

• When I first met Benny Goodman he wouldn't talk about anything but clarinets, mouthpieces, reeds, etc. When I tried to change the subject, he said 'But that's what we have in common. We both play clarinet.' I said, 'No, Benny, that's where we're different. You play clarinet, I play music.'

  Artie Shaw

  Play, Different, Firsts

  24 Copy quote

• I've played the clarinet since I was a kid. I love to sing, but I'm not much of a singer. Let's say that when it comes to vocalizing, I have the soul of Billy Bigelow but the voice of Jigger Cragan.

  Stephen Lang

  Kids, Voice, Soul

  9 Copy quote

• Actually, when I was very young, first starting to play, I think I probably listened more to clarinet players than to saxophones.

  Gerry Mulligan

  Player, Thinking, Firsts

  7 Copy quote