In this post, I’ve gathered 45 of the most inspiring guitarist quotes from the greatest players both past and present. Whether you’re strumming your first chord or are a seasoned pro, these pearls of wisdom should help spark inspiration and deepen your connection to the craft.
These quotes about guitar celebrate the joy of creating music, the struggles of learning, and the triumphs of self-expression that come with mastering the instrument. Whether you’re looking for motivation to pick up your instrument or simply want to reflect on the magic of music, these quotes about playing guitar will strike a chord with you.
Famous Guitarist Quotes
1. John Mayer
Playing music to me is as close to having super powers as you can have.
2. Nancy Wilson
We see what music can do for people. Hell, we see what music does for us! When you see thousands of people out in front of you, it’s fixing their lives. It’s helping. It’s healing. It’s bigger than the inconvenience of jealousy or emotional storm clouds.
3. Carlos Santana
There’s a melody in everything. And once you find the melody, then you connect immediately with the heart. Because sometimes English or Spanish, Swahili or any language gets in the way. But nothing penetrates the heart faster than the melody.
4. Tony Iommi
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.
5. Jack White
I keep guitars that are, you know, the neck’s a little bit bent and it’s a little bit out of tune. I want to work and battle it and conquer it and make it express whatever attitude I have at that moment. I want it to be a struggle.
6. Bonnie Raitt
Nobody taught me to play bottleneck. I just saw it and taught myself. I got an old bottle and steamed the label off, put it on the wrong finger, I basically did everything wrong until I met some of the Blues legends early in my career who taught me another way. I didn’t have anyone to tell me women didn’t play bottleneck.
7. Muddy Waters
All the kids made their own git-tars. Made mine out of a box and bit of stick for a neck. Couldn’t do much with it, but that’s how you learn.
8. Kaki King
I had to be reminded that the guitar is infinite. It never stops teaching you, it never stops being difficult; there’s an unlimited amount of things to learn, and you’ll never master it.
9. Ritchie Blackmore
I never work out my leads. Everything I do is usually totally spontaneous. If someone says, ‘That was good; play that again,’ I’m not able to do it.
10. Slash
You know, when you really connect with the instrument and everything just comes out on an emotional level very naturally through your playing. That’s, you know, a great night. And I think the reason I love touring so much is you’re chasing that high around all the time, trying to have another good night.
11. Eric Clapton
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.
12. Jimmy Page
I can’t think of a greater guitar icon than someone who has the musical intellect to change what was there before and take music in another direction. That’s a guitar hero for me.
13. Kurt Cobain
I’d rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not.
14. George Harrison
Although I have guitars all around, and I pick them up occasionally and write a tune and make a record, I don’t really see myself as a musician. It may seem a funny thing to say. It’s just like, I write lyrics, and I make up songs, but I’m not a great lyricist or songwriter or producer. It’s when you put all these things together – that makes me.
15. St. Vincent
Life can be challenging and sad… but music is the easy part.
16. Tom Morello
Music, I think, is best when it honestly explores personal demons, and it stirs around in the silt of the psyche to find out what’s really there.
17. Mark Knopfler
Each song has its own secret that’s different from another song, and each has its own life. Sometimes it has to be teased out, whereas other times it might come fast. There are no laws about songwriting or producing. It depends on what you’re doing, not just who you’re doing.
18. Stevie Ray Vaughan
I kept listening, kept going to see people, kept sitting in with people, kept listening to records. If I wanted to learn somebody’s stuff, like with Clapton, when I wanted to learn how he was getting some of his sounds – which were real neat – I learned how to make the sounds with my mouth and then copied that with my guitar.
19. Dimebag Darrell
Jamming with other people will create energy and excitement that you can feed off, and which will help push you to do things you’d never dream of doing by yourself.
20. Billy Gibbons
The blues is a mighty long road. Or it could be a river, one that twists and turns and flows into a sea of limitless musical potential.
21. Zakk Wylde
Great musicians, you don’t just hear them, you feel them. When I listen to Randy Rhoads, I feel every note. I learned a lot from him.
22. Adrianne Lenker
When you’re playing music and you’re starting to expose yourself for the first time, there’s nothing more powerful than being listened to and being actually heard.
23. Angus Young
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.’
24. Nita Strauss
I was always listening to the records that made shredding sound fun – Steve Vai, Satriani, Cacophony, Paul Gilbert. I think that’s what’s missing from modern shred guitar; so many people are playing so many amazing notes, but a lot of it doesn’t really sound all that fun.
25. B.B. King
The beautiful thing about learning is nobody can take it away from you.
26. Keith Richards
Give me a guitar, give me a piano, give me a broom and string; I wouldn’t get bored anywhere.
27. Rory Gallagher
Playing live is much more natural for me. The instant reaction and the feedback from the audience is great for me. I really relish it. And if you play blues-based music, it’s not really academic music or recital music. It really needs a bit of atmosphere and a bit of interplay and a bit of roughness, and you really get that with an audience.
28. Gary Clark Jr.
The blues is the foundation for a lot of things. Things have branched off. It’s cool how music grows, but the foundation is always there. It’s not going anywhere. The blues is always going to be relevant.
29. Prince
To create something from nothing is one of the greatest feelings, and I would – I don’t know, I wish it upon everybody. It’s heaven.
30. Peter Green
The blues – it’s kind of like a religion, really.
31. Jimi Hendrix
Music doesn’t lie. If there is something to be changed in this world, then it can only happen through music.
32. Derek Trucks
You hear it in the great musicians, whether it’s a drummer or a horn player or a guitar player – you hear them take those breaths. You can feel that there’s something they’re trying to tell you.
33. Johnny Marr
If people can finally recognize you on radio without being told who it is, that’s what you aim for.
34. Orianthi
I think if you can get the right bunch of people together, and you’re in the room and it just feels right, then the music will come.
35. Eddie Van Halen
If you want to be a rock star or just be famous, then run down the street naked, you’ll make the news or something. But if you want music to be your livelihood, then play, play, play and play! And eventually you’ll get to where you want to be.
36. The Edge
The big cop-out would be to accept popularity rather than opting to try to create potent work. It’s so easy to do the popular thing, the expected thing, and that’s where you start to cheat yourself – and your fans, in the end – because there’s an inherent dishonesty in pandering and dishing up what everyone’s expecting.
37. Joe Bonamassa
I’ve always been a big fan of taking old songs and completely turning them on their head. Having no adherence to the fine tradition of the original version. Rearranging them and taking a different approach to them.
38. Chuck Berry
Music should be made to make people forget their problems, if only for a short while.
39. Steve Vai
I’ve learned over the years that you’re going to be most successful at the things you’re most excited to do. Every artist has a special set of tools. When you really use those tools, and you make yourself feel really good about the product you create, I think you’ll find an audience for it. I’ve been very fortunate in that respect.
40. Kirk Hammett
My guitars are my umbilical cord. They’re directly wired into my head.
41. Nuno Bettencourt
While you’re learning guitar, figure out the drums, too. Not only does it help you have great timing, but it helps you understand how a band works.
42. Paul Gilbert
Sometimes a couple notes are worth a thousand words.
43. Joe Satriani
If you’re always playing the correct notes, there’s something wrong – you’re not searching; you’re not reaching for anything.
44. Guthrie Govan
Speed is a byproduct of good, slow practice.
45. Gary Moore
I think that a lot of people are going so wrong by analyzing music too much and learning from a totally different perspective from the way I learned. I mean, I just learned by listening to people. People I learned from learned by listening to people.
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