Quotes by Paul Gilbert - Page 2

My basic setup is my Ibanez Fireman guitars and for pedals, the TC Electronic MojoMojo is the mainstay of my board, along with a Catalinbread Calissto Chorus.
Paul Gilbert /
Chorus
Fireman
Board
Guitars
Electronic
Setup
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After 35 years of bone-crushing rock guitar playing, I'm finally starting to get my head out of the harmonic sand and learning how to play over chord changes.
Paul Gilbert /
Guitar Playing
Sand
Chord
Harmonic
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I think all of The Beatles were from an era when certainly playing was important to them, and they were cutting edge. But for all time, they're master composers.
Paul Gilbert /
Cutting
Cutting Edge
Composers
Edge
Master
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From the start, I held the pick in an unusual way. I used to bend my thumb way back in order to get a good angle for fast playing. I played that way for 10 years.
Paul Gilbert /
Angle
Unusual
Good Start Way
Bend
Thumb
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I was driving home and thinking about what rock and roll should be about. 'Adventure and Trouble!' I thought. I sang the song first and then added the chords later.
Paul Gilbert /
Adventure
Chords
Rock And Roll
Added
Sang
Rock
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I waited until the end of the 'Behold Electric Guitar' recording sessions to record 'A Herd of Turtles,' as I knew the unusual arrangement might raise some eyebrows.
Paul Gilbert /
Electric
Electric Guitar
Eyebrows
Unusual
Arrangement
Behold
Herd
Waited
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It's amazing how a lot of the metal guys have never strummed! And it's not that challenging, but it really opens up a lot of doors in ways they might not have imagined.
Paul Gilbert /
Doors
Metal
Opens
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I'll have a chorus pedal or a flanger or an echo, that kind of thing. But as far as specific pedals, the one that's really been a mainstay is the TC Electronic MojoMojo.
Paul Gilbert /
Chorus
Echo
Electronic
Pedal
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It took me years to get my hair right… after years of perms, conditioning… Nirvana came out and it wasn't cool to have big hair anymore. It was just a horrible injustice.
Paul Gilbert /
Big Hair
Conditioning
Horrible
Injustice
Anymore
Nirvana
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Two words: Kasim Sulton. I've been a Utopia fan for a long, long time, and Kasim's a pop hero of mine. I have to hold myself back from asking him a million Utopia questions.
Paul Gilbert /
Hero
Long Time
Utopia
Time Myself Long
Fan
Hold
Million
Mine
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I was doing a lot of teaching on my online guitar school and I started to use vocal melodies as a way of teaching my students. To be able to do that, I had to learn them myself.
Paul Gilbert /
Online
Vocal
Melodies
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A Herd of Turtles' is the only song on 'Behold Electric Guitar' that is not strictly instrumental. But instead of singing, I am reciting a poem. My poem is about overcoming challenges.
Paul Gilbert /
Challenges
Electric
Electric Guitar
Overcoming
Reciting
Singing
Song
Behold
Herd
Instead
Instrumental
Poem
Strictly
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I've found that as I've learned to improvise melodically, it seems like I can come up with a bigger variety of stuff. I kind of selfishly enjoy it more, because I'm in the moment so much.
Paul Gilbert /
Variety
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I've certainly enjoyed doing clinic tours for larger audiences, but the most valuable teaching experience has been the hundreds of lessons that I've given where I can hear the students play.
Paul Gilbert /
Clinic
Valuable
Hundreds
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Teaching is just something that has come naturally to me. I didn't set out to be a teacher. I wanted to be a Beatle! But there were only four of them, so the job openings were really limited.
Paul Gilbert /
Beatle
Just Something
Openings
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Recently, I had some powerful magnets glued into the lower horn of a few of my guitars. This holds a metal slide in place so I can easily get to it and put it back, even in the middle of a song.
Paul Gilbert /
Magnet
Middle
Powerful
Song
Easily
Guitars
Glued
Holds
Horn
Lower
Metal
Recently
Slide
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The first song on my first album is not a song - it's a guitar solo! It's called 'Frenzy,' and it's pretty much nonstop maniacal guitar playing. I had just turned 19, and I had some serious muscle then.
Paul Gilbert /
Frenzy
Guitar Playing
Serious
Solo
Muscle
Album
Maniacal
Nonstop
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Seriously, though, I think the only musical term that's ever put a bee in my bonnet is 'shred.' I tried to peddle the term 'Terrifying Guitar' to the world, but it just didn't stick. Now we've got 'shred.'
Paul Gilbert /
Bee
Terrifying
Shred
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There is a basic language of music that I think is important for communicating with other musicians - just the kind of terminology that might make it easier to describe your ideas to the other guys in your band.
Paul Gilbert /
Terminology
Music Your Important
Describe
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When it comes to songwriting, I grew up in the Seventies listening to AM radio. So I've all these pop songs running through my head from Paul McCartney and Elton John, and a lot of stuff that was written on piano.
Paul Gilbert /
Seventies
Songwriting
Elton
Elton John
Mccartney
Paul
Paul Mccartney
Pop Songs
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At the time, it all seemed pretty normal. It was okay to have a pink guitar and glow-in-the-dark pants, and play with a drill. 1987, that was the worst year. I think that was the worst year for capes and for hair!
Paul Gilbert /
Pants
Drill
Pink
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You could take any four people, no matter how wonderful they are, and if you make them live together on a tour bus for eight years and don't give them any time off, after a while everybody gonna start going crazy.
Paul Gilbert /
Going Crazy
Time Together Crazy
Tour Bus
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To me, the secret of Eddie Van Halen was Alex Van Halen, because the way Alex played was so loose and the way the two of them locked together… Those two are connected so thoroughly they might as well be one person.
Paul Gilbert /
Alex
Locked
Van Halen
Together Me Way
Eddie
Halen
Loose
The Secret Of
Thoroughly
Van
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I'm Not Afraid of the Police' is the first song I wrote and recorded since moving back to Los Angeles. It's a loud-pop, crazy-guitar, big-harmony song with all the police sirens created by guitars and ADA flangers.
Paul Gilbert /
Ada
Guitars
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That's the nice thing about being in Mr. Big, is I'm not only the guitar player. I'm the background singer, and so I get to do both of those things. Sometimes we even switch instruments and I get to be the drummer.
Paul Gilbert /
Drummer
Guitar Player
Instruments
Background
Mr
Singer
Nice Thing
Switch
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I think I had heard Al Di Meola on the radio when I was a kid, that acoustic record, 'Friday Night In San Francisco,' with Paco de Lucía and John McLaughlin. His picking was unbelievable. I thought it was incredible.
Paul Gilbert /
Friday
Friday Night
Heard
Night
Radio
San Francisco
Unbelievable
Acoustic
Al
Francisco
Incredible
Record
John
Picking
San
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With Racer X, whenever we have time, we try to put a record together. And that's always fun because the guys in the band are great friends and I don't think I ever laugh as hard as I do when I'm with the Racer X guys.
Paul Gilbert /
Time Great Together
Great Friends
Racer
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The instrumental stuff is a good challenge, and it keeps my fingers athletically tuned, but I'm totally happy to bang away on some chords, sing some harmonies and play some wailing blues solos after the second chorus.
Paul Gilbert /
Chords
Chorus
Fingers
Bang
Blues
Harmonies
Instrumental
Solos
Tuned
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Everyone has to start somewhere! I certainly didn't sound great when I first started playing, and I remember all my guitar teachers, both good and bad, and what it felt like to struggle with even the simplest of things.
Paul Gilbert /
Good And Bad
Simplest
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Of course, I'm a guitar player, so I'm thinking as a guitarist. I have to work within my physical limitations as to what my hands will do, and also the patterns I'm familiar with, and the places that my fingers are used to going.
Paul Gilbert /
Familiar
Fingers
Guitar Player
Guitarist
Patterns
Limitations
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As human beings we're visual creatures, and it's so easy to play the guitar by looking at it. It's a real challenge to go from that visual way of perceiving the guitar to getting back to that pure sound connecting to the instrument.
Paul Gilbert /
Connecting
Creatures
Guitar
Human Beings
Pure
Sound
Visual
Beings
Challenge
Instrument
Perceiving
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While I was writing the songs for 'Fuzz Universe,' I was immersing myself in Bulgarian Female Choir music, Baroque lute and violin pieces, Johnny Cash songs about trains, cows, mules, and mining coal, the Bee Gees, and Ronnie James Dio.
Paul Gilbert /
Baroque
Bee Gees
Cash
Choir
Coal
Cows
Mining
Mules
Violin
Bee
Johnny
James
Trains
Ronnie
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The Great Guitar Escape is built around world-class seminars, concerts and jam sessions. It's a chance to learn and be inspired by some truly amazing musicians. And it's just a great way for everyone to hang out together in a beautiful place.
Paul Gilbert /
Concerts
Seminars
World Class
Beautiful Place
Escape
Great Way
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Just about every rock band and every guitar player from 1964 to 1984. To me, that's the golden period of rock. From the first Beatles album hitting America to the last Van Halen album with David Lee Roth. That's where all my favorite rock exists.
Paul Gilbert /
Golden
Guitar Player
Hitting
Van Halen
Halen
Lee
Rock Band
Roth
Van
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The band that made me want to be a musician in the first place was the Beatles. And I think John Lennon used to say something like, 'We're just a singing group,' when he talked about the band. So that's what I say about Mr. Big - we're a singing group!
Paul Gilbert /
Lennon
First Place
Talked
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Teaching has made me realize that a lot of my fast playing is the musical equivalent of, 'Umm… umm… uhh...' - it's like when you're trying to think of the next thing to say that actually has meaning, you fill space. 'Umm' has about the same meaning as my fast playing.
Paul Gilbert /
Equivalent
Fill
Next Thing
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On a more serious note, my challenges with hearing loss are certainly an interesting journey. The surprising upside is that my difficulties in hearing have motivated me to know my guitar fretboard better. My playing has become much more melodic and intentional as a result.
Paul Gilbert /
Motivated
Surprising
Difficulties
Intentional
Melodic
Note
Upside
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A scale is just the notes that are in a chord played one at a time instead of together. That's what has allowed me to go through the possible notes that work with a chord and make choices about which ones I like best. I go through by ear; you can do it by theory too, but the best way is to learn by ear.
Paul Gilbert /
Best Way
Notes
You Can Do It
Time Best Work
Scale
Best Time Work
Chord
Ear
Best Work Time
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When it comes to vibrato, a lot of people look at their hands when they do it. Which is pretty much of no use. Because vibrato is one of those things you have to hear. There are some guitar things where the visual is really useful, like seeing chord shapes or scale patterns. But vibrato isn't one of those things.
Paul Gilbert /
Patterns
Shapes
Visual
Scale
Chord
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I remember walking into a department store and you would hear an instrumental version of a Beatles song and it was usually kinda cheesy and very un-rock. Kenny G, for example, is a musician that I certainly dont want to sound like, but technically he is flawless but somehow the rock and roll aspect has been sucked out of it.
Paul Gilbert /
Aspect
Cheesy
Department
Example
Flawless
Musician
Remember
Rock And Roll
Song
Version
Certainly
Department Store
Technically
For Example
Hear
Instrumental
Rock
Store
Sucked
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It's so easy to practice out of context. For example, if you're learning a scale, you take that scale and you sit in your room and you go up and down the fretboard, over and over. You've gotta do that, because you need to get that scale working. But you have to keep in mind that that's not the finished product. That's the starting point.
Paul Gilbert /
Starting Point
Up And Down
Scale
Context
Finished Product
For Example
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My first official teaching job was at GIT, which was fantastic because I wanted to pay the rent and I got to stay in the building, which is an inspiring place to be - the vibe was there. My first gig was doing private lessons. It went great. Then they decided to promote me to a classroom teacher. I taught a class called Single String Technique.
Paul Gilbert /
Inspiring
Classroom
Technique
Teacher Great Me
Great Teacher Me
Gig
Official
Promote
Rent
String
Vibe
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Paul Gilbert Quotes - Page 2

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