My father was a banker, but he was an independent spirit. He was a very good pianist and very much into music.
— Yoko Ono
Music is like my security blanket.
All my concerts had no sounds in them; they were completely silent. People had to make up their own music in their minds!
It's easy for me to care about Toronto, because Toronto is a community that cares about itself. It represents the world. It talks to itself, and because it does, it figures out that there must be a music garden as part of its existence.
— Yo-Yo Ma
I think the purpose of a piece of music is significant when it actually lives in somebody else. A composer puts down a code, and a performer can activate the code in somebody else. Once it lives in somebody else, it can live in others as well.
Mastering music is more than learning technical skills. Practicing is about quality, not quantity. Some days I practice for hours; other days it will be just a few minutes.
Jazz has been such a force in music, that any musician, including classical composers, have been influenced, and obviously performers, also.
As you begin to realize that every different type of music, everybody's individual music, has its own rhythm, life, language and heritage, you realize how life changes, and you learn how to be more open and adaptive to what is around us.
Music has always been transnational; people pick up whatever interests them, and certainly a lot of classical music has absorbed influences from all over the world.
In 2011, I released my first album called 'International Villager.' I had no support, and whatever money I had made, I put it all in the album. I shot the music video for 'Brown Rang' with one lakh dollars. I spent so much money, as I just wanted to put it up on YouTube, as I knew that my market was there, and it became a huge hit.
— Yo Yo Honey Singh
I started as a music director in Punjab and then started singing.
I am not interested to sing in Bollywood. I sing for only those actors whom I admire. I sing free of cost for them. I want to take independent music ahead, and my songs are completely based on my observations.
I wish to contribute more to south Indian music, especially Tamil music.
Writing songs, making music, and singing is important to me, and I do all three.
I am so extremely busy with what I am doing myself. When I am not playing music, I am usually doing other things. Playing around with my Ferraris and playing tennis and things like that. What I understand, there is a new group of kids that are very serious about playing, which is great; I think that is a good thing.
— Yngwie Malmsteen
A lot of people probably get the idea that I'm this extremely calculated kind of guy, and in a lot of ways, I am. But when it comes to music or artistic expression, I'm very uncalculated and do things very spontaneous. If I didn't do that, I wouldn't want to do this anymore. I can't just play the same thing over and over; it would drive me crazy.
Because I write the music, I write the lyrics, I write the vocal melody lines - I write everything. Just because I let somebody sing something doesn't mean they're more important than the bass player or the keyboard player or the drummer.
To me, the concept of distance is not important. Distance doesn't exist, in fact, and neither does time. Vibrations from love or music can be felt everywhere, at all times.
But only art and music have the power to bring peace.
People make music to get a reaction. Music is communication.
Music is powered by ideas. If you don't have clarity of ideas, you're just communicating sheer sound.
A composition is always more than the sum of its parts. In other words, a really good piece of music is more than itself. It's sort of like a prism, which you can see from each facet a single totality.
What came up at age 49 is I realized that of all the things I'm interested in, the thing I'm most interested in is figuring out what makes people tick, why people think the way they do, why they act the way they do. And I realized that music is such a great way to investigate why people do what they do.
One of the things I love about music is live performance.
I think of a piece of music as something that comes alive when it is being performed, and I feel that my role in the transmission of music is to be its best advocate at that moment.
But an innovation, to grow organically from within, has to be based on an intact tradition, so our idea is to bring together musicians who represent all these traditions, in workshops, festivals, and concerts, to see how we can connect with each other in music.
I was born in Delhi, have stayed and roamed the world, but had a tough childhood and career path. Only my mom and mausie supported me in music. So, I would just sing shabad kirtan to remain somehow attached to music.
Just as I have broken the monopoly of film music as being synonymous with popular music in our country, I want to prove that cricket is not the only glamorous sport.
Music industry is a very competitive field, and one has to continuously entertain and excite the audience, which is a difficult task.
Just because I take my music international doesn't mean I have to sing in English. I will continue to sing in Punjabi, Hindi, Gujarati, and Tamil. I want to represent my own country through its own languages.
I am happy film stars are singing in their films. I hope to work as a music director for a film where actors will sing all the songs.
The business has changed dramatically from what it was even just a few years ago. Music isn't even distributed the same way anymore. Even CDs are becoming a thing of the past. The Internet has made it easier to get my music out to anyone who wants it, but at the same time, I feel like we're losing the mystique.
I grew up in a family that was very musical, learned the blues and everything like that. And I became a little bit frustrated with the simplicity of rock n' roll and blues. I started listening to a lot of classical music - mainly Bach, Vivaldi.
I think that Zappa intentionally made his music weird, but did it with intelligence.
When I was four years old, my mother put me into a school for early music education where you get perfect pitch and harmony and composition.
Distance doesn't exist, in fact, and neither does time. Vibrations from love or music can be felt everywhere, at all times.
I just go with the flow, so any style can be in my music - that makes it exciting.
I realized late in life that my twin passions are music and people.
The tradition of classical music and the opera is such that it used to be the place where social intercourse could take place between all parts of society: politicians, industrialists, artists, citizens, etc. That tradition, I think, still exists, but it's much, much more diluted.
I think there are so many ways to become interested in music. I believe signs of sustained interest gives a sense of the right time. Music, if thought of as a language, would perhaps indicate that as early as possible is not so bad. I do believe that a really nurturing first teacher that makes the child love something is crucial.
The thing that I've always been slightly frustrated with, was that the idea of a CD is kind of confined to a material possession that you can put on a shelf. And the idea of music, for me, is always about both the communication and the sharing of content. And so the interactive part is missing.
The tango is really a combination of many cultures, though it eventually became the national music of Argentina.
The Indian music scene is completely dominated by Bollywood music. We need to create space for indi-pop music.
My dream is to take the Indian independent music scene to an international level. People like Alisha Chinai, Baba Sehgal and Daler Mehndi took it to a very high level. My ultimate target is to win a Grammy. I don't want to primarily be a Bollywood playback singer.
I don't consider myself just a rapper or just a singer. I'm a music producer, lyricist. I'm a poet as well, and acting is also a part of big entertainment.
It's never easy for me to say goodbye. I get attached to people very quickly, and with 'Raw Stars,' my connection is even more special. I'm in love with their music and perhaps their biggest fan. I think every artiste on the show is mind-blowing.
The kind of songs I sing have been existing in Bollywood music since a long time. In fact, the reason my music is so popular amongst the millions of youth is because I sing in their own language, in their own slang, and about their lives.
I didn't have any singing background. Against the wishes of my parents, I got into making music.
I'm very selfish. I make music that I love because I only live once, and I'm an artist. I don't try to revolt against anybody, and I don't try to please anybody. I feel very strongly that I if love it, someone else will love it - not everybody, though.
I love all kinds of Indian music, and Indian food as well. If the chance arises for me to play in India, I'm there.
