Some people can't learn to play the guitar by reading a book. You have to actually try to manage a bit and you won't do well at first.
I decided, "Well, I'll be a forest ranger!" Because I thought, "I'll get to go out in the woods, I'll be in the forest, and I can sit in a tower and watch for forest fires and play my guitar. That's what I want to do!" Well, I was an idiot, of course.
When I was younger, playing piano and guitar were all things that I wanted to do for a short period of time, like any kid.
I didn't go out on one date in high school. I played guitar and sang and wrote my own music and poetry and stuff when I was a teenager.
I know I love sexy surf guitars, I know I love loud snare. I love really simple repeating bass lines, and I love weird mad scientist keyboard sounds.
I am definitely still the same kid that I was picking up the guitar at 15. But, I have definitely learned to be more flexible and roll with the punches. It's such an unpredictable business to be in and it's insane how things change so last minute.
I try not to punish the audience by making them listen to too much acoustic guitar.
I do write. I actually do want to start my music as well. My sister and I are starting a band. I've been playing a guitar for nine years, and she plays piano, and we sing together. We're going to start up something soon. I mostly am writing songs right now actually, but I would love to write a script someday.
I play guitar and sing when I'm not busy with school and acting.
Everything that I do I hear and then I go with my hands, and since I use my hands for both piano and guitar that is kind of hands-on.
I don't find inspiration by just sitting down with a guitar anymore. I lost that. I started being so interested in other kinds of music.
There was a lot of camaraderie among the bands. I remember a lot of times when I'd be driving up Laurel Canyon and pass by the house where Frank Zappa was living and I'd just see people out on the porch playing guitars.
I get twitchy if I don't pick up a guitar or sit at the piano every now and then... I have to do it; I don't have a choice.
That it's a lot harder to make a keyboard sound not-cheesy than a guitar.
Always when I write my music, I take my guitar, and I improvise always with a melody, you know, lyrics in Spanish. But sometimes I use some words in English. I don't know why. Maybe because I listen to a lot of music in English.
I always travel with my guitar. I take it myself - with me in my hand. I don't like to send it by cargo because it's dangerous. There is no way I would do that.
I'm a horrible control freak. It's awful! I'm nice, but if someone is folding some sheets while I am playing the guitar, I keep one eye on the way that they are folding the sheets.
Around age 11 or 12, I started playing jazz bass. From there, I went to electric bass and then guitar, which I kept up for a long time.
Guitar solos, to me, should be a really articulate way to make fun of guitar solos.
Sometimes you've got to draw a line between having all the options and being a slave to the things, using them every time you play the guitar. I'm trying to keep a real inconsistency to the pedals so that it is something new every time.
Just because a guitar is old doesn't make it good... I've seen guitars that were old but weren't as good as the reissue ... for me, it's not the age that makes it happen, it's the quality of the instrument.
Probably my favorite artists to listen to James Taylor, Stevie Wonder - I haven't gone back in a really long time and really listened to them - my first guitar influences. It's been awhile since I revisited that.
I've probably gone a month or two without playing guitar, just because I've gotten so burnt on it touring all year or whatever.
I think you have to know exactly what you want. Whether you want to be a guitar player or a musician, you have to be really focused on it if you really want to do it.
I sometimes feel a bit embarrassed to play guitar. There's something - I don't want to sound ungrateful - but there's something very old-fashioned and traditional about it. You meet kids today whose grandparents were in punk bands, really. It's very old and traditional, But then, you know, so is an orchestra and so is the string section.