Chet Atkins

Once you become predictable, no one’s interested anymore.

Everything I’ve ever done was out of fear of being mediocre.

Do it again on the next verse and people think you meant it.

Paint pictures with sound. First, find your white-the deepest, roundest sound you can play on the guitar. Then, find your black-which is the most extreme tonal difference from white you can play. Now, just pick the note where you’ve got white, pick it where you’ve got black, and then find all those colors in between. Get those colors down, and you’ll be able to express almost any emotion on the guitar.?

Blues is to Jazz what yeast is to bread; without it, it’s flat.

It’s up to the individual to keep up with the times.

Darlin… be-bop is the music of the future.

I’m a fan first. I believed Duke Ellington when he said there’s no bad music, just some of it is presented badly. As a kid, hanging around Church Street, the presentation of music was so powerful, I couldn’t help but jump for joy. I had discovered art, or truth, or whatever you want to call it; I had seen a light I’d follow forever.

I love Jazz because it has the perfect balance of discipline and freedom.

If you’re going to make a mistake, make it loud so everybody else sounds wrong.

Jazz musician is a combination entertainer, poet, singer, educator, student, artist, seducer and all-round good fellow.

You can make a saxophone into an electric organ; you can do everything with it.

The blues fitted in with the early 60s, the social way of life at the time.

If I don’t practice for a day, I know it… for two days, the critics know it… three days, the public knows it.

Your accompanist has a lot to do with how you sing, so experiment and choose your partner wisely.

Musically, I love to talk just off the top of my head and that’s what Jazz is all about.

We never play anything the same way once.

Jazz music is our original American culture.