Acoustic Quotes

See also Core English Vocabulary (A) Quotes

I even played bass for a while. Besides playing electric guitar, I`d also get asked to play some acoustic stuff. But, since I didn`t have an acoustic guitar at the time, I used to borrow one from a friend so I could play folk joints.

- Mark Knopfler

I heard Dylan (Bob Dylan) when he first came out, and I remember seeing people wandering around with his album under their arms. But at that time I wasn`t into ... folk music. Oh, acoustic guitars? It was not my thing. I was very much into Otis Redding, soul music, Stax, Motown. And guitars had to be electric for me, to be exciting.

- Bryan Ferry

My original interests and intentions in guitar playing were primarily created on quality of tone, for instance, the way the instrument could be made to echo or simulate the human voice. At the time when I was still thrashing around on the acoustic guitar trying to sound like Leadbelly or Jesse Fuller, there was someone who had already achieved this particular goal. That was Hank Marvin (Hank B. Marvin) of The Shadows. He had found, and settled on, a clean, pure sound which disallowed any kind of ham-fisted playing. Only the lightest touch was permitted. The result was a marvelous mixture of clear, sweet melody over a strong rock beat (and what a great drum sound). On top of all this, he looked like Buddy Holly and played a real Stratocaster!

- Eric Clapton

I`m gonna design my own fleet of trailers. No! I`m gonna record an album like Jennifer Lopez. It`ll be an acoustic version of KC & The Sunshine Band. Then maybe I`ll design a line of clothes like (Sean `P. Diddy` Combs) but all in synthetic fur.

- Brad Pitt

It`s just me and a guitar, so I`m not going to be doing a lot of Smashing Pumpkins. I do Tom Waits, Neil Young, Bob Dylan. That`s all the good stuff, man. That`s when they had good songs written for just voice and guitar. I wish I could do Johnny Lee Hooker (John Lee Hooker), but I`m not that good. - on his acoustic performance at 14 Below, Santa Monica on 29th August 2000.

- James Marsters

I`m not good enough to be playin` much acoustic guitar onstage. Man, you gotta get so right; I mean, the tones, the feel, the sound. Plus, acoustic blues guitar is just that much harder on the fingers.

- Johnny Winter

I really appreciate when someone can blow me away with live acoustic blues.

- Johnny Winter

I`ve made three studio albums and one live one with my brother. It`s melodic singer-songwriter acoustic-rock music.

- Kevin Bacon

Or like in the early 70`s when we had the reaction against acid rock and all the fuzz tone, and feedback, and the noise. And you had James Taylor and everyone went acoustic and that.

- Lester Bangs

Artie travels all the time. The rehearsals were just miserable. Artie and I fought all the time. He didn`t want to do the show with my band; he just wanted me on acoustic guitar.

- Paul Simon

We told everybody we`re gonna do some acoustic touring, so I guess we`d better. Instead of going out there and sweating my butt off every night, I`ll be playing with my brushes quietly and stuff. I think it`ll be good for us, though, as musicians, to go out and explore that dynamic.

- Taylor Hawkins

In 1996, I was in was in an acoustic kind of rock band, we were called Feeble. We were just playing locally.

- Travis Barker

I`m making a record that`s half stripped down acoustic which is the way I perform a lot and half of it is very produced. It`s really hard to keep music simple but I was trying to keep it simple and focus on one or two instruments and vocals.

- Lisa Loeb

I mean, there`s times to rock and roll, and I love that too. But I think my first love is acoustic music.

- Graham Nash

When I was five, I got forced into taking piano lessons. And it came really naturally to me. Knowing that I was good at something played an important role in my confidence. I was always shy, uncomfortable around people. I slipped by. But with the music, I didn`t. I got into bands. I studied trumpet and saxaphone a little bit. It got to the point where my teacher was like, you can be a concert pianist. But the last thing I wanted to hear at 15 is, well, you`re not fitting in now, how about dropping out of school, studying all the time and becoming a concert pianist? It sounds like "penis." Even earlier, Kiss had changed my world. It seemed evil and scary-the embodiment of rebelliousness when you`re age 12 and starting to get hair on your balls. Also, my dad, who I`d not lived with since I was 5, got me an electric piano. He had a little music store that sold acoustic instruments in the back room, where me and a couple other guys started jamming in terrible garage bands. I realized that music wasn`t all about learning a piece on the piano.

- Trent Reznor

I approach playing acoustic guitar more of as a percussive instrument. It`s fragile. I don`t have a lot of finesse when it comes to my guitar playing.

- Billie Joe Armstrong

The thing is, acoustic could be like a four-letter word to a lot of kids.

- Billie Joe Armstrong

Up till now I wrote the songs on my acoustic guitar alone with the Lord. Then I would take the song and share it with my family and then we all would figure out instrumentation together.

- Daniel Smith

Sometimes we drop in and do an acoustic set somewhere, and that`s really fun to take all these insanely loud songs, and to do them quiet. It`s really a sight to see... or to hear!

- Michael McKean

I was down with Lucinda Williams and Mary Chapin-Carpenter. We did an acoustic tour, just the three of us, three chicks and three guitars.

- Rosanne Cash

For me it always comes down to what is a good song and I`m very old fashioned in the way that I like to make songs that have something classic about them whether you can play them with an orchestra or an electro synthesizer or an acoustic guitar.

- Marc Almond

Playing acoustic and line drawings are the two things I`m most competent at.

- Robyn Hitchcock

One of the ideas behind doing this acoustic record is that I didn`t want to have to produce it by committee.

- Robyn Hitchcock

Solo acoustic is what I did originally.

- Robyn Hitchcock

This band - because this is myself on electric and acoustic guitars - we`ve done three tours together now and I really, really like it which is why I did the DVD as well.

- Joan Armatrading

If you play acoustic guitar you`re the depressed, sensitive guy.

- Elliott Smith

It`s four people and I played bass, very acoustic, lots of harmonies, kinda like Crosby, Stills and Nash in the 60s or something, real retro.

- Ann Wilson

Get these people drunk. I don`t know if you`re aware of this, but we`re horrible acoustic. We`re going to play all of Neil Diamond`s greatest hits, chronologically, alphabetically and scientologically.

- Josh Homme

The local music community here was dying for a place to record, so we started doing acoustic, folk and bluegrass and then did rock projects for other bands, as well as for my son Tal and my own work.

- Randy Bachman

How do I explain Neil Young? Great question! I explain Neil Young as, I would kill to see his acoustic shows.

- Bob Mould

I was not a musician at the time. I had an acoustic guitar and I used to sing folk music and Bob Dylan songs. I loved rock and roll though.

- Michael Davis

Amplifying acoustic instruments more than a little is really cheating, and everything becomes a compromise.

- Richard Thompson

To stand up on a stage alone with an acoustic guitar requires bravery bordering on heroism. Bordering on insanity.

- Richard Thompson

When you stand up acoustic in front of an audience, you really are a man without any clothes on. And that can be fun - it depends how much of an exhibitionist you are, I suppose. I quite enjoy it.

- Richard Thompson

My grandfather gave me my first guitar, an old acoustic with palm trees and dancing girls painted on it.

- Dan Fogelberg

I love the subtlety and tonal range of the acoustic guitar.

- Dan Fogelberg

We want this place to be used every day, we want other student organizations to use it. We eventually want acoustic concerts in the basement, coffee to be available regularly. We want students to come and study, to watch TV.

- David Burke

It`s all acoustic. The electric sounding riffs I played on an acoustic, ... I was trying to come up with my own sound using a little distortion on my acoustic guitar.

- Kevin Fox

It`s the only place in town to catch acoustic solo sets.

- Don Frye

When I was very young, my Uncle Lynn would play a Gibson acoustic on the porch when we visited. He would also play boogies on the piano.

- John Lowe

When I was very young, my Uncle Lynn would play a Gibson acoustic on the porch when we visited, ... He would also play boogies on the piano.

- John Lowe

Musically, I like to have a lot of different outlets. I like to have an outlet for my acoustic music, but at the same time I like to pick up my Telecaster and rock out. I grew up on classic rock, which led me to blues stuff and that led me to jazz.

- Jim Stephens

No other acoustic instrument can match the piano`s expressive range, and no electric instrument can match its mystery.

- Allen Sale

That song was on the Dirt Band`s Acoustic record, ... and in the time that passed between when we wrote it and when the Flatts cut it, what an amazing life that song had'¦ People would come up to all of us writers long before it was this monster hit -- I even had someone in the grocery store -- asking for copies of the lyric because they wanted to get married to it. And that`s a wonderful feeling'¦

- Arnaz Battle

We`re excited and encouraged by the acoustic analysis. These sounds give us additional hope that a few ivory-billed woodpeckers do live in the White River and Cache River region.

- Art Morgan