Charlie Parker Quotes

Don't play the saxophone. Let it play you.

Master your instrument. Master the music. And then forget all that bullshit and just play.

You've got to learn your instrument. Then, you practice, practice, practice. And then, when you finally get up there on the bandstand, forget all that and just wail.

Don't be afraid, just play the music.

Once I could play what I heard inside me, that's when I was born.

I don't care who likes it or buys it. Because if you use that criterion, Mozart would never have written Don Giovanni, Charlie Parker would have never played anything but swing music.

If you don't live it, it won't come out your horn.

I realized by using the high notes of the chords as a melodic line, and by the right harmonic progression, I could play what I heard inside me. That's when I was born.

Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom.

They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art.

When I first heard music, I thought it should be very clean, very precise. Something that people could understand, something that was beautiful.

Man, there's no boundary line to art!

I can play all I know in eight bars.

It's just music. It's playing clean and looking for the pretty notes.

Some guys said 'Here's bop!' Wham! They said, 'Here's something we can make money on!' Wham! 'Here's a comedian!' Wham! Here's a guy who talks funny talk!'

I'm very glad to have met you. I like your playing very much.

I kept thinking there's bound to be something else? I could hear it sometimes, but I couldn't play it.

Bop is no love-child of jazz.

I look at melody as rhythm.

You've got to learn your instrument.

Music is your own experience your thoughts your wisdom. If you don't live it it won't come out of your horn.

First you learn the instrument, then you learn the music, then you forget all that s**t and just play.