Joe Satriani Quotes

24 Sourced Quotes

It really sucks when music is so perfect you just don't need to hear it anymore.

Joe Satriani
If someone can relate my guitar solo to an exercise in a book … that's no fun at all.

Joe Satriani
When I want to play music, you've got to get me on tape or else it goes.

Joe Satriani
When you think about where guitar playing is going today...: it's going everywhere at the same time.

Joe Satriani
The Squares [his former band] never really fit in. We weren't rock enough. We weren't alternative enough. We weren't new wave enough and we weren't punk enough. Maybe we just weren't the right people for the band.

Joe Satriani
I can embarrass myself very easily on guitar. It's funny because people say to me I can play anything; I'm God on the guitar. But I could make a big list of everything I can't play... I'm grateful that people don't notice that.

Joe Satriani
When you hear an instrumental song someone is singing over, you know right away it's wrong.

Joe Satriani
18th September, 1970; Jimi Hendrix dies. I'm still on the football team when I get the news. So I take my helmet off and confront the coach to tell him I'm quitting the team. In a moment of brilliance he gives me one look and says "OK".

Joe Satriani
Basic anatomy. That has got to be the ongoing frustration: Why can't my fingers do what I want them to do? Not being able to play what I hear in my head — that is the ultimate source of frustration.

Joe Satriani
I write the songs first and in most cases teach myself the technique second.

Joe Satriani
I assume most guitar players are like me. They're playing, having fun; then they get a magazine in the mail that says "Shred Is Dead" and they say, "What the Hell?" They throw it away and keep on playing.

Joe Satriani
I've always done "the wrong thing" and had a pretty wonderful time doing it.

Joe Satriani
I pride myself on being incorrigible. I have a very hard time being told what to do.

Joe Satriani
Satriani's Law: There's at least a 30% chance that someone will print the name Satriani incorrectly

Joe Satriani
My inspirations don't come from outer space, they just come to me. I have no idea why they come when they do.

Joe Satriani
When these guitar mags bring up that stuff up and say such and such came up with this and that which is pushing the boundaries, I just say, "let's step back for a minute and admit something: nothing has happened for the last 100 years." And it's okay. It's not a bad thing … We're all working with "tools" that have been in existence for the last 100 years and there hadn't been a new "tool" for a long long time.

Joe Satriani
Song ideas have come to me in the middle of interviews, in the shower, or while I'm writing another song.

Joe Satriani
Guitars are fun. There are plenty of different kinds to play. They look cool. They sound cool. Don't *you* want to play guitar?

Joe Satriani
My first [guitar] lessons lasted two weeks and it was "Jingle Bells." It didn't make any sense at all. I wanted to know how to play like Hendrix...

Joe Satriani
I think it's quite painfully obvious when someone's practicing through an amp, as opposed to someone who's really laying down some stuff that just happens to be fast.

Joe Satriani
Solos I kind of [couldn't] care less about. I know most people probably think that's what I care most about, but it's really the melody playing that is the cornerstone of what I'm working on.

Joe Satriani
When you hear something you don't like, don't ever play it again.

Joe Satriani
I've always spent a lot of time on my records with what I think were unique rhythmic approaches … but no one ever writes about your rhythm playing

Joe Satriani
There's a fine line between giving the sense of freedom and being too free.

Joe Satriani