Music Theory Quotes

“I learned a lot about architecture in music school, about structure and form, and I think that influenced my arrangements.”

“I feel that the bebop scale is the most important scale in jazz.”

“To be a composer, you have to have a feeling for harmony and for melody and for rhythm.”

“If you don't know the blues... there's no point in picking up the guitar and playing rock and roll or any other form of popular music.”

“I think tonality is a wonderful thing, but I don't think it's the only thing.”

“Most music is metaphor, but non-idiomatic improvisation is not.”

“Melody is just one parameter. It's not the most important one.”

“The twelve-tone method is not a style but a procedure.”

“I've always been interested in the way that music can comment on the action, not just accompany it.”

“For me, the melody is the king.”

“I'm a big fan of melody. I think that's the most important part of a song.”

“The bass is the foundation of the music. It's what makes you want to move.”

“The anecdotally composed is the opposite of the abstractly composed.”

“For me, the essential thing is that sound is not abstract.”

“Just intonation is the best intonation.”

“Form is not a mold to be filled, but a process to be followed.”

“The basis of linear counterpoint is the independence of the melodic lines.”

“I have read several authors' rules on composition, and find them very difficult to understand.”

“A fugue is a composition of several parts... in which one part leads off, and the other parts follow after in the same notes.”

“Rhythm is the basis of music, not melody.”