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Play what you know and then play above that

Miles Davis

I can’t write anything for myself. I can write when I hear like [John] Coltrane play something; I used to write chords and stuff for him to play in one bar. I can write for other people, but I don’t never write for myself.
MILES DAVIS

Lyrics Music Myself People Play Writing
Jazz is like blues with a shot of heroin!
MILES DAVIS

Drugs Feeling Music
Don’t play what’s there, play what’s not there.
MILES DAVIS

Music Play
Some day I’m gonna call me up on the phone, so when I answer, I can tell myself to shut up.
MILES DAVIS

Answer Call Myself Phone
In high school I was best in music class on the trumpet, but the prizes went to the boys with blue eyes. I made up my mind to outdo anybody white on my horn.
MILES DAVIS

Best Discrimination Musician Myself White
If you’re not nervous then you’re not paying attention.
MILES DAVIS

Attention Nervous Pay Yourself
There are no wrong notes.
MILES DAVIS

Music Notes One Liner Wrong
When the band plays fast, you play slow; when the band plays slow, you play fast.
MILES DAVIS

Play Slow Speed Yourself
A painting is music you can see and music is a painting you can hear.
MILES DAVIS

Hear Music Painting See Yourself
If you have to ask, you’ll never know.
MILES DAVIS

Unknown Yourself
You can’t play anything on a horn that Louis Armstrong hasn’t played.
MILES DAVIS

Horn Instrument Play Yourself
For me, music and life are all about style.
MILES DAVIS

Life Music Style
I’ll play it first and figure out what it’s called later.
MILES DAVIS

Music Myself Name Play
Always look ahead, but never look back.
MILES DAVIS

Forward Future Past See
Jazz musicians are so comfortable. The reason they can’t do what we do is because they’re so comfortable doin’ what they do.
MILES DAVIS

Comfortable Music Reason
If you don’t know what to play, play nothing.
MILES DAVIS

Known Play Yourself
Jazz is an Uncle Tom word. They should stop using that word for selling. I told George Wein the other day that he should stop using it.
MILES DAVIS

Music Myself Sell Word
Some musicians play with their heart, you know what I mean? I don’t know what to tell a person that can’t – if you can’t tell a person what you’re talkin’ about when they’re rushin’ or droppin’ the tempo, you get somebody else.
MILES DAVIS

Heart Known Musician Person Play Yourself
It’s not the notes you play, it’s the notes you don’t play.
MILES DAVIS

Musician Notes Play Yourself
It takes a long time to sound like yourself.
MILES DAVIS

Sound Time Yourself
I usually write from the rhythm section…If a drummer got a funky beat on some things – like a half-shuffle or a shuffle or a backbeat that’s even – I can write something.
MILES DAVIS

Myself Rhythm Writing
Music is the framework around the silence.
MILES DAVIS

Framework Music Perspective Silence
In Europe, they like everything you do. The mistakes and everything. That’s a little bit too much.
MILES DAVIS

Acceptance Mistake Yourself
The thing to judge in any jazz artist is, does the man project and does he have ideas.
MILES DAVIS

Ideas Judgement Man Project
My father’s rich, my momma’s good looking. Right? And I can play the Blues. I’ve never suffered and don’t intend to suffer.
MILES DAVIS

Father Myself Play Suffering
You can tell whether a person plays well or not by the way he carries the instrument, whether it means something to him or not.
MILES DAVIS

Instrument Person Play Yourself
Music is an addiction.
MILES DAVIS

Addiction Music One Liner

Play what you know and then play above that

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Play what you know and then play above that

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