Charlie Parker

"I realized by using the high register of the saxophone that I could play things I could never play before."

"Technique is something you acquire through time and experience, but style is something that comes from within."

"Stop trying to play everything and everyone. Just play music."

"Your ears are your best guide. Trust what you hear, not what you think you should hear."

"Every note that's played has consequences. Choose wisely."

"You can't steal a lick. It's all interpretation and where you put it."

"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench where thieves and pimps run free."

"Learn the music from the masters, then forget everything and just feel."

"A musician should play music, not be the music industry."

"Speed means nothing if it doesn't have feeling behind it."

"Don't copy anybody. Each person has their own spirit. That's what makes them great."

"The saxophone is the instrument of the soul. It demands honesty."

"You can't play what you don't feel. And if you don't feel it, the audience won't either."

"Change is the only constant in music. If you're not changing, you're dying."

"The best solos happen when you stop thinking and start listening."

"Every chord tells a story. Learn to read them all."

"Practice until your fingers bleed, then play until the pain becomes the music."

"You've got to find what makes you different and own it completely."

"The melody is everything. Everything else is just decoration."

"Don't worry about sounding like anyone else. Worry about sounding like yourself."

"Music is a language that doesn't need words. Speak it fluently."

"If you want to play jazz, you have to accept that you might fail every time you step on stage."

"The blues taught me more about life than any book ever could."

"A real musician plays from the heart, not from the head."

"Bebop was our way of taking back the music that was stolen from us."

"You need three things to be a great musician: discipline, passion, and humility."

"The notes are the same for everyone, but what you do with them is what matters."

"Listen more than you play. That's where the real learning happens."

"Music doesn't belong to anyone. It belongs to everyone who has the courage to play it."

"Your limitations are your greatest teachers if you let them be."