“If you don't practice one day, you'll know it. If you don't practice for two days, your friends and fellow musicians will know it. If you don't practice for three days, everyone in your audience knows it!.”

— Georg Van Eps

“I just had a damn guitar in my hands 16 hours a day, and I experimented all the time.” Chet Atkins interview Rolling Stone in 1976.

“A long apprenticeship is the most logical way to success. The only alternative is overnight stardom, but I can't give you a formula for that.”

Chet Atkins from The Book Of Country Music Wisdom

Someone told Chet Atkins, “Man, that guitar sure sounds good!”

Chet set the guitar down on a chair and asked him, “Ok, how does it sound now?"”

“If it sounds good, it’s probably not practice...”

Master Music Teacher Chuck Anderson

“Sometimes, you don't need a $5,000 guitar–you need $5,000 worth of lessons”

Chris Smithers

“Guitarists should be able to pick up the guitar and play music on it for an hour, without a rhythm section or anything.”

Joe Pass

“Guitarists should be able to pick up the guitar and play music on it for an hour, without a rhythm section or anything.”

Joe Pass

“I think anything that separates guitar players from the rest of the music world is bad. Tablature is a certain secret code only for a guitar player. So you have guitar players who can read tablature and not music.”

Peter Bernstein

“It doesn't matter how much artistry one has; it's how it's presented that counts.”

Wes Montgomery

“The four ‘Ts’ [are] Time, Touch, Tone and Taste. Most of the players I seem to get the biggest thrill from have these pretty well covered”

Ted Greene

“For the guitar is the most unpredictable and least reliable musical instrument in existence...and also the sweetest, the warmest, the most delicate, whose melancholic voice awakes in our soul exquisite reveries.”

— Andres Segovia

“For the guitar is the most unpredictable and least reliable musical instrument in existence...and also the sweetest, the warmest, the most delicate, whose melancholic voice awakes in our soul exquisite reveries.”

Andres Segovia

“Every guitarist has a special quality of sound.”

“The best ones will use a good ear, much sensitivity, and a thorough knowledge of music to prepare the nuances and colors of sound..”

Andres Segovia

“The practice of scales solves the greatest number of technical problems in the shortest amount of time.”

Andres Segovia

“There is no other instrument that possesses such a wide variety of sounds and tone colors. There is no other instrument that can be played so many different ways and offer itself so fully as a musical vehicle of expression. It transcends more idioms of music and is woven into a tapestry of more and varied cultures than any other one instrument. For some it can be played in a few days while others need to spend a life time perfecting their art, but in the guitar there is something for everyone. It is always fun for me to play the guitar whether playing for my own children or the largest audience on the concert stage. Somehow, I learn something new almost everytime I pick up the guitar. It opens up a new road everytime I put my hands on the strings.” - Barney Kessel

“I practice based on what my biggest problem is that day or that week. Whatever gives me problems, that goes to the top of the list. It changes from week to week” - Kenny Burrell

“[Jazz is]  like playing tennis: You don’t start playing when you’re 25 years old and expect to reach the championship level. You have to start when you’re six.” - Jack Wilkins