Tommy Bolin Quotes
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When I'm with Purple, I'm totally with Purple; when I'm doing my thing, I'm totally doing my own thing.
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When I first colored my hair, my mother loved it. I got kicked out of school when I was 15, just for my hair.
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I have my own style, but it's different for each kind of music. There are certain little characteristic things every player has.
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I used to try and take things in leaps and bounds. Now I've realized it's got to be step by step.
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I think the way I play the guitar is very percussive. I play a lot of rhythm chops as though I were playing congas or something.
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I'll play drums a lot at home, and it will help my wrist action.
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Blues teaches you to develop coherent solos, because the form you're playing over is so basic. You have to develop leads that go someplace.
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I started on drums when I was 13 and played them for two years. Then I went to guitar for a year, played keyboards for a year and a half, and went back to guitar.
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Lots of times it really doesn't matter what notes you play, but what notes come before and after a run.
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I just started off on my own by learning the regular chords then the barre chords. Then I'd lean the notes that would go with them.
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Once I was playing and moving around and I fell right on my back. Just straight on my back. It was the most embarrassing moment of my life.
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My first joint I smoked onstage in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. I smoked my first joint live.
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I learned a lot about lead; you don't have to blow your cookies in the first bar. It is much harder to be simple that to be complicated during solos.
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A lot of times I wish I would have learned to read music, but I'm very impatient.
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How do you stop somebody from growing?
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For me, practice isn't doing scales but doing things like writing, jamming with other people, or playing gigs.
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All the different styles I've played have really helped me as a guitarist and helped me develop my own way of playing.
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I used to listen a lot to Rolling Stones records and play along with them when I was first starting. It's a good way to learn, jamming around basic music.
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When you come from the Midwest, you have a more open mind than if you come from the West Coast or the East Coast.
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I'll hear something in my head, then eventually play it. But it's a subconscious thing. Most of the time I really don't know what I'm playing.
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Right now I feel so inspired, it's hard to believe. I've written about 20 songs in the last two days. I'd gone about four months without writing a thing.
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A lot of things just got distorted, like stories about each other. After the tour we never talked. I believe a band should be a band.
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I can't do anything but play guitar.
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You're in direct contact with the music by having the strings under your fingers. It's not mechanical like a piano.