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Harmonic Quotes

On the math and feel behind a good chord progression.

These quotes come from musicians talking shop — soloing over a chord progression built on harmony, or years of harmonic study spent looking back at older forms for a fresh idea. It pairs naturally with flow quotes.

Music assists him in the use of harmonic and mathematical proportion.

Quotes by Vitruvius

After all my years of doing instrumental music I still like just a simple instrumental song with a nice catchy melody and an opportunity to play a solo over a harmonic structure.

Quotes by Stanley Clarke

A microphone has a certain range. It's not as good as your ears, but it will capture an enclosed space, the harmonic content in a room. Nice old tube mikes do that pretty well. And that's a good sound.

Quotes by Ry Cooder

My voice is my improvisational instrument, the melody instrument. The guitar is harmonic structure. I'm not a good enough guitarist to improvise on it.

Quotes by Paul Simon

Balance Quotes

After 35 years of bone-crushing rock guitar playing, I'm finally starting to get my head out of the harmonic sand and learning how to play over chord changes.

Quotes by Paul Gilbert

I prefer playing in songs where I have a tempo, groove and harmonic map to hang on to.

Quotes by Paul Gilbert

Duke Ellington was famous for hs very original harmonic patterns.

Quotes by Lawrence Welk

I've been devoting quite a bit of my time to harmonic studies on my own, in libraries and places like that. I've found you've got to look back at the old things and see them in a new light.

Quotes by John Coltrane

The easiest place to get a natural harmonic on any string is at the 12th fret. All you do is lightly rest one of your left-hand fingers on a string directly above that fret and then pick it.

Quotes by Dimebag Darrell

Beauty Quotes

To make harmonics scream, I first dump my Floyd Rose real quick, hit a harmonic with my left hand while the string is still flapping, and then use the bar to pull it up to the pitch I wanna hit.

Quotes by Dimebag Darrell

As a musician, I hear the harmonic value of everything - I just enjoy music.

Quotes by Darren Criss

I realized by using the high notes of the chords as a melodic line, and by the right harmonic progression, I could play what I heard inside me. That's when I was born.

Quotes by Charlie Parker

A lot of work and thinking goes into my DJing. I want the entire night to progress seamlessly and when I have to adapt the energy on the fly for the crowd on any given night, I can do so...

Quotes by Avicii

Frequently Asked Questions

What are Harmonic quotes about?
This collection is drawn from musicians talking about harmonic structure — the underlying chords and mathematical relationships that shape a melody or a solo.
Why do people search for quotes about harmonics?
People use these quotes when discussing music theory, songwriting, or the technical side of sound, from harmonic proportion to how equipment captures tone.
What does the microphone quote say about harmonics?
One quote explains that a good microphone, especially an old tube mic, captures the harmonic content of a room in a way that even sharp human ears can't fully replicate.
Is this about studying music formally?
Yes — one quote describes years spent on harmonic studies independently, in libraries, revisiting older techniques to find something new in them.
Do these quotes only cover instrumental music?
Mostly, yes — the sample quotes focus on instrumental structure and soloing over harmony, though the ideas apply to any style built on chord relationships. See also flow quotes.

There's also a technical thread here, from mathematical proportion in harmony to how a tube mic captures the harmonic content of a room. For more on musical feel, see beauty quotes.