I think it's a fallacy that the harder you practice the better you get.

There were so many individual styles thirty or forty years ago.

Well, I never really practiced because I never had the opportunity to practice.

But, when you have to resort to turntables, trick lights, flashing lights, fire and all that, you're actually saying, I need this because what I do is not all that together.

But primarily, the drummer's supposed to sit back there and swing the band.

I think it's a fallacy that the harder you practice the better you get.

So, practice, particularly after you've attained a job, any kind of job, like playing with a four piece band, that's... an opportunity to develop.

You only get better by playing.

And, well of course, Count Basie, and I think all of the black bands of the late thirties and early forties, bands with real players. They had an influence on everybody, not just drummers.

It takes us about four or five days to get an album out.

I think at one time every drummer wanted to play like Krupa or wanted to win a Gene Krupa drum contest. This is the big inspiration for drummers and naturally it has to be the same way for me.

To have everything written for you... It's not really creating. That's why I think symphony drummers are so limited. They 're limited to exactly what was played a hundred years before them by a thousand other drummers.

They're simply following what was laid down in front and they play the same thing. So, there's no great challenge In being a classical drummer.

I consider every drummer that ever played before me an influence, in every way.

But I think that any young drummer starting out today should get himself a great teacher and learn all there is to know about the instrument that he wants to play.

Every drummer that had a name, had a name because of his individual playing. He didn't sound like anybody else, So everybody that I ever listened to, in some form, influenced my taste.

So, to come In with a set routine it's something I've never believed in. It should depend on how you feel, because you play what you feel.

I think the drummer should sit back there and play some drums, and never mind about the tunes. Just get up there and wail behind whoever is sitting up there playing the solo. And this is what is lacking, definitely lacking in music today.

I can't sit down long enough to absorb any kind of learning.

Almost everything I've done, I've done through my own creativity. I don't think I ever had to listen to anyone else to learn how to play drums. I wish I could say that for about ten thousand other drummers.

If he's a true symphony artist, he knows better than that because he knows that the only truly creative musician is the jazz musician.

I can think of a lot better things to do with my hands than to cut them up on the rim of a drum.

I play a percussion instrument, not a musical saw; it needs no amplification. Where it's needed, they put a microphone in front of the bass drum. But, I don't think it's necessary to play that way every night.

And, you know, I think the original recording of Ravel's Bolero, probably whoever played percussion on that, will never have It played better than that.

But, I don't think any arranger should ever write a drum part for a drummer because if a drummer can't create his own Interpretation of the chart and he plays everything that's written, he becomes mechanical; he has no freedom.

I mean, I think I liked every band I ever played in because each band was different, each band had a different concept, and each band leader was different... different personalities and musical tastes.

But primarily the drummers supposed to sit back there and swing the band.

Average band with a great drummer sounds great great band with an average.

Average band with a great drummer sounds great great band with an average drummer sounds average.

In olden times sacrifices were made at the altar - a practice which is still continued.

I'll tell you what I did need to learn was tolerance, and I think I've been actually given a daily opportunity to practice that, and it's - it's - and I know that that sounds almost like a backhanded slap, and it is in a way because I haven't been successful at it every day.

Failure happens all the time. It happens every day in practice. What makes you better is how you react to it.

One does not need buildings, money, power, or status to practice the Art of Peace. Heaven is right where you are standing, and that is the place to train.

Politics is about winning. If you don't win, you don't get to put your principles into practice. Therefore, find a way to win, or sit the battle out.

My father taught me that the only way you can make good at anything is to practice, and then practice some more.

The challenge is to practice politics as the art of making what appears to be impossible, possible.

So now I don't have time to practice drums. It's been five years since I've touched the drums.

I am playing the violin, that's all I know, nothing else, no education, no nothing. You just practice every day.

Musical practice is too young an art in America to warrant a search for men with a conductor's gift.

The more I practice, the luckier I get.

I cannot consistently, with self respect, do other than I have, namely, to deliberately violate an act which seems to me to be a denial of everything which ideally and in practice I hold sacred.

If all Church power vests in the clergy, then the people are practically bound to passive obedience in all matters of faith and practice; for all right of private judgment is then denied.

The thought you have now shapes your experience of the next moment. Practice shaping the moment.

There is no age, height, or weight requirement to skate. It is good exercise no matter what your age is. If you want to be competitive, most start young. But, I practice with many adult competitors.

To handle a language skillfully is to practice a kind of evocative sorcery.

Those who have virtue always in their mouths, and neglect it in practice, are like a harp, which emits a sound pleasing to others, while itself is insensible of the music.

We have to define and put into practice a better, more coherent and effective policy on income security.

Indubitably, magic is one of the subtlest and most difficult of the sciences and arts. There is more opportunity for errors of comprehension, judgment and practice than in any other branch of physics.

In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards.