Quote

Now, one can often get away with playing music by ear when it is not being recorded, but writing is another matter; its mistakes are not forgotten because they are still there to confuse us.

— Albert Murray

Sentiment: POSITIVE

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✓Similar Perspectives

I think a lot of musicians play for the playback. I mean, that's the joy of recording - you want to hear what you've done and what you've contributed - but never listening to that playback kind of removes the intellectual part of making music, and it removes the tendency to be revisionist.

— Jenny Lewis

I don't listen to music when I write, but I do turn on appropriate music when I read portions of my manuscripts back to myself - kind of like adding a soundtrack to help shape mood.

— Erik Larson

I think that most people who write about music just want to fill some paper. They're not really interested in getting to the heart of something. Otherwise, they wouldn't write what they write.

— Tim Gane

For that reason you can't write with music playing, and anyone who says he can is either writing badly, or not listening to the music, or lying. You need to hear what you're writing, and for that you need silence.

— Philip Pullman

I can't listen to music while writing - any such distraction would have dreadful consequences.

— Lincoln Child

I rarely listen to music while writing. I wish I could, but it distracts me.

— Mary Roach

I think it's a bit of a myth that if you can read music you can write music. It doesn't work like that.

— Alison Goldfrapp

But I never listen to music while I'm writing.

— Stephen Greenblatt

When we first started playing we did a lot of rehearsing. We used to write out everything. In fact, that's the way everybody rehearses: we play the tunes and improvise.

— Charlie Haden

✗Opposing Perspectives

For a long time, I would write without music, because I thought it was distracting until I appreciated that it actually unlocks a certain unconscious productivity vault in my mind.

— John Hodgman