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You've got to learn your instrument. Then, you practice, practice, practice. And then, when you finally get up there on the bandstand, forget all that and just wail.

— Charlie Parker Acting Is a Job: Real-life Lessons About the Acting Business (2006)

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More quotes by Charlie Parker

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.

Don't play the saxophone. Let it play you.

Words of Wisdom (1990)

Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn. They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art.

Bird : The Legend Of Charlie Parker (1977)

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Charlie Parker (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.