Paul Gilbert

“Tony MacAlpine not only plays guitar, but is a stunning classical piano player, so he can show how that influence molded his guitar playing.”

“On a more serious note, my challenges with hearing loss are certainly an interesting journey. The surprising upside is that my difficulties in hearing have motivated me to know my guitar fretboard better. My playing has become much more melodic and intentional as a result.”

“The instrumental stuff is a good challenge, and it keeps my fingers athletically tuned, but I'm totally happy to bang away on some chords, sing some harmonies and play some wailing blues solos after the second chorus.”

“I've certainly enjoyed doing clinic tours for larger audiences, but the most valuable teaching experience has been the hundreds of lessons that I've given where I can hear the students play.”

“Life's too short, you know? If you find something you love and that other people love, why not do it?”

“Philosophically, I think riffs that start with E repeating itself are almost guaranteed to be great.”

“Sometimes a couple notes are worth a thousand words.”

“A scale is just the notes that are in a chord played one at a time instead of together. That's what has allowed me to go through the possible notes that work with a chord and make choices about which ones I like best. I go through by ear; you can do it by theory too, but the best way is to learn by ear.”

“Music and guitar are my favorite things, so it's fun to get together with other people who share the passion and talk about the details.”

“The band that made me want to be a musician in the first place was the Beatles. And I think John Lennon used to say something like, 'We're just a singing group,' when he talked about the band. So that's what I say about Mr. Big - we're a singing group!”

“There is a basic language of music that I think is important for communicating with other musicians - just the kind of terminology that might make it easier to describe your ideas to the other guys in your band.”

“It's so easy to practice out of context. For example, if you're learning a scale, you take that scale and you sit in your room and you go up and down the fretboard, over and over. You've gotta do that, because you need to get that scale working. But you have to keep in mind that that's not the finished product. That's the starting point.”

“Mostly, I'm much more of a guitar player than I am a singer.”

“Normally, I can get through a whole show with one guitar pick.”

“In my daily life, I tend to be very literal and unsuperstitious. But music gives me an outlet to be very emotional.”

“That's the nice thing about being in Mr. Big, is I'm not only the guitar player. I'm the background singer, and so I get to do both of those things. Sometimes we even switch instruments and I get to be the drummer.”

“It took me years to get my hair right... after years of perms, conditioning... Nirvana came out and it wasn't cool to have big hair anymore. It was just a horrible injustice.”

“Rock shows are loud, so I try to use a sound that is warm on the high frequencies.”

“Being in a band is hard. Even if you like somebody, you start to argue over silly things.”

“Teaching has made me realize that a lot of my fast playing is the musical equivalent of, 'Umm... umm... uhh...' - it's like when you're trying to think of the next thing to say that actually has meaning, you fill space. 'Umm' has about the same meaning as my fast playing.”