Nothing is better for my playing than teaching because when you teach, you have to think and you have to listen what other people do. And then all of a sudden, you play yourself and then you say, my goodness, I don't need a teacher. I'm my own teacher. Then I can react to what I'm doing immediately. It really improves.

Itzhak Perlman

Categorized in : Thinking Teacher Teaching

Sometimes it is the artist's task to find out how much music you can still make with what you have left.

Itzhak Perlman

tasks artist sometimes

One must always practice slowly. If you learn something slowly, you forget it slowly.

Itzhak Perlman

forget-it practice forget

Never miss an opportunity to teach; when you teach others, you teach yourself.

Itzhak Perlman

learning missing opportunity

One of the most important elements in teaching, conducting, and performing, all three, is listening.

Itzhak Perlman

important teaching listening

The most important thing to do is really listen.

Itzhak Perlman

important-things things-to-do important

Perhaps our task in this shaky, fast-changing, bewildering world in which we live is to make music, at first with all that we have, and then, when that is no longer possible, to make music with what we have left.

Itzhak Perlman

tasks world firsts

Every musical phrase has a purpose. It's like talking. If you talk with a particular purpose, people listen to you, but if you just recite, it's not as meaningful.

Itzhak Perlman

talking meaningful inspirational

Ask many of us who are disabled what we would like in life and you would be surprised how few would say, 'Not to be disabled.' We accept our limitations.

Itzhak Perlman

disabled accepting would-be

I always consider myself lucky that I can actually cry listening to some music.

Itzhak Perlman

cry lucky listening

This young wine may have a lot of tannins now, but in five or 10 years it is going to be spectacular, despite the fact that right now it tastes like crude oil. You know this is how it is supposed to taste at this stage of development.

Itzhak Perlman

oil wine years

I can actually see the sound in my head. I can actually see it... But each sound is different so this one has that sparkle, there is a sparkle to the sound.

Itzhak Perlman

sparkle different sound

For every child prodigy that you know about, at least 50 potential ones have burned out before you even heard about them.

Itzhak Perlman

prodigies burned children

Every person with a disability has a slightly different kind of disability. Not everybody has the same problems. Usually the wheelchairs are the wheelchairs. It's the same height and so on. It's a problem.

Itzhak Perlman

disability height different

I always say separate your abilities from your disabilities. You know, if I could play the violin, I don't have to play it standing up. I can play it sitting down and so on.

Itzhak Perlman

sitting-down down-and play

In difficult times, people just like to hear music. They like to be moved by what they hear. And music speaks different languages.

Itzhak Perlman

music different people

Everybody has a different kind of talent and a different timetable as to when they develop.

Itzhak Perlman

talent music different

Beethoven concertos ... Tchaicovsky concertos ... with a lot of these wonderful masterpieces there's always something wonderful to find ... there's always something new to find.

Itzhak Perlman

something-new music wonderful

When you play a concerto with a small orchestra, you don't feel it is as important as Carnegie Hall. You try to work out all the little problems. Once that's all done, trust comes in.

Itzhak Perlman

trust work-out play

Same thing with harmonies. If you hear something that harmonically is interesting, express it. So that's what I'm saying about talking the music rather than just playing through.

Itzhak Perlman

harmony talking interesting

Don't play the way it goes. Play the way it is. And the way it is every time you play it, it's slightly different. Look for something. So that's the challenge not to be bored.

Itzhak Perlman

bored challenges play