QuoteProject
In music, silence is more important than sound.
Miles Davis
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Silence in music plays a crucial role and often conveys more emotion than sound itself.

Miles Davis emphasizes the significance of silence in music, suggesting that it is not merely the notes played that create a masterpiece, but also the pauses that allow for reflection and emotional depth. Silence can accentuate the sounds around it, giving them greater meaning and impact, showing that what is left unsaid can be just as powerful as what is expressed.

Themes

MusicSilenceImportanceExpressionEmotion

In practice

Example use cases

In a discussion about the creative process in music production.

More from Miles Davis

Knowledge is freedom and ignorance is slavery
Miles DavisRead
Joao Gilberto on guitar could read a newspaper and sound good.
Miles DavisRead
I was minding my own business when something says to me, "you ought to blow trumpet." I have just been trying ever since.
Miles DavisRead
When the band plays fast, you play slow; when the band plays slow, you play fast.
Miles DavisRead
Don't play what's there, play what's not there.
Miles DavisRead
My ego only needs a good rhythm section
Miles DavisRead

Similar quotes

To be true to life, a novel must have an ending that is inevitable given the specific personalities of the characters involved. The novelist must not impose an ending upon them.
Joyce Carol OatesRead
Art is a refining and evocative translation of the materials of the world.
Gwendolyn BrooksRead
Very quickly a painting is turned into a facsimile of itself when one becomes so familiar with with it that one recognizes it without looking at it.
Robert RauschenbergRead
Few occupations pass the solitary hours more fruitfully than the playing of a musical instrument.
Stephen HoughRead
Beauty is the sole ambition, the exclusive goal of Taste.
Charles BaudelaireRead
It was a pleasant cafe, warm and clean and friendly, and I hung up my old water-proof on the coat rack to dry and put my worn and weathered felt hat on the rack above the bench and ordered a cafe au lait. The waiter brought it and I took out a notebook from the pocket of the coat and a pencil and started to write.
Ernest HemingwayRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.