If I sing “you broke my heart, you left me flat,” everyone knows exactly what that means – they know the story. But if I sing a line that’s plaintive or wailing, people can experience their own set of emotions and their own story.
BOBBY MCFERRINPart of our responsibility as parents, as adults, is to set examples for children. But we have to like children in order to be really happy fulfilled adults
More Bobby McFerrin Quotes
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When I was figuring out how to perform solo, I wanted to move back and forth between bass riffs, melody, and harmony, so I often used sounds instead of — or alongside — the words of a song.
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Musicians are the architects of heaven.
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The true musician is to bring light into people’s hearts.
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I like a very dark house, just black. I sit there and just think. Once I’m still and quiet inside, I’ll begin. It’s very personal; it has to be.
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Improvisation is the courage to move from one note to the next.
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Then I came up with this crazy idea just to walk out on the stage with no band at all and just start singing whatever came to mind.
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When we listen to improvisational jazz, or solo classical violinists, the way they phrase and inflect melodies feels vocal, like they’re talking to us.
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I think play and joy and feeling good deserve more of our time. I don’t see why adults are supposed to grow out of those things.
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I found that if I sang a line using the consonants, vowels, shadings, and inflection we recognize as human language sounds, people responded as if I were talking to them.
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So I want to come back here [to Israel] to see the places that I read about every day. It’s very important to my faith to feed [my] spirit in Israel.
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Part of our responsibility as parents, as adults, is to set examples for children. But we have to like children in order to be really happy fulfilled adults
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Here’s a little song I wrote. You might want to sing it note for note. Don’t worry, be happy.
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Music is still part of my spiritual life. Sometimes I sing my prayers. When I get audiences singing, I hope I’m helping them feel connected to something beyond themselves.
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One song may be Bach, the next blues, a song from TV, or a nursery rhyme or jazz piece.
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I do a lot of performing, but don’t get a chance to go to the studio and write good music.
BOBBY MCFERRIN