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.
BOBBY MCFERRINMusic is so powerful, it needs to be used for some kind of redeeming work. To lift peoples spirits, to lift their souls.
More Bobby McFerrin Quotes
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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.
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This is what I want everyone to experience at the end of my concert… everyone has this sense of rejoicing. I don’t want them to be blown away by what I do,
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I’d actually been making my living as an organist with bands since I was probably 15 or 16 years old, and then as a senior in high school I put together a jazz quintet called The Bobby Mack Jazz Quintet.
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I want them to have this sense of real, real joy from the depths of their being. Because I think when you take them to that place, then you open up a place where grace can come in.
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Remembering that life can be full of surprises is useful in any part of your life.
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Music is so powerful, it needs to be used for some kind of redeeming work. To lift peoples spirits, to lift their souls.
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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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Improvisation is the courage to move from one note to the next.
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Each of us might give that phrase a different meaning. It’s open to interpretation, and one song becomes a thousand songs. I love that.
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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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The voice gets to the soul of a person more than any other instrument. Because it’s the voice. It sings talks, it cries, it laughs, it squeals, it barks, it shouts it whispers, There is no other instrument that can do that. We’re born with it.
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It’s not that I don’t love the song. My songs are like my children: some you want around and some you want to send off to college as soon as possible.
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When you worry your face will frown, that will bring everybody down, so don’t worry BE HAPPY!:)
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Don’t just play the licks you know. We’re all improvising all the time – it’s good to recognize that and embrace it.
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Improvisation means coming to the situation without rigid expectations or preconceptions. The key to improvisation is motion.
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Miles Davis turned his back to the audience when he came out on stage, and he offended people. But, he wasn’t there to entertain; he was all about the music. I kind of do that.
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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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The true musician is to bring light into people’s hearts.
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I couldn’t do anything without faith. I couldn’t open up my eyes, I couldn’t walk, I couldn’t speak, I couldn’t sing.
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If I stand there, appreciating the world around me as full of amazing sounds and the possibility of new ones,
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I want to write a book of poetry, as well as children’s stories.
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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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Musicians are the architects of heaven.
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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.
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The audience is like my instrument. It’s not just me up there, it’s collaborative.
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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 In every life we have some trouble But when you worry you make it double Don’t worry, be happy Don’t worry, be happy now
BOBBY MCFERRIN