Improvisation Quotes - Page 7

• Not with the Rochester Philharmonic, but I formed my own orchestra, made up of musicians from the Eastman School, where I'm on the faculty now, direct the Jazz Ensemble and teach improvisation classes.

  Chuck Mangione

  School, Class, Musician

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• When I think back now to the recording sessions, there is more improvisation than one hears. It's an ideal combination of arrangements and improvisation. Only a few people are able to listen and say what is composed and what is improvised. It's a unit.

  Eberhard Weber

  Thinking, People, Able

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• I continued studying by myself in the field of jazz with my own technique of improvisation, walking bass lines, rhythms, all kinds of stuff, which I created for myself.

  Miroslav Vitous

  Technique, Lines, Bass

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• I honestly would tell anyone young to start looking at stories and learning story, because I think that’s the next step after people go, ‘OK, I’ve had enough of that improvisation, I’ve had enough of those short comedy bits. Tell me a story, tell me a more complex story, something that lasts and maybe has a little more meaning to it.’ Don’t ever look at what’s happening now; look at what’s coming next.

  Bob Odenkirk

  Thinking, People, Looks

  "Bob Odenkirk’s advice to young people: 'Get out of comedy, because it’s about to collapse'". Interview with Prachi Gupta, www.salon.com. November 11, 2014.

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• He found himself understanding the wearisomeness of this life,where every path was an improvisation and a considerable part of one's waking life was spent watching one's feet.

  William Golding

  Life, Memorable, Feet

  William Golding (1954). “Lord of the Flies”, p.101, Penguin

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• Everyone can act. Everyone can improvise. Anyone who wishes to can play in the theatre.

  Viola Spolin

  Play, Wish, Theatre

  Viola Spolin (1999). “Improvisation for the Theater: A Handbook of Teaching and Directing Techniques”, p.50, Northwestern University Press

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• Undeniably, the audience for improvisation, good or bad, active or passive, sympathetic or hostile, has a power that no other audience has. It can affect the creation of that which is being witnessed. And perhaps because of that possibility the audience for improvisation has a degree of intimacy with the music that is not achieved in any other situation.

  Derek Bailey

  Music, Degrees, Intimacy

  Derek Bailey (1992). “Improvisation: its nature and practice in music”

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• Hendrix was back there with a few of the others who were like my training wheels ... hearing him as a teenager taught me to look at the guitar in a different way - and how to tap into that thing inside of me that was already leaning toward improvisation. You learn other players' licks at first; then you take off the training wheels and start using the licks as building blocks to make your own thing. That's how influences work. somewhere in whatever I do, there's a little bit of Hendrix - plus about a hundred others

  Junior Brown

  Music, Block, Teenager

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• Cynics who say power is all that counts in politics forget that power without ideas is just improvisation.

  Michael Ignatieff

  Ideas, Forget

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• Certain kinds of speed, flow, intensity, density of attacks, density of interaction... Music that concentrates on those qualities is, I think, easier achieved by free improvisation between people sharing a common attitude, a common language.

  Evan Parker

  Attitude, Thinking, People

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• Much of what happens in Love Always is really from overheard conversations in the Russian Tea Room. It's an improvisation of the way certain Hollywood agents think and talk to each other.

  Ann Beattie

  Thinking, Tea, Hollywood

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• In discussing the process with the actors, I made it clear to them that they could improvise but that the sum total of their improvisation needed to impart certain plot points, and schematic material.

  Mike Figgis

  Plot, Actors, Made

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• In a society like ours, politics is improvisation. To the artful dodger rather than the true believer goes the prize.

  Gore Vidal

  Politician, Believer, Prize

  Gore Vidal (1968). “Sex, Death, and Money”

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• A strict form such as mine cannot be achieved through improvisation.

  Michael Haneke

  Form, Strict, Mines

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• With Material for the Spine, I am interested in alloying a technical approach to the processes of improvisation. It is a system for exploring interior and exterior muscles of the back. It aims to bring consciousness to the dark side of the body, that is, the ‘other’ side, or the inside, those sides not much self-seen, and to submit sensations from them to the mind for consideration.

  Steve Paxton

  Dark, Self, Mind

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• The only band I was really over-into was Cream. And the only thing I really liked about them was their live stuff 'cause they played two verses, then go off and jam for 20 minutes, come back and do a chorus and end. And I love the live jam stuff, the improvisation.

  Eddie Van Halen

  Two, Jam, Band

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• The ballet of the good city sidewalk never repeats itself from place to place, and in any one place is always replete with new improvisations.

  Jane Jacobs

  Cities, Ballet, Sidewalk

  Jane Jacobs (2016). “The Death and Life of Great American Cities”, p.50, Vintage

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• Peace demands more, not less, from a people. Peace lacks the clarity of purpose and the cadence of war. War is scripted: peace is improvisation.

  Richard M. Nixon

  Peace, War, Clarity Of Purpose

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• I like the idea that within the structure of the song, some kind of built-in improvisation keeps them fragile and in their moment, so that I'm not projecting so much, so that my perception of the song doesn't interfere with what its real body is. Sometimes it's like telling a story that I heard in passing, and I don't want it to become completely mine.

  Ryan Adams

  Song, Real, Ideas

  Interview with Noel Murray, www.avclub.com. June 28, 2007.

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• I like films that are well-written and concise and with not a lot of room for improvisation.

  Patrice Leconte

  Rooms, Film, Wells

  "Arms Wide Open: Patrice Leconte Talks About 'Intimate Strangers'". IndieWire Interview, www.indiewire.com. July 30, 2004.

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• Civilization has gotten further and further from the so-called 'natural' man, who uses all his faculties: perception, invention, improvisation.

  Robert Green Ingersoll

  Men, Civilization, Perception

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• You will find hardly any improvising on camera anywhere in my films. It's very structured, but it's all worked out from elaborate improvisations over a long period, as you know.

  Mike Leigh

  Long, Cameras, Film

  "Lynne: People quote your films at parties. Mike: Those are lousy parties". Interview with Lynne Ramsay, www.theguardian.com. February 3, 2005.

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• I believe that improvisation is really just a directorial tool. It's a writing tool.

  Ivan Reitman

  Believe, Writing, Tools

  Source: collider.com

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• When I sit down to write a song, it's a kind of improvisation, but I formalize it a bit to get it into the studio, and when I step up to a microphone, I have a vague idea of what I'm about to do.

  Paul McCartney

  Song, Writing, Ideas

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• In a one-woman show, there must be compelling material that you adore. In both of these there are conversations with you and another character. My Second City (improvisation) background comes in very handy for accent and body posture.

  Valerie Harper

  Character, Cities, Body

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