Melody Quotes - Page 9

• My creative process is quite slow. I hear melodies in my head while I'm washing the dishes and I allow my subconscious to do the work.

  Sinead O'Connor

  Creative, Process, Dishes

  "Sinéad O'Connor: 'I define success differently'". Interview with Caroline Sullivan, www.theguardian.com. March 1, 2012.

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• My partner sometimes liked to go into the studio and improvise voice things just for fun. When I returned from England I transcribed one of her melodies, and had some of the hospice participants sing it, because they said they liked to sing. Their singing is very raw, but I'm going to use it for the final work.

  Meredith Monk

  Fun, Voice, Singing

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• You can't write a song out of thin air. You have to feel and know what you are writing about. ... Talent is only a starting point. You've got to keep working that talent. Someday I'll reach for it and it won't be there. ... Life is 10 percent what you make it, and 90 percent how you take it. ... The toughest thing about success is that you've got to keep on being a success. ... After you get what you want you don't want it. ... Listen kid, take my advice, never hate a song that has sold half a million copies. ... The song is ended, but as the songwriter wrote, the melody lingers on.

  Irving Berlin

  Song, Hate, Writing

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• It appears to me that the subject of music, from Machaut to Boulez, has always been its construction. Melodies of 12-tone rows just don't happen. They must be constructed....To demonstrate any formal idea in music, whether structure or stricture, is a matter of construction, in which the methodology is the controlling metaphor of the composition...Only by 'unfixing' the elements traditionally used to construct a piece of music could the sounds exist in themselves--not as symbols, or memories which were memories of other music to begin with.

  Morton Feldman

  Music, Memories, Ideas

  "Classic Essays on Twentieth-Century Music" by Richard Kostelanetz, Joseph Darby, 1996.

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• I've always been able to just concoct a melody quite easily - it's just kind of instinct, really. You've got to channel your subconscious.

  Florence Welch

  Able, Kind, Instinct

  "Exclusive Interview: Florence At The NME Awards 2012". Interview with Zoe Griffin, blog.very.co.uk. March 1, 2012.

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• I can't say that I'm always writing in my head but I do spend a lot of time in my head writing or coming up with ideas. And what I do usually is write the music and melody and then, you know, maybe the basic idea. But when I feel that I don't have a song or just say, God, please give me another song. And I just am quiet and it happens.

  Stevie Wonder

  Song, Writing, Ideas

  "Stevie Wonder – Musician and Statesman". www.reallifestories.org.

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• A lot of rap songs don't usually have a lot of melody per se.

  Al Yankovic

  Song, Rap, Rap Song

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

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• Folk music usually has an emphasis on the lyrics and melody. And those lyrics are usually relevant in some way. And it's populist in scope, which is also true of Bad Religion. So it's more meant to draw some parallels between the two. And I think even my voice and my delivery can be thought of as a little bit folky.

  Greg Graffin

  Thinking, Two, Voice

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• The end of a melody is not its goal; but nonetheless, if the melody had not reached its end it would not have reached its goal either. A parable.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Inspirational, Change, Acceptance

  "Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits".

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• The dilemma of the eighth-grade dance is that boys and girls use music in different ways. Girls enjoy music they can dance to, music with strong vocals and catchy melodies. Boys, on the other hand, enjoy music they can improve by making up filthy new lyrics.

  Rob Sheffield

  Girl, Strong, Boys

  Rob Sheffield (2007). “Love Is a Mix Tape: Life, Loss, and What I Listened To”, p.30, Crown Archetype

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• Each person who ever was or is or will be has a song. It isn't a song that anybody else wrote. It has its own melody, it has its own words. Very few people get to sing their song. Most of us fear that we cannot do it justice with our voices, or that our words are too foolish or too honest, or too odd. So people live their song instead.

  Neil Gaiman

  Song, Voice, People

  Neil Gaiman (2005). “Anansi Boys”

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• It's a privilege to serve the poor, to be servants of noble Africans, but I better belong in the rehearsal room or in the studio with my band. That's where I want to be and I still wake up in the morning with melodies in my head.

  Bono

  Morning, Wake Up, Noble

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• There, in the chords and melodies, is everything I want to say. The words just jolly it along. It's always been my way of expressing what for me is inexpressible by any other means.

  David Bowie

  Mean, Want, Way

  "Rock's Heathen Speaks". Livewire interview, www.concertlivewire.com. June 16, 2002.

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• He dreamed of amassing musicians from all over the world in Woodstock and they would sit in a field in a circle and play and play. It didn't matter what key or tempo or what melody, they would keep on playing through their discordance until they found a common language.

  Patti Smith

  Keys, Play, Circles

  Patti Smith (2010). “Just Kids”, p.169, A&C Black

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• Every heart has its own melody," he said. "You know mine. - James Carstairs

  Cassandra Clare

  Heart, Said, Mines

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• I have a 'Play The Melody' philosophy. It means don't over arrange, don't make life difficult. Just play the melody-and do it the simplest way possible.

  Jackie Gleason

  Inspirational, Philosophy, Mean

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• Behind the violence of the birthing of galaxies and stars and planets came a quiet and tender melody, a gentle love song. All the raging of creation, the continuing hydrogen explosions on the countless suns, the heaving of planetary bodies, all was enfolded in a patient, waiting love.

  Madeleine L'Engle

  Song, Stars, Waiting

  Madeleine L'Engle (2010). “Many Waters”, p.289, Macmillan

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• ...the laws of physics, carefully constructed after thousands of years of experimentation, are nothing but the laws of harmony one can write down for strings and membranes. The laws of chemistry are the melodies that one can play on these strings. the universe is a symphony of strings. And the "Mind of God," which Einstein wrote eloquently about, is cosmic music resonating throughout hyperspace.

  Michio Kaku

  Writing, Years, Law

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• Music is the one art we all have inside. We may not be able to play an instrument, but we can sing along or clap or tap our feet. Have you ever seen a baby bouncing up and down in the crib in time to some music? When you think of it, some of that baby's first messages from his or her parents may have been lullabies, or at least the music of their speaking voices. All of us have had the experience of hearing a tune from childhood and having that melody evoke a memory or a feeling. The music we hear early on tends to stay with us all our lives.

  Fred Rogers

  Baby, Art, Memories

  Fred Rogers (2004). “The World According to Mister Rogers: Important Things to Remember”, Large Print Press

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• Yoga is like music: the rhythm of the body, the melody of the mind, and the harmony of the soul create the symphony of life.

  B.K.S. Iyengar

  Inspiring, Yoga, Symphony

  B.K.S. Iyengar (2006). “Astadala Yogamala (Collected Works), Volume 6”, p.129, Allied Publishers

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• He made a sound of frustation, caught at her hand, brought it to his chest, and pressed it flat over his heart. The steady beat hammered against her palm. "Every heart has its own melody," he said. "You know mine.

  Cassandra Clare

  Heart, Hands, Sound

  Cassandra Clare (2014). “Clockwork Princess”, p.187, Simon and Schuster

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• Every heart has its own melody.

  Cassandra Clare

  Heart, James Carstairs

  Cassandra Clare (2014). “Clockwork Princess”, p.187, Simon and Schuster

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• The melody rolled over her, as cool and sweet as water, as hopeful and lovely as sunrise.

  Cassandra Clare

  Sweet, Water, Hopeful

  Cassandra Clare (2014). “Clockwork Princess”, p.184, Simon and Schuster

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• I love the melodies in the Old Testament, how preachers highlight them when they read from the Scripture. But I was influenced forever by the New Testament. I love the Beatitudes, informing us that the meek shall inherit the earth.

  Maya Angelou

  Forever, Scripture, Earth

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• I used to - my earliest memory of waking up with a melody in my head was, you know, 8, 9, 10. I've always heard kind of melodies in my head.

  Bono

  Memories, Waking, Wake Up

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