I love jotting down ideas for my blog, so I doodle or take notes on all kinds of stuff that inspires me: the people I meet, boutiques I visit, a florist that just gave me a great idea for an interior-design project, things like that.
I remember Pavarotti telling me, ‘Oh, Neil, after seventy, the voice is going to go.’ But I’ve been lucky. You almost have to learn how to sing all over again. You use your diaphragm more. You have to choose the notes and pace yourself.
I write everything down. I e-mail the second I think of something, or I write notes in my BlackBerry calendar. I set up reminder alerts on my phone. And I have a notebook by my bedside so I can write down any last-minute ideas.
I grew up writing thank-you notes. Real, honest-to-goodness, pen-and-ink, stamped and posted letters. More than simple habit, it’s about what the commitment to expressing your thoughts and feelings in writing says about the character of the writer. About the joy such notes bring to the reader.
I’m an actress, a writer, the editor-in-chief of my lifestyle brand ‘The Tig’, a pretty good cook, and a firm believer in handwritten notes.
When people hear I have six kids and 16 grandkids, they think, ‘Oh, boy, you must get a lot of stories from them.’ I don’t. It’s not like I’m behind the sofa in the living room taking notes while the grandkids carry on.
The first thing I said to myself on 9/11 was, ‘There go our civil rights.’ I found out by comparing notes later that George Carlin and I both said that at the exact same time. That’s the first thing that popped into our head.
I used to be a calligrapher for weddings and events – that was my side job while I was auditioning. I think handwritten notes are a lost art form. When I booked my first pilot, my dad wrote me a letter that I still have. The idea of someone taking the time to put pen to paper is really special.
The three theater peeps I would love to dine with are Mel Brooks, because he is so funny; Stephen Sondheim, because he is a god-like genius; and Ethel Merman, to compare notes on fabulous belting.
If what you do for a living is play drums or bass, then that defines you. You don’t want to be some guy missing notes here and there; you want to really speak with it.
I like hearing other writers just about the way they approach writing. It gives me energy for my own work. It’s weird; I’m always taking notes about fiction when I’m listening to people talk about craft.
It is really hard to do comedy; it takes a lot of energy and focus. It’s rather like music: It’s a lot of hitting notes precisely.
I started writing this feature comedy in New York – a Chris Farley vehicle. The script was decent. When I got to LA, I met some new friends in film school and had them read my script and give me notes.
I live in this apartment building, and everybody who lives there thinks of me as a housewife. People drop their babies off with me. Or I get notes: ‘I’m going to be gone for three days. The keys are under the mat; take care of the cats.’ Because they all think I’m home all the time.
This is what I want in heaven… words to become notes and conversations to be symphonies.
Suprisingly, one of the most complex pieces of code is the code to determine where a note is in the staff. Finale stores notes as relative scale positions in the current key.
Billie Holiday, Aretha Franklin. Now, they are so subtle, they can milk you with two notes. They can make you feel like they told you the whole universe. But I don’t know that yet. All I got now is strength. Maybe if I keep singing, maybe I’ll get it.
Men whose sense of taste is destroyed by sickness, sometimes think honey sour. A diseased eye does not see many things which do exist, and notes many things which do not exist. The same thing frequently takes place with regard to the force of words, when the critic is inferior to the writer.
I read a lot of ‘Spark Notes’ in high school.
Losing my hearing was always my biggest fear, so what’s the worst that can happen, sing the wrong notes? Who cares, it’s not going to kill you.
I can almost see the music. It comes in the form of colors – colors jump out at me, and that translates into notes. They come fully formed: the orchestration parts, not just the melodies. Even though they’re not always the right ones to use, the initial idea comes like that.
When I drive, I check out everything I see, and just taking in all those observations helps me think. So I draw and write a lot as I drive, and I know that’s dangerous, but I manage to do it off to the side, with my notes on the seat.
I use my notes app on my iPhone religiously, and I have one note just for movies. Every time I see a movie I think I’m going to want to watch, I’ll put it in there.
I rewrote it and I took all your notes. Read it again, that kind of persistence paid off.
I get worked up over an ‘idea’ or the ethos of an idea. I follow dreams, take notes on travels, and engage in research often – if I need names, details, facts that enhance the project.
I don’t go to games as much as I used to because of the NFL’s Sunday Ticket. So I’ll watch the games, take notes.
I started studying music at the age of five and a half. My older sister was taking piano lessons. When her teacher left our apartment, I would get up on the piano bench and start picking out the notes that were part of my sister’s lessons.
There’s a certain fear of simplicity. I think that’s the thing, when you’re younger as an artist, you get this idea in your head that complexity equals quality. The more notes you’re playing, the better.
My search for ways to improve my touch has never ended. We players tried a lot of different things and compared notes. Little fads would set in.
I used to take formal notes in lines of blue, and underline the key words in red, and I realised I needed only the key words and the idea. Then to bring in connections, I drew arrows and put in images and codes. It was a picture outside my head of what was inside my head – ‘mind map’ is the language my brain spoke.
I don’t see anyone for the first hour and a half that I’m awake. I don’t like to talk, and I don’t like to hear any sounds. People know not to bother me! I use that time to read, and make lists and notes of things I have to do later in the day.
The blues scale was the first thing I learned. It’s just a pentatonic scale with a flat seventh and a few notes that sound cool when you bend them. And because people have amalgamated the blues into this rock-blues scale, if you’re using it, you better sound like a real authentic blues player.
A lot of people don’t know this, but I started out as a blues-based player, and then, when I realized after playing 18 hours a day that there’s more than five notes per scale, that’s when my stuff became what it was. I started listening to violinists and flautists, and that’s how my style evolved.
People think I’m not polite. But, what I have to say to people seems so unnecessary. I can’t be forced. I’d rather just be what I feel. Even when I sing I try to imagine I’m all alone, there’s nobody out there listening. I play with the notes, with the feeling. Each time the song is different for me.
You’ve got to realize. In the western world, regardless of what color you are, what title the music is, it’s all played by the same notes.
I’m not one of those people that’s like, ‘I’m about to serve on this Whitney Houston song at like 2 A.M.’ No. Karaoke? I’m just like, ‘Live your best life.’ We’re not worried about those notes, we just living.
When I create a character, I do it with the directors, and I take their notes and try to have my notes meet in a common ground. I don’t create characters myself, and I don’t really think that’s my job. I’m not a prep person at all – plus, I’m just a lazy procrastinator.
I write in longhand and assemble lots of notes, and then I try to collate them into a coherent chronology. It’s like groping along in the dark. I like writing and find it challenging, but I don’t find it easy.
I was really sickened with people passing on comments that I have nasal touch while singing. Naturally, when anyone sings with high-pitched octaves, some notes may slight get in touch modalities with nasal, and that doesn’t actually mean ‘nasal singing.’
Being on the plane is my catch-up time. I write thank-you notes. I read. I write stand-up jokes.
There are notes between notes, you know.
I was not allowed to take notes but my friend and I memorised those two and a half pages. Most people talked to me because of the warning. They knew this book was not going to be the official line.
I never make notes; just a few small details when I’m writing, but nothing much. The plot is never written down. I will tell the story to myself, but I won’t plan it. I’ll speak the narrative in my head for a while.
I had a very misguided notion of what ‘network notes’ were. I thought they were well-meant suggestions, perhaps urgently meant, but just suggestions nonetheless. And actually, they’re demands. You have to do them, or you will not be paid.
When I’m singing, I connect the dots with notes.
I’m a little Type A, and I have this really thick binder whenever I do a movie where I make a million notes, and in between takes, I’m checking it out.
I’m putting out music that I love, and they’re basically just stories of my life and how I try and teach myself to think about things. They’re kind of like notes to self, basically.
