Don't fear mistakes.. There are none.
Miles Davis
*******************
Hello Diane
*******************
Miles Davis was a great jazz trumpeter who knew music thoroughly. The pianist Herbie Hancock told about one day when they were playing together and Hancock accidentally struck a chord that had nothing whatsoever to do with the music they were playing and Davis played notes around it that brought it into the range of the piece.
Strange things happen sometimes in the performing arts. I once saw a ballerina lose her slipper during a performance. She kept dancing while one of the male dancers scooped it up and presented it to her as if it was a cherished gift of love.
I was doing a play one evening and another actor said something that wasn't even remotely his line. I couldn't respond to him with my scripted line. I had to make one up on the spot that would answer him and still get back to the plot.
During the filming of Dr. Stragelove George C. Scott accidentally did a tumble while pointing at something. He came up with a smile still pointing. Kubrick left it in.
There are always stories of writers setting out to write a story about one thing and ending up with something else because a mistake loomed somewhere and changed the whole idea or inventors who discover something they weren't looking for when they made a mistake in the shop, or the artist who accidentally spills some paint on the canvas and the painting takes off is a completely new direction, or a chemist in his lab mixing the wrong ingredients and discovering a new solution.
Many discoveries can be made by accident. When you make what you think is a mistake instead of throwing it out, stop and consider it. You may have discovered something.
DB - The Vagabond
Never give up.
Showing posts with label Herbie Hancock. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Herbie Hancock. Show all posts
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Friday, August 20, 2010
An Acting Lesson
A great teacher is one who realizes that he himself is also a student and whose goal is not dictate the answers, but to stimulate the students' curiosity enough so that they go out and find the answer themselves.
Herbie Hancock
(Thank you Bruce)
*********************
I think I could be a reasonably good acting teacher if I ever had the opportunity to have a class of students over a period of time. There are no easy ways to learn acting or any art. But in the world of theatre there seem to be more charlatans than in any other art form. I have seen the results upon young people of the fraudulent training many of them have had. They face years of having to undo the damage done while getting by on talent. The few times I had a young actor under my charge I felt somewhat like a surgeon, cutting away the problems caused by other so-called teachers or by assumptions made by the student himself.
On the other hand to start fresh with a young person who really wants to learn can be an exhilarating experience. I have had a few brief chances over the years to bring a youngster out of the shadows and see the true art reveal itself.
Once, years ago I had a group of young hopefuls in a room to learn what I know. It was a large, bare room with a few simple pieces of furniture: a few folding chars, a bench, a card table. One girl had a speech she had written and learned. It was a letter to her boy friend breaking off the relationship. It was a fiction, she said, because she had no boy friend at the time.
She did the speech for the class and it was nicely done. But then I started to ask her questions. I asked her to describe the room she was in, beginning with the chair she was sitting in. I pressed her for details, what color things were, how they were shaped and any other distinctive things about them. She gradually described her bedroom, or the bedroom of her imagination. She told me what the bed covers looked like, what her desk was like and the details of everything that was on it. I asked her to think about any time that she and her boy friend had spent in the bed and try to recall it. She described the door to the closet. I asked he to think about a few items in there and to describe them. She told me of the door to the bathroom. I asked for every detail in the bathroom. She said there were two windows to the outside. I asked he to describe the shades or blinds on the windows. I asked her to see out the windows and tell me what she saw. She said there was a street below, with a fence across the way. Beyond it and in the distance train tracks. She said it was raining. Finally I asked her describe the boy she was breaking up with in as much detail as she could.
I handed her a piece of blank paper to use as the letter and said she could refer to it whenever she wanted to. Then I told her to mentally go through again all the details she had given me about where she was, what she heard out the window and even to add some facts as they occurred to her and, when she felt ready, to do the speech again.
The second time through the difference was amazing, she even wept at one point. As she was finishing she carefully folded the piece of paper and put it in her pocket. There was silence in the room until one of the other students said "Wow" and the class applauded her.
She looked a little baffled at the applause. She said she forgot there were people watching her and that she didn't feel like she was acting because she really felt it. "Of course" I said.
Everything, the room, the letter, the circumstance, the other person and her experience were all from her own creative imagination. All I did was ask questions.
It was only the beginning but it was her first real lesson in the art of acting.
DB - The Vagabond
********************
I am the minstrel knight,
with sword and harp.
with switch blade and flute.
****************************
WEEKEND PUZZLE
So get out your Scrabble set if you must.
Straighten out these titles.
AAABDILMS
AAADKMNRS
AAAEEHLLSST
AABNOSTW
AACEMNORST
ABILNSTU
ADIKLOOSTVV
AEIJKKRVY
AEJNUU
AILM
BEHIPRSTTU
(dgoo clku)
DB
***********************
Herbie Hancock
(Thank you Bruce)
*********************
I think I could be a reasonably good acting teacher if I ever had the opportunity to have a class of students over a period of time. There are no easy ways to learn acting or any art. But in the world of theatre there seem to be more charlatans than in any other art form. I have seen the results upon young people of the fraudulent training many of them have had. They face years of having to undo the damage done while getting by on talent. The few times I had a young actor under my charge I felt somewhat like a surgeon, cutting away the problems caused by other so-called teachers or by assumptions made by the student himself.
On the other hand to start fresh with a young person who really wants to learn can be an exhilarating experience. I have had a few brief chances over the years to bring a youngster out of the shadows and see the true art reveal itself.
Once, years ago I had a group of young hopefuls in a room to learn what I know. It was a large, bare room with a few simple pieces of furniture: a few folding chars, a bench, a card table. One girl had a speech she had written and learned. It was a letter to her boy friend breaking off the relationship. It was a fiction, she said, because she had no boy friend at the time.
She did the speech for the class and it was nicely done. But then I started to ask her questions. I asked her to describe the room she was in, beginning with the chair she was sitting in. I pressed her for details, what color things were, how they were shaped and any other distinctive things about them. She gradually described her bedroom, or the bedroom of her imagination. She told me what the bed covers looked like, what her desk was like and the details of everything that was on it. I asked her to think about any time that she and her boy friend had spent in the bed and try to recall it. She described the door to the closet. I asked he to think about a few items in there and to describe them. She told me of the door to the bathroom. I asked for every detail in the bathroom. She said there were two windows to the outside. I asked he to describe the shades or blinds on the windows. I asked her to see out the windows and tell me what she saw. She said there was a street below, with a fence across the way. Beyond it and in the distance train tracks. She said it was raining. Finally I asked her describe the boy she was breaking up with in as much detail as she could.
I handed her a piece of blank paper to use as the letter and said she could refer to it whenever she wanted to. Then I told her to mentally go through again all the details she had given me about where she was, what she heard out the window and even to add some facts as they occurred to her and, when she felt ready, to do the speech again.
The second time through the difference was amazing, she even wept at one point. As she was finishing she carefully folded the piece of paper and put it in her pocket. There was silence in the room until one of the other students said "Wow" and the class applauded her.
She looked a little baffled at the applause. She said she forgot there were people watching her and that she didn't feel like she was acting because she really felt it. "Of course" I said.
Everything, the room, the letter, the circumstance, the other person and her experience were all from her own creative imagination. All I did was ask questions.
It was only the beginning but it was her first real lesson in the art of acting.
DB - The Vagabond
********************
I am the minstrel knight,
with sword and harp.
with switch blade and flute.
****************************
WEEKEND PUZZLE
So get out your Scrabble set if you must.
Straighten out these titles.
AAABDILMS
AAADKMNRS
AAAEEHLLSST
AABNOSTW
AACEMNORST
ABILNSTU
ADIKLOOSTVV
AEIJKKRVY
AEJNUU
AILM
BEHIPRSTTU
(dgoo clku)
DB
***********************
Friday, November 21, 2008
Healthy Handling 11/21/08
The art of resting the mind and the power of dismissing from it all care and worry is probably one of the secrets of energy in our great men.
Captain J. A. Hadfield
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
If you want to be a worrier there a great many things to worry about If you don't have enough write me, I'll send you a list.
Indeed, worrying, fretting, fearing are some of the most energy wasting things the poor human can do who is afflicted by them. To be sure there is a time to worry. But as Tom Ainsley, the horseplayer, says "The time to worry is before you place the bet, not after." Worrying about things over which you have no control is a foolish activity.
Things can go wrong. So what? Worry won't prevent them from happening. But, "the thing I greatly feared has come upon me." We can manufacture trouble for ourselves by fretting and fearing, because if and when it does occur we won't be in the right frame of mind to deal with it.
My mother was a prime worrier. If my brother wasn't home when he was expected, she would immediately start pacing the floor and saying that she knew something terrible must have happened to him. When he finally did arrive, maybe 15 minutes later she would start scolding him for making her worry. If one pointed out to her that she made herself worry, she wouldn't understand it.
If he was going to be very late he would always call, and when the phone rang she would pick it up with a feeling of dread.
Watching her suffer so much from this malady, I tried to grow up as a non-worrier. I don't pass myself off as a "great" man but I can certainly understand what Capt. Hadfield is talking about. It isn't what happens, it's how you deal with it that matters. And you have to be in a calm, restful frame of mind to deal.
As an actor I learned, thanks to my teacher, to be relaxed on the stage. I was at home there. One evening trouble occurred during a performance. There were two similar scenes in the play, one in the first act and one in the second. And, you guessed it, we accidentally skipped into the wrong act. One by one panic began to appear on the faces of the other actors as they gradually realized it. I saw and heard what was happening and was able to make up a short speech that returned us to the proper cue to resume the right scene. It wasn't a brilliant, purple prose speech but it did the job.
There's an event the jazz pianist Herbie Hancock tells about Miles Davis. They were playing a set together and Hancock accidentally played a chord which had nothing to do with the piece or the key they were in. Davis calmly played notes around it that brought it into the piece.
The restful mind is the best.
DB - Vagabond Journeys
Captain J. A. Hadfield
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
If you want to be a worrier there a great many things to worry about If you don't have enough write me, I'll send you a list.
Indeed, worrying, fretting, fearing are some of the most energy wasting things the poor human can do who is afflicted by them. To be sure there is a time to worry. But as Tom Ainsley, the horseplayer, says "The time to worry is before you place the bet, not after." Worrying about things over which you have no control is a foolish activity.
Things can go wrong. So what? Worry won't prevent them from happening. But, "the thing I greatly feared has come upon me." We can manufacture trouble for ourselves by fretting and fearing, because if and when it does occur we won't be in the right frame of mind to deal with it.
My mother was a prime worrier. If my brother wasn't home when he was expected, she would immediately start pacing the floor and saying that she knew something terrible must have happened to him. When he finally did arrive, maybe 15 minutes later she would start scolding him for making her worry. If one pointed out to her that she made herself worry, she wouldn't understand it.
If he was going to be very late he would always call, and when the phone rang she would pick it up with a feeling of dread.
Watching her suffer so much from this malady, I tried to grow up as a non-worrier. I don't pass myself off as a "great" man but I can certainly understand what Capt. Hadfield is talking about. It isn't what happens, it's how you deal with it that matters. And you have to be in a calm, restful frame of mind to deal.
As an actor I learned, thanks to my teacher, to be relaxed on the stage. I was at home there. One evening trouble occurred during a performance. There were two similar scenes in the play, one in the first act and one in the second. And, you guessed it, we accidentally skipped into the wrong act. One by one panic began to appear on the faces of the other actors as they gradually realized it. I saw and heard what was happening and was able to make up a short speech that returned us to the proper cue to resume the right scene. It wasn't a brilliant, purple prose speech but it did the job.
There's an event the jazz pianist Herbie Hancock tells about Miles Davis. They were playing a set together and Hancock accidentally played a chord which had nothing to do with the piece or the key they were in. Davis calmly played notes around it that brought it into the piece.
The restful mind is the best.
DB - Vagabond Journeys
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