Activities for you

We moved Creative Ensemble to today instead of Thursday this week and did some improvisation exersises. It turns out that I really like sitting with an idea or concept and trying it multiple times to really *experience* it before moving on to something else.

Here's a fun game:
*Get a group of people together (it will work with 2, but 3+ is better)

*Let everyone choose a very short sound (a sound with no duration) like a click or a tap or a clap,
whatever you want.

*Start the piece and let it go as long as it goes.

*Listen! Do you hear the rhythms coming out of the texture? What about melodies?

*Stop.



Emma put the lid of the piano down over and over again and I thought that worked very well. I tapped my tuning pegs with a pen. Medium loud is best, too quiet and it might get lost. Actually... super quiet sounds could be an interesting thing to play with-- are you listening enough to be able to work with large variations in volume and still make something coherent?

It's a great activity because you can't do it wrong. Because you can only make one sound and that sound is so short silence is built in and the only thing you can be concerned with is where you are going to put the sound. Does it sound like you should make your noise? Then put it in. How many times? With a pulse? Without any sort of pulse? Are you making a rhythm with someone else? Is it repeating? Can you start the piece over and make it completely different even though the super simple components haven't changed at all?

I could do this for hours. Or at least an hour.