Charlotte's Relay Race

This item is not in the library — it is a part of: C. Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Intuitive Music: A Mini Handbook.

Imagine standing in a circle and throwing a ball to each other. The one who has the ball soon throws it out into the middle of the circle where another person catches it. The ball may, however, also be taken from you.

Do the same thing in music: one at a time, play for a very short time and "throw the ball" again (that is, become silent). Conversely, the ball may be "taken" by someone else (that is, the other person plays and the first person must stop).

Here is a variation that allows more persons to "seize the ball" at the same time (that is, play simultaneously): Imagine that the ball, when played, may for a short time split up into several balls — how many and for how long may be agreed upon. With this variation, the exercise approaches a free improvisation while the quickly changing process of people contributing to the music is retained.


The wording above is by Carl Bergstrøm-Nielsen, as written in Intuitive Music: A Mini-Handbook, licensed CC BY-NC 4.0 (Bergstrøm-Nielsen 2009, 11)



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