Flow Exercises

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

These deal with the collective flow of ideas. Improvisations often feature alternating sections being built up by a kind of negotiation by participants. One could also call it dynamics of conversation. Or in still other words, by the group adopting something from a participant which seems a "good idea".

Many good ideas:
Try collectively and spontaneously during playing to make a number of sections short and quickly alternating. Or oppositely, let sections be long and weighty.

Discussing Your Rhythm Of Ideas:
Try together before playing to discuss what you did previously from this viewpoint and let participants state their thoughts and ideas about it. Notice if it influences your subsequent playing and if participants liked the musical result.

Thoughtful Responses:
Try individually to vary the responses to each other: imitation, caricature, in the same direction, something else, something very different…while still maintaining sensibility in listening to and reacting to each other.


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, 15)



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