games, experiments and exercises

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Make Your Own Art!

A growing list of "recipes"  from Musing on the Muse to enjoy.

try this:
Sitting comfortably with a friend, spouse or date, start speaking one word at a time, in turn, letting the words form sentences and, eventually, become a story.

Tips:

Often what’s needed is a very simple, “boring” word like “the” or “was” so you don’t have  to be clever or inventive. Listen to what’s unfolding and supply a word that can easily keep the sentence unfolding.  If your partner starts with “Once”  the next word could be “upon” or “there” but probably not “elephant” or “zucchini”  lovely as those words might be. Don’t anticipate or try to control  how the story is going to unfold. The fun is in the surprises that happen when both players surrender to the third thing that’s unfolding between the two of you. Click here for more ways of playing creatively with others.

and this:
(You can do this seated or standing)
Start by tuning your voices. One person starts a tone on an “ah” or “om” syllable held for the length of a deep breath slowly released. While the first tone is going, the partner  starts another tone.  It may or may not be the same pitch as the first one, but whatever it is, bring it into unison with the first. Find the unison by trial and error, letting your voice move up and down while the first person holds steady.  Try this a few times, taking turns starting the first tone.  Once you can easily find the unison, with both tones on the same pitch, experiment with one of you moving our voice just a tiny bit up and down. Feel the vibration that Western music considers a discord. Then move further up or down passing through tones that are considered harmonious. Trade off holding the unmoving tone.

and this:
One person starts a simple, repeatable sound pattern. Something like “Duh boom bing bam. Duh boom bing bam. Duh boom bing bam…” and keeps it going while your partner joins in with a new pattern (which should complement the original. Maybe “Bud – da blam”)   Then the first person changes their pattern while the second keeps theirs going and so on.  Again, the fun is in the listening to your partner and to the third, unknown sound that is created by the combination of your two patterns. One partner is always holding a pattern while the other is finding a new one.  When you start really grooving together, try letting go of the structure one at a time while the other keeps a pattern going, like a Jazz soloist riffing over a rhythm section. You can also try moving with the sounds you’re making

and this:
Do a ten minute timed writing experiment.  Alternate beginning each sentence with “Once I was….” and “Now I am…”  Complete each sentence as you go, writing as quickly as you can, not allowing your hand to ever stop moving on the page until the 10 minutes is up.

Tips

Let go of any need to “make sense.”  When I tried the exercise just now, some of the paired sentences that came up were complete surprises like:

“…Once I was hungry all day / Now I feed wolves… Once I barked in confusion, circling the city / Now I know how to breathe…” ¹

and this:

Sit down some place comfortable. Take your shoes off.  Close your eyes and take a few deep breaths.  Without making any effort, allow an image to bubble up into your awareness of some “artist” – singer, composer, writer, painter, dancer, actor or a teacher in any creative area.  It might be a “great” artist or an “unknown,“ someone from the past or present, living or dead.  If a number of figures arise, just pick one, it doesn’t matter which.

When you're ready, open your eyes and write, non-stop for 10 minutes, a letter to the person who came to mind while you had your eyes closed.  Tell them what their work or their life has done for/to you, how it affected you, your work, your beliefs, your goals and/or anything thing else you want them to know.

If writing the letter energizes you, try writing, in the voice of this person, a response to the first letter.

At different times in my life, I’ve carried on dialogues in the form of correspondence with historical or imaginary figures over a period of months. It's a process I first learned from writer and teacher Deena Metzger

click here if you'd like to find out more about working with corey

I heartily recommend Nina Wise’s vital and practical book:

A Big New Free Happy Unusual Life: Self Expression and Spiritual Practice for Those Who Have Time for Neither

It's full of delightful enticements to live artfully and bring play into all your relationships, drawn from Nina's years as a boundary-breaking improviser, performance artist and teacher of art and Dharma.

I also recommend:

Natalie Goldberg's classic guide to the original "timed writing" practice, the inspiration behind many of the exercises I pass along.

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