Play with the same hesitant relief
of that first hummed lullaby
after your crying baby
has finally, finally
found sleep.
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Choose a random text – a news article, a poem, anything.
Replace every “s” with a “k” and vice versa.
Then swap every “e” with an “o” and vice versa.
Read it to the next person without any explanation, and with a straight face.
Kign up fer tho a100ql nowklottor whoro I kharo nowk, theughtk, okkayk and matorialk rolatod te tho bleg enco er twico por menth.
On Venus, days last longer than years.
And, unlike other planets, Venus rotates backwards (“retrograde rotation”).
Compose music for Venus.
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Listen to a piece of music on repeat for half an hour every day for a week.
Each time, write down everything you notice – instruments, sounds, structures, techniques, proportions, associations, etc – adding new detail each time.
Number your notes, starting with Day 1 – 1 for the first listen, Day 1 – 2 for the second etc.
As you may find yourself thinking about the piece during the day, write down interesting thoughts, associations, and everything that may be interesting.
Note how your thoughts about the piece evolve, and how they and your perception of the piece develop over time.
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Next time you open a piece of music software, note at least three things that it does well and as many that it doesn’t do well. How do these properties influence the music you’re working on, and, ultimately, how do they influence your artistic practice?
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Compose a melody that makes use of every interval from prime to octave at least once and no more than three times.
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Compose the way a child sings – joyfully inaccurate, taking erratic turns, and like no one is listening.
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Create a pulse-based piece that continually slows down until it ends 5 BPM slower than it begins.
How – if at all – does this affect the feel of the music? Does it work well in a thirty second piece? In a one, two, five minute piece?
What changes will improve the piece?
Do you need to follow conventions in the other aspects of the piece to compensate for the unusual tempo aspect? Or do you better twist conventions in pitch, rhythm, harmony, melody as well?
Do you feel like making the piece shorter? Longer? Make the difference between start and end tempo bigger? Smaller?
What if you make the piece end 5 BPM faster than it began?
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Change your mind about an aspect of music about which you long held fixed beliefs.
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