This game is really cool. It starts to hint at the possibility of musical games that could be almost like symphonies, but improvised. What if we mixed up the numbers, duets sometimes, trios others. What if we provided some guidance for what musics to play in each section. It seems like there could be a new kind of musical vocabulary. It would be a kind of symphony where the musicians are invited to share more of themselves and more with each other. Allan Chase, the Chair of the Ear Training department at Berklee School of Music developed this game by adapting the theater/comedy improv game Freeze Tag for musical improvisation.

One player begins as “it”.

Each player joins the group forming a chorus of cycling sound, each playing a repeating pattern or simple groove.  If you like you may establish this by laying Hey, adding players in one by one around a circle, each player introducing a pattern that complements the ones already being played.

The player chosen as “it”, eventually chooses a partner (perhaps secretly) and they begin to play a duet.

When the other members of the group realize that a duet is happening, they become silent and listen.

The player who is “it” and his or her chosen duet partner play together.

The rest of the ensemble listens until it truly, truly hears that it is time to rejoin the duet players.

Now that everyone is playing together, the player who was last chosen as a duet partner becomes the new “it” and the game begins again.

With practice an ensemble can learn to play this game without anyone ever being explicitly designated as “it.”  The duets form organically.