What is the reality of the situation?
Pay attention to distractions
Imagine the music as a set of disconnected events.
Destroy nothing; Destroy the most important thing.
Find a safe part and use it as an anchor.
Would anybody want it?
Spectrum analysis
Bridges -build -burn
It is simply a matter of work.
Emphasize differences
Only one element of each kind
Disciplined self-indulgence
Cascades
Do the washing up
Emphasize the flaws
It is quite possible (after all)
Always the first steps
Call your mother and ask her what to do.
How would someone else do it?
Remove specifics and convert to ambiguities.
Your mistake was a hidden intention.
Do nothing for as long as possible.
What do you do? Now, what do you do best?
Picture of a man spotlighted
What wouldn’t you do?
Remove ambiguities and convert to specifics.
Remove the middle, extend the edges.
Shut the door and listen from outside.
Use ‘unqualified’ people
When is it for?
Honor thy error as a hidden intention.
Do something sudden, destructive and unpredictable.
Adding on
Allow an easement (an easement is the abandonment of a stricture)
State the problem in words as simply as possible.
Water
Reverse
How would you explain this to your parents?
What were the branch points in the evolution of this entity
Magnify the most difficult details.
Move towards the unimportant.
Short circuit (example; a man eating peas with the idea that they will improve his virility shovels them straight into his lap)
Take away as much mystery as possible. * What is left?
Balance the consistency principle with the inconsistency principle.
Humanize something that is free of error.
Take away the important parts
Is the intonation correct?
Do something boring
First work alone, then work in unusual pairs. (8 September)
Slow preparation, fast execution
Display your talent
What were the branch points in the evolution of this entity
List the qualities it has. List those you’d like. (9 August)
Destroy -nothing -the most important thing
Abandon normal instruments
Work at a different speed
Who would make this really successful?
The most easily forgotten thing is the most important
Instead of changing the thing, change the world around it.
Use filters
Do the last thing first
Tape your mouth.
What would make this really successful?
Make a blank valuable by putting it in an exquisite frame
Imagine the piece as a set of disconnected events
A very small object -Its centre
Be dirty
What are you really thinking about just now? Incorporate
Simple Subtraction
Make an exhaustive list of everything you might do and do the last thing on the list
Faced with a choice, do both
Think of the radio
Put in earplugs
Accretion
Only a part, not the whole
Make what’s perfect more human
Look closely at the most embarrassing details and amplify.
The tape is now the music
Abandon normal instructions
Just carry on
Give the game away
Use an old idea
Remove a restriction
First work alone, then work in unusual pairs.
From nothing to more than nothing
Use fewer notes
Discover the recipes you are using and abandon them
Revaluation (a warm feeling)
Is something missing?
Tidy up
Remove ambiguities and convert to specifics
Fill every beat with something
Children -speaking -singing
Ask your body
Ask people to work against their better judgment.
Mechanize something idiosyncratic
Describe the landscape in which this belongs.
Use cliches
Feed the recording back out of the medium
Are there sections? Consider transitions.
What mistakes did you make last time?
Convert a melodic element into a rhythmic element
Is it finished?
Take away the elements in order of apparent non-importance
Remember those quiet evenings
Use an unacceptable color.
Fill every beat with something.
Consider different fading systems
Is the tuning intonation correct?
Emphasize repetitions
Don’t break the silence
Don’t be afraid of things because they’re easy to do
Look at a very small object, look at its centre
Infinitesimal gradations
Don’t avoid what is easy
What most recently impressed you? How is it similar? What can you learn from it? What could you take from it?
Change specifics to ambiguities
What to increase? What to reduce? What to maintain?
Change nothing and continue with immaculate consistency
Be less critical more often
Go outside. Shut the door.
Disconnect from desire
From the introduction to the 2001 edition:
Don’t be frightened of cliches
What most recently impressed you? How is it similar? What can you learn from it? What could you take from it?
What are the sections sections of? Imagine a caterpillar moving
(Picture of man spotlighted)
Not building a wall; making a brick
Left channel, right channel, centre channel
Discover your formulas and abandon them
Steal a solution.
Listen to the quiet voice
Use an unacceptable color
Think - inside the work -outside the work
Which parts can be grouped?
Give way to your worst impulse
Is the tuning appropriate?
Always give yourself credit for having more than personality.
How would you have done it?
Remember quiet evenings
Work at a different speed
Accept advice
You are an engineer
Imagine the music as a moving chain or caterpillar
Change ambiguities to specifics
Assemble some of the elements in a group and treat the group
Look at the order in which you do things
Always give yourself credit for having more than personality
Openly resist change
Is the style right?
Don’t stress one thing more than another.
When is it for? Who is it for?
Use “unqualified” people.
Change instrument roles
Turn it upside down
Define an area as `safe’ and use it as an anchor
Describe the landscape in which this belongs.
Feedback recordings into an acoustic situation
In total darkness, or in a very large room, very quietly
(Organic) machinery
Assemble some of the instruments in a group and treat the group
Take a break
Towards the insignificant
Ghost echoes
Cut a vital connection
What do you do? Now, what do you do best?
Overtly resist change
Always first steps
What is the simplest solution?
Use something nearby as a model
Lowest common denominator check -single beat -single note -single riff
Question the heroic approach
Lost in useless territory
Once the search has begun, something will be found
Voice your suspicions
Be extravagant
What context would look right?
What to increase? What to reduce?
Try faking it (from Stewart Brand)
Describe the landscape in which this belongs.
Consult other sources -promising -unpromising
Make a sudden, destructive unpredictable action; incorporate
Faced with a choice, do both.
Question the heroic
Retrace your steps
Honor thy error as a hidden intention
Distorting time
Emphasize repetitions
What else is this like?
You don’t have to be ashamed of using your own ideas
Go to an extreme, move back to a more comfortable place
Back up a few steps. What else could you have done? (20 August)
Twist the spine
Is there something missing?
Cluster analysis
Simple subtraction
Consider transitions
Decorate, decorate
Emphasize differences
State the problem as clearly as possible
Take away as much mystery as possible. What is left?
You can only make one dot at a time
Listen in total darkness, or in a very large room, very quietly
Don’t stress one thing more than another
Not building a wall but making a brick
Idiot glee (?)
Discard an axiom
A line has two sides
Go slowly all the way round the outside
Into the impossible
Do the words need changing?
Simply a matter of work
The inconsistency principle
Intentions -nobility of -humility of -credibility of
What were you really thinking about just now?
Courage!
Breathe more deeply
What would your closest friend do?
Define an area as ‘safe’ and use it as an anchor
Make it more sensual
The most important thing is the thing most easily forgotten
Trust in the you of now
List the qualities it has. List those you’d like.
Get your neck massaged
Use your own ideas
Would anyone want it?
What else is this like?
Don’t be frightened to display your talents
Don’t stress on thing more than another (sic)
Distort time
Lowest common denominator
Faced with a choice, do both (from Dieter Rot)
Be less critical
Ask people to work against their better judgement
Remember .those quiet evenings
Children’s voices -speaking -singing
State the problem in words as clearly as possible.
Imagine the music as a series of disconnected events
Abandon desire
Mute and continue
Tape your mouth
Emphasise the flaws
Remove specifics; convert to ambiguities
Go to an extreme, come part way back
Only one element of each kind.
Where is the edge?
Intentions -credibility of -nobility of -humility of
Who would make this really successful?
Do we need holes?
Are there sections? Consider transitions
Instead of changing the thing, change the world around it.
What were you really thinking about just now? Incorporate
Back up a few steps. What else could you have done?
Change nothing and continue consistently
Repetition is a form of change