The Basic Idea

Movement of any kind adds a new dimension to our singing. This is a walking exercise inspired by a few springtime walks picking up our son from his daycare down the road. All the way there I'd be scatting my own little playful percussion things, keeping rhythm with my walking speed and using my footsteps as a metronome. Once I picked up Benjamin, however, the music changed. We walked back singing together. A HA! Says I, An Improv Promenade!

Here's how we do this exercise in Toast & Jam classes:

For Individual Singers

I rarely do this as a solo exercise, but certainly it can be adapted. Use your footsteps as your metronome and sing. Change your style, voice range, accompanying rhythm, etc. every couple of bars.

For Groups of Two or More Singers

Divide your group so that half of you are at one end of a long room, half at the other. You can do this in any open space where you can hear each other well. It should take at least 8 or 10 steps to reach each other, so depending on what space you're in, you might need to move outdoors. (We've done it on our driveway; it looks like a singing Red Rover game, so don't worry what the neighbors might think.) One person on "team A" starts walking in place, noodling around vocally till they settle on a riff they like and have an easy time singing. (this could go on for some time, so make all these riffs easy on the breathing and voice range)

Once it's settled, that person walks, singing, toward "team B." Singing their riff to a "team B" singer, soon that new singer settles on a riff of their own, adds it to the mix and the two of them walk back to pick up another singer from "team A."

With each half a lap the group grows with more people, more riffs, and more sound. It's important to walk together, turn it into a dance step or link arms to stay together. Experiment and vary the speed of the walking, see how it influences the type of riffs people land on. Remember that anything goes as far as a riff, just make it up on the spot. Use lyrics or not (they're always optional in my workshops), try using sounds like "swoosh" or "beep-beep-beep" -- be adventurous! Listen to each other. See what your sound inspires others to sing.

Once everyone's IN and promenading well together, I like the group to form a circle and each singer takes a turn standing in or walking slowly around the center to really listen to each individual riff. It's a grand multi-part chant in which each singular part creates a vital link for the entire work. It's also fun to have parts drop out and in again, to create different vocal textures.

Let me know how it's going: susanne@vocalimprov.com