Tonic.: How To Use These Cards
Tonic.: How To Use These Cards
Tonic.: How To Use These Cards
Tonic is a "game" only in the loosest sense of the word. There is no score, and there is no object. The point is to have fun, relax, and
make music. Your success should be measured by how free and fearless you feel when working through these exercises. Print these
cards on the heaviest weight paper you can find, and cut along the lines. Then just shuffle and go!
rules:
(1) Listen.
(2) Keep an open mind. Accept everything you hear without judgment.
(3) Relax.
(3) There are no wrong notes. If you want to play within standard Western harmony you can, but you never have to.
(4) Don't try to play a particular idiom or genre: "jazz" or "Baroque" or "blues" or anything.
(5) Unless the card says otherwise, use whatever notes, scales, chords, and percussive sounds you like.
(6) When in doubt, be bold.
(7) Most cards have no set end time. Play as long as you can until you get bored, and then move on.
(8) The game is designed for all instruments, however there are a few cards that are specific to certain instruments.
(9) Every exercise can be played either solo or with a group, unless marked otherwise.
(10) Keep it simple. Let the notes breathe. If you don't understand the instructions, use your imagination to fill in the gaps.
contact:
Please get in touch if your found this useful! I'm always looking for feedback and ways to improve. Contact me at
scotthughes.us@gmail.com, I'd love to hear how you're using this game.
Don't steal. TONIC by Scott Hughes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-
NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
use play turn on
two pitches. When you get a melody that you know well. the TV or radio. Improvise,
bored, keep one and pick a Now repeat it over and over, while you listen to whatever is
new one. Repeat for as long as but alter it by changing some on, but don't think about the
you can. (or all) of the pitches. Do not sounds you're making. Just keep
change the rhythms. making sounds.
telephone. One person playing without discussing key, a rhythmic pulse or groove. You
improvises a phrase and the form, genre, or anything else. can use a metronome, a
next person imitates it. It's OK if Try to find each other, percussionist, your foot, or
the notes aren't right, just try to establish a groove, and end another musician. Improvise
copy the shape. Pass it on. together. using whatever pitches you like.
yourself to three pitches. You a piece of text from a book or long tones together. Don't try to
can play them in any octave. magazine using your instrument. sound right. Just enjoy the
Do this for as long as you can. Try to express the rhythm and sounds as they clash and fill the
sound of the words. Trade room.
sentences if you're in a group.
or gesture using a part of your notes only. Keep everything to play a series of short notes at
body. Now translate the motion choppy, using as many pitches exactly the same time as your
through your instrument. as you like. Do this for as long partner, without looking at each
(group?) as you can. other. Accept that it will sound
messy.
person plays a repeating two groups of 4 notes. These a story about anything. Your
pattern or groove. The other are your chords. Improvise partner should improvise a
person improvises over it. Then with the first group for 8 soundtrack to go along.
switch. Don't communicate measures. Then switch. Repeat
verbally. Just listen for your turn. for as long as you can.
a piece of text from a book or just two intervals. You are free turns. You can only play one
magazine using your instrument. to move it around and use as note, chord, or sound per turn.
Use as many pitches as you many pitches as you like. Improvise a piece this way.
like. Trade sentences if you're in
a group.
a conversation between two three pitches. Play them in any two pitches. You can use any
characters. One should be octave until you get bored. octave.
high and one should be low. If Then keep one and pick two
you're playing a piano, use new ones. Repeat..
your right & left hands.
three pitches in any octave. the room with a chord or scale. of an animal and improvise a
(Sus and Minor chords work piece inspired by it. Ask your
best.) Drone like this and lose partner to guess what it is.
yourself in the sound. Medidate
on it for about 2 minutes.