Musical Improv Games - Gibberish Duets
Good for:
Freeing up the voice. Listening and singing with someone else. Expressing emotion without worrying about lyrics
Method:
- Performers stand in a circle.
- The musician or backing music starts
- Person 1, inspired by the music, turns to person 2 and starts to sing without using real words (gibberish)
- When they are finished, person 2 ‘answers’ with their own gibberish.
- Then both participants will sing at the same time to each other in a gibberish duet.
- At a suitable point in the music this duet will finish, and person 2 will turn to person 3 and begin again.
- This process continues around the circle until the last person duets with the first as the finale.
Tips:
- It is natural for the duets to be complimentary in style. However, vocally it can be nice to try and sing in a different range to the first (high or low) or use a different rhythmic pattern (short staccato notes as opposed to long notes). Each leads to its own magic moments when both voices come together.
- Ideally each duet should be a miniature scene, telling a clear story of a relationship between two people.
- Try to sing a little bit of back and forth in order to hear each other and get a feel for each other’s characters before building to a crescendo and finishing the duet by singing together.
- It really is more important to be expressive and connect to your partner than to sing well.