Have you ever want­ed to cre­ate your own music/multimedia art­work, but couldn’t fig­ure out where to begin? While cre­ation can seem intim­i­dat­ing, it can actu­al­ly be sur­pris­ing­ly acces­si­ble, and more impor­tant­ly, FUN!

The Paramorph Col­lec­tive (Kim Far­ris-Man­ning and An-Lau­rence Hig­gins) has put togeth­er a series of five exer­cis­es to guide you through vocal and sound impro­vi­sa­tion, home­made video cre­ation and cre­ative writ­ing. You can use one or many of these exer­cis­es in order to help guide the cre­ation of your own orig­i­nal art­work. The series also con­tains one brief overview on sound and video edit­ing.

This series of exer­cis­es was orig­i­nal­ly cre­at­ed by com­posers and mul­ti­me­dia artists Kim and An-Lau­rence for a com­mis­sioned project with the vir­tu­al com­mu­ni­ty choir SING THE NORTH, lead­ing to the cre­ation of “sud­den­ly I was alone/d’un trat­to ero sola” (2021) with 49 singers from high-school age to retirees based in Cana­da, the USA, the UK, Aus­tralia and Italy. Watch the final video below.

This series of exer­cis­es is meant to be used by self-direct­ed indi­vid­u­als or groups. Exer­cise mate­r­i­al can be used by facil­i­ta­tors upon request. If you wish to col­lab­o­rate with Kim and An-Lau­rence, or hope to orga­nize a sim­i­lar project as a facil­i­ta­tor, please get in touch at kfm.alh@gmail.com.

Remem­ber that the true val­ue of impro­vi­sa­tion lies in the process, not in the end result.

✧･ﾟEXERCISES ･ﾟ✧

Links to all audio exam­ples are list­ed at the bot­tom of this page. You will find pdfs of each exer­cise in the score sec­tion below.

Exer­cise 1: Drone, Mag­net Tone | Vocal impro­vi­sa­tion

Ex.1: Cre­ate a drone online!

Exer­cise 2: Sound Tex­tures | Instru­ment- or object-based improvisation

Exer­cise 3: Har­mo­ny | Vocal impro­vi­sa­tion

Exer­cise 4: Video | Record­ing a home-made video

Ex.4a: Cam­era frames and angles!

Ex.4b: Cam­era movements!

Exer­cise 5: Spo­ken Word | Cre­ative writ­ing and spo­ken words

Ex.5: Spo­ken word example!

Sound and Video Edit­ing: Overview