Free Play

Improvisation in Life and Art

By: Stephen Nachmanovitch

Narrated by: Robertson Dean

Free Play is about the inner sources of spontaneous creation. It is about where art in the widest sense comes from. It is about why we create and what we learn when we do. It is about the flow of unhindered creative energy: the joy of making art in all its varied forms.

Free Play is directed toward people in any field who want to contact, honor, and strengthen their own creative powers. It integrates material from a wide variety of sources among the arts, sciences, and spiritual traditions of humanity. Filled with unusual quotes, amusing and illuminating anecdotes, and original metaphors, it reveals how inspiration arises within us; how that inspiration may be blocked, derailed, or obscured by certain unavoidable facts of life; and how it can finally be liberated - how we can be liberated - to speak or sing, write or paint, dance or play, with our own authentic voice.

The whole enterprise of improvisation in life and art, of recovering free play and awakening creativity, is about being true to ourselves and our visions. It brings us into direct, active contact with boundless creative energies that we may not even know we had.

©2019 Stephen Nachmanovitch (P)2019 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

good listen

I was looking for a book on comedic improv this was not it. good though

Playing with Other Musicians

He gave words to that thing that is created between musicians, which is like a thing in and of itself. It's a special language, listening and interacting, a knowing, and a type of love, another place, and time...... I will be listening to this book AGAIN soon so I can write down some things. THIS is my new Big Magic.

Could be life changing!

Loved this book! So many keys to life in here! I'll be purchasing a hard copy as well!

Free Knowledge

A Bible of understanding the knowledge of creativity. It carries the secret of easy & readily available ingenuity, we're naturally endowed with & only need to identify & harness.

an unfortunate and unexpected lesson

I realize that there is no formula for learning how to improvise. There is no book, no secret way, no technique: it's truly just a matter of doing it and getting in touch with something spiritual. I say that as an agnostic, but musical improvisation really feels like it's giving vocabulary to the soul and I had no idea that I even had one until my second year of practicing piano. This book is worth the lessons it gives. It may sound hippy dippy but it's probably the best book on improv I've found.